Best Things to Do in Prague

The famous sights in Prague sit close together, which is both the joy and the problem: everyone visits them at the same hours. We have ordered this list by how much each place adds to a first trip, with a note on when to go.

1. Prague Castle and St Vitus Cathedral. The largest castle complex in the world by some measures, with a Gothic cathedral at its heart and Golden Lane tucked behind it. Go at opening time and enter from the quieter northern side.
2. Charles Bridge at dawn. Thirty Baroque statues line the 14th-century stone bridge. By 10am it is a slow-moving crowd; at 7am it is yours, with mist on the river and the castle lit from behind.
3. The Old Town Square and astronomical clock. The clock on the Old Town Hall has been telling time since 1410. The hourly show of moving apostles is short; the view from the tower above it, reached by lift, lasts longer.
4. The Jewish Quarter. Six synagogues and one of Europe's oldest Jewish cemeteries, where gravestones lean against each other in layers. The Pinkas Synagogue walls carry the names of almost 80,000 Czech and Moravian Jews killed in the Holocaust. Closed on Saturdays.
5. Petřín Hill. A wooded hill above Malá Strana with orchards, a rose garden and a lookout tower modelled on the Eiffel Tower, reached by funicular or a half-hour walk through the orchards.
6. Vyšehrad. A fortress on a rock above the river, with a twin-spired basilica and the cemetery where Dvořák, Smetana and Mucha are buried. Calm, green and almost free of tour groups.
7. The Letná beer garden. Long tables under chestnut trees on a plateau above the river, with the bridges of Prague lined up below. It is open in the warmer months; go at sunset.
8. The Municipal House. Prague's Art Nouveau showpiece next to the Powder Tower, with interiors decorated by Alfons Mucha. Take a guided tour or simply have coffee in the café.
9. A concert. Classical music fills churches across the centre every evening. The Rudolfinum and the Municipal House's Smetana Hall host the serious orchestras; the leaflet concerts handed out on the street vary a lot in quality.
10. A day trip to Kutná Hora. An hour by train, with the Gothic Cathedral of St Barbara and the Sedlec Ossuary, a chapel decorated with the bones of thousands of people. The ossuary uses timed online tickets and bans photography inside.

What we would skip: the paid "museums" of torture, wax and sex toys around the Old Town, and the chimney cake (trdelník) stands, which sell a snack that has little to do with Czech tradition. Eat where our food and beer guide sends you instead.