Cheap rounds and long nights. Prague is busy year round, Brno is the local version without the crowds.
Where to go out
Beer sets the pace. Czech nightlife starts in a pub, a hospoda, with half-litre lagers that cost less than a coffee in London. Traditional pubs close between eleven and one. After that it is cocktail bars until two or three, and clubs until four or six.
Prague has two nightlives on the same map. One is the stag-party circuit around the Old Town and Wenceslas Square. The other belongs to locals in Vinohrady, Žižkov and Holešovice, a tram ride away. The second is cheaper and better.
Brno is the city Prague used to be. The Czech Republic's second city is a student town with cheap bars and far fewer tourists, two and a half hours from Prague by train. In summer, Ostrava hosts the biggest festivals.
Czechs drink more beer per head than any other country, and the pubs show it.
A pub night costs a fraction of western Europe, and club doors rarely pass 400 koruna.
Prague runs a solid underground scene, and Let It Roll, under an hour from Prague, is one of the biggest drum and bass festivals in the world.
Beer halls seat big tables, and the noise is part of it.
Prague is compact, the night trams run until morning and two nights covers it.
June and July bring Rock for People, Beats for Love and Colours of Ostrava.
Not for you if you want to avoid stag parties. On Friday and Saturday nights the Old Town belongs to them; go one tram stop further out.
Rock and alternative over several days in east Bohemia, about an hour and a half from Prague.
A city festival of music and art in Prague in the second half of June.
Several days of electronic music across many stages. One of the biggest dance festivals in central Europe.
Four days of international music in a former ironworks. The festival site alone is worth the trip.
Drum and bass on a former military airfield under an hour from Prague.
A week of events and a parade through the city centre.
Friday in the pubs and bars of Vinohrady and Žižkov, Saturday at a club in Holešovice or the centre. The Prague nightlife guide has the doors, times and night trams.
Two nights in Prague, then two and a half hours by train to Brno for a student-priced Saturday.
Two nights each, about four hours apart by train via Brno. Prague for beer and clubs, Vienna for the Gürtel.
Three nights in Berlin for the long weekend, two in Prague to wind down cheaply. About four and a half hours by train along the Elbe.
Tank beer, a waiter who brings the next one before you ask and pencil marks on your beer mat. The Prague guide points you to the right ones.
Lines 91 to 99 all meet at Lazarská. The cheapest and most Prague way home.
Former factories and warehouses turned into clubs and galleries. Where locals go when the centre is full of stag parties.
Mid-July in a former ironworks. Blast furnaces as a backdrop to the main stages.
A student city in term time. Cheap, loud and almost no tourists.
In summer, bars open along the Vltava embankment and on moored boats. The warm-up locals actually use.
A slab of breaded, fried cheese with tartar sauce. Sold at stands and in pubs until late.
A grilled sausage with mustard and bread from a street stand. The Wenceslas Square classic.
A hot dog pushed into a hollowed-out roll. Cheap and everywhere.
Fried dough with garlic, ketchup and cheese. Borrowed from Hungary, sold late.
The late standby near every club, open until the clubs close.
Most Prague clubs let you in with little fuss. Big groups of men are the exception.
Plenty of bars and clubs refuse groups in matching T-shirts. Split up if you want to get in.
If a card machine offers to charge you in euros, choose koruna. The conversion is always worse.
People inviting you into strip clubs around lower Wenceslas Square are setting up surprise bills of hundreds of euros.
Around ten per cent in pubs and restaurants, said when you pay rather than left on the table.
Prague banned organised pub crawls between 22:00 and 06:00 in 2024. The ones still advertised finish early.
| Club entry | 100–400 Kč (€4–16) |
| Half-litre beer in a pub | 60–90 Kč (€2.50–3.70) |
| Cocktail | 180–250 Kč (€7–10) |
| Transport ticket, 30 minutes (app) | 36 Kč (€1.50) |
| Transport ticket, 90 minutes (app) | 46 Kč (€1.90) |
| Taxi within the centre | 200–500 Kč (€8–20) |
Pub night in Vinohrady, five beers, night tram home.
Pub first, a club door, two cocktails, night tram.
A festival day or a big club booking, drinks, a taxi.
Prague's metro stops around midnight. Night trams 91 to 99 run from about 00:30 to 04:30, every 20 minutes on Friday and Saturday nights and every 30 minutes otherwise, all meeting at Lazarská.
The legal drinking age is 18. Clubs check, and some want a passport or ID card rather than a photo.
Cards are accepted in most bars and clubs. Always pay in koruna when a card machine offers euros.
Most club nights sell at the door. Festivals and big bookings sell online.
Banned in many public places in central Prague, and fines are enforced. Drink inside or on a terrace.
Violent crime is rare. Scams are not: street money changers, strip-club touts and pickpockets in busy squares.
Banned inside pubs, bars and clubs since 2017.
English works in Prague bars. Dobrý večer, good evening, is appreciated in pubs, and na zdraví is cheers.
Yes, and cheap by European standards. Skip the stag-party streets of the Old Town and head for Vinohrady, Žižkov or Holešovice.
Around 60 to 90 koruna for half a litre in a normal pub, roughly €2.50 to €3.70. The Old Town charges more.
Between 04:00 and 06:00. Traditional pubs close between 23:00 and 01:00, cocktail bars around 02:00 or 03:00.
If you want a local, student-priced night without tourists, yes. It is two and a half hours from Prague by train.
Not at night. The city banned organised pub crawls between 22:00 and 06:00 in 2024.
Koruna, always. Some tourist places accept euros, at poor rates.
