Prague: Two Nights in a City Built on Cobbles

Level of Challenge

★★★★★

Demanding

I knew the route from Prague airport before my plane ever left the ground. The trolleybus 59 from outside the terminal, then the Metro from Nádraží Veleslavín, then a short walk to the hotel. I had watched it all on YouTube days earlier, sitting at home, memorising the shape of a journey through a city I had never set foot in.

That might sound like overkill for a two night city break. For me, it is the difference between arriving somewhere and arriving somewhere ready. Prague had been on my list for years. It is a city people describe as a fairytale, and as somebody who loves Gothic architecture and history, the photographs alone had been pulling at me for a long time. When a very reasonably priced flight and hotel package appeared, and with Prague’s reputation as one of Europe’s more budget friendly capitals, the decision made itself.

Getting There

The trip began well. At the airport, staff recognised my white cane immediately and came over to guide me through border control without my needing to ask. It was quick, warm and completely unfussy, and the same thing happened on the way home, when I was whisked through security by friendly staff. If accessibility training has landed anywhere in Prague, it is at the airport, and it shows.

From there, the pre-planning earned its keep. The route into the city means multiple modes of transport: the number 59 trolleybus from outside the terminal to Nádraží Veleslavín, then the Metro on Line A into the centre. Most people arriving at the airport are heading the same way, so following the crowd onto the trolleybus was straightforward.

The Metro needed more thought. Prague’s system works on a wonderfully simple principle once you know it: stations listed to the right of the platform sign mean you take the train on the right, and stations listed to the left mean the left. Knowing this in advance mattered, because I did not find a single member of staff in any Metro station at any point during my stay. I later read that many of the people who do work the system are plain clothes ticket inspectors, there to check that your ticket is activated rather than to help you find your platform. English is widely spoken in Prague and I am sure I could have asked a fellow passenger, but because I had pre-planned, I never needed to.

The other thing I did in advance was download PID Lítačka, the official local transport app, and buy my tickets before I travelled. All I had to do on the day was activate them, which meant I could use my phone’s accessibility features instead of battling an unfamiliar ticket machine at the airport. One warning worth taking seriously: tickets are time dependent and must be activated before you board. An unactivated ticket counts as no ticket at all, and the fine is 1,500 CZK. The app also builds in a one minute delay between activating a ticket and it becoming valid, so activate while you are still waiting at the stop, not as the doors open.

All public transport, which covers the trams, buses and Metro, is very affordable, and you can buy a single ticket that lasts for the duration of your stay.

The Hotel That Looked Like a Restaurant

I walked past my hotel twice. Eventually I circled the whole block before working out that the building I kept dismissing as a restaurant was, in fact, the Majestic Plaza. The restaurant on the ground floor is open to the public and simply forms the front of the hotel. This was less a design failure and more a case of me not trusting my maps, but if you navigate by what a building looks like rather than what a sign says, it is worth knowing.

The hotel itself proved an excellent base. Reception staff were welcoming and helpful throughout, there was both a lift and stairs, and the corridors were wide and simple to navigate. My room was bright and spacious, and the natural light made moving around confidently much easier. The whole place was quiet and air conditioned, exactly what you want to come back to after hours on your feet.

Breakfast was a buffet, and the food was excellent. Like most buffets, choosing independently was the harder part, because there was not always somebody on hand to explain what everything was. The breakfast room was very well lit, though, which made identifying dishes far easier than it might have been. One genuine surprise upstairs: the bathroom was split across two separate rooms, with the toilet in one and the shower in another. The toilet room was fairly compact and I am not sure how practical it would be for a wheelchair user, although I did not check whether the hotel offers dedicated accessible rooms. Overall I came away impressed and would happily stay again.

A City Built on Cobbles

Prague is a mixture of accessible and inaccessible, and the honest place to start is underfoot. This is an ancient city, and many of its streets are cobbled. They are beautiful, they are part of why anybody comes here, and they are genuinely difficult to navigate with a white cane. This is exactly the distinction Go Anyway exists to draw. The cobbles are not a barrier somebody forgot to fix. They are the city, and they are not something that could or should be changed. They are a challenge, which means they are something you can prepare for. The pavements, by contrast, are mostly flat, smooth and easy going, so the difficulty comes in bursts rather than as a constant.

Crossings took some decoding. There are pedestrian crossings everywhere, but many work less like an instruction to traffic and more like a suggestion. Pedestrians wait, a driver decides to stop, and off you go. Be patient, and be certain the car is genuinely letting you cross before you commit.

The trams deserve their own warning. They are a fantastic, cheap and easy way to get around the city, and as a pedestrian they are the thing I treated with the most caution all weekend. A tram cannot stop or swerve the way a car can, so you need to plan your crossing before you reach the tracks. Cross at a signalled crossing where you can find one. My other trick was to cross directly behind a tram at its stop, since nothing can overtake it there, though you still need to check carefully for one coming the other way.

A Cane People Didn’t Recognise

One thing struck me repeatedly: my white cane seemed to be something of an anomaly in Prague. People looked at it with real curiosity, almost as though they did not know what it was for, and crowds did not part around it the way they do in cities I know better. I cannot say for certain whether that was perception or reality, but the pattern held in restaurants too, where I received noticeably less proactive help than I am used to elsewhere. I leaned on my phone a great deal to read menus and see what was on offer, and it did the job. It is not a reason to stay away. It is simply worth arriving with your own tools and not expecting the environment to meet you halfway.

The Crowds, and How I Beat Them

Mentally prepare yourself: this is one of the great tourist destinations of the world, it was summer, and the city was absolutely crammed. The Old Town, Charles Bridge and Prague Castle come with the added hazard of everybody stopping mid stride to take photographs, because there is an endless supply of things to photograph.

Walking across Charles Bridge one afternoon, I heard music drifting up from below and found a set of stairs leading down to Kampa Island. The annual French Market happened to be on while I was there, now in its nineteenth year, with French food, wine and live music packed along the waterside. It was genuinely interesting and completely overwhelming. The site is narrow, the crowds were shoulder to shoulder, and I could hardly move, let alone browse. I did one walk through, decided to cut my losses, and climbed back up to the bridge. On Go Anyway’s terms, that still counts as a win. I found it, I tried it, and I made the right call to leave.

The real answer to the crowds came in two parts. The first was simply walking away from the main roads. Prague is a massive city, far bigger than the Old Town, and its side streets are quieter, calmer, cheaper and far less touristy. I spent a whole lot of time exploring them, watching ordinary life happen, and it felt like meeting the real city.

The second was Letná Park, which was a revelation. Fair warning: the hills up to it are steep. Once you are on the plateau, though, you find wide, flat avenues, benches under the trees, and one of the finest views in Prague, the river and its bridges laid out below you. Compared with the centre it was basically unpopulated, a genuine escape from the bustle, and there is a lovely beer garden at the top. One practical note from bitter experience: the beer garden takes cash only, and I did not have any on me. It was the only place in the entire trip where my card failed me. Everywhere else, I paid by card without a single problem.

Half Past Five in the Morning

My favourite discovery cost nothing except sleep. On both mornings I left the hotel at half past five. In summer it was already light, and by the time I reached Charles Bridge it was almost completely deserted. A handful of people, no more. I photographed the Old Town Square empty. I stood in front of the Astronomical Clock without a crowd between us. I could get right up close to buildings and actually study them.

Best of all, I walked up to Prague Castle and was quite literally the only visitor there, just me and the soldiers on guard. I could stop, read the signs, take the photographs I wanted so I could pore over the details back at the hotel, and simply enjoy having a UNESCO World Heritage Site to myself. What an absolute privilege.

It was on one of those early crossings of Charles Bridge that the trip’s most memorable moment arrived. The bridge was commissioned by Charles IV in 1357, and people have been crossing the river on it for more than six centuries. Standing there in the quiet, I found myself imagining riders crossing those same stones hundreds of years ago. It is one thing to read about history in a book. It is another thing entirely to stand in the middle of it. Moments like that are why I travel.

Eating Like a Local

I always try to eat as locally as possible when I travel. The international chains are all there if you want them, but that is not why I go. Even if I order something that turns out not to be to my taste, I would rather discover something new than play it safe.

My favourite find was Havelská Koruna, a traditional canteen style restaurant between the Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square. It is not fine dining, and that is precisely the point. It serves the hearty food local people actually eat, and judging by the conversations around me, I was one of very few tourists in the room. I had a delicious goulash and worked my way through several traditional Czech desserts, and it felt far more authentic than any restaurant aimed at visitors. On another day I found a small sandwich shop where everybody stood at counters to eat, again used almost entirely by locals. These are often my favourite travel memories, because they show you everyday life rather than another ticked off attraction.

Ordering was occasionally a puzzle. I can often see the spelling of a Czech dish and still have no idea how to say it. Pointing at the menu works perfectly well, staff almost always spoke excellent English, and my phone filled in the rest.

The Sound of the City

Prague surprised my ears as much as my eyes. What I noticed most was not traffic but conversation. People talk loudly here, cafés spill out onto the streets, and there is a constant background of voices and laughter, joined around the tourist areas by street musicians who add to the atmosphere without ever overwhelming it.

The bigger surprise was what I did not hear. In most capitals, sirens are simply part of the soundtrack. Across my entire stay I remember hearing only a couple, and their absence gave the city a noticeably calmer feel than almost anywhere comparable I have visited. Add the smells drifting out of doorways as you walk, fresh pastries, grilled meat, the deep savoury note of Czech cooking, and Prague becomes a city you experience with every sense, not just your eyes.

What I Would Do Differently

Carry cash from day one, even in a card city, because the one place you want a cold drink will be the one place that will not take a card. I would also check a street view photograph of my hotel entrance before travelling, having walked past a building that looked like a restaurant twice before realising it was where I was sleeping. And I would still set the alarm for half past five. Twice was not too many, and next time it will not be either.

Final Reflection

I absolutely loved my time in Prague. Two nights was enough to explore the centre properly, try different food, observe local life and feel, briefly, like part of one of the world’s great cities. I would definitely go back. There is plenty beyond the centre I have not touched, and perhaps further into the Czech Republic beyond that.

Prague is not the easiest city for a disabled visitor. The cobbles are hard work, the trams demand real caution, the crowds in summer are relentless, and the everyday awareness of what a white cane means is thinner than at home. None of that is a reason to stay away. All of it can be prepared for, and the reward on the other side is standing alone on a medieval bridge at sunrise, in a city that has survived largely intact for centuries, feeling the privilege of it. I find it a privilege every time: that I can visit other parts of the world, expand my horizons and broaden my views. Prague is demanding, and it is highly rewarding, and those two facts are not in tension. They are the same fact.

Reader Challenge and Invitation

If Prague, or any city like it, has been sitting on your list while you wonder whether it is worth the effort, let this be your nudge. Watch the journey before you make it, learn the transport before you land, set one early alarm, and give yourself full permission to walk away from anything that is not working. The attempt is the point. Whatever your challenge is, go anyway.

And if you do go, I would genuinely love to hear how you found it: what challenged you, what surprised you, and what stayed with you.

All accessibility details in this article were verified against the organiser’s published information at the time of writing. This reflection is based on my personal experience on the day. Individual experiences may vary, and none of the points raised are intended as a judgement of the event itself, but as an honest account of how I navigated it with my own access needs.