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Getting around Prague
You will walk most of a weekend. The rest is trams, one metro line, and the single decision that matters: how you get in from the airport.
Prague’s historic centre is about two kilometres across. Everything in the standard weekend — the castle, the bridge, the old town, the Jewish quarter — is walkable, and most of it is more pleasant on foot than any other way. Public transport is for getting out to dinner, getting home when it rains, and getting to and from the airport.
The system in one table
| Mode | What it is for | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Metro | Distance, and the airport connection | Three lines: A green, B yellow, C red |
| Trams | Everything else | Dense, frequent, and the nicest way to see the city |
| Buses | The outer districts and the airport | Barely needed inside the centre |
| Night trams | After midnight | All night lines meet at Lazarska |
| Funicular | Petrin hill | Runs on an ordinary ticket |
| Taxi / Bolt | Late arrivals and heavy bags | Book in an app, never at a rank |
Tickets, and the 2026 price rise
Fares changed on 1 January 2026 and the increase was not evenly spread: paper tickets went up 25–30 per cent, app tickets 15–20 per cent, and SMS tickets by as much as 35 per cent. Buying in the PID Litacka app is now meaningfully cheaper than buying from a machine.
2026 PID tariff. One ticket covers metro, tram, bus and the funicular, including the airport buses — there is no separate airport fare.
On a two-night weekend you will probably make four or five journeys. Five 90-minute tickets cost 230 CZK; a 72-hour pass costs 330 CZK. The pass only wins if you are using transport several times a day, which in a walkable centre most weekend visitors are not.
Validating, and the fines
Paper tickets must be validated in the small yellow machines when you first board or enter the metro. App tickets activate when you buy them. Inspectors are frequent, work in plain clothes, and will show a badge; fines went up along with the fares in 2026. An unvalidated ticket counts as no ticket.
Trams are the point
If you take one piece of transport advice for Prague, make it this: ride tram 22. It runs from the New Town, along the river, across to Mala Strana and up the hill past Prague Castle, and it costs the same 46 CZK as any other journey. It is the cheapest sightseeing in the city and locals use it as an ordinary commuter line.
Trams also solve the castle problem. Riding up and walking down turns the steepest part of a Prague weekend into a descent, which matters more than it sounds on the second day of walking on cobbles.
The airport, briefly
There is still no train to Prague airport in 2026. The cheap route is bus or trolleybus plus metro on an ordinary 46 CZK ticket; the Airport Express bus costs 200 CZK after doubling in price this year. Full comparison on airport to city centre.
Kutna Hora and Cesky Krumlov are reachable by train, but organised trips remove the connections and the timetable risk on a short weekend.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need public transport in Prague?
Less than you would expect. The historic centre is walkable end to end. Most weekend visitors use transport for the airport and for getting out to dinner, and walk everything else.
Is the Prague metro easy to use?
Yes. Three lines, colour-coded, with clear signage and English announcements at the main stops. Line A is the one you will use most — it runs through the centre and connects to the airport bus at Nadrazi Veleslavin.
How much is a transport ticket in Prague?
36 CZK for 30 minutes and 46 CZK for 90 minutes in the PID Litacka app, slightly more on paper, under the 2026 tariff.
Are Prague trams running at night?
Yes. Night trams run roughly every 30 minutes and all lines meet at Lazarska in the New Town, which makes it the transfer point for getting home late.