Late winter brings Masopust, when Prague neighborhoods parade in masks and bear costumes before Lent, then Easter fills the squares with painted eggs and willow whips. In between come the school spring breaks, which fall on different weeks depending on your district. Here's what we checked, from the Žižkov carnival parade to the Easter markets on Old Town Square, plus indoor days out for wet weeks.
Masopust is the Czech carnival before Lent, and Žižkov throws a neighborhood-sized one. Families in masks follow a live band through the streets, watch the carnival take over the district at the town hall, then pile into the park.
There it ends with a mask contest, a theater show and a band that sends the season off by "burying the double bass", a carnival ritual.
Matějská pouť is the biggest funfair in Czechia, a spring tradition dating back to 1595 that fills the Výstaviště grounds in Holešovice with more than 100 rides.
Small kids get carousels, a mini train, little cars, bouncy castles and trampolines. Older ones head for the bumper cars, the haunted castles and the big thrill rides. Expect cotton candy, langoš and shooting galleries where kids try to win a stuffed toy.
Each spring, dozens of wooden stalls fill Prague's two big squares for the Easter markets. Kids can watch folk dancers in traditional costume perform to live music under a decorated birch tree, browse handmade decorations and pomlázky (the braided willow whips of Czech Easter), and snack on trdelník, gingerbread and mazanec, the sweet Easter bread.
An easy stop on a walk through the old center.
Each spring the Fata Morgana tropical greenhouse fills with hundreds of live butterflies from around the world, flying free around visitors. Kids can watch new butterflies crawl out of their pupae at the hatching display.
A second, hands-on part sits in the Exhibition Hall across the garden: kids test how a butterfly's tongue works and look closely at what gives wings their color. It suits curious kids of any age.
Aquapalace is a big indoor water park just outside the city, split into three halls. The Adventure Palace holds most of the slides and a winding wild-water river. The Palace of Treasures has a pirate ship, wave pool, water cannons and a toddler splash pool. The Palace of Relaxation adds whirlpools, a lazy river and a lap pool. Outside sits the country's longest slide, over 350 meters.
One of the country's largest museum buildings, with 16 permanent exhibitions over seven floors. The transportation hall is the headline: early cars, motorcycles, locomotives and dozens of aircraft hung from the ceiling, including a 1945 Spitfire.
A guided tour leads through 490 meters of model ore and coal mine, with original lamps and mining sounds. There is also a Merkur construction-set playroom, a TV studio, astronomy and chemistry.
iQLANDIA is a four-floor hands-on science center in Liberec, about an hour and a quarter by car from Prague. Ten interactive exhibitions cover space, math, water, the senses, the human body and old inventions, and a fire tornado swirls in the Elements hall. The iQPLANETARIUM shows dome films in the same building, and kids can combine both on one ticket.
Prague Zoo spreads over 58 hectares of hillside in Troja, with 15 pavilions and close to 700 species. Elephant Valley holds the zoo's herd, and the Ball's Pyramid exhibit shows Lord Howe Island stick insects found nowhere else in continental Europe.
At the Children's Zoo farm, kids can walk into the sheep enclosure and hand-feed them, then visit the pond, play area and children's tram.
Late winter brings Masopust, when Prague neighborhoods parade in masks and bear costumes before Lent, then Easter fills the squares with painted eggs and willow whips. In between come the school spring breaks, which fall on different weeks depending on your district. Here's what we checked, from the Žižkov carnival parade to the Easter markets on Old Town Square, plus indoor days out for wet weeks.
Masopust is the Czech carnival before Lent, and Žižkov throws a neighborhood-sized one. Families in masks follow a live band through the streets, watch the carnival take over the district at the town hall, then pile into the park.
There it ends with a mask contest, a theater show and a band that sends the season off by "burying the double bass", a carnival ritual.
Matějská pouť is the biggest funfair in Czechia, a spring tradition dating back to 1595 that fills the Výstaviště grounds in Holešovice with more than 100 rides.
Small kids get carousels, a mini train, little cars, bouncy castles and trampolines. Older ones head for the bumper cars, the haunted castles and the big thrill rides. Expect cotton candy, langoš and shooting galleries where kids try to win a stuffed toy.
Each spring, dozens of wooden stalls fill Prague's two big squares for the Easter markets. Kids can watch folk dancers in traditional costume perform to live music under a decorated birch tree, browse handmade decorations and pomlázky (the braided willow whips of Czech Easter), and snack on trdelník, gingerbread and mazanec, the sweet Easter bread.
An easy stop on a walk through the old center.
Each spring the Fata Morgana tropical greenhouse fills with hundreds of live butterflies from around the world, flying free around visitors. Kids can watch new butterflies crawl out of their pupae at the hatching display.
A second, hands-on part sits in the Exhibition Hall across the garden: kids test how a butterfly's tongue works and look closely at what gives wings their color. It suits curious kids of any age.
Aquapalace is a big indoor water park just outside the city, split into three halls. The Adventure Palace holds most of the slides and a winding wild-water river. The Palace of Treasures has a pirate ship, wave pool, water cannons and a toddler splash pool. The Palace of Relaxation adds whirlpools, a lazy river and a lap pool. Outside sits the country's longest slide, over 350 meters.
One of the country's largest museum buildings, with 16 permanent exhibitions over seven floors. The transportation hall is the headline: early cars, motorcycles, locomotives and dozens of aircraft hung from the ceiling, including a 1945 Spitfire.
A guided tour leads through 490 meters of model ore and coal mine, with original lamps and mining sounds. There is also a Merkur construction-set playroom, a TV studio, astronomy and chemistry.
iQLANDIA is a four-floor hands-on science center in Liberec, about an hour and a quarter by car from Prague. Ten interactive exhibitions cover space, math, water, the senses, the human body and old inventions, and a fire tornado swirls in the Elements hall. The iQPLANETARIUM shows dome films in the same building, and kids can combine both on one ticket.
Prague Zoo spreads over 58 hectares of hillside in Troja, with 15 pavilions and close to 700 species. Elephant Valley holds the zoo's herd, and the Ball's Pyramid exhibit shows Lord Howe Island stick insects found nowhere else in continental Europe.
At the Children's Zoo farm, kids can walk into the sheep enclosure and hand-feed them, then visit the pond, play area and children's tram.
