🇵🇱 Warsaw → 🇨🇿 Prague · 1 week

Cross Charles Bridge at 6am, before the souvenir vendors arrive and when the morning mist sits on the Vltava. The bridge statues cast long shadows and you'll have the panorama essentially to yourself — a completely different experience from the midday scrum.

Locals drink at Lokál (Dlouhá 33) rather than tourist-facing beer halls — it serves Pilsner Urquell tank-fresh, not pasteurised, which tastes noticeably cleaner. The half-litre costs around 60 CZK (about €2.40). Arrive before 7pm for a table.

The Mucha Museum on Panská is smaller and cheaper than people expect and contains original advertising poster studies that show how Alphonse Mucha actually worked — the process sketches are more interesting than the finished prints sold in every gift shop in the city.

St. Agnes Convent (Anežský klášter) holds the National Gallery's medieval Bohemian art collection in a 13th-century setting that most Prague visitors never find — it's a 10-minute walk from the tourist centre but feels completely removed from it.