Overnight parking in Prague

[DNS]

I will be renting a car for several days while in Prague so that we can make several day trips outside of the city. We are staying near the castle in an apartment with no parking.

Can anyone recommend a secure overnight parking location, preferably not in the city center? An overnight lot near the end of one of the subway lines would be perfect.

Thanks
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DNS

[magan]

That would be real problem. Castle area is next to impossible to park in. Whole Prague is next to impossible to park day or night. Most of the cars you will see parked outside are cars of people who live there and they have a permit. No other cars are allowed, if you park it is towed promptly.
Traffic in Prague is very bad. Many, many one way streets and congested as city was not built for cars (1000 years ago???) and definitely not for parking. You are not even allowed to stop and get out of the car.

I don't want to scare you, but I would strongly suggest you do Prague WITHOUT the car. Public transportation is marvelous and inexpensive, you will love sitting on the street car watching it all go by or fast Metro. No long waiting and it goes almost everywhere where transportation is allowed. Get yourself good walking shoes and you will love it! As most interesting parts of the Prague are pedestrians only, you won't simply see what others came to see.

If I can give you advice, see Prague first and if you have some time left to travel out of town, rent the car at the end of your trip for out of town only.

If you insist to sightsee Prague while driving, I think it would be much better to rent VCR tape and watch it at home on your tv. as you will miss whole purpose while people come to Prague.

Only people who can suggest overnight parking are people where who you are renting your accommodation from, but I would be surprised if they would have anything half reasonable and close enough.


Sorry, didn't want to be nasty, but these are the facts. I was born there and I am there often. I am still upset when in-laws didn't listen to me and travelled to Prague by car from Vienna. They were not able to get out, were getting lost continuously, paid steep fine from getting into one way street, saw Prague Castle from the distance (so far that they didn't realized what it was), never saw Charles Bridge and missed Old Town all together. Only time they vere able to stop the car and get out was in the surburbs at their hotel. They returned from their vacation, said that their nerves very so frazzled that they stayed at their hotel rest of the time(just two days) and eat very expensive and lousy imitation of "American food".

Perhaps others can comment if they have any opinion or experience with using car in Prague.
Good luck.

[Eva2]

Magan's is a sound advice. Driving in Prague is a nightmare, especially if you are new to the city, and parking is next to impossible. Take advantage of the public transport which is very efficient. For trams, there are timetables posted at each stop so you know when the last tram left and how long you'll wait for the next one, usually about ten minutes. There is also a complete list of stops for each line. Combining metro and trams will take you everywhere faster than a car.

[Halef]

Magan, Eva: have you noticed that DNS wants to

- drive outside Prague
- park not in the center?

I understand that there are special parking lots designed for coming to Prague, parking your car and goind on by public transport.
See http://www.udi-praha.cz/regulace/parkri.htm (Czech only).

The trouble is, the parking is closed from 1 AM to 4 AM, and parking overnight costs 100 Kč.
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[DNS]

Thanks to everyone, but Halef is correct. I certainly don't want a car to get around IN Prague, just to take day or overnight trips to Dresden, Krumlov, and elsewhere.

Halef, my Czech language skills are, well, nonexistent, but if I'm guessing correctly, I believe your link is to the Park and Ride lots at the end of the metro lines. I was under the impression that you could not leave a car in those lots at all overnight, but your comments suggest otherwise. I will pay the 100kc fee if I am able to leave a car their overnight. Thanks again for the information, I truly appreciate it.

DNS
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DNS