Prague Good value
Avoid restaurants on Old Town Square entirely. A half litre of excellent Czech beer should cost 45-60 CZK in a normal pub, not 120. Try svíčková and goulash in a local hospoda.
Budget travel in Czech Republic
What a visitor's money does in Czech Republic: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.
Mid-range average across 4 guides · 5 is very cheap
Money
Czech Koruna (CZK) · 1 EUR = 24.3 CZK · 1 USD = 21.2 CZK
Czechia uses the koruna, not the euro — paying in euros anywhere gives you a terrible rate. Never use the exchange booths in the Old Town: many advertise a rate that only applies above absurd amounts. eXchange on Kaprova is the well-known honest one.
ATMs
Avoid: Euronet, any machine offering a "0% commission" exchange
Use: ČSOB, Komerční banka, Česká spořitelna, Raiffeisenbank
Euronet is everywhere in the old town and is the single most expensive way to get korunas.
Getting around
A short ride in Prague: 150–250 Kč across town — middling
From the airport: Prague airport to the centre 500–700 Kč
Much cheaper, and the reason to use an app in Prague is as much about the meter as the price.
City by city, cheapest first
Karlovy Vary Mid-range
Becherovka, the local herbal liqueur, and spa wafers — oplatky — sold hot from the stalls. The hotel restaurants are formal; the pubs up the hill are where the town eats.
Český Krumlov Expensive
Czech and hearty: svíčková, goulash, roast duck. The riverside beer gardens are the pleasant end and the restaurants on the square charge for the address.
Brno & South Moravia Expensive
Moravian wine rather than beer, which is heresy in Czechia and true here. The city eats well and cheaply, and the cellars in the south serve their own bottles with bread and cold cuts.
The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.
The guides in Czech Republic
PragueCzech RepublicGothic spires, cheap beer, and a river running through it
Český KrumlovCzech RepublicA castle above a river bend, a town inside the loop, and almost nothing in it built after 1600
Karlovy VaryCzech RepublicA spa town in a wooded gorge, where you walk the colonnades drinking hot mineral water from a porcelain cup
Brno & South MoraviaCzech RepublicThe Czech second city, functionalist and unbothered, with the country’s wine country on its doorstep