Hotel Adria Reviews

My wife and I were visiting Prague for the first time so it was very helpful to be met at the airport by taxi as part of the four night package. We had a confirmed booking which included a twin bedded room but arrived at the hotel to find that it claimed not to have any knowledge of it and there appeared not to be one available. The was corrected next morning when we were given the excuse that bookings from the UK are routed through the Czech Tourist Office in London which did not pass on the correct information about our booking. If we go again to Prague I would make the hotel booking direct with my choice of airline and hotel. The ";hot"; breakfast was execellent. We would be happy to stay at the same hotel again.

Finding good reasonably priced restaurants in Prague is not easy because there are a large number of inviting looking places, especially below the castle, offering very similar fare from the deep freeze. We found an excellent and very reasonably priced restaurant very close to the Bethlehem chapel in the grounds of Klub Architektu, which we used for lunch, dinner and after a concert, with wine and coffee under £12 per head. Booking was not necessary. www klubarchitektu com.

The metro and tram system is very good and relatively easy to understand. Be wary of picking up a taxi in the street because there is a tendency for the driver to give a tour of the city, even for very short journeys. The safest place to get a taxi is from your hotel where there is a list of prices for specific journeys.

We went to Prague particularly for its music, pages of which can be found on www pis cz/en/prague/events/insert month/concerts. We booked for the opera through Fregata Travel, having been told that we would pay exactly the same price as buying direct. In the event we were charged about 40% more than face value of the tickets. We booked 2 concerts at the Rudolfinum, the main concerthall, by telephone before we left the UK and paid for them when we arrived for the first of the concerts. The price for the best seats for the 2 outstanding concerts were 200 crowns each - tne equivalent of under £13 each. I mention the price because we were pestered by sellers of tickets at 500 crowns each for early evening concerts in unheated churches. These last a hour only and are generally given by a string quartet of good technical standard but without any raport with the audience - no doubt because they know the audience is being ripped off! For the one we attended opposite to the entrance to Charles Bridge I offered 200 crowns a seat which was taken with alacrity.

The main Art Gallery, which includes a number of fine French impressionists and Picasso drawings, is well worth a visit. This is in the north of the city across the river and is reached by metro and a bit of walking. Although it boasts a restaurant, which looked very uninviting, a local told us to cross the road to eat or in a restaurant in the nearby park.

Since the well-known sights are well covered in other reports I have not added to them.

A few final points: Seniors either get into the sites free or at reduced rates.
Because of warnings about the possibility of receiving old or non-czech currency in change we took small denomination notes. (100 and 200 crowns). There are also pickpockets and bag snatchers to watch out for. Metro tickets are bought from newsagents and can be used on trams and buses - travel around Prague by these is very cheap indeed.

Hotel Adria: Tel: +420/221 081 200 Fax: +420/221 081 300
email: mailbox@hoteladria cz
www hoteladria cz