10 min
40 min
A · B · C · 3 · 9 · 14 · 22
42.4 / km²
21
8
3,226
+4% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Mixed after dark
Vrchlického sady, the park in front of Hlavní nádraží, and the bottom end of Wenceslas Square collect drunks, dealers and touts after midnight. Leave the station by metro rather than walking across the park.
Staying in Nové Město
Nové Město is not new - it is Charles IV's fourteenth-century extension, and it wraps around the Old Town from Náměstí republiky down to Vyšehrad. Wenceslas Square is its spine. On paper it is the best-connected address in Prague: metro A, B and C all stop inside it, night trams meet at Lazarská, and Old Town Square is a ten-minute walk from most of it for noticeably less money than Staré Město charges.
The problem is concentrated and easy to avoid if you know about it. The lower end of Wenceslas Square is clip joints, strip clubs and men handing out flyers, and the park in front of Hlavní nádraží two blocks east is where Prague's street drinking and dealing collects. Touts inside the station sell rooms; taxi drivers at the official-looking rank outside quote 1,760 Kč for a ride across the centre. None of this is dangerous so much as relentless.
Book a street off the square - around Národní třída, Karlovo náměstí or the university quarter - and you get the transport and the walk without the flyers. Book the square itself, or anything advertised as "steps from the main station", and you get all of it.
What works
- All three metro lines stop inside the district, which nowhere else manages
- Ten minutes on foot to Old Town Square, at lower rates than Staré Město
- Night trams all meet at Lazarská, so 03:00 is not a taxi problem
- The airport bus and every long-distance train arrive here
- Real streets with offices, shops and Czech lunch places rather than souvenirs
What does not
- Lower Wenceslas Square is strip clubs, clip joints and flyer touts after dark
- The park in front of Hlavní nádraží is the one place in Prague to avoid at night
- Taxis at the main station rank quote around 1,760 Kč for a trip inside the centre
- It is a big district: an address here can be ten minutes or thirty from the sights
- Office blocks mean whole streets are dead in the evening and on Sundays
The park in front of the station used to be a haven for some unwanted elements. Now the situation is better, but after dark it is better to avoid it and leave the station by metro.Around Hlavni Nadrazi, the main train station, there are many touts offering cheap accommodation.