he bachelor parties have mostly vanished. I guess there are cheaper and wilder eastern European cities now. The rest of the decadence has stayed – The citizens of the Czech Republic drink more beer than anyone else in the world. Consuming an average of 43 gallons (160 liters) per person, per year. Given the countries location near the center of Europe, they also had to historically defend themselves (or their breweries) – thus castles – over 2,000 remain today which has the highest density of castles in the world. Seems to figure that beer was drunk in castles – so castles full of beer!

Often, the reputation of a country lags about 10 or 15 years behind the reality. Like Cambodia with its wild west reputation that is now really just a sleepy riverside town. Prague had the bad-boy reputation of debauchery ground zero but today’s reality is different – while hoards of tourists still come, beer is still drunk to excess, I think it’s by a slightly older demographic and all the strip shows and bachelor hangouts have mainly pivoted to bait-and-switch and rip-offs today. 

1. Things to see

Thankfully, everything else you may have heard about the city remains the same – it’s beautiful, medieval, excellent architecture, great bars, and BEER. We stayed in an art hotel where they served beer directly at the reception desk for 3 euro a glass. Nearly all the buildings in the center look like wedding cakes with decorative icing along the tops and seem like exactly what you might expect – old-world Europe.

Many convenience store windows instead of showcasing travel magnets, Prague souvenirs and products are lined with different bottles of alcohol. The small airplane sized one – as if they need to show as many varieties a possible – sometimes hundreds on neat little lit up shelves. This holds with even small mom&pop convenience stores – alcohol is everywhere and in every color, form, and strength.

eBike tours are another option, we took an all-day bike tour in a big loop around Prague and saw more than we ever could have with just our feet. Our trip culminated at the top of a hill overlooking all of the medieval city, river and bridges. Unfortunately, it was raining for most of our ride, and our tour guide didn’t have any rain gear for us. We stopped and bought him a poncho as well.

I tend to initially distrust tours as being for older people who can’t see things on their own, but I’ve found that any tours – Segway, e-bikes, walking-tours of inner cities or food-tours will introduce you to a different part of the city than you probably would have seen in a short trip. It’s not just the ‘places’ but the narratives that come along with a good guide – they are almost always (but not always) worth it.

Bubble blowing in the square

Graffiti posing

Hotel and city life

The couple standing by the river

Old Town day

and… old town night

More randomness in Prague

View from the top

2. Nightlife

Prague at night is full of bars, one bar not too far off the main square where you enter down some small stairs into a dimly lit basement with about 12 small tables. The bartender eventually makes his way over and asks what kind of drinks and flavors you like. Then he makes you something unique. Out of the three drinks we each had, two were delicious and the third was like gas.

We also tried one of the strip bars, because – hey, it’s Prague. But it was just harmless and tame compared to places like Bangkok. Girls spinning around poles, very expensive drinks, and pressure to have table dances. I’d advise anyone to skip it as the entertainment value just isn’t there for the price you pay.

Buddha Bar (of course!)

Skipping the beer and going straight for the cocktails.

3. Spend

Not much in Prague except the usual suspects. Those ‘Prague’ t-shirts to bring back home, refrigerator magnets and keychains. If you spend most of your money on a good hotel, lots of drinks and yummy food – you’ll get much more for it than a shelf with trinkets you’ll never notice again.

4. Food

Budapest has a Buddha Bar, probably the best incarnation of any of the Buddha Bars we’ve been to around the world. It made a great place to start each evening with some sushi and drinks in subdued lighting and with professional bartenders.

Candy and sweets isn’t all they had on offer, but that’s all I managed to photograph 😉

5. Getting Around

The city is far too big to get around on foot, the eBike tour let us get much further afield than we could have walked. There’s a series of trams as well, but we didn’t stay long enough to figure them out.

6. Costs

A little more expensive than other Eastern European countries. On par with most western EU, once you convert to Euros.

7. Tips

Prague is so big, that just depending on where you stay probably will lead to a significantly different experience. We stayed right off the Old Town Square and seemed like a good place to base yourself.

Not decadent in the way you would expect going in, but decadent all the same to exist in the city where more beer is consumed than any country on planet earth!