Tourists usually spend an average of two days in Prague, and the most frequently visited destinations include Prague Castle, the Petrin cable car and lookout tower, the zoo, and synagogues in the historic core.

Almost two and a half million people visited Prague Castle alone last year, and here you already have to undergo a security check, which causes long lines in front of the gates of the most famous Czech monument. Those interested in riding the Petrin cable car will also stand in line. According to CzechTourism data, more than two million people took the ride last year. At the same time, you can also walk through the park to get to the top.

In recent years, Prague’s historical center has suffered under the onslaught of tourists from all over the world. According to data from Prague City Tourism, which promotes the Czech metropolis, up to five times more foreigners than Czechs go to Prague. Last year, the most frequent visitors were Germans, British, Americans, Russians, Italians, Chinese and South Koreans.

“We feel that tourism needs to be cultivated in such a way that it does not develop at the expense of the people of Prague. That is why we are continuing and intensifying the promotion of neighborhoods outside the center, which also have what tourists need and will relieve the congested center,” said Prague city councilor Hana Třeštíková in February this year.

In recent years, the alternative face of Prague has been shown by a number of independent projects, be it special walks, non-traditional guides or maps.

Walks into the unknown with the homeless

“For the sake of writing, I set off on the royal road after fifteen years and found out that it looks crazy. Any authenticity was lost, when you moved the street to London, Paris or anywhere else, it would come out the same,” says Matěj Černý, one of the co-authors a three-year-old guide to 111 must-see places in Prague.

In it, together with his partner Mariá Peřinová, they write about not-so-well-known places in the metropolis that the average tourist overlooks. Instead of the royal road or the synagogue, readers are encouraged to explore the Bohnice cemetery, cubist attractions or the now popular districts of Karlína and Holešovice.

Even in the historic center of the city, however, according to Černý, authentic places can still be found. “I like places that are close to tourist attractions, but not many people go there and you have the feeling that you have found yourself somewhere else. In this respect, the Josef Sudek Gallery is fascinating, because it takes you from the ‘buzzing city’ to an oasis of calm. It’s similar with the children’s playground in Nové Svět,” he cites several examples.

There are several guides working in Prague, from certified ones offered by the Prague Service to providers of so-called free tours. In addition, there are a number of specialized agencies and organizations that focus on alternative thematic circuits and places where tourists do not normally go. Pragulic is among the most famous.

The social enterprise employs homeless people, which takes people around places associated with the Prague underworld, drugs, the life of the homeless, but also railway sleepers. The more hardened can also try a day in the shoes of a homeless person.

The concept has been operating for seven years and three students are behind it. Since 2012, around 60,000 people have used the walks, says co-founder Tereza Jurečková. “The biggest interest is in the night tours with Karim,” he adds, adding that they also have interest from a number of foreigners.

Other alternative walks are offered, for example, by the organization Praha Neznámá, founded by Petr Ryska. The concept started in 2013 as a blog about interesting corners of Prague, and it gradually gave rise to books and thematic walks.

“They are to show that Prague is not just the center, for example Prague Castle or Charles Bridge. They are beautiful and respectable monuments, but we have seen them a thousand times and there is nothing to discover. I, on the other hand, try to introduce people to other places, such as Klánovice. Prague needs to be seen as a set of different city districts, villages and nature in between,” Ryska said years ago in Conversation for Aktuálně.cz

Get up earlier and go beyond the classic routes

This is what Janek Rubeš and Honza Mikulka are trying to do, among others, who draw attention to tourist traps in Prague and also promote places that the crowds avoid. They make videos under the name Honest Guide, and this May they also published their first book with the same name.

“When I first ran around Prague at six in the morning, I didn’t recognize it. The subway is packed with people going to work, but the main tourist “attractions” are empty. By the way, if you read reviews of places like Charles Bridge, most people complain about its overcrowding, yet the solution is so simple. Tourists probably often lack common sense, but I often include myself in the group of “tourists” when I travel somewhere. We can hardly throw the ten million people who visit Prague each year into Tourism in Prague needs proper management more than marketing,” said Janek Rubeš in a recent interview for Aktuálně.cz.

However, you can also use the alternative non-commercial Use-it map to get around Prague. Young volunteers take part in it every year, this year in May it was published for the ninth time. “We want to direct tourists’ steps away from the classic ones, show a different kind of entertainment, appeal to their sense of sustainable tourism and influence their behavior. The absolute ideal is for them to move as if the routes weren’t even tourists. So that they benefit from it as well as they do. so local,” said map coordinator and organization founder Eva Křížová.

In the map, for example, volunteers invite visitors to visit the panel housing estates in Jižní Město, Nuslí or to taste a sandwich. The alternative map is also supported by the Municipal District of Prague 1 and the already mentioned Prague Information Service.

Tourists walk as if in limbo, you need to be more careful

According to Matěj Černý, Praguers are annoyed by tourists just like anywhere else in the world. “I realized this when I was in Edinburgh in my twenties. I was bumped into by a lady on her way to work, you could tell how much I was getting on her nerves as a tourist. It’s because tourists seem to be in They are rambunctious, they usually don’t look ahead, but up at the houses and it’s difficult to move between them,” he describes.

In a second breath, however, he adds that tourists have brought to the capital a lot of positive things of contemporary life in Prague, in short, they belong. “However, it bothers me that sometimes the city doesn’t regulate things a little more. Maybe it could pay more attention to what shops are in some buildings or what their signboards look like,” ponders Černý.

He himself will probably continue to avoid the Royal Road or Charles Bridge in the main tourist destinations. But he thinks that during the wanderings of the capital, you can still discover a number of interesting places that you won’t read about in traditional bedekres. You just have to be more careful.