Tour
A week-long tour for two to Prague will cost on average 900 euros: rail travel, insurance, accommodation in a three-star hotel, breakfast, and guided excursions.
Transport
Prague is a small city; popular attractions are mostly within walking distance. But still, given hours of walking, standing, and ups and downs, we recommend making active use of public transport (metro, buses, trams). Otherwise, you can wear yourself out in two or three days. The cheapest ticket (which is, by the way, valid for both surface transport and metro) costs 0.2 euros and allows a 15-minute ride on surface transport or four metro stations. It is worth buying long-term tickets: for 24 hours - 2.1 euros, for three days - 5.6 euros, for a week - 7.7 euros.
If you wish, you can venture outside Prague by renting a car. One of the cheapest options is renting a Skoda Felicia, which will cost 30 euros per day. You will be provided with a clean car with a full tank, a spare tire, and a detailed road atlas. A liter of gasoline in the Czech Republic costs 0.70-0.75 euros.
Total: two-day car rental, gasoline, and a couple of long-term transport passes for the remaining days will cost 86-90 euros.
Shopping
Famous Czech crystal and glass surround you at every turn. However, prices are by no means cheap: crystal trinkets cost from eight euros, while the no less famous Prague garnet in a gold or silver setting costs hundreds of euros. Connoisseurs of quality also bring lamps as a gift for relatives or friends - everyone likes such stylish things. If you happen to catch a seasonal clothing sale, you can inexpensively buy some decent items, such as brand-name summer trousers from Beneton for six euros.
Low prices on leather goods are yet another myth. On the other hand, for the price we pay at home, you can sometimes buy a better-quality item here.
Excursions
The main thing here is to decide for what purpose you have arrived in Prague. A keen intellectual impulse drives tourists to daily excursions: visiting castles, more or less notable streets, bridges, and churches. Opponents of the daily active crowds on Charles Bridge, in the Old Town, or at the Hradcany viewpoint prefer romantic walks along lanes away from the historical center, carefully avoiding tourist hotspots. This is not so difficult: for example, just go fifty meters from Old Town Square towards Kafka Square, and you will find yourself on deserted streets. By the way, this type of leisure is far cheaper.
Entrance ticket prices for the towers, castles, monasteries, and museums of Prague and the towns of Kutna Hora, Cesky Krumlov, or Hluboka nad Vltavou range from one to six euros.
A group sightseeing tour of Prague with a local guide, as a rule, is already included in the tour cost. A trip to Karlovy Vary, if not part of the paid program, is easy to make on your own. Best on Monday - the international day off for all museums - there will be few people. A round-trip bus ticket costs 7.3 euros, with departures every hour or hour and a half. Another argument in favor of doing it yourself: the route of the organized excursion goes through the Krusovice brewery and the Moser glass factory. It is interesting, educational, and profitable for the guides. True, this drastically reduces the time allotted for Karlovy Vary itself.
A more substantial trip to Cesky Krumlov or Hluboka nad Vltavou will be offered for 20 euros (a group of 20 or more people) or 50 euros (four people). However, such a long journey is not recommended for a week-long stay in Prague - it is tiring and impractical.
Let us remind you: you should take absolutely seriously the recommendation to bring sports shoes. Even the smallest heels cannot survive a week on Prague's cobblestone pavement. Also, be prepared for regular climbs - for example, up the steep staircase to the observation deck of St. Vitus Cathedral, or the invigorating climb to Karlstejn Castle, located on a steep slope in the suburbs of Prague.
By the way, about castles: as you read advertising brochures, do not be fooled - the Czechs touchingly call any building a castle if it is more than 150 years old and was once owned by representatives of the aristocracy.
Total: daily excursions plus a trip to Karlovy Vary will cost 63 euros for two.
Fountains
Probably, in Prague it is worth visiting the singing fountains (4.6-6 euros): shows are held every hour, from seven to ten in the evening. It is better to buy tickets yourself. You should go no earlier than the eight or nine o'clock show - the spectacle will be more impressive. Also, keep in mind that tickets are unnumbered, and spectators sit in any free seats.
Total: 9.2 euros for two.
Restaurants
Food and drink in the Czech Republic is a special topic. Usually, this item of the cultural program is given no less importance than the Charles Bridge itself.
So, breakfasts. The first meal of the day in the Czech Republic is the most unremarkable. Staying at a Prague pension, you will get a continental breakfast known for its meagerness. Namely, a limited amount of sausage and cheese slices, a cube of butter, yogurt, cornflakes, plus tea/coffee/milk. It gets boring by the second day. Funny enough, you begin to miss the notorious omelets and fried eggs with sausages that tourists groan about in the beach hotels of Egypt and Turkey. However, those with a healthy appetite will be comforted by the abundance of local pastries - Czech rolls, Tyrolean buns, and the like.
Lunches and dinners. Czech cuisine can safely be called fatty. Even local guides warn about this. And indeed, the pinnacle of national culinary creativity is the baked pork leg dripping with fat (“vepřové koleno”). Although this knee has been described hundreds of times, it is impossible to bypass the fact of its existence. So, one should order a huge pork leg at least for two. A lone struggle with a huge piece of smoked-baked pork is fraught with a temporary loss of activity, and for a tourist this is an unforgivable luxury. In general, a dinner for two, including a cold appetizer, the aforementioned knee, a mug of beer and a dessert, costs 18-22 euros.
A solid portion of roast duck, garnished with stewed red cabbage and fluffy dumplings, is offered for six euros. Another variant of a national Czech dinner (of killing power): “dršťková” (soup according to an old recipe) in a bread pot, dumplings, veal stewed in beer, and beer itself. Depending on the distance of the restaurant from the historical center, such a nutritious set will cost from four to eight euros. You can also have a cheap and pleasant snack on the streets of Prague. The main thing is to find among the tiresome hot dogs and hamburgers local pies or buns with melted cheese, cottage cheese or poppy seeds. A kilogram of pastries costs about 0.6 euros, and one “combat unit” - usually one euro.
It happens that the desire to save money (or the search for local color) leads tourists to cafes and pubs located on the working-class outskirts of Prague. There, tourists are greeted by a thick smoke screen, tables unwashed for many years, and representatives of the Czech working class sitting behind them. This is not at all like the advertised “local color”. Although for some of our tourists the picture is familiar.
Total: if you do not give in to the provocations of guides luring you to relax “in this cozy inexpensive restaurant”, then hearty lunches, dinners and intermediate snacks for a week will amount to 220-230 euros for two.
Beer
Beer should be put on a separate line in the budget, since it has been established empirically that even citizens indifferent to this drink easily drink one and a half liters of beer a day in the Czech Republic. A half-liter mug of “Krušovice”, “Gambrinus” or “Plzeňský” usually costs from one to 1.8 euros.
For greater flavor, it is better to settle in a restaurant with its own brewery and observe the fermentation process: the barrels are installed right in the halls. And in “Pivovarský dům” you can even try cherry, coffee or banana beer. It should be remembered that visiting, for example, the famous “Novoměstský pivovar” on Vodičkova, which became famous thanks to the brave soldier Schweik, is a significant event only for true fans of Jaroslav Hašek. The rest of humanity will only be perplexed by the excessively inflated prices.
Summing up
A week in good old Prague for two adult active tourists will cost 1,450 euros - including the cost of the tour, visas, daily excursions, entertainment, food and beer, as well as traditional souvenirs. This amount does not include shopping expenses; here the amount of spending is a purely individual matter.