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Hotels

With each year, Prague's hotel market gets more diverse. Which is good, considering that for the first half decade after the Velvet Revolution, travelers' lodging options were mostly limited to bland socialist-era hotels with their cold linoleum floors and formica furniture. Those days are long over. Today, the Czech capital is crammed with exciting accommodation options, from intimate boutique hotels and quiet pensions to major luxury chains. The bad news, however, is that while Prague can be a relatively inexpensive central European capital overall, that factoid doesn't necessarily hold true when it comes to lodging. Unless you want to rent a private room in someone's apartment (look for the room-hocking old ladies on the train platform of the city's main railway station) or can endure one of the few no-frills hotels that are sprinkled around the outskirts of town, expect to pay Paris prices. That said, here are our top picks of Prague's high-end, moderate, and budget lodgings.

In the years following 1989's Velvet Revolution, anybody who was anybody stayed in the boxy, gray riverside Intercontinental Hotel (Namesti Curieovych 43/5; 296/631-111; www.icprague.com) – from visiting dignitaries to Michael Jackson – because it was the only luxury lodging in the city. The hotel is still one of the most comfortable places to rest your cobblestone-weary feet, but it now has some competition. The newest, the Mandarin Oriental (Nebovidska 459/1; 233/088-888; www.mandarinoriental.com/prague), is set in an old monastery in leafy Mala Strana. This cathedral of comfort offers all the perks you'd expect from one of the world's leading luxury hotel chains. Likewise, the Four Seasons (Veleslavínova 2a/1098; 221/427-000; www.fourseasons.com/prague), located across the river in Old Town, boasts castle views and enough pampering to make you want to call it your second home. The independently owned Aria Hotel (Trziste 9; 225/334-111; www.ariahotel.net) – in an embassy-crammed section of Mala Strana – is located in a Renaissance-era palace with each room dedicated to a different musical genre or musician, from Billy Holiday to Beethoven.

For more moderately-priced digs with enough comfort to keep even the most hardened traveler satisfied, Hotel Maximilian (Haštalská 14; 225/303-111; www.maximilianhotel.com) and Hotel Josef (Rybná 20; 221/700-111; www.hoteljosef.com) – both in or near Josefov (the old Jewish Ghetto), both re-designed by famed Czech-born architect Eva Jiricna – offer an artsy, boutique ambience with plenty of perks (large breakfast buffets, high-speed internet, plasma-screen TVs – and, at Maximilian, a sensory deprivation bath). Set in a quiet, less-trampled section of Old Town, Bellagio Hotel (U Milosrdných 2; 221/778-999; www.bellagiohotel.cz) offers warm and spacious rooms with free high-speed wireless Internet access. For a fashionable place that's just out of the center – in the buddingly hip Zizkov neighborhood – Arcotel Teatrino (Borivojova 53; 221/422-111; www.arcotel.cc) is a chic boutique hotel with small-ish, but comfy rooms and a great breakfast served in an old theater space.

But if the above options are busting your bank account, have no fear: Prague boasts plenty of budget-style hotels as well: the 78-room Hotel Elite (Ostrovni 32; 224/932-250; www.hotelelite.cz) is housed in a renovated 14th-century building behind the National Theater in a neighborhood that's loaded with great restaurants and bars. The Flathotel Orion (Americká 9; 353/232-100), located in the leafy and quiet neighborhood Vinohrady, has apartment-style rooms, complete with kitchens. Hotel Ibis (Plzenska 14; 221/701-700; www.ibishotel.com), a Euro-wide chain, offers clean, comfy rooms in the up-and-coming Smichov district, as well as several other locations in Prague.

See Prague Travel Guide