Prague is compact and its public transport is excellent, which means the usual reason for paying a premium to be central — saving travel time — barely applies. Fifteen minutes on a tram costs nothing and buys a great deal.
The districts
Staré Město (Old Town, Prague 1). The middle of everything and the middle of the crowd. Convenient, expensive, and loud at night in the streets around the square — Prague has a stag-party problem concentrated in a few blocks here, and it is audible. Fine if you want to step out of the door into the sights.
Malá Strana (Prague 1). Baroque, beautiful and steep. Quieter than the Old Town, well placed for the castle, and short on restaurants that are not aimed at visitors. Good for a romantic short stay, awkward for a longer one.
Nové Město (New Town, Prague 1 and 2). Around Wenceslas Square and south — a much larger area, and the quality varies by block. The southern end toward Karlovo náměstí and the river is good value and quiet; the streets immediately around Wenceslas Square are the seediest part of central Prague after dark.
Vinohrady (Prague 2). The best all-round choice. Art Nouveau apartment blocks, tree-lined streets, excellent restaurants and cafés, a genuine residential population, and metro line A straight into the centre in five minutes. Quiet at night.
Žižkov (Prague 3). Cheaper again, scruffier, the highest pub density in the city, and fifteen minutes by tram. Good if you want the nightlife to be Czech rather than imported.
Holešovice (Prague 7). Post-industrial, arty, good food, on metro line C, and next to Letná. The most interesting of the outer options.
Smíchov (Prague 5). Across the river, a redeveloped industrial district with modern hotels and business rates that soften at weekends. Ten minutes on metro B.
Karlín (Prague 8). Flooded badly in 2002, rebuilt, and now one of the best restaurant districts in the city. Metro B and trams.
How far out is too far
Anywhere on the metro within about four stops of the centre is fine — that covers all of the above. Prague’s transport runs late, the night trams run all night, and the city is safe.
Beyond that you are into 1970s panel-block housing estates, which are cheap, perfectly liveable, and a long way from anything you came for.
What to check
Noise. Ask for a courtyard room in the Old Town and Nové Město. Stag parties, late bars and the cobbles are all loud, and Prague apartment windows are frequently single-glazed.
Stairs. A great many Prague buildings are four or five storeys with no lift, and “second floor” here means what would be the third elsewhere. Ask explicitly if that matters.
Trams. A flat on a tram route with old windows will hear them from five in the morning.
Whether it is an apartment in a residential building. Prague has a serious short-term letting problem and residents have campaigned about it; some buildings are hostile and some have restrictions.
When it costs most
Christmas markets from late November to early January, and Easter. Both are lovely and both fill the city.
May — the Prague Spring festival and good weather.
Summer, particularly weekends.
New Year, which is chaotic.
January, February and November are the cheapest, and the city in winter fog with fewer people in it is arguably better than in July.
The alternatives
Hostels in Prague are numerous, cheap and good, including several design hostels with private rooms.
Apartments are widely available and legally contested; check the listing is licensed.
Pensions — small guesthouses — in Vinohrady and Vršovice are good value and often family-run.
A rule of thumb
Draw a circle around the Old Town Square with a twenty-minute radius on foot or four metro stops. Everything inside it is a workable base, and inside that circle the price varies by a factor of two or more for the same convenience.
The only reason to pay Prague 1 rates is if you specifically want to walk out of the door onto the Charles Bridge approach. For most trips, five minutes on metro line A to Vinohrady buys a better room, a quieter night and dinner where Czechs eat.
What a Prague hotel room is like
Old buildings, thick walls, high ceilings and small lifts, or none. Many “hotels” in the centre are converted apartment buildings, which means the room count is low, the corridors are odd and the plumbing is characterful.
Air conditioning is not universal and Prague gets genuinely hot in July and August, with the heat sitting in the valley. If you are travelling in summer, check that the room has it rather than assuming.
Booking
Book further ahead for Christmas, Easter, May and summer weekends than you would expect — Prague fills, and the good mid-range places go first. January, February and November are bookable a fortnight out.
One more thing about the centre
Prague’s Old Town has a documented stag-party problem, concentrated in a handful of streets around Dlouhá, Dušní and the square itself. The city has campaigned about it, restricted amplified street entertainment and pushed back on the pub-crawl operators, with mixed results.
It is worth knowing because it is geographically narrow: two or three blocks are loud until four in the morning at weekends, and the rest of the city is not. If a listing is cheap for Prague 1 on a Friday night, that is frequently why.