Prague

Prague
<map lat="50.0751" lng="14.4347" zoom="10" view='3' height='350' width='420'/>
Information
Country:	Czech Republic
Population:	1.218.644
Licence plate:	?A? ???? old: A?? ????
Major roads:	D1, D5, D8, D11
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Prague (Praha) is the capital of the Czech Republic.

An abbreviation PHA written on your sign clearly informs a driver that you go to Prague but sign PRAHA works better.

Hitchhiking out

East towards Hradec Králové, Pardubice, Wrocław 11E 67

From "Černý most", the last station of B-line metro (yellow) take bus to station "Na Kovárně" (221, 303, 304, 344, 353, 398), it is about 10 minutes ride and probably you are going to pay few crowns, but not much. Hundred metres behind the stop turn right and go along Tlustého street, after last house keep the right (bigger) road, then left before the cemetery. Go across the bridge to the petrol station. It is about 1,5 km, but I think it is the best hitch spot on this direction. There usually aren't too many cars, but I've never been there more than half an hour. If you get lost ask anyone about "Hummer Garden" (the place only for Hummers) which is just behind the station.

Second option

Maybe better is to use K+R place near "Černý Most" metro station, lots of hitchhikers use this place. Use sign HK (Hradec Králové) or PL (if you want to Náchod and Poland). It's necessary to use the sign, because cars there are going to many directions. Disadvantage is that there are only cars traveling out of Prague - not those going from Prague ring road. But there is no non-freeway solution how to pick up those cars. My personal experience (dj-bobr) for east way (Hradec Králove, Poland) is that you can try to hitchhike at the beginning of D11 Highway (50.098664 N, 14.597708 E). It's a motorway, but police doesn't care, if you stand safe at the shoulder.

Northeast towards Mladá Boleslav, Liberec, Görlitz 10E 65

File:Stop hk.jpg

Dj-bobr at the beginning of D11 Highway.

You can hitch from a gas station on the E65. Take the metro line B (yellow) to the last station, Černý Most. From there catch bus number 220 to the stop called "Do Čertous". When you get off the bus the gas station is behind the big orange building with "H1" on it.

Second option

Another option is to use K+R place near "Černý Most" metro station (the same for going to Hradec Králové), lots of hitchhikers use this place. Use sign MB (Mladá Boleslav), LB (Liberec). It's necessary to use the sign, because cars are there going to many directions. Because of building of Prague Ring (R1) sub-parts, long-distance traffic is lower each day, but this spot is still usable. For Hradec Králové and Poland direction, use spot at the beginning of D11 highway.

North, Northwest towards Ústí nad Labem, Teplice, Dresden, Berlin 8E 55

Warning: If you are passing through Dresden, take a look on Dresden hitchwiki page. From either of the spots you can take rides to OMV petrol station before Lovosice or to the Agip petrol station after Ústí nad Labem. The hitchhiking positions there are also good.

First option

Easily reachable OMV petrol station, not so many cars but almost anybody can take you 2 km to the second spot. From metro terminal station "Letňany" (red line C) take any bus or walk 500 m to the bus stop "Výstaviště Letňany". Behind bus stop at the crossroad turn left to the footway and after 300 m turn right to the small footpath going straight to the petrol station. The turn is just before the bridge over the highway.

Second option

First bigger petrol station (OMV) at D8. From metro terminal station ”Letňany” (red line C) take bus (195, 140, 158, 110, 269) to the stop “Obchodní centrum Čakovice”. Turn back (from bus direction), cross the roundabout and walk still straight another 800 m until you'll see the highway and petrol station will be on your left.

West towards Plzeň, Klatovy, Nürnberg 5E 50

This option is on a fairly big gas station with McDonald's and enough cars. From metro "Zličín" (line B, yellow), take a bus nr 307, 308, 311, 380 or 602 to "Rudná, škola" stop. The ticket costs 18 CZK. Once you get off, walk couple of meters in the direction the bus came from and turn left onto a street called "Na Přídělu". You should see the gas station in the distance. Walk to the end of the street, there will be a path towards the gas station there, it's a 5-10 minute walk in total. If you don't want to hitch back to Prague, you need to go under the bridge in the gas station area (it's located in the Prague direction). Sometimes the gas station attendants are not nice and force you to move out of the station area but there is still plenty of space.

Avoid going into Plzeň or getting dropped off on the bypass. It's better to try to find a direct ride to Germany from the last petrol station before Plzeň. (* We 2 guys waited here for 45 minutes before getting a hitch hike upto the border of Germany post which going to Paris was easy. Verified on 6th September 2011).

Second option

Take a tram (9, 10) to "Motol", that's where the motorway link starts. Not a perfect place, but cars are not too fast and there are quite a lot of Germans passing.

Third option

From metro "Zličín" (line B, yellow) go the the crossroad on traffic lights, there's a bridge before (under the bridge are railways), so walk on the traffic light and stand right on the triangle, you can catch cars from both ways, they are going slowly there, and there's also a place to stop. We have been waiting there for 10 minutes. ( This OPTION Does not work - Don't Waste Time. verified on 6th Sep 2011 ) Look at the picture for details: nice spot

Fourth option

I go quite often Prague<->Pilsen and this is the best spot for me. Take metro B (yellow line) to "Hůrka", walk around Albert shop, upstairs and over the small bridge. Walk around the school maintaining the same direction. You will see a wall that hides the road we need to take, so go behind it. There is a bus stop and a big road. Go right to the crossroads, there go left. You will se signs "Plzeň". Go over the bridge and down to the left just around the corner and there is a great place. Quite long and lot of space to stop. Police stopped only once but after 2 minutes talking they went out and let me there.

Without sign (or with sign "PLZ" or "Plzeň") you can easily get to Plzeň (don't take cars before Plzeň). For Germany is better to use sign ("D") (and again, take only cars going to Germany or at least to the border where is good petrol station).

Southeast towards Brno, Ostrava, Bratislava, Vienna, Kraków 1E 50E 59E 65
+ south towards České Budějovice, Linz 33E 55

It's good to have a sign at this road and definitely for south direction. Every bigger petrol station at D1 is good for hitchhiking.

First option

Easily reachable petrol station, not a lot of traffic though. Good in bad-weather or snow conditions. Go to the metro station "Chodov" (red line C), there is big shopping centre, try to not get lost there and find the road "Roztylská" going through it. Go to the traffic lights at the end of this tunnel and continue by following cyclopath - yellow signs with "Záběhlice" and/or "Chodovec" written. After 700 m you will get to the bridge over the motorway. Use the staircase at the beggining of the bridge to get down to the petrol station.
Alternatively you can stay behind the station exit at the end of left lane, at the left side of the road.

Second option

From metro station "Opatov" (red line C) follow the main road up. Walk along the road about 5 minutes, keep going over the crossroad and the bridge over the motorway. Now you might see other hitchhikers on the slip-road. Alternatively, you can take bus number 177 from metro "Opatov" to next (request) stop "U Dálnice". Be careful and stay on the slip road, not on the motorway (sometimes police passes by).
Very common spot, not so good in fact. Average waiting time is less than one hour. If you stuck there, you can walk 2 km to the spot 4 (again, if police goes around, they'll tell you to walk on the field beside motorway).

Third option

Especially good option at night when there is little traffic at spots 1 and 2. At the end of bus stop opposite to metro station "Kačerov" (red line C), find stairs going down. You will go over train tracks, stairs down again, then around metro tracks and turn right before the motorway. You will see OMV petrol station but just cross the grass strip and 2 lanes leading to the station and stay at the shoulder at the beggining of motorway (there is sign). Police doesn't make troubles there and for cars it means end of 50 kmph limit, so they're still quite slow. The shoulder is wide, safe and alight.
There are not many cars at that petrol station behind or they have different directions (often Pilsen).

Fourth option

Hitchhikers at Újezd u Průhonic petrol station. Regular local hitchhikers were around, as well as hitchhikers doing the race.

First motorway petrol station behind Prague, really good hitchhiking but takes extra time to get there. From metro "Opatov" (red line C) exit straight out of the station and take a left following the winding red ramp up to street level/the road above. Look on the bus stop timetables (bus stop next to the Replay shop) for the stop "K Sukovu" on route 363, the buses leave every 15-30 minutes. You have to show valid ticket or buy one from driver! Get to "K Sukovu" (takes roughly 10 minutes) – you'll know you're there when you see the petrol station in the distance to your right after getting off the bus. Follow the main road in bus direction and after 400 m go over motorway bridge and down to the petrol station on your right.

Fifth option

Quite near city centre, cars are slow, high traffic density and nobody expect hitchhikers there but you can be lucky. At metro station "Vyšehrad" (red line C) get to the right side of the main road - one is leading to the huge bridge and city centre, opposite is yours - and use the sidewalk for about 300 m. After the small bridge, continue left to the main road and hitchhike. There are 3 lanes and one parking lane and ussualy some place to stop.

Sixth option

Go up from metro station "Roztyly" (red line C) and cross all the parking places to the motorway. Hard shoulder there is good and alight at night but it's not allowed to stay there. And cars are already a bit fast.

South towards Příbram, Písek, České Budějovice 4

From Smíchovské nádraží (subway line B) take bus 129, 241, 243, 244, 314 or 318 to the stop Malá Chuchle. It's a request stop so press the button. There you can easily hitchhike. Usually very short waiting on Friday afternoons when many people go out from Prague.

West towards Karlovy Vary, Cheb 6E 48

This is good option for Karlovy Vary direction. Take tram 22 to Bílá Hora. Go straight in the street Karlovarská and there is quite good place to hitch-hike behind the red-white banister.

Second option

If you prefer gas stations, try this option. The first one is quite far though (30 km from Prague center) - take a bus from Praha,,Hradčanská to Velká Dobrá,,u školy. Once there follow the direction of the bus and turn first left (Unhošťská street), than second right (Lesní street) and after 200 m you should see the highway and the gas station on your right.

Northwest towards Kladno, Chomutov, Chemnitz 7

From Dejvická (subway line A) take bus 119 to Dědina. There you can hitchhike. You can also try another bus stop on Evropská road e.g. Divoká Šárka but probably further is better.

Public transport

Public transport network in Prague is really good, you can get in reasonable time almost anywhere at any time. Ticket costs: 30 minutes - 24 Kč (eur 1), 90 minutes - 32 Kč (~eur 1.30). If you plan to stay longer, you can buy a ticket for one day - 110 Kč (~eur 4.50) or three days - 310 Kč (~eur 12.60). You have to validate ticket when entering metro station, tram or bus. The fine for fare dodging is 800 Kč (~eur 32) if you pay it at that place or till15 days.

Traveling without ticket in Prague is easy and worth the risk (much cheaper). You can find controllers easily at: Farebandit

In subway contollers usually (not always) wear dark blue uniforms. If you see one or more of them getting in the wagon, get out immediately. But they also stay in big groups (with city police) in stations' corridors or at the end of escalators. Do wide turns to see behind the corner and use classic stairs or elevator if possible. If they ocuppy one exit, carefully try next one or go to the next station. The most controlled stations are "I.P. Pavlova", "Florenc", "Muzeum" and "Můstek". In buses and trams they rarely wear uniforms but they don't check them often.

If you get caught it depends on your acting skills and the controller. Being honest is another good way. Be polite but refuse to give him ID/passport (left in a hostel etc., acting as foreigner from non-EU country could help too). If he is solo or max. two of them, they often let you go, it's not worth the time. If not they will call police or you have to go with them to the nearest police department to identify yourself. That can be just another try to scare you off to show ID. Consider running out when they least expect it (fine could be higher then, up to 1500 czk/60 €).

User Dante1919: "I travelled with metro three days in Prague with my backpack and etc. Never saw any kind of control and never had troubles with it. Mostly I was getting to central so called dangerous stations and nothing happened. As a master of black riding :) I can say, if you get caught just tell the controller that you are travelling without money and they will leave you alone. It worked for me in 5 different countries."

At metro stations you can find maps of Prague with public transport, this can be useful, because the lines are changing (especially bus lines). You can easily find a connection online at IDOS - works for the entire CR or alternatively for Prague only: DPP.

wikivoyage:Prague trash:Prague

Czech cities with more than 20.000 inhabitants

> 1.000.000: Praha

100.000-500.000: Brno • Ostrava • Plzeň • Liberec • Olomouc

50.000-100.000: Ústí nad Labem • Hradec Králové • České Budějovice • Pardubice • Havířov • Zlín • Kladno • Most • Karviná • Opava • Frýdek-Místek • Karlovy Vary • Jihlava • Teplice • Děčín

20.000-50.000: Chomutov • Přerov • Jablonec nad Nisou • Mladá Boleslav • Prostějov • Třebíč • Česká Lípa • Třinec • Tábor • Znojmo • Příbram • Cheb • Orlová • Kolín • Trutnov • Písek • Kroměříž • Šumperk • Vsetín • Valašské Meziříčí • Litvínov • Uherské Hradiště • Hodonín • Český Těšín • Břeclav • Krnov • Litoměřice • Sokolov • Nový Jičín • Havlíčkův Brod • Chrudim • Strakonice • Kopřivnice • Klatovy • Žďár nad Sázavou • Bohumín • Jindřichův Hradec • Vyškov • Blansko • Kutná Hora • Náchod • Jirkov

Highways in the Czech Republic

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