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Shopping

Most travelers aren't lured to Prague for the shopping. That said, there are plenty of Czech-made products that are worth taking home. Besides beer and Absinthe, the Czechs have long produced some of the world's best crystal (shops are littered about Old Town alleys). If you're not in the souvenir-buying business, avoid places selling T-shirts with images of Kafka or anything that says "Prague: Czech It Out." For chain store addicts, shopping malls – laden with all the multi-national names you can conjure – have bloomed in just about every neighborhood in the city. But hidden in the labyrinth of Old Town and Mala Strana streets, some intriguing shops lurk.

Mala Strana is a better place to get lost in the tangle of romantic alleyways than score a great deal at a boutique shop, but there are a few great places worth stopping for – namely on the tiny alleyway Saska Ulice (one block from the Charles Bridge gate tower, take a left at the bio-market on Lazenska Street and then make an immediate left onto Saska). The street that flirts with becoming a mini version of New York's St. Mark's Place or San Francisco's Haight Street, with its funky clothes shops and record stores, is home to Myrnyx Tyrnyx (Saska Ulice; 224/923-270; www.myrnyxtyrnyx.cz), one of Prague's first retro clothes shops. The tiny space is crammed with cool clothes from many decades past (owner Maya Kvetný often hauls back the best of the best when she's in Los Angeles), as well garb from new Czech designers.

Like Mala Strana, if you if you know where to look in Old Town, you can find some interesting shops. For example, Kubista (Ovocný trh 19; 224/236-378; www.kubista.cz), part of the Cubist Museum (located in the House of the Black Madonna), sells not only the most beautiful Cubist furniture and household goods in the world – they sell the world's only Cubist furniture and household goods. C'mon – you know you've always wanted a Cubist ashtray.

The area around Dlouhá Street has quietly become a hip section of Prague's historic center for fashion, music, and galleries. Klara Nademlýnská (Dlouhá 3; 224/818-769; www.klaranademlynska.cz) is the outlet for this hip indie Czech designer.

The best places to feast on Czech literature in English is Shakespeare and Sons (Krymská 12; 271/740-839; www.shakes.cz), located on the fringes of the leafy and atmospheric Vinohrady neighborhood, and The Globe (Pštrossova 6; 224/934-203; www.globebookstore.cz), one of the first English-language bookshops to pop up in the former Eastern Bloc. Both bookshops sell new and used books.

See Prague Travel Guide