Thrilling & Fascinating Prague!

The destination is a fairy-tale city, a giant Old Town lying under the gaze of a story-book castle where alchemists once worked to transmute lead into gold.  It has inexpensive opera performances ($3.20 for the cheapest locations, up to about $38 for the best seats); a thriving museum scene; multiple under $20 theaters (the National and the Estates theaters and several others, in lovely Belle Époque playhouses); and classic old fashioned Czech pubs in neighborhoods where you can have a meal with beer for less then $10.  It also has “gastro pubs” that offer an eclectic mix of food (with plenty of classic Czech dishes) and some of Europe’s most spectacular cityscapes, from Roman-esque to Art Nouveau (not to mention cutting-edge new architecture from the likes of Frank Gehry).  And it has a hauntingly evocative old Jewish quarter that is fascinating.

This extraordinary city of 1.1 million on the Czech Republic’s Vltava River has been Central Europe’s tourism hit since the fall of the Iron Curtain.  The country is now part of the European Union, and with its increasing prosperity have come high prices for travelers during the busy warm-weather months.

But the Czechs are not using the euro until 2008, and as costly as Prague has become, it is far less expensive (especially in fall and winter) than similar capitals in Western Europe and far less pricey than such ex-Soviet sphere cities as Warsaw; Budapest; Hungary; Moscow; and St.Petersburg, Russia. Plus, November and early December are not too chilly for comfortably touring the city.

January marks the start of the commemoration of the 250^th anniversary of the birth of Mozart, and the city has prepared dozens of events for the occasion; they are listed at www.mozartprague2006.com, and advance tickets are available at www.czechphilharmonic.cz, www.pragueexperience.com, and www.bohemiaticket.cz.  And February will see the opening of the exhibit at the Prague Castle called “Charles IV, Emperor by the Grace of God.”

For general information, contact the Czech Center in New York, (212) 288-0830, or log on to www.czechtourism.com or www.prague-info.cz.