Czechia · Self-guided walk
Prague in one walk 8 sights, 60 minutes
A self-guided walking tour of the Prague Old Town: 8 sights on one 4.1 km loop, about 60 minutes on foot, back where you started.
No two days to spare? Here is the short version: the big sights in one loop. I would take longer. I always take longer.
At a glance
The walk in numbers.
- Distance
- 4.1 km, a loop
- Time
- about 60 minutes of walking at 4 km/h, plus however long you stop
- Sights
- 8
- Start and finish
- Staroměstský orloj
- Steps
- no streets with steps on the route
- Cost
- free: no guide, no booking, no tip
The route
Map of the Prague walk: 8 stops, one loop.
The gold line is the walk. The numbers are the stops, in the order you reach them. The pale lines are every other street in the Old Town.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
The stops
8 sights in Prague, in walking order.
Each stop says how far the next one is and which streets take you there.
1. Staroměstský orloj
the start · inside open Mon 11:00–22:00, Tue–Sun 09:00–22:00
There is a crowd on this square with its collective head tilted back, all facing the same wall, all waiting. They know when. Stand with them and find out, or walk on and hear it happen behind you.
Next: Prašná brána, 520 m, about 8 min, along Staroměstské náměstí, Celetná.
2. Prašná brána
about 8 minutes of walking from the start
A dark tower standing on its own in the middle of the street, attached to nothing, leading nowhere. It was a way in once. The wall it belonged to is gone and it stayed behind. Its name is a plain answer to what it once contained, and I am not translating it for you.
Next: Anežský klášter, 660 m, about 10 min, along Rybná, Haštalské náměstí, Anežská.
Lunch break
Den Noc, Templová 648/7, about 50 m off the route, open Mon–Sun 08:30–15:00.
Lívance, the Czech pancake, made fresh every day from a family recipe. More on what to eat in Prague.
3. Anežský klášter
about 18 minutes of walking from the start
Right at the quiet river end of the Old Town, where the tour groups have long since turned back. A long building around a cloister, a gallery now, full of art from the Middle Ages. Walk the cloister first. Whoever put this here is the better story, and I am saving it for when you get there.
Next: Španělská synagoga, 360 m, about 5 min, along U Obecního dvora.
4. Španělská synagoga
about 23 minutes of walking from the start
From the street it gives you almost nothing. The name is a puzzle and the outside will not solve it. Go in. Then come back out and look at the plain wall again.
Next: náměstí Jana Palacha, 480 m, about 7 min.
5. náměstí Jana Palacha
about 30 minutes of walking from the start
A wide open square where the emptiness is the point, bordered on two sides by things that take themselves very seriously. It carries a person's name. That name is the heaviest thing here. Look it up somewhere that is not me.
Next: Staroměstská mostecká věž, 380 m, about 6 min.
6. Staroměstská mostecká věž
about 36 minutes of walking from the start
You will walk under this one without looking at it, because the bridge is on the other side and the bridge is what you came for. Stop in the archway. Look up at the underside. Then come out and look at what is cut into the face of it.
Next: Karlův most, 470 m, about 7 min, along Karlův most.
7. Karlův most
about 43 minutes of walking from the start
Everybody wants to be on this bridge at the same moment you do. Go at seven in the morning and it is almost empty. Go at noon and you will be eating elbows.
Next: Krannerova kašna, 510 m, about 8 min, along Karlův most, Divadelní.
8. Krannerova kašna
about 51 minutes of walking from the start
Everyone walks past this one on the way to the river. It is a tall carved spire covered in small statues, and not a soul stops. Stop. Count them.
Back to the start: Staroměstský orloj, 750 m, about 11 min, along Betlémské náměstí, Husova, Karlova.
Every stop counts from the street; the hours are for going inside. Opening hours from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors. Check before you go.
After the walk
The rest of Prague.
This loop is 8 sights. The Old Town is 109 streets, and I have opinions about all of them. Every street of the Prague Old Town, with what to eat and where.
Cobble Gobble is a walking game for iPhone: every street is a line of dots you collect by walking it, and the phone stays in your pocket. Your first city is free.