old town or castle area to stay?

better to stay in old town area or right by castle...how far are they from eachother on foot?

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old town and castle area are 20 minutes between - they span both sides of the river. Castle area tends to be quieter, but if you stay halfway up the hill in the castle area, ask yourself do you want to walk up the hill every day at least twice. There are though many good hotels down the bottom of the hill in Mala Strana

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ive been to prague 4 times and stayed by the castle and belive me you dont want to be walking up and down to it more than you have to(my husband had to pull me several times)as its very steep.we have also stayed nearer the bridge(quiet)in the lesser town and in the old town twice.My advice is the old town. Good luck its a beautiful city.

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I would go with an Old Town hotel for your first trip to Prague. We stayed there last March at Hotel Metamorphis. The city is very easy to to walk around. If you want a Mala Strana location, you might try a hotel closer to the bridge and avoid the hill.

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We come to Prague regularly and always stay in the old Town area. Had a change and stayed in apartments on the riverside last time - opposite the dancing buildings and about a 20 minute walk to everything.

Spoiled the holiday really, as it was an effort to go out every night knowing we had a long walk home.

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If you stayed either in Mala Strana or the other side fairly close to the Charles Bridge in Old Town, you%26#39;d be within 15 minutes or so of the major attractions. The main thing: learn to use the trams and Metro. Our first trip we only walked and there were 12-15 mile days that left my legs numb. The second time we used the trams and subway and saw 3 times as much with 10% of the walking. We could get from our apartment on Malostranske Namesti to the State Opera at the top of Wenceslas Square(probably a 40 minute walk, maybe more) in 17 minutes by taking a tram one stop to the Metro and riding it to the Museum stop. The extended days passes are really cheap(about $9 for a week) and even include the funicular that goes up Petrin Hill and buses to more outlying places.

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We are also considering staying on the riverside across from Old Town (as HighlySociable did) and are wondering if the walk back each evening will be a problem. We are a large party (5 adults, 1 toddler) and are having problems finding accommodation, so our options are limited.

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I was not staying in the Charles Bridge or Kampa Park area, but two bridges further down, were there was no access to trams or the Metro. It took around 30 minutes to walk to the main areas, but in cold weather and with 2 children in tow this was a bind.

If you are near the first two mentioned areas, you will be OK. Are you looking at hotels or apartments?

We always stay in apartments now as with 2 children we find it much cheaper and with apartments with 2 or 3 bedrooms we all get a bit of privacy.

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Look at www.athos.cz for a good range of apartments all over Prague 1 and 2.

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We are looking for apartments, as we thought we liked the idea of having a kitchen (we%26#39;ll be traveling with a 2-year-old).

Thanks for the website recommendation -- the Janacek Palace Apartments on that site looked apealling, but as you said, they are 2 bridges down from the Charles Bridge. Are these other bridges accessible to pedestrians, or are they for vehicular traffic only?

Perhaps we should look for alternatives in the Old Town, even if they are not as spacious...

The other accommodations I found were all near Wenceslas Square, which I understood is not very safe in the evening. Did you find this to be the case? I am also concerned about staying in a very noisy localle (we are traveling in July -- tourist season...).

Thanks for all your help. You%26#39;ve been a great help.

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All bridges in that area are accessible to pedestrians.

Wenceslas Sqaure is safe. When I travel with my husband we stay in the Ambassador, which is on the sqaure. We only use apartments when we have the children with us. You won%26#39;t be spending much time there anyway as the majority of the sights are elsewhere. You may see stag parties wandering around, but we now deliberately avoid Friday and Saturday night stays to escape from these. Prague is also busy all year round. We have never been effected by excessive noise.

Look at their Vodickova 40 apartments as we will be staying in these later this month.