Christmas magic in Prague

On 19th December, after our lie in at the Premier Inn Luton Town, and a trip to the Luton cinema to see Paddington in Peru, we headed back to the airport via Uber (£11.99) around 15:00 for our 18:10 WizzAir flight to Prague.

At the airport, we headed to Smithfield Pub and Dining to make use of a special offer via the Luton Airport website for a burger and soft drink for £15. We landed just after 21:00, had no problem getting through passport control in Prague airport and jumped in an Uber (£ to our Airbnb 'Laxmi Happy Home' which was right in the centre of the Old Town at Řetězová 224/7. This was to be our home for the next 5 nights at a cost of £242.

I absolutely loved the Airbnb and our gracious hostess, Helena, who lives between Pune in India and Prague. Helena's flat has 3 bedrooms, all of which she Airbnbs, is spotlessly clean and several floors up in an historic building. Whilst we didn't have our own private bathroom, we had a gorgeous shared bathroom with a bath and a washing machine and it was wonderful for Tiger to have baths. We simply went off to the supermarket and bought bubble bath!

On Friday 20th December, we descended out of our Airbnb and found the fabulous Bond Cafe right outside our door. We then proceeded to have as many breakfasts there as possible - it was amazing!

After brunch, we did a vintage car tour for 90 minutes (£115) which I had booked on Airbnb experiences. It was a fun trip around, and we hopped out at Prague Castle to take in the view.

When we got back we headed to the main Christmas market at the Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí) which was simply amazing. My photos definitely don't do it justice but it was amazing. So amazing in fact that we are going to go again next year! We had some super gloopy hot chocolate, Mummy enjoyed some Gluhwein and we topped it off with a horse and cart tour for 40 euros which was brilliant. After the expense of Italy, Prague was also a real breath of fresh air financially. The only slight difficulty with the Christmas market was that some stalls / sellers only wanted cash and we didn't have any but most took ApplePay.

On Saturday 21st December, we enjoyed another of our delicious breakfasts at the Bond Cafe and headed out to find a supermarket for groceries (I was particularly keen to get this 'job' done on a Saturday as I was worried about supermarkets being closed Sunday, but it turns out this Tesco Národní 63/2 is open daily from 07:00 to midnight!). We ended up with a bit of a chilled day after this (and no we didn't buy any of the Tiger energy drinks) as I was feeling a bit under the weather.

After a lie in in an attempt to get better, on Sunday 22nd December we went out for a walk and went to do some enamel painting at a 'smalterie'. I didn't really know what to expect but this was a fantastic experience. We both painted enamel cups and had them fired - a great souvenir of Prague! This was £23 for two of us on Airbnb Experiences.

After grabbing some McDonalds, we then headed out to meet Airbnb Experience lightpainting photographer, Pavel, and we were joined by another Airbnb guest Raymond. Pavel's slots usually start at 18:00 but due to bedtimes, I asked for a 17:00 start. This was so much fun (even though Tiger was a little tired at the end). We loved it and can highly recommend Pavel. It was also so well priced at £63 for the two of us.

Check out the amazing results of our Lightpainting!

The next morning (23rd December) we headed out to meet our photographer, Adela, for a 09:00 Airbnb Experience (£94). We met Adela at Malostranská metro station and had such a lovely time with her. Afterwards, she turned the photos around super quickly and were delighted with results (40 edited photos).

After we finished up with Adela we jumped on a sightseeing cruise with Prague Boats for an hour (£25 for one adult, one child) before walking to lunch at Jin He Chinese Restaurant (£20). I just saw it was we were walking past but it was delicious!

Our afternoon was just brilliant too.  Petr Penthea of Penthea Rescue Birds of Prey picked us all up in his minivan and we drove about 20 minutes to a village called Cholupice, where the rescue and breeding station is located. We had a wonderful afternoon meeting birds of prey and having a falconry lesson with another family who had also found this gem of an Airbnb experience (£61 for the two of us).

Having been dropped back in Prague, we stopped in an Italian restaurant where Tiger wanted her sauce separate but eventually conceded it was delicious!

Finally it was time to head home for Christmas (yay!) so we grabbed an Uber which I had reserved for the night before (£19), leaving at 07:00 it took 30 minutes to the airport for our 09:45 flight home with WizzAir. So long Prague, what an experience. We will be back next Christmas!