Prague Shopping

There are a couple of street markets in the New Town which offer an excellent and affordable range of crafts (and an encouragingly small proportion of mass produced rubbish).

What to buy: I particularly like the wooden items, particularly the children's puzzles and toys: I bought an entire wooden train set when I visited there during my first pregnancy which I lugged around in my backpack for the rest of the trip, but then had to wait nearly four years for a son to do it justice (my elder child turned out to be a girl)!

Another item that I love are the beautiful hand painted Easter eggs which are decorated in many styles from the traditional to the geometric and even the modernistic. Being a multicultural family with a particular weakness for German festival traditions, we celebrate Easter with an Easter branch, on which we display the various eggs that we've collected on our travels through Eastern and Central Europe. It might sound like madness to travel with eggs, but we have found them surprisingly robust - packed in a conventional eggbox - and (here's tempting fate!), have yet to suffer a breakage in transit!

Cigarettes are a bit more than 2 euro, at least were so at the time I left the city. You can buy it from anywhere, either big supermarkets or from smaller ones, which are run usually by Vietnamese and are all over the town. I know for sure there is a supermarket Albert at Mustek, which is one metro stop after the Central Railway Station (Hlavni Nadrazi) on the green line. You can go there, buy whatever you want and come back to the metro. Your ticket can still be used, because it is usually for 70 minutes. Plus the green line goes to Dejvicka and then you change to the bus to the airport, number 119 I guess.

Nový Smíchov

Nový Smíchov is a stylish, modern shopping mall and entertainment center that spreads across three floors. It is located near the Andìl metro station (line B). There's a large Tesco supermarket and Datart electronics store on the ground floor, 150 different shops, as well as a food court and Palace Cinema multiplex on the third floor.

Address: Plzeòská 8, Prague 5
Getting there: Metro B or tram 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14 or 20 to Andìl

Hours: Shops 9.00 - 21.00, Tesco 7.00 - 24.00

Website: www.novysmichovoc.cz

What to buy: every thing

For those not wanting to stray too far from Old Town, there's a small tourist market right in the center of Old Town, clothes, mugs, refrigerator magnets, crafts, fruits and vegetables and any other kind of tourist crap you can think of can be found here.

Open: Monday to Sunday 10:00 - 18:00

Palladium calls itself "shopping without limits". It is big shopping gallery in the centre of Prague with various kinds of shops. What is quite unusual is the fact that the gallery is situated in the houses of former army barracks - architecturally very interesting!

170 shops, 30 restaurants.

Opened:
Monday - Saturday 09:00-22:00
SUnday 09:00 - 21:00

This mall is the largest in Prague and very easy and quick to reach, just around the corner from the Andel metro station on the yellow line, not far from the tourist centre of the city (trams were outside too). It has all the usual stores you'll find on Wenceslas Square (minus the touristy stuff), as well as a fantastic cinema (saw the new Bond film - it was in English with Czech subtitles - I think that is normal in the Czech Republic) and a big Tesco. Restauraunts too. All of the shop assistants I spoke to, spoke English. I was impressed with the place. I also didn't see any tourists, but it was in November. They were in the process of setting up Christmas booths by the Andel station and those may be interesting. A very nice place to shop and get out of the cold.

What to pay: Normal prices and our coffees at a cafe were much cheaper (normally priced) than the touristic areas of the city. Got some bargains on nice clothes.

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Czech crystal and glassware are world - renowned. Every block in the area around the Old Town Square had at least one store with windows and aisles filled with good crystal and colorful glassware both functional and decorative. As in the images, these displays can be striking. Although logic would dictate otherwise, we found the prices to be pretty much similar in and out of the tourist areas. Extensive shopping for the best price really doesn't seem necessary.

Diamit is a chain of 5 stores in the Old Town. We found the branch at Celetna' 9 right off the square itself to be among the largest, with a huge selection. And they were extremely helpful in packing our purchases for suitcase travel - no damages.

When you are in Prague, you definitely have to buy these round hazelnut waffles. Don't know the exact name of it, but it's a rather big waffle (diameter 20 centimer), they are packed with 8 together in rectangular cardboard little boxes in the colours blue (hazelnut), green (other taste) and brown (chocolat). You can buy them in the supermarket near the Charles Bridge. The street is called Mostecka, the name of the supermarket is BIO MARKET and you can recognize it by the cash dispenser BETWEEN the two entrances.
But you can also buy them in other supermarkets, for example the bigger one which is located in metrostation Mustek.

Everyone in my neighbourhood who tried the waffles found them delicious!