For any tourists reading this: There are countless pubs/restaurants outside the city centre that charge you around 150-200 Kč (6-8 euro) for a meal: usually a full plate of food and you can get a beer to wash it down for 50 Kč (2 euros). As a Prague local, I almost never go to the pubs or restaurants in the immediate centre of Prague as their pricing is ridiculous
Right, when I was there the Flags on the Menu deterred me thinking they were traps. We walked further until we found a place near the water where I got wonderful grilled fish. Wasnt cheap but the Food and Service was amazing.
@brake_4_cake I know, right? McDonalds had the tag of “cheap, fast, but low quality” fast food restaurant for years, but now we are left with “expensive and low quality”. A full burger menu at Toms Burger costs 50 Kč more than an average McDonalds menu, but man… The difference is night and day. Best burgers Ive had were at Toms Burger and to think that McDonalds is almost at the same price while offering their burgers with pattys tasting like cardboard. Smh
Each time I was in Prague I usually went by "is it full of locals and are there barely any free seats?" to avoid tourist traps. There was one place where we went where as soon as we sat down they brought us those 1L beers and put them on the table, and left in an instant. Next time a waiter came we told him "we didn't order these", the waiter got red on face and got pretty angry at us. It took us near a minute of arguing before they took the beers away, and then we just left (we didn't order anything yet, as we didn't even get the menu yet). While on our way out we saw a pair at the table looking baffled on their bill, and pointing at the empty beer glasses. We also saw the waiter putting "our" beers at a table some new tourists sat at. Recycling at work!
That is just not the experience you looking for. I am sorry. That's why channels like thee are super needed, they will show you what they can cover, the scummy location where the practices got so out of hand is saddening. And can "guide" you to more affordable, honest places. Prague is it's own turf when it comes to prices because of tourists, there is so much more to see across the Republic with prices nowhere near this high. But i get it Prague is one of the jewels on every tourist's list.
Toxic tourism side effects. if you are a visitor and look around and recognize that more people are like you than are not, you know that your time is (should be) limited there.
You recorded some of the footage for this on the 9th! My girlfriend and I bumped into you and Honza on the Charles Bridge. It was so amazing to meet the people who inspired us to visit your city, and it made our day!
When I went, I was so surprised how small the city was. Everyone in the comments talks about bumping into Janek but we didn’t see him despite spending the whole time in the city center.
@@ferretyluv This was my third visit to Prague, but the first with my girlfriend. So, by my experiences, you have a 33% chance of meeting the Honest Guides!
ah I went to barcelona with my family some years back and it was as if the tour guide was bringing us to tourist traps on purpose, as if he had a deal with them. often we would find lower prices and higher quality if we just went to a similar shop across the street (or googled for the same service) 😮💨
@@lrizzard I was there last September and I just let Google Maps reviews take the wheel, everyone knows reviews can be faked but we had a good look for every meal we went for and it didn't let us down thankfully.
As a guy from Rome I would like to contribute to this video by saying that most of the times the photos of the dishes outside of the restaurant are a give away to a tourist trap, and also waiters inviting you to come in. Regarding the historical centre of Rome, be careful to restaurant that have a lady making handmade pasta in front of a window, I’ve seen them a lot recently but it’s just impossible that one lady makes it for a whole restaurant, I know it’s tempting for a foreigner but watch out for the other clues that Honest Guide gave us, since it’s probably a trap.
That probably holds true for Rome and maybe many places in Europe, but in Asia it can be quite normal to have displays of what the food looks like; professionally-made plaster replicas. They are to entice the locals as well as the tourists.
@@wensdyy6466I live in Milan so idk if it’s the same for Rome but avoid every restaurant who has photo of the dishes outside or even in the menu and you’ll be pretty much ok. Plus if you’re not going to stay in hotel which is in the center try the local restaurants because that’s where the average italian would eat
@@wensdyy6466 I was just in Rome last year, and I'd highly recommend the museum "Centrale Montemartini", it's a bunch of ancient Roman statues and artifacts inside of Rome's first public power station. Really tastefully set up, super interesting, and also quiet and out of the way.
Was about to comment on these: way too many pictures: big red flag. It means the restaurant targets people who does not know the local language or are not familiar with local cuisine
I'm a Czech person living in Australia. I travel back to see my family every few years and on occasion I make a day trip to Prague. Whenever I go into a store which is on the main touristy area's, as soon as I start speaking to them in Czech, the prices significantly reduce. The last item I remember buying was a replica of Orloj to take back home. The price I paid was less then half of what was on the label. They had a price list under the desk which they pulled out when giving my the price at the counter. They even told me not to look at the labelled prices of anything but rather ask for the real price. If that's not proof of a tourist trap, I don't know what it is.
Yes, it's quite common in souvenir shops. My son (6 years old) was in Prague with school before Christmas, he wanted to bring me a present from the souvenir shop. How happy he was that the good lady sold it to him at half price! I didn't have the heart to tell him that the "good lady" was just robbing tourists. What a pure little soul my boy is.
If the price is list and you don't mind paying that price, is not robbing tourist! if a place have no price and just tell you a price! that's different@@Letty_88
I'm surprised that the salespeople could speak Czech at all. And who buys stuff from these shops? :D What a shame that you don't return to Czechia permanently.
I wouldn't buy from that place anything, in that case...it would be cheaper still to order it directly from China. And a shorter route to Australia! Or just buy from a real local craftsman.
The Svejk bars have been a trap for decades. My last visit to one of them, two years ago, was terrible. I was screamed at by the waitress because I didn’t have cash to pay. “The machine is broken”, she said. It wasn’t.
Its because they want to cheat taxes, just threaten to report it to whatever the tax agency/tax fraud agency of the country you're in and you'll see that card machine magically starts working.
I think its awesome how you are honest enough to talk to the staff, just to question why they do business that way. I just thought that was really respectful of you! keep it up
To be clear, what Janek is doing is commendable and he's fully in the right to complain. But just please cut the waiters a little slack with the passive aggressiveness and save it for the people that wrote up the price list. I guarantee that the only result of such an interaction is the waiters being continually more defensive with criticism and having a worse shift, thereby providing a worse service to the guests, while the business owners don't hear about it or can safely disregard anything their bravest employees happen to mention to them about the raking. This kinda looks more like posturing on Janek's end, as he said ''he's just a youtuber''. Not to be snide or anything, as I have to understand no one's gonna watch him write an email. Although, it would be interesting to see Honest Guide try to take down a business, maybe just confront the owner who sits in the shadows in his nice expensive shirt (that's just how they are in my mind). EDIT: Didn't even watch the video to the end before commenting :( , more of those phone calls with owners!
Being a dick to the waiters doesn't really make sense, why not ask for a manager or an owner? You're just giving a hard time to someone who has nothing to do with the prices lol.
@@ub4348you are still in the right with your first statement. At least in moral perspective. In my opinion interaction with waitress was uncalled for. Interaction with higher ups doesn't automatically clear his social credit or something, i still think it's bad. Not criminally bad, just, uncomfortable bad P.S. Englishnot is not my native, spare me grammar lessons for now if anyone is reading
Agree with the others, if anything the waiters are just slaves to the tourist trap. No need to be passive aggressive to them, I'm sure they have to deal with all the crap already from working in a place like this, the person that setup this place in the first place is most certainly not even there.
I ate at this exact Svejk restaurant a few years ago and paid with cash. The waiter walked away and never came back with my change. When I asked for my change, the waitress said it was her tip. It was about 200 czk! So after demanding my change a few times, she finally gave it back to me. Prague is the worst in the world for restaurants/stores keeping change or giving back the wrong amount. Always count your change!
I can't remember the exact figures. I was in Prague's main square and had one beer. I called the waiter over and asked for the bill. I gave him a large note that was at least double the cost of the beer. I didn't have any smaller notes. I waited and waited for him to bring my change. In the end I called him over and said where's my change. He said, oh I thought you give me tip. I said, uh no! Not double the cost of the beer! He went off and brought my change back and slapped it on the table and walked off.
That happened to me in the Bahamas during a cruise stop. It was $50 for 2 chairs and 1 umbrella. I gave $60 and waited for my change. I asked for it but they kept saying the other guy had it and would bring it soon. I ended leaving right after that. Now 10 years later I have never gone back and I rather stay inside the ship during the Bahamas cruise stop.
In Croatia I sat in a Slastičarnica with my friends but didn't want to have anything. When the waiter came to take orders I told him "nothing" when he asked what will I have. When the orders arrived he brought me a glass of lemonade with a ball of ice cream in it. I asked whats this, he said "nothing", that's what you ordered. And sure enough, there it was in the menu as well 😂😂😂
@@jankomuzykant1844 It's been phased out, but our "No Thank you" is just as good. Could we also interest you in Our Deserts? Our "Check Please" is very popular
I don't know what the etiquette is in Croatia, but here in the Rep. of Ireland, if you're sitting in an eaterie/ café or bar but don't want anything (even if your friends are ordering) it is considered only good form - more like an unwritten rule, actually - that you order something modest nevertheless, eg a plate of chips (French fries), or a pot of tea; or a 'glass' (half pint) of beer. It doesn't mean you have to actually eat/drink it! The same generally applies for using the 'facilities' (toilets) as well, in fact there _are_ often signs stating this explicitly. To be fair, in urban areas this has become something of a necessity to keep drug users out, or simply because they don't want a train of people coming in off the street just to use the toilets, but often proprietors are just kind of being 'jerky' about this, considering the lack of public conveniences here. To be fair, most places will accede to your request if you look reasonably 'respectable' and say something like "Is it ok if I use the loo 'real quick?'" but you can't count on it. (If they _do_ 'give you the nod', it still can't hurt to buy a coffee or just put a Euro in the tip jar, if you can afford it.) Your best bet if you're broke and really caught short might be to discreetly use a hotel or even a bookmaker's (ie betting) shop, bearing in mind the old maxim, 'sometimes it is easier to apologize than to ask permission', and, you know, just use your head, and 'DBAD' (Don't be a dick!). Department stores, where they still exist, and shopping malls are of course golden in this regard. One situation where the above 'guidelines' are usually relaxed is in those country towns where buses leaving either for the hinterland or back towards the city usually stop outside 'The Central Hotel', or some business of that sort (assuming there isn't some kind of dedicated bus shelter). In such establishments it's generally understood that people who've maybe 'come up to town for the day', perhaps for a hospital appointment or just to do a bit of shopping, can come in and shelter while waiting for what might be one of only two buses to come through the entire day! Such passengers, tourists included, are obviously free to order some refreshment, but it would almost be unheard of for them to be snarled at for _not_ doing so. Please bear in mind here, I'm not talking about centres like Cork or Limerick in this regard, I mean the sort of small towns that honestly, in other places, would be considered villages; and, as always, there is the possibility of running into a Basil Fawlty type, while equally, Ireland _is_ known as the 'Land of 100, 000 Welcomes, so don't take anything I say here as 'gospel'! Sorry also if my comment is a bit overlong! (Maybe Lonely Planet are hiring, lol!)
Janek is a master of this balance - Honesty is a hard thing to make pretty but Janeks honesty is so graceful you cant hate him for saying these things out loud - and us tourist *LOVE* him for this!!!! Another homerun boys
I'm in Prague right now and I've been constantly dodging those restaurants. And my rule of thumb is a) if all the signs are in English or b) there is no menu with prices, run! Other thing I noticed is that a lot of places have thick walls that cause interference with phone signals, and if you can't pay with your phone the waiter will persuade you to pay in cash. Luckily I had the physical card, otherwise I'd be toast.
You don't need to be online to pay with your phone. You can pay with your phone in airplane mode or even on an actual airplane, it will work fine. The system only needs a connection once every couple of days to update the tokens but not for the actual payment, that works completely offline.
You don't need signal to pay with your phone, it's NFC chip, the same as in your credit or debit card, your card is literally copied to your phone, when you tap, terminal just thinks you pay with normal card. If you don't mean pay with some online payment.
I'm Polish and when I asked for menu with prices in restaurant seen on 6:05, they just said they're closing for today. They were not closing. It was 4pm Saturday :D What surprised me is how many things are hidden underground in Prague. There are places where you are going at least 15 metres underground to eat, I even found a Lidl supermarket which was hidden underground (24 Na Porici street)! It was crazy to see, but I learned it is like it is because of Czech very strict building laws. I was on Retail Summit 2023, where Kaufland supermarket displayed a presentation about their target of "5 new subsidiaries every year" and they struggled for 7 years with Czech law, zoning decisions and courts before they started the construction. Well, 5 new subsidiaries didn't work out. But this is what makes Prague and Czechia a very beautiful and unique place!
Italian living in Prague here. Generally, when I would like to try a place for the first time (both in Czechia or anywhere else), I always make a double check between Tripadvisor and Google reviews about that. If they have at least 4 stars, I can give them a chance. But for Prague 1 I am always very careful and go always in places that I know by experience or the ones suggested by Honest guide, of course!
oh so you know well those tourist traps in Italy when they give menu without prices and then a simple coffee is 5 euros. btw that's disgusting no matter of nationality
You should make an “honest to trap scale” and rate places in Prague. Maybe even put them on a website or app so people can see check places before they go in. Maybe also have tags like “don’t have/have menu prices”, “don’t have/have service charge” etc. would make Prague a lot more accessible for people who overly worry about these traps
I've been to Prague with my college students a few years ago and we did a guided city tour. Our tour guide was good and likeable and at the end she recommended us a "great" place to eat at. She also told us that we can mention her name there for a discount. As we had a great experience with her so far we went to the recommended place and ate there. It was pretty hidden in an alleyway. The food and service was one of the worse we had and the price even after the "discount" was pretty steep. Turns out, pretty much every guest there was also recommended by a tour guide. Tourist trap!
The guides get a little cash for bringing their groups into to a restaurant. We were lucky and got a reasonable meal and price...for the city center area. But still, in the outer city region, where we stayed, the costs were nearly half of it.
Oh yeah that’s def a common experience. Any time a tour guide mentions a restaurant, I’m making sure to steer clear of that area lmao I’ve been fucked over before from blindly trusting guides also.
I only go to 'Free' walking tours where you pay at the end based on what you think is fair. Like platform 'Guruwalk' or similar. They are highly dependent on reviews and I never had problems of them doing tourist traps, often they warn about them.
The best way to avoid tourist traps in Prague is easy. Travel at least 5 kilometers in ANY direction from the city center and voila! Almost no tourist traps. I took my Japanese wife to Prague a long time ago. She is more savvy than the average tourist and questioned the prices of the inner city restaurants. I then took her to what she described as a North Korean looking building, which was a local pub about 5 kms from the city, around the corner from our hotel. To her surprise, the prices were more than reasonable, portions were big and inside was actually much nicer than the outside, which did admittedly look like it was recently hit by a Patriot missile.
You don't even need to travel that far. A lot of the time just taking one or two turns off the beaten path is enough to find awesome spots. For example, there are lots of great restaurants near Karlovo náměstí, all it takes is a 3-minute walk
Is it just Prague? I've had a fantastic experience in the smaller Czech cities I visited. Even had the best pizza of my life in one, located right at the completely empty center square of the empty city center. I love Czech's peacefulness :)
There's been a restaurant in Prague (I've visited in 2016) in one of side alleys with large "LIVE MUSIC" banner. MUSIC was indeed live, food was a O.K., but the biggest surprise was live music was a separate entry on the bill, and it wasn't cheap OR communicated upfront. So yay! 😅
I specifically went to two places when I was in Prague last month just because you made good videos about them -- the Grand Cafe Orient and the restaurant that used to be a bank where you made a video about Czech beer. Both were definitely not tourist traps and the staff were great. So thank you for that.
The Red Deer might not be a tourist trap by definition but it's quite overpriced. Just the fact that it has been a bank sometimes in the past doesn't make it a recommendable spot.
@@tomwolf2981 Fair enough. Though I only went in for a beer. And the fact that they were totally chill for a place with high ceilings and marble walls probably helped. I was in a bit of a lonely mood that day. Travel will do that. They probably would have let be just be there for hours an hours with no pressure or pretention. I like that. And after, they let me look around the closed off lower floors and were remarkably friendly and inviting about it.
@@Bnio Sitting here in a local pub with a Tank Pilsen for 52 CZK in front of me, it's hard to answer accordingly. Yes, 75 CZK might be a decent price for you and it kinda is, given the location. But it is by far not an usual beer price for Prague. Everything above 69 CZK is kind of a tourist trap. The Red Deer, as I mentioned before, is not a classic tourist trap but it has very "touristic" prices. Well, for somebody from the US the prices seem to particularly Low but they aren't.
Sorry I edited my comment and took out the price. I just found my receipt and it was 72czk. And, well, that seems to be the going price for most 500ml in town. The Christmas market in Old Town Square (not the nearby restaurants); the cafe at the base of Petřínská Tower was 75; most normal looking bars that weren’t obvious tourist traps were going at that rate in the city center. To get a beer for 50czk might be available farther away, but that’s farther away. Pay for proximity I guess. At least it’s definitely not 13 euros for 1 liter. THAT BEING SAID, the local grocery store near my hotel had cans of Urquell and Kozel for 25czk, and those were lovely in-room night caps.
I just checked the menu for Grand Cafe Orient and the Budvar is 80czk for 500ml. As a tourist it’s a balance between feeling welcome and not being taken for a ride.
Me and my mates went to Prague when we were travelling around Europe. We didn't have much money at all so we would go up to a bouncer at a club or a restaurant in the town square and ask them where they go for a beer because we are completely skint. They always sent us to absolutely kickarse pubs full of locals. The crappiest looking ones are usually the cheapest and the most fun. Same with Krakow, same with Bratislava, same with Budapest, same with Paris. The doormen are usually locals and can speak good English and we loved those guys for being so helpful. If you ask a doorman, they know all the cheapest and safest places in their area because they want to go to places after work where they don't have to stress out.
We have been visiting Prague every year for about 10 years. A year or so before the pandemic, we went to an Irish-type restaurant a little off the beaten path. Nice restaurant, good Czech food at (then) reasonable prices. We paid the check, adding 10% tip. When,we looked more carefully at the check, we noticed a line we didn't understand, that added 10% to the total. We didn't understand it because the descriptive line wasn't in English or Czech. We asked the waiter what it was for, and he mumbled an answer that amounted to, it was a tip for him. We let it go, and investigated later. The explanation was in another language (in memory, I think it was Romanian, but I'm not sure now), so it was intentionally hiding an added tip. The restaurant is gone now, post-pandemic. I think we went again, the next year, and the line was gone from the bill.
I've heard and seen a lot of tricks & ways to scam tourists out of a some extra money, but this is really just taking the piss. Adding an extra 10% charge and wrote it in a foreign language , with a different alphabet. 😂
Thank you so much for an honest review. It helps me no end to understand the pitfalls of such establishments. I find the best way to not get ripped off is if you are staying somewhere for a week or so is to get friendly with one of the locals. Sometimes it’s just a hotel staff member and they tend to be more than happy to help you out. Even take them out for a meal. What a great way to foster good relations. Not fool proof but never had a bad experience following this doctrine. Even been a guest at mealtimes at their own homes. Keep up the good work! 😀
One easy way to avoid a tourist trap is find out what time the locals eat and then avoid the quiet restaurants! Another way is to learn a couple of simple words like Hello, please and thank you. You’ll be surprised how far a little effort in their language will get you! Love you videos pal keep it up and whenever you’re headed towards Extremadura (not many tourists here) I’d love to show you around 👍🏼
A tourist trap is a place that exploits the ignorance of people not familiar with the place they visit by charging more than what the product they offer is worth.
Thank you for the video & info. We are frequent travellers & try to be vigilant, especially in restaurants. Double checking what you order/ prices is a must. Also, when the staff ask ‘Would you like to try our authentic schnapps?’ They will charge you for it later. Countries do vary of course. Big cheers from Melbourne 🍷
You guys are just doing an amazing job. I´m honestly surprised that there isn´t more legislatures to curb such blatant swindling. Keep up the good work, every country needs people like you to boost and reassure the knowledge for the tourists.
That interaction with the restaurant guy "Alex" was so awkward. In my experience, dishonesty and aggression go hand and hand. Although, the smooth talking thieves can be more dangerous, because one is at ease when they attack. Travel education is a must. Thank you for the tip. I love Prague.
I remember Prague from decades ago when the city still wasn't a big tourist attraction. It was far more pleasant, no big crowds, fair prices, no scams. As someone who travels far and wide a lot, I learned long ago that large urban centres catering to tourists, such as Prague, are not the friendliest and most reasonably priced places to go out eating. As a rule I always avoid them for eating and look further afield. It doesn't need to be too far out of the way, usually local public transport is enough to get you there, and you will often find far more reasonably priced restaurants, usually friendly family businesses who are happy to have your custom. It's also a good idea to ask the locals where they go eating, they always have the best tips.
Young man you are a top man, a good guy. Well done & thank you for doing your best to help the honest tourists. You love your beautiful city & you want tourists to come there & have a great time & for that we all thank you. Keep up the good work.
Bro, thanks for being a great guy. You must really love your city, country and culture. I've always wanted to travel to Czech Republic. Your culture is in the top 3 beer makers in the world! Sending you the best from Colorado, USA
Another good sign is the presence of hustlers or ushers holding menus and luring people in. Normal Czech restaurant does not need to do this. It is also good to check out, how many locals frequent the place. A table with regullar guests ("štamgasti") is usually a good sign that this is an established place that has a community of faithful customers around itself.
mate i never go to central london to have a meal or a beer as prices are stupidly high for tourists , it’s the same all over the world , it’s hardly a scam , little common sense and a willingness to get a good deal will save you a headache like this in ANY COUNTRY never go anywhere that doesn’t show prices
Much thanks to Honest guides for their videos and their maps- as far as I know ive completely avoided any tourist traps and had a great time being aware of what to experience in Prague. A great birthday trip!
I can imagine it's difficult to start a smal restaurant in these cities. These tourist traps create a bad reputation for everyone in the same business . I've talked with a young couple who opened a small place in Grado,( Italy ) . They wanted to focus on quality,local cuisine etc . At first everything was only written in Italian. So most (foreign ) tourists just walked past their place and go straight for the 'multi-language tourist traps that sold expensive but mediocre Pizza & Pasta. The moment they used multiple languages however , Italians ignored their place because they assume their place must be a tourist trap.
This isn’t entirely true. I visited Italy in December and stayed a bit further out of town where the accommodation was cheaper. So it was mostly Italian visitors in the restaurants and not stereotypical foreign tourists, they seemed to eat in the exact same restaurants that foreign tourists would or eat at McDonald’s, or some dodgy Turkish kebab takeaway or grab a cheap sandwich in the train station. In my opinion, it’s a myth that locals only eat in fine restaurants.
It's a matter of aesthetics in the menu catalogue. You can fix one with high standards and low costs that'll make your place intelligible still worthy (you may have to pay a graphist till you reach a final result but you'll get these money back x100)
@@irondasgr Good point. It's also cultural. Many Italians either spend a lot of money on marble & terrazzo inside their bars & restaurants ,or they go for the other extreme with some plastic chairs and some 'drift wood ' nailed together . I'm generalizing , but still. Most people tend to copy-paste what they see around them.
@@notmenotme614 A 'fine' restaurant doesn't mean it looks fine, it's fine food for little. And Italian tourists eat at tourist places.. Obviously there are all kinds of different people in Italy in different situations with different priorities. Some grab a sandwich in a hurry , others take their time for extensive lunches.
I learned that google reviews are my best help for finding the nice restaurants/hotels, wherever I am in the world. Just filter the restaurants/hotels in the area, then pick any with review 4.5 or higher. I was never ever disappointed. Most of the time you can also find photos from the menu, so you can check the selection and prices in advance.
I love Praha. But to be honest? Being quite an experienced traveller. I watched where the locals went and got a terrific meal at a more than fair price. Just don't follow the beaten path.😊 keep the video's coming! Following
I think every city needs to have an Honest Guide. In so many US cities the downtowns cater to tourists and business travelers and restaurants charge way more than what they would even just a couple miles away from the city center.
Me and my girlfriend went in September I think it was, had a amazing time. We didn't get in any traps and every restaurant was exceptional. Especially pipca, we got on so well with the chef and owners and had many meals there. When we went past that "pizzaria" the owner was stood outside shouting at us to come in come in get beer with food. Very very easy to spot the traps if you just think rationally
I never understood the 'shouting & pushing ' part in these places . It's one thing having a few good looking boys & girls promoting night clubs and certain bars .But when I'm looking at some place to eat , and someone starts to pressure me to come in, my reflexes are to walk away. It just feels oppressive.
@@spiritualanarchist8162 It pushes me away too. But I'm someone who doesn't do things impulsively. I might want something impulsively, but before I commit, it's research time. If you don't allow me to research, that means I cannot trust you or your service. Even though it may (or may not) be great.
I visited Prague last week with my girlfriend and we had a great time! We used you as our honest guide and went to many of your recommendations! We used Revolut to exchange money and one of the honest offices from your map for some cash, we drank a lot of beer (normal priced, which I found cheap comparing to prices in my country Greece), the food was normal priced. We tried some kolache which we loved, svickova, goulash, snitzel etc. we came across too many Greek people visiting the city, which was fun just walking and listening to our language. We avoided the tourist traps, but we tried some trdelnik (it was nothing special, just a bready ice cream cone). We visited the national museum, the castle and other places. Generally we had a great time and enjoyed the city!
Afto moy thimizei otan imoun sto Tallin ki ekana mia periigisi xalara sto kentro tis polis. Akousa na milane Ellinika kai fanike oti itan kapoio group, opote afou praktika eixa pesei panw tous, lew se mia kiria: a ti wraia, eiste Ellines, eiste me ekdromi oloi mazi? moy leei nai. Poli wraia tis apantaw, kala na perasete, eiste meres edw? de thimamai ti moy apantise alla meta apo afto girizei kai mou leei: Eseis eiste Ellinas? Kai me esteile...
Very nicely done Janek & Honza. Hoping to get out your way this summer for my second visit. Loved it the first time, so I'll be making sure I have your map(s) at the ready
First time in Prague I had a local guide me around and she took us to a nice restaurant/cafe with great food and great prices. I went there again a few years later and the prices and food were still good but the portion size was rather small. Went there the next day again and suddenly my portion size was much bigger. I suspect they sell smaller plates to tourists as they probably will only come one time anyway. On the other hand they sell the real size to locals and regulars. Still a bad practice, but I can somewhat understand it too, The restaurant is next to the Charles Bridge, kinda hidden but I imagine there are still quite a few tourist going there who won't even appreciate the bigger portions and just leave their plates half full as you can't do much walking anymore after eating the full plate. So maybe they just adopted to what people actually ate.
As a Bavarian (Bavorak 😜) I always drink a half a liter beer, then I order another beer. You have always a fresh beer and can drink another Sort of beer. A Tuplak for 13,30 €? On the Wiesn (Oktoberfest) in Munich a Maß (Tuplak) was around 15€. In the Hofbräuhaus in Munich a Maß costs ca 11€. That's more than in Munich. Even More for to pay for a Tuplak is in Straßburg. In 2019 it was 15€.
@@bugsygoo A pint is equal to 568 mL - he was using it because it is the term he is familiar with and so that comes to mind fastest, in a restaurant they know its about 5 dL XD
Ii visited Prague last year and your details were extremely helpful for a tourist and saved me a lot of money by avoiding tourist traps and I found a great money exchange from your videos. Thanks
The nicer the menu, the bigger the trap. ` Multiple languages - huge red flag Waiter on the street to lure you in - just avoid. I usually go like 100-200m away from the main tourist pathways and you'll find regular restaurants.
Nice menu isnt the trap, if you have nice simple menu, its usually good restaurant. If you have 20 flags, its usually weird. 90% of czech restaurant even in small cities have czech and english menu versions for travelers.
Yeah it depends on what you see as a nice menu. If the menu just has all the dishes in maximum 2-3 languages without many pictures it’s not a trap sign. If it has multiple flags, all different languages and pictures of every dish you know the restaurant is made for tourists who don’t know the dishes. Then it’s usually a trap.
1 L bier is normal i Bavarian bier gardens ... but it is always under 10 euro. 15 euro for an omelette is pretty drastic. Sad to see Prague is flooded with such insanity.
More often than not, Rents for those restaurants and shops are obscenely high so a "Non-Turist trap" has a low chance of sticking around longer than the first bank loan runs out. Which creates a vicious cycle. It wasn't always this way, but rarely you see property owner asking reasonable money for the restaurant as they too want to cash in on that property. Sad times :(
The Czech Republic and Prague are great. They are not "flooded with such insanity." You just have to be careful in Prague 1 the main tourist zone which is one reason why many locals aren't thrilled to go there.
We are generally more expensive than Germany now with our crazy inflation we had and with how big supermarket chains are acting toward us (mostly your German chains). People who live near german border are going to Germany for shopping, it's cheaper and even better quality.
@@PidalinTrue Story. Why keeping Monopoly Money KCS... make it like nearly all neighbours around, incl. your Slovak Friends. CZ has one of the highest Inflation Rate in Europe, and you know they Story about the Czech Word of the Year: "Nutela" 😮😅
10:54 its so funny how you translate sunset to "zapad slunce" - and then say "zapad is west and slunce is sun"! I never realised this: Zapad comes from za-pad which roughtly translates to "behind-fall" and can even be translated to "sunset" itself in slavic languages. So "zapad" means west, because it actually just means "where the sun sets" cool video!
I think that most of these advices are common knowledge and I'm really surprised people don't follow them. I mean, if there are no prices, why would you go to eat there? That's on you, really.
There's a bar in Ginza, the super-posh part of Tokyo, that specializes in Pilsner Urquel on tap (super rare in Tokyo), and even they only charge about 7 or 8 euros for 500ml.
Yeah, but it’s also 9,000km from the source of that beer and one of the few locations in all of Japan you can get it on tap, and it’s still within a euro of the price at that tourist trap. That’s the point I was trying to make.
This randomly showed up on my feed at the perfect time. I'm planning a trip to Prague this summer so will definitely keep your tips in mind and check out the rest of your channel.
Your tips are very insightful, really helpful for first-time travelers to avoid getting scammed. I appreciate the heads up on these misleading practices.
Another tourist trap is validating the metro ticket. My friend was fined last month as she forgot to validate and went down the escalator. I followed her as the ‘inspectors’ hounded her as she immediately went back up the escalator to validate. I ended up calling the police and they said my friend had to pay the fine as there was nothing they could do to support us.
It's your responsibility to know how to use the public transport. It's not like this is the 80s and there's no internet where you can find a 3 minute tutorial within 30 seconds of searching.
That's not a tourist trap, that's just a different system than you're used to. It's not intended to confuse you, it's intended to help people who want to buy tickets in advance and then use them when needed - that would be impossible if tickets became immediately valid.
I’ve never had an issue with ticket validation. It was my friend’s first visit to Prague and she thought you could validate on the metro like you can on the bus. She won’t make the mistake again! 😂
Only Janek is angry at a restaurant for ordering a big beer and getting a big beer. I get the point, but it's just not a tourist trap. As long as it's clearly written on the menu and not hidden somewhere, it's not a trap. The beer will be just as good as any other size. THAT'S NOT A TRAP!
A big beer is usually half a liter, not one liter. So it's a trap because they don't tell you how big is a big beer and then once you see it well you gotta pay for it.
I appreciate the Irish girls complaining about the extra of that restaurant, I've had that in Prague too, I was really annoyed about it though and told them "let me go to the bathroom and I'll give you the extra back" in a not so nice way. They removed it from the bill.
Germany has some of the best anti-tourist traps, they sell stuff for too cheap sometimes, ask for a custom drink and you think its like 10 euros and it comes out at 3.
I been to Prague multiple times, and I still watch Honest Guide has if I will ever move there 😂 this channel is just too good, I wish other countries did the same... maybe you should expand, build a team
As much as you complain in some of your videos, you also do a good job of making Prague a place I really want to visit. Thanks for taking a moment in this video to stop and show a good restaurant in the middle of all this crap!
I think the best way to avoid tourist traps is to also visit other places. It is a shame that the rest of the Czech Republic is often ignored by everyone but that of course also means no tourist traps. There are a lot of nicer small towns that have a lot of Czech and Slovaks visiting (at least here in Morava where I live), so there are a lot of facilities for tourists. And especially in the early autumn there are a lot of happenings here because of the wine harvest.
I've been to Prague earlier this year with two friends and we hat such a good time, we didn't run in any tourist traps, ate in lovely restaurants and met kind people. Also I never felt so secure anywhere else, not even in my Hometown in southern Germany :D Only the parking is quite nervewrecking when you don't have any idea how it works
Not just in tourist areas: 1: Always ask for a menu before entering 2: If there are no prices leave immediately. 3: Check bottom of menu for fine print about mandatory tips/fees 4: Always ask for prices for anything offered to you 5: Leave if you get bad vibes. 6: If any fee or price is not disclosed, then refuse to pay it. Pay for the remainder of the bill and leave. 7: Do not pay with your card if there is a dispute. 8: Use cash whenever possible.
Always get a menu with prices on it. If you want a drink as well get the drinks menu. If either menu doesn’t have prices, LEAVE. I was ‘had' in Rome beside the coliseum ten years ago. A quarter litre of beer 8 euro. The translation of the name of the restaurant was 'the gold mine'. Very appropriate name.
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
For any tourists reading this: There are countless pubs/restaurants outside the city centre that charge you around 150-200 Kč (6-8 euro) for a meal: usually a full plate of food and you can get a beer to wash it down for 50 Kč (2 euros). As a Prague local, I almost never go to the pubs or restaurants in the immediate centre of Prague as their pricing is ridiculous
Exactly!
Right, when I was there the Flags on the Menu deterred me thinking they were traps. We walked further until we found a place near the water where I got wonderful grilled fish. Wasnt cheap but the Food and Service was amazing.
True Story... but the same beer in Hospudka i drank 3 yrs ago for 25 kcs 😮
@@flipschwipp6572 Im glad the food and the service was amazing, although the price made the experience a bit sour
@brake_4_cake I know, right? McDonalds had the tag of “cheap, fast, but low quality” fast food restaurant for years, but now we are left with “expensive and low quality”. A full burger menu at Toms Burger costs 50 Kč more than an average McDonalds menu, but man… The difference is night and day. Best burgers Ive had were at Toms Burger and to think that McDonalds is almost at the same price while offering their burgers with pattys tasting like cardboard. Smh
Each time I was in Prague I usually went by "is it full of locals and are there barely any free seats?" to avoid tourist traps. There was one place where we went where as soon as we sat down they brought us those 1L beers and put them on the table, and left in an instant. Next time a waiter came we told him "we didn't order these", the waiter got red on face and got pretty angry at us. It took us near a minute of arguing before they took the beers away, and then we just left (we didn't order anything yet, as we didn't even get the menu yet). While on our way out we saw a pair at the table looking baffled on their bill, and pointing at the empty beer glasses. We also saw the waiter putting "our" beers at a table some new tourists sat at. Recycling at work!
That is horrific!
Wow! xD
Scammers suck!
That is just not the experience you looking for.
I am sorry.
That's why channels like thee are super needed, they will show you what they can cover, the scummy location where the practices got so out of hand is saddening. And can "guide" you to more affordable, honest places.
Prague is it's own turf when it comes to prices because of tourists, there is so much more to see across the Republic with prices nowhere near this high. But i get it Prague is one of the jewels on every tourist's list.
Toxic tourism side effects. if you are a visitor and look around and recognize that more people are like you than are not, you know that your time is (should be) limited there.
You recorded some of the footage for this on the 9th!
My girlfriend and I bumped into you and Honza on the Charles Bridge. It was so amazing to meet the people who inspired us to visit your city, and it made our day!
When I went, I was so surprised how small the city was. Everyone in the comments talks about bumping into Janek but we didn’t see him despite spending the whole time in the city center.
@@ferretyluv This was my third visit to Prague, but the first with my girlfriend. So, by my experiences, you have a 33% chance of meeting the Honest Guides!
@@WoWBaxter Math checks out
@@ferretyluv Prague isn't small.
@@ferretyluvwhat do you mean Prague is small?😀
We need someone like you for Barcelona. Very much needed. If the owners of these places hate you is the sign that you're doing a great job!
Just use the Google Maps , read and write comments, you also can like the best comments, useful.
ah I went to barcelona with my family some years back and it was as if the tour guide was bringing us to tourist traps on purpose, as if he had a deal with them. often we would find lower prices and higher quality if we just went to a similar shop across the street (or googled for the same service) 😮💨
@@lrizzard I was there last September and I just let Google Maps reviews take the wheel, everyone knows reviews can be faked but we had a good look for every meal we went for and it didn't let us down thankfully.
@@lrizzardyeah, that is a good conclusion. They do have those deals.
you have one guy here on youtube
As a guy from Rome I would like to contribute to this video by saying that most of the times the photos of the dishes outside of the restaurant are a give away to a tourist trap, and also waiters inviting you to come in.
Regarding the historical centre of Rome, be careful to restaurant that have a lady making handmade pasta in front of a window, I’ve seen them a lot recently but it’s just impossible that one lady makes it for a whole restaurant, I know it’s tempting for a foreigner but watch out for the other clues that Honest Guide gave us, since it’s probably a trap.
That probably holds true for Rome and maybe many places in Europe, but in Asia it can be quite normal to have displays of what the food looks like; professionally-made plaster replicas. They are to entice the locals as well as the tourists.
Thank you for this advice-I would probably fell for it (I will be visiting Rome in summer so this is really usefull information)
@@wensdyy6466I live in Milan so idk if it’s the same for Rome but avoid every restaurant who has photo of the dishes outside or even in the menu and you’ll be pretty much ok. Plus if you’re not going to stay in hotel which is in the center try the local restaurants because that’s where the average italian would eat
@@wensdyy6466 I was just in Rome last year, and I'd highly recommend the museum "Centrale Montemartini", it's a bunch of ancient Roman statues and artifacts inside of Rome's first public power station. Really tastefully set up, super interesting, and also quiet and out of the way.
Was about to comment on these: way too many pictures: big red flag. It means the restaurant targets people who does not know the local language or are not familiar with local cuisine
I'm a Czech person living in Australia. I travel back to see my family every few years and on occasion I make a day trip to Prague. Whenever I go into a store which is on the main touristy area's, as soon as I start speaking to them in Czech, the prices significantly reduce.
The last item I remember buying was a replica of Orloj to take back home. The price I paid was less then half of what was on the label. They had a price list under the desk which they pulled out when giving my the price at the counter. They even told me not to look at the labelled prices of anything but rather ask for the real price.
If that's not proof of a tourist trap, I don't know what it is.
Yes, it's quite common in souvenir shops. My son (6 years old) was in Prague with school before Christmas, he wanted to bring me a present from the souvenir shop. How happy he was that the good lady sold it to him at half price! I didn't have the heart to tell him that the "good lady" was just robbing tourists. What a pure little soul my boy is.
If the price is list and you don't mind paying that price, is not robbing tourist! if a place have no price and just tell you a price! that's different@@Letty_88
That is super dodgy. We don't have tourist prices where I live - if the price is high, that's what you pay - regardless if you're local or not.
I'm surprised that the salespeople could speak Czech at all.
And who buys stuff from these shops? :D
What a shame that you don't return to Czechia permanently.
I wouldn't buy from that place anything, in that case...it would be cheaper still to order it directly from China. And a shorter route to Australia! Or just buy from a real local craftsman.
The Svejk bars have been a trap for decades. My last visit to one of them, two years ago, was terrible. I was screamed at by the waitress because I didn’t have cash to pay. “The machine is broken”, she said. It wasn’t.
Its because they want to cheat taxes, just threaten to report it to whatever the tax agency/tax fraud agency of the country you're in and you'll see that card machine magically starts working.
You should always ask about paying by card before you order something, they don't have obligation to accept cards.
@@Pidalinyou are wrong they should warn u upfront that they don’t accept card
@@PidalinCzech customers were paying by card. And I’d always paid by card when I’d previously been in the bar - over a 10 year period!
@@Pidalinthey don't have an obligation to accept cash or card, but it should be clearly stated beforehand.
I think its awesome how you are honest enough to talk to the staff, just to question why they do business that way. I just thought that was really respectful of you! keep it up
"We're just waiters"
"And I'm just a youtuber"
Nice one, Janek :D
To be clear, what Janek is doing is commendable and he's fully in the right to complain.
But just please cut the waiters a little slack with the passive aggressiveness and save it for the people that wrote up the price list. I guarantee that the only result of such an interaction is the waiters being continually more defensive with criticism and having a worse shift, thereby providing a worse service to the guests, while the business owners don't hear about it or can safely disregard anything their bravest employees happen to mention to them about the raking.
This kinda looks more like posturing on Janek's end, as he said ''he's just a youtuber''. Not to be snide or anything, as I have to understand no one's gonna watch him write an email.
Although, it would be interesting to see Honest Guide try to take down a business, maybe just confront the owner who sits in the shadows in his nice expensive shirt (that's just how they are in my mind).
EDIT: Didn't even watch the video to the end before commenting :( , more of those phone calls with owners!
Being a dick to the waiters doesn't really make sense, why not ask for a manager or an owner? You're just giving a hard time to someone who has nothing to do with the prices lol.
@@ggclewis7763 Big chance the waiters get exploited baout as much as the tourists
@@ub4348you are still in the right with your first statement. At least in moral perspective. In my opinion interaction with waitress was uncalled for. Interaction with higher ups doesn't automatically clear his social credit or something, i still think it's bad.
Not criminally bad, just, uncomfortable bad
P.S. Englishnot is not my native, spare me grammar lessons for now if anyone is reading
Agree with the others, if anything the waiters are just slaves to the tourist trap. No need to be passive aggressive to them, I'm sure they have to deal with all the crap already from working in a place like this, the person that setup this place in the first place is most certainly not even there.
I ate at this exact Svejk restaurant a few years ago and paid with cash. The waiter walked away and never came back with my change. When I asked for my change, the waitress said it was her tip. It was about 200 czk! So after demanding my change a few times, she finally gave it back to me. Prague is the worst in the world for restaurants/stores keeping change or giving back the wrong amount. Always count your change!
Sounds like these businesses have a cultural problem, this is like 3rd world bs'ery not worthy of an advanced country like that
I can't remember the exact figures. I was in Prague's main square and had one beer. I called the waiter over and asked for the bill. I gave him a large note that was at least double the cost of the beer. I didn't have any smaller notes. I waited and waited for him to bring my change. In the end I called him over and said where's my change. He said, oh I thought you give me tip. I said, uh no! Not double the cost of the beer! He went off and brought my change back and slapped it on the table and walked off.
Failure of a waiter service there. Good lord
That happened to me in the Bahamas during a cruise stop. It was $50 for 2 chairs and 1 umbrella. I gave $60 and waited for my change. I asked for it but they kept saying the other guy had it and would bring it soon. I ended leaving right after that. Now 10 years later I have never gone back and I rather stay inside the ship during the Bahamas cruise stop.
This channel is really a blessing for us tourists who are thinking about going to Prague.
I love how Honza and Janek EXPOSES the bad places.
In Croatia I sat in a Slastičarnica with my friends but didn't want to have anything. When the waiter came to take orders I told him "nothing" when he asked what will I have. When the orders arrived he brought me a glass of lemonade with a ball of ice cream in it. I asked whats this, he said "nothing", that's what you ordered. And sure enough, there it was in the menu as well 😂😂😂
Ahhh Yes, our best sellers are nothing, I'm not hungry, and I'm good.
@@rodrigorebollos Is there any "Thank you" ?
@@jankomuzykant1844
It's been phased out, but our "No Thank you" is just as good. Could we also interest you in Our Deserts? Our "Check Please" is very popular
That’s hilarious 😂
I don't know what the etiquette is in Croatia, but here in the Rep. of Ireland, if you're sitting in an eaterie/ café or bar but don't want anything (even if your friends are ordering) it is considered only good form - more like an unwritten rule, actually - that you order something modest nevertheless, eg a plate of chips (French fries), or a pot of tea; or a 'glass' (half pint) of beer. It doesn't mean you have to actually eat/drink it! The same generally applies for using the 'facilities' (toilets) as well, in fact there _are_ often signs stating this explicitly. To be fair, in urban areas this has become something of a necessity to keep drug users out, or simply because they don't want a train of people coming in off the street just to use the toilets, but often proprietors are just kind of being 'jerky' about this, considering the lack of public conveniences here. To be fair, most places will accede to your request if you look reasonably 'respectable' and say something like "Is it ok if I use the loo 'real quick?'" but you can't count on it. (If they _do_ 'give you the nod', it still can't hurt to buy a coffee or just put a Euro in the tip jar, if you can afford it.) Your best bet if you're broke and really caught short might be to discreetly use a hotel or even a bookmaker's (ie betting) shop, bearing in mind the old maxim, 'sometimes it is easier to apologize than to ask permission', and, you know, just use your head, and 'DBAD' (Don't be a dick!). Department stores, where they still exist, and shopping malls are of course golden in this regard.
One situation where the above 'guidelines' are usually relaxed is in those country towns where buses leaving either for the hinterland or back towards the city usually stop outside 'The Central Hotel', or some business of that sort (assuming there isn't some kind of dedicated bus shelter). In such establishments it's generally understood that people who've maybe 'come up to town for the day', perhaps for a hospital appointment or just to do a bit of shopping, can come in and shelter while waiting for what might be one of only two buses to come through the entire day! Such passengers, tourists included, are obviously free to order some refreshment, but it would almost be unheard of for them to be snarled at for _not_ doing so. Please bear in mind here, I'm not talking about centres like Cork or Limerick in this regard, I mean the sort of small towns that honestly, in other places, would be considered villages; and, as always, there is the possibility of running into a Basil Fawlty type, while equally, Ireland _is_ known as the 'Land of 100, 000 Welcomes, so don't take anything I say here as 'gospel'!
Sorry also if my comment is a bit overlong! (Maybe Lonely Planet are hiring, lol!)
Janek is a master of this balance - Honesty is a hard thing to make pretty but Janeks honesty is so graceful you cant hate him for saying these things out loud - and us tourist *LOVE* him for this!!!! Another homerun boys
I love how Yanek starts each video explaining who he is and what Hones Guide do like it is their first video :)
For a few thousand viewers, it is! 😄
Who is "Yanek," though?
Janek, not Yanek. Janek=John, not Yan or similar names.
Yahneg
I'm in Prague right now and I've been constantly dodging those restaurants. And my rule of thumb is a) if all the signs are in English or b) there is no menu with prices, run!
Other thing I noticed is that a lot of places have thick walls that cause interference with phone signals, and if you can't pay with your phone the waiter will persuade you to pay in cash. Luckily I had the physical card, otherwise I'd be toast.
Never had problem paying with phone even with thick walls and i work partime in Prague
You don't need to be online to pay with your phone. You can pay with your phone in airplane mode or even on an actual airplane, it will work fine. The system only needs a connection once every couple of days to update the tokens but not for the actual payment, that works completely offline.
Interesting 🤔 My phone is a mid range and NFC only failed in that specific place. And I've been paying with Google Wallet for quite a while.
@@MarvinCZ I didn't know this. Thanks for clarifying that! :)
You don't need signal to pay with your phone, it's NFC chip, the same as in your credit or debit card, your card is literally copied to your phone, when you tap, terminal just thinks you pay with normal card. If you don't mean pay with some online payment.
I'm Polish and when I asked for menu with prices in restaurant seen on 6:05, they just said they're closing for today. They were not closing. It was 4pm Saturday :D
What surprised me is how many things are hidden underground in Prague. There are places where you are going at least 15 metres underground to eat, I even found a Lidl supermarket which was hidden underground (24 Na Porici street)! It was crazy to see, but I learned it is like it is because of Czech very strict building laws. I was on Retail Summit 2023, where Kaufland supermarket displayed a presentation about their target of "5 new subsidiaries every year" and they struggled for 7 years with Czech law, zoning decisions and courts before they started the construction. Well, 5 new subsidiaries didn't work out. But this is what makes Prague and Czechia a very beautiful and unique place!
Dude, that sounds just like Krakow. Loads of underground bars and clubs there.
Italian living in Prague here. Generally, when I would like to try a place for the first time (both in Czechia or anywhere else), I always make a double check between Tripadvisor and Google reviews about that. If they have at least 4 stars, I can give them a chance.
But for Prague 1 I am always very careful and go always in places that I know by experience or the ones suggested by Honest guide, of course!
You give good advice. After 20 years in Prague I've learned to do almost exactly the same things.
Don't forget about paid reviews.
I'm Czech living in Ireland and I do the same 😊
oh so you know well those tourist traps in Italy when they give menu without prices and then a simple coffee is 5 euros. btw that's disgusting no matter of nationality
@@WeissWhite yea it happens a lot in our country too (Italy), but don't feel targeted, they do it to foreigners and locals as well 😂
You should make an “honest to trap scale” and rate places in Prague. Maybe even put them on a website or app so people can see check places before they go in. Maybe also have tags like “don’t have/have menu prices”, “don’t have/have service charge” etc. would make Prague a lot more accessible for people who overly worry about these traps
I've been to Prague with my college students a few years ago and we did a guided city tour.
Our tour guide was good and likeable and at the end she recommended us a "great" place to eat at. She also told us that we can mention her name there for a discount.
As we had a great experience with her so far we went to the recommended place and ate there. It was pretty hidden in an alleyway.
The food and service was one of the worse we had and the price even after the "discount" was pretty steep. Turns out, pretty much every guest there was also recommended by a tour guide.
Tourist trap!
The guides get a little cash for bringing their groups into to a restaurant. We were lucky and got a reasonable meal and price...for the city center area. But still, in the outer city region, where we stayed, the costs were nearly half of it.
Oh yeah that’s def a common experience. Any time a tour guide mentions a restaurant, I’m making sure to steer clear of that area lmao I’ve been fucked over before from blindly trusting guides also.
I only go to 'Free' walking tours where you pay at the end based on what you think is fair. Like platform 'Guruwalk' or similar. They are highly dependent on reviews and I never had problems of them doing tourist traps, often they warn about them.
The best way to avoid tourist traps in Prague is easy. Travel at least 5 kilometers in ANY direction from the city center and voila! Almost no tourist traps.
I took my Japanese wife to Prague a long time ago. She is more savvy than the average tourist and questioned the prices of the inner city restaurants. I then took her to what she described as a North Korean looking building, which was a local pub about 5 kms from the city, around the corner from our hotel.
To her surprise, the prices were more than reasonable, portions were big and inside was actually much nicer than the outside, which did admittedly look like it was recently hit by a Patriot missile.
You don't even need to travel that far. A lot of the time just taking one or two turns off the beaten path is enough to find awesome spots. For example, there are lots of great restaurants near Karlovo náměstí, all it takes is a 3-minute walk
Is it just Prague? I've had a fantastic experience in the smaller Czech cities I visited. Even had the best pizza of my life in one, located right at the completely empty center square of the empty city center. I love Czech's peacefulness :)
The patriot systems are anti air devices. It wouldn't make sense for one of their missiles to hit a building.
Wow was it really relevant to mention the ethnicity of your wife? Why not stick in your ethnicity as well, stereotypical white man?
@@HazewinDog It's close before death, and you call it peaceful. That's the appearance of cemeterys.
There's been a restaurant in Prague (I've visited in 2016) in one of side alleys with large "LIVE MUSIC" banner. MUSIC was indeed live, food was a O.K., but the biggest surprise was live music was a separate entry on the bill, and it wasn't cheap OR communicated upfront. So yay! 😅
You and your channel should be officially and publicly recognized as ambassadors for your city. You are doing excellent work!!
I specifically went to two places when I was in Prague last month just because you made good videos about them -- the Grand Cafe Orient and the restaurant that used to be a bank where you made a video about Czech beer. Both were definitely not tourist traps and the staff were great. So thank you for that.
The Red Deer might not be a tourist trap by definition but it's quite overpriced. Just the fact that it has been a bank sometimes in the past doesn't make it a recommendable spot.
@@tomwolf2981 Fair enough. Though I only went in for a beer. And the fact that they were totally chill for a place with high ceilings and marble walls probably helped. I was in a bit of a lonely mood that day. Travel will do that. They probably would have let be just be there for hours an hours with no pressure or pretention. I like that. And after, they let me look around the closed off lower floors and were remarkably friendly and inviting about it.
@@Bnio Sitting here in a local pub with a Tank Pilsen for 52 CZK in front of me, it's hard to answer accordingly.
Yes, 75 CZK might be a decent price for you and it kinda is, given the location. But it is by far not an usual beer price for Prague. Everything above 69 CZK is kind of a tourist trap. The Red Deer, as I mentioned before, is not a classic tourist trap but it has very "touristic" prices. Well, for somebody from the US the prices seem to particularly Low but they aren't.
Sorry I edited my comment and took out the price. I just found my receipt and it was 72czk. And, well, that seems to be the going price for most 500ml in town. The Christmas market in Old Town Square (not the nearby restaurants); the cafe at the base of Petřínská Tower was 75; most normal looking bars that weren’t obvious tourist traps were going at that rate in the city center. To get a beer for 50czk might be available farther away, but that’s farther away. Pay for proximity I guess. At least it’s definitely not 13 euros for 1 liter.
THAT BEING SAID, the local grocery store near my hotel had cans of Urquell and Kozel for 25czk, and those were lovely in-room night caps.
I just checked the menu for Grand Cafe Orient and the Budvar is 80czk for 500ml. As a tourist it’s a balance between feeling welcome and not being taken for a ride.
Much respect for actually going a step beyond and questioning people about their practices. Loved seeing a bit of your city. 🙏
Me and my mates went to Prague when we were travelling around Europe. We didn't have much money at all so we would go up to a bouncer at a club or a restaurant in the town square and ask them where they go for a beer because we are completely skint. They always sent us to absolutely kickarse pubs full of locals. The crappiest looking ones are usually the cheapest and the most fun. Same with Krakow, same with Bratislava, same with Budapest, same with Paris. The doormen are usually locals and can speak good English and we loved those guys for being so helpful. If you ask a doorman, they know all the cheapest and safest places in their area because they want to go to places after work where they don't have to stress out.
That's a really good tip
Good strategy! :)
We have been visiting Prague every year for about 10 years. A year or so before the pandemic, we went to an Irish-type restaurant a little off the beaten path. Nice restaurant, good Czech food at (then) reasonable prices. We paid the check, adding 10% tip. When,we looked more carefully at the check, we noticed a line we didn't understand, that added 10% to the total. We didn't understand it because the descriptive line wasn't in English or Czech. We asked the waiter what it was for, and he mumbled an answer that amounted to, it was a tip for him. We let it go, and investigated later. The explanation was in another language (in memory, I think it was Romanian, but I'm not sure now), so it was intentionally hiding an added tip. The restaurant is gone now, post-pandemic. I think we went again, the next year, and the line was gone from the bill.
I've heard and seen a lot of tricks & ways to scam tourists out of a some extra money, but this is really just taking the piss. Adding an extra 10% charge and wrote it in a foreign language , with a different alphabet. 😂
@@spiritualanarchist8162 Romanian uses the Latin alphabet just like English, German, Polish etc.
@@Spacemongerr Prague isn't in Romania.
Thank you so much for an honest review. It helps me no end to understand the pitfalls of such establishments. I find the best way to not get ripped off is if you are staying somewhere for a week or so is to get friendly with one of the locals. Sometimes it’s just a hotel staff member and they tend to be more than happy to help you out. Even take them out for a meal. What a great way to foster good relations. Not fool proof but never had a bad experience following this doctrine. Even been a guest at mealtimes at their own homes.
Keep up the good work! 😀
The best thing about "Honest Guide" is that his insight can be applied anywhere in Europe, Asia, The Americas, etc....
You’re doing gods work my friend, keep enlightening others
What does God have to do with anything?
Shhht no critical thinking allowed here.@@bobloblaw9302
What's your imaginary friend got to do with anything?
3:06 Why the resturant charging for using cutlery like if your a restaurant/giving people food expect them to use the cutlery
Our child is in Prague for the semester, and we are visiting in March. Thank you for your great video's. We are so excited to see Prague!
One easy way to avoid a tourist trap is find out what time the locals eat and then avoid the quiet restaurants!
Another way is to learn a couple of simple words like Hello, please and thank you. You’ll be surprised how far a little effort in their language will get you!
Love you videos pal keep it up and whenever you’re headed towards Extremadura (not many tourists here) I’d love to show you around 👍🏼
A tourist trap is a place that exploits the ignorance of people not familiar with the place they visit by charging more than what the product they offer is worth.
Are you a bot?
Thank you for the video & info. We are frequent travellers & try to be vigilant, especially in restaurants. Double checking what you order/ prices is a must. Also, when the staff ask ‘Would you like to try our authentic schnapps?’ They will charge you for it later. Countries do vary of course. Big cheers from Melbourne 🍷
You guys are just doing an amazing job.
I´m honestly surprised that there isn´t more legislatures to curb such blatant swindling.
Keep up the good work, every country needs people like you to boost and reassure the knowledge for the tourists.
I was confused when in Netherlands when I ask normal size beer at bar it's always 0,33l, but in my home country (Finland) normal size means 0.5l :D
What gave me away that restaurant was a tourist trap was the furs on the chairs... :-D
That interaction with the restaurant guy "Alex" was so awkward. In my experience, dishonesty and aggression go hand and hand. Although, the smooth talking thieves can be more dangerous, because one is at ease when they attack. Travel education is a must. Thank you for the tip. I love Prague.
I remember Prague from decades ago when the city still wasn't a big tourist attraction. It was far more pleasant, no big crowds, fair prices, no scams. As someone who travels far and wide a lot, I learned long ago that large urban centres catering to tourists, such as Prague, are not the friendliest and most reasonably priced places to go out eating. As a rule I always avoid them for eating and look further afield. It doesn't need to be too far out of the way, usually local public transport is enough to get you there, and you will often find far more reasonably priced restaurants, usually friendly family businesses who are happy to have your custom. It's also a good idea to ask the locals where they go eating, they always have the best tips.
Prague in the 1980s was a pleasure, as you say. No crowds and no scams. I don't think I'll be visiting again given how it's changed.
Young man you are a top man, a good guy. Well done & thank you for doing your best to help the honest tourists. You love your beautiful city & you want tourists to come there & have a great time & for that we all thank you. Keep up the good work.
you made our trip to prague really nice mate! Thanks a lot!
Bro, thanks for being a great guy. You must really love your city, country and culture. I've always wanted to travel to
Czech Republic. Your culture is in the top 3 beer makers in the world! Sending you the best from Colorado, USA
Another good sign is the presence of hustlers or ushers holding menus and luring people in. Normal Czech restaurant does not need to do this.
It is also good to check out, how many locals frequent the place. A table with regullar guests ("štamgasti") is usually a good sign that this is an established place that has a community of faithful customers around itself.
mate i never go to central london to have a meal or a beer as prices are stupidly high for tourists , it’s the same all over the world , it’s hardly a scam , little common sense and a willingness to get a good deal will save you a headache like this in ANY COUNTRY
never go anywhere that doesn’t show prices
I’ve always wanted to visit Prague thank you for informing people on this. 👍
My family is from zlín 🇨🇿
How is it possible that you live in Zlin but never visit Prague which is only 250km away?
@@mracer8 maybe they are a child?
@@mracer8"only" xd
Much thanks to Honest guides for their videos and their maps- as far as I know ive completely avoided any tourist traps and had a great time being aware of what to experience in Prague. A great birthday trip!
I can imagine it's difficult to start a smal restaurant in these cities. These tourist traps create a bad reputation for everyone in the same business . I've talked with a young couple who opened a small place in Grado,( Italy ) . They wanted to focus on quality,local cuisine etc . At first everything was only written in Italian. So most (foreign ) tourists just walked past their place and go straight for the 'multi-language tourist traps that sold expensive but mediocre Pizza & Pasta. The moment they used multiple languages however , Italians ignored their place because they assume their place must be a tourist trap.
This isn’t entirely true. I visited Italy in December and stayed a bit further out of town where the accommodation was cheaper. So it was mostly Italian visitors in the restaurants and not stereotypical foreign tourists, they seemed to eat in the exact same restaurants that foreign tourists would or eat at McDonald’s, or some dodgy Turkish kebab takeaway or grab a cheap sandwich in the train station. In my opinion, it’s a myth that locals only eat in fine restaurants.
It's a matter of aesthetics in the menu catalogue. You can fix one with high standards and low costs that'll make your place intelligible still worthy (you may have to pay a graphist till you reach a final result but you'll get these money back x100)
@@irondasgr Good point. It's also cultural. Many Italians either spend a lot of money on marble & terrazzo inside their bars & restaurants ,or they go for the other extreme with some plastic chairs and some 'drift wood ' nailed together . I'm generalizing , but still. Most people tend to copy-paste what they see around them.
@@notmenotme614 A 'fine' restaurant doesn't mean it looks fine, it's fine food for little. And Italian tourists eat at tourist places.. Obviously there are all kinds of different people in Italy in different situations with different priorities. Some grab a sandwich in a hurry , others take their time for extensive lunches.
Catch 22
You inspire me to keep on trying to learn a different language because with yourself being fluent in two is amazing to me.
I learned that google reviews are my best help for finding the nice restaurants/hotels, wherever I am in the world. Just filter the restaurants/hotels in the area, then pick any with review 4.5 or higher. I was never ever disappointed. Most of the time you can also find photos from the menu, so you can check the selection and prices in advance.
I love Praha. But to be honest? Being quite an experienced traveller. I watched where the locals went and got a terrific meal at a more than fair price. Just don't follow the beaten path.😊 keep the video's coming! Following
Learned a lot from you. I was able to avoid all tourist traps in Prague and only go to nice places ! 👀🍻
The way the restaurant owner talks about the waiters is hilarious.
I think every city needs to have an Honest Guide. In so many US cities the downtowns cater to tourists and business travelers and restaurants charge way more than what they would even just a couple miles away from the city center.
Me and my girlfriend went in September I think it was, had a amazing time. We didn't get in any traps and every restaurant was exceptional. Especially pipca, we got on so well with the chef and owners and had many meals there. When we went past that "pizzaria" the owner was stood outside shouting at us to come in come in get beer with food. Very very easy to spot the traps if you just think rationally
I never understood the 'shouting & pushing ' part in these places . It's one thing having a few good looking boys & girls promoting night clubs and certain bars .But when I'm looking at some place to eat , and someone starts to pressure me to come in, my reflexes are to walk away. It just feels oppressive.
@@spiritualanarchist8162 it's definitely bad vibes, we didn't even acknowledge it
@@spiritualanarchist8162 It pushes me away too. But I'm someone who doesn't do things impulsively. I might want something impulsively, but before I commit, it's research time. If you don't allow me to research, that means I cannot trust you or your service. Even though it may (or may not) be great.
I visited Prague last week with my girlfriend and we had a great time! We used you as our honest guide and went to many of your recommendations! We used Revolut to exchange money and one of the honest offices from your map for some cash, we drank a lot of beer (normal priced, which I found cheap comparing to prices in my country Greece), the food was normal priced. We tried some kolache which we loved, svickova, goulash, snitzel etc. we came across too many Greek people visiting the city, which was fun just walking and listening to our language. We avoided the tourist traps, but we tried some trdelnik (it was nothing special, just a bready ice cream cone). We visited the national museum, the castle and other places. Generally we had a great time and enjoyed the city!
Afto moy thimizei otan imoun sto Tallin ki ekana mia periigisi xalara sto kentro tis polis. Akousa na milane Ellinika kai fanike oti itan kapoio group, opote afou praktika eixa pesei panw tous, lew se mia kiria: a ti wraia, eiste Ellines, eiste me ekdromi oloi mazi? moy leei nai. Poli wraia tis apantaw, kala na perasete, eiste meres edw? de thimamai ti moy apantise alla meta apo afto girizei kai mou leei: Eseis eiste Ellinas? Kai me esteile...
Hahaha the call with the owner has won the whole video!
Love to see that I went to both exceptions back in the days. Thanks for your advices, guys, you made our trip amazing!!
Very nicely done Janek & Honza. Hoping to get out your way this summer for my second visit. Loved it the first time, so I'll be making sure I have your map(s) at the ready
I'm in Prague for 5 monts for my studies and these videos are very helpful!
Thank you for your work.
First time in Prague I had a local guide me around and she took us to a nice restaurant/cafe with great food and great prices. I went there again a few years later and the prices and food were still good but the portion size was rather small. Went there the next day again and suddenly my portion size was much bigger.
I suspect they sell smaller plates to tourists as they probably will only come one time anyway. On the other hand they sell the real size to locals and regulars. Still a bad practice, but I can somewhat understand it too, The restaurant is next to the Charles Bridge, kinda hidden but I imagine there are still quite a few tourist going there who won't even appreciate the bigger portions and just leave their plates half full as you can't do much walking anymore after eating the full plate. So maybe they just adopted to what people actually ate.
When asking for a large beer I'm hoping it's the 1L beer. That's what I love about Germany and Czechia (Romania has them too but not that much :)
As a Bavarian (Bavorak 😜) I always drink a half a liter beer, then I order another beer. You have always a fresh beer and can drink another Sort of beer.
A Tuplak for 13,30 €? On the Wiesn (Oktoberfest) in Munich a Maß (Tuplak) was around 15€. In the Hofbräuhaus in Munich a Maß costs ca 11€. That's more than in Munich. Even More for to pay for a Tuplak is in Straßburg. In 2019 it was 15€.
Please order next Time a "Bavorak" in Czechia... you ll be suprised with Fernet 😅
And do they also cater for English tourists who haven't yet clicked that a pint is a thing in the UK and not the rest of Europe? 🙄
@@bugsygoo A pint is equal to 568 mL - he was using it because it is the term he is familiar with and so that comes to mind fastest, in a restaurant they know its about 5 dL XD
Not all heroes wear capes. Thanks for your investigative journalism.
The last bit was amazing to watch. Owner lying through her teeth😂
Ii visited Prague last year and your details were extremely helpful for a tourist and saved me a lot of money by avoiding tourist traps and I found a great money exchange from your videos.
Thanks
The nicer the menu, the bigger the trap. `
Multiple languages - huge red flag
Waiter on the street to lure you in - just avoid.
I usually go like 100-200m away from the main tourist pathways and you'll find regular restaurants.
Nice menu isnt the trap, if you have nice simple menu, its usually good restaurant. If you have 20 flags, its usually weird. 90% of czech restaurant even in small cities have czech and english menu versions for travelers.
Yeah it depends on what you see as a nice menu. If the menu just has all the dishes in maximum 2-3 languages without many pictures it’s not a trap sign. If it has multiple flags, all different languages and pictures of every dish you know the restaurant is made for tourists who don’t know the dishes. Then it’s usually a trap.
You absolute legend. Thank you YT for recommending this video and channel, it's making me want to visit Prague (in a less naïve manner too)
1 L bier is normal i Bavarian bier gardens ... but it is always under 10 euro. 15 euro for an omelette is pretty drastic. Sad to see Prague is flooded with such insanity.
More often than not, Rents for those restaurants and shops are obscenely high so a "Non-Turist trap" has a low chance of sticking around longer than the first bank loan runs out. Which creates a vicious cycle.
It wasn't always this way, but rarely you see property owner asking reasonable money for the restaurant as they too want to cash in on that property. Sad times :(
The Czech Republic and Prague are great. They are not "flooded with such insanity." You just have to be careful in Prague 1 the main tourist zone which is one reason why many locals aren't thrilled to go there.
We are generally more expensive than Germany now with our crazy inflation we had and with how big supermarket chains are acting toward us (mostly your German chains). People who live near german border are going to Germany for shopping, it's cheaper and even better quality.
@@PidalinTrue Story. Why keeping Monopoly Money KCS... make it like nearly all neighbours around, incl. your Slovak Friends. CZ has one of the highest Inflation Rate in Europe, and you know they Story about the Czech Word of the Year: "Nutela" 😮😅
@@wernerleinberger9847 we literally use nutella as some price measurure, you can say "it costs like 2 nutellas" or "it's cheaper than nutella" 😀
10:54 its so funny how you translate sunset to "zapad slunce" - and then say "zapad is west and slunce is sun"!
I never realised this:
Zapad comes from za-pad which roughtly translates to "behind-fall" and can even be translated to "sunset" itself in slavic languages.
So "zapad" means west, because it actually just means "where the sun sets"
cool video!
7:38
"English?"
"No checkish" 😂
I think that most of these advices are common knowledge and I'm really surprised people don't follow them. I mean, if there are no prices, why would you go to eat there? That's on you, really.
13€ per litre. thats almost Oktoberfest level xd
There's a bar in Ginza, the super-posh part of Tokyo, that specializes in Pilsner Urquel on tap (super rare in Tokyo), and even they only charge about 7 or 8 euros for 500ml.
@@Bnio uhm yeah thats gonna be 14 to 16 euros for a litre? Even more than the one showed in this video lmao
Yeah, but it’s also 9,000km from the source of that beer and one of the few locations in all of Japan you can get it on tap, and it’s still within a euro of the price at that tourist trap. That’s the point I was trying to make.
It actually IS about the same price as Oktoberfest.
without the nice dresses lol
13.30 EUR for 1l of beer is almost Oktoberfest pricing. Which, to be fair, is also a tourist trap.
Well, if the location has Good Soldier Svejk, Franz Kafka, or a trdelnik as its mascot, it's probably a gimmick or tourist trap, in general.
I think I watched 10 of your videos before coming to Prag. Helped a lot. Thanks guys
Just to let you know, Janek. Travel vlogging counts as blogging.
This randomly showed up on my feed at the perfect time. I'm planning a trip to Prague this summer so will definitely keep your tips in mind and check out the rest of your channel.
LOL "I hope we're doing better now" "Not really, awhile ago the waiter told me to f**k off."
Your tips are very insightful, really helpful for first-time travelers to avoid getting scammed. I appreciate the heads up on these misleading practices.
8 minutes in . The waiters are rude . Panic mode
Another tourist trap is validating the metro ticket. My friend was fined last month as she forgot to validate and went down the escalator. I followed her as the ‘inspectors’ hounded her as she immediately went back up the escalator to validate. I ended up calling the police and they said my friend had to pay the fine as there was nothing they could do to support us.
They should play by rules.
It's your responsibility to know how to use the public transport. It's not like this is the 80s and there's no internet where you can find a 3 minute tutorial within 30 seconds of searching.
That's not a tourist trap, that's just a different system than you're used to. It's not intended to confuse you, it's intended to help people who want to buy tickets in advance and then use them when needed - that would be impossible if tickets became immediately valid.
I’ve never had an issue with ticket validation. It was my friend’s first visit to Prague and she thought you could validate on the metro like you can on the bus. She won’t make the mistake again! 😂
Thank to your help I avoided tourist traps and scams ;) Thank a lot!
Only Janek is angry at a restaurant for ordering a big beer and getting a big beer.
I get the point, but it's just not a tourist trap. As long as it's clearly written on the menu and not hidden somewhere, it's not a trap. The beer will be just as good as any other size. THAT'S NOT A TRAP!
He calls it a trap because they give you a bigger serving and charge you more.
A big beer is usually half a liter, not one liter. So it's a trap because they don't tell you how big is a big beer and then once you see it well you gotta pay for it.
@@InTimeTraveller That's not a trap.
Hahaha. If you come for a large beer in my place i will bring you a 15 litres. I will make some money from you . But this is large for me soryy
As long as you declare it clearly on the menu, then it's perfectly fine. @@user-wc9eh6se5p
Love your channel. Every large city in Europe should have a channel like this. Greetings from Oslo!
I appreciate the Irish girls complaining about the extra of that restaurant, I've had that in Prague too, I was really annoyed about it though and told them "let me go to the bathroom and I'll give you the extra back" in a not so nice way. They removed it from the bill.
Germany has some of the best anti-tourist traps, they sell stuff for too cheap sometimes, ask for a custom drink and you think its like 10 euros and it comes out at 3.
With your channel i visited prague 3 times, and never been scamed
That phone call with the owner was hilarious
This guy did so much for his city, I hope someday the locals will understand!
I been to Prague multiple times, and I still watch Honest Guide has if I will ever move there 😂 this channel is just too good, I wish other countries did the same... maybe you should expand, build a team
As much as you complain in some of your videos, you also do a good job of making Prague a place I really want to visit. Thanks for taking a moment in this video to stop and show a good restaurant in the middle of all this crap!
I wish there were MORE people like you fir every major city in Europe! Youa re such a WONDERFUL ambassador for your city and country!
I love the humour in these videos and they are so informative.
I think the best way to avoid tourist traps is to also visit other places. It is a shame that the rest of the Czech Republic is often ignored by everyone but that of course also means no tourist traps. There are a lot of nicer small towns that have a lot of Czech and Slovaks visiting (at least here in Morava where I live), so there are a lot of facilities for tourists. And especially in the early autumn there are a lot of happenings here because of the wine harvest.
Thank you, Honest Guide. I love your job. May you continue for a long long time. You are what I call a hero.
❤
I've been to Prague earlier this year with two friends and we hat such a good time, we didn't run in any tourist traps, ate in lovely restaurants and met kind people. Also I never felt so secure anywhere else, not even in my Hometown in southern Germany :D
Only the parking is quite nervewrecking when you don't have any idea how it works
Not just in tourist areas:
1: Always ask for a menu before entering
2: If there are no prices leave immediately.
3: Check bottom of menu for fine print about mandatory tips/fees
4: Always ask for prices for anything offered to you
5: Leave if you get bad vibes.
6: If any fee or price is not disclosed, then refuse to pay it. Pay for the remainder of the bill and leave.
7: Do not pay with your card if there is a dispute.
8: Use cash whenever possible.
Always get a menu with prices on it. If you want a drink as well get the drinks menu. If either menu doesn’t have prices, LEAVE. I was ‘had' in Rome beside the coliseum ten years ago. A quarter litre of beer 8 euro. The translation of the name of the restaurant was 'the gold mine'. Very appropriate name.
The Wilhelm scream....classic!