Go looking for a parking meter in the centre of Prague and you will not find one. The city does not install them in the blue zones at all — payment is online, through a web page or one of the licensed apps, so a flat phone leaves you with no legal way to park.
Then the number that shapes your day. In Prague 1 the blue zone charges 80 Kč an hour from 08:00 to 06:00, every day of the week, Sunday included, and a visitor may buy one hour. Not one hour at a time. One hour, per day.
First lookTrams on wet cobbles, and the hour the square belongs to nobody
The city is smaller than its reputation and built of stone, so sound carries: trams, heels, a delivery trolley clattering two streets away. By seven on a September evening the air is wood smoke and wet stone.
The old town runs on shifts — tour groups until six, stag parties from eleven. Between them you can stand on the bridge without being photographed by accident.
Tourist traps2,300 Kč for a bath, and a fifty-minute hour
The beer spa I would skip. 2,300 Kč for one tub, one person, one hour; 3,400 Kč with the sauna — roughly dinner and beer for two at a tank pub. The tradition framing is marketing; the price is a city-centre wellness price.
The second is quieter. The river cruise sold as an hour is 50 minutes on the operator's own page, and priced in euros, "from 18 €", in a country whose currency is the koruna. Tram 17 runs the same water on a 150 Kč day ticket.
Local pickHall 22, Holešovice, before the wholesalers finish
The Pražská tržnice on the Holešovice riverbank is a working market, not a restored one. Hall 22 alone has more than eighty stallholders, and the grounds hold an optician and a hardware shop, which tells you who shops there.
Monday to Friday 07:30 to 17:00, Saturday until 14:00. I go on a weekday morning, while it is still people buying the week's food. Metro C to Vltavská; no ticket, no English menu board.
Survival ruleThree hours to undo a bad exchange
This is the rule I give everyone, because it is written down and almost nobody uses it. Under Czech National Bank rules you may withdraw from a currency exchange within three hours, free, without giving a reason, up to about a thousand euros. Keep the receipt: the booth must give you one, and the right is useless without it.
Two more from the same list. Charging commission on an exchange is prohibited, so a "0% commission" sign advertises a legal duty. And the rate on the board must be the worst rate the booth offers — the big number in the window is a floor, not a promise.
01 · ParkingBlue, purple, orange — and only two of them have machines
Blue is the residential zone and the trap: no meters, online only, and in Prague 1 one hour a day at 80 Kč, charged 08:00–06:00 including Sunday. Purple is the visitor zone at 40 Kč an hour, and lets you stay far longer; orange sits near hospitals and offices. Both take coins in crowns or euros, and Visa or Mastercard.
Charged hours are set street by street. The city's own wording is that they vary by district and by street and are shown on the zone sign — Prague 7 charges only Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 18:00. Read the pole.
The app list changed on 1 January 2026: MPLA stopped working, leaving the city's web machine, PID Lítačka, EasyPark, Citymove, ParkSimply and SEJF 2.0. Partner apps may add a fee.
Enforcement is by camera car, and the ticket lands on the registered operator — for a hire car, the rental company, which adds a charge of its own. Prague 1 publishes 1,500 Kč on the spot, 2,000–5,000 Kč in proceedings.
And eight old-town streets — Dlouhá, Králodvorská, Soukenická, Kozí, Pařížská, Břehová, Revoluční, Dvořákovo nábřeží — are shut to traffic every night, 22:00 to 06:00.
Car parks worth knowing
| Car park | Price | EV |
|---|---|---|
| PALLADIUMnáměstí Republiky, entry from Revoluční, Praha 1 | 65 Kč an hour, 1,100 Kč for 24 hours. 700 spaces on three underground floors, open 24 hours; after 23:00 you enter through the Na Poříčí office door. | Charging points on level P1. Price not published. |
| Old Town ParkingAlšovo nábřeží, beside the Rudolfinum, Praha 1 | 70 Kč an hour, 750 Kč for 11–24 hours, open all year round. Height 2.0 m. LPG and CNG cars are not allowed in. | Not published. |
| Garáže MuzeumWilsonova 372/6, 120 00 Praha 2 | 60 Kč an hour, charged per started half hour; 800 Kč for 24 hours on the city operator's tariff. 468 spaces, non-stop. Top of Wenceslas Square, five minutes from the main station. | Not published. |
| Garáže LetnáMilady Horákové, Praha 7 | 40 Kč an hour, 800 Kč for 24 hours — but **19:00 to 08:00 is capped at 50 Kč**. 800 spaces. Walk to the castle through the Chotkovy sady gardens. | Not published. |
| Hlavní nádraží – TerasaWilsonova, Praha 1 | 60 Kč an hour, charged per started half hour. 148 spaces on the main station forecourt. No 24-hour rate is published for this one — if you are staying the night, use Garáže Muzeum next door. | Not published. |
| HradebníHradební, Praha 1 | 60 Kč an hour, charged per full hour. Only 36 spaces, surface level, at the Kotva end of the old town. | Not published. |
| OC Nový SmíchovAnděl, Praha 5 | First hour free on weekdays, first three hours free at weekends and on holidays, then 70 Kč an hour. Open 05:50–24:00. **Height 1.8 m** — the lowest here. | Charging point on level -2. Price not published. |
| P+R Garáže Černý MostČerný Most, Praha 9, at the metro B terminus | 50 Kč for the first 24 hours, then 10 Kč an hour. 886 spaces on eight floors, non-stop, card or cash. Height 2 m. | Charging station on site. Price not published. |
02 · TowedTen pounds, and the bill you do not have to pay yet
There is no single pound. SSHMP runs ten, from Praha 1 out to Dubeč, so the first move is the operator's online finder: type in the plate. If nothing comes up, 156 is the municipal police, 158 the state police.
Fixed since 1 September 2024: 3,800 Kč for a completed tow, 2,500 Kč if started and abandoned, 500 Kč a day storage, fine on top.
The commonest way to lose a car here is not a tow at all. Block street cleaning puts portable no-stopping signs up about a week ahead, dated, with an 08:00–15:00 window. A car in the way is often lifted, the street swept, and the car set back down where it was — a technický úkon, 2,400 Kč. Check the street before assuming the worst.
A detail I have not met elsewhere in Europe: SSHMP states it does not normally exercise a lien, so you can collect the car and settle afterwards. Bring photo ID and the registration document; if the papers are not in your name, the keys too.
If your car has disappeared
- Who took it
- The city orders it under the road acts; Správa služeb hlavního města Prahy (SSHMP) does the towing and holds the car
- Phone
- SSHMP — the operator that has your car: +420 222 027 000
Municipal Police — towed or stolen?: 156
State Police, if it was not towed: 158 - Collect it at
- Ten pounds, not one, so find yours before you travel: put the plate into SSHMP's online finder. The central ones are OP Těšnov on the riverbank in Praha 1, OP Lublaňská in Vinohrady, OP Kundratka in Libeň, OP Jankovcova in Holešovice and OP Motol in Praha 5. Six more sit further out, at Jinonice, Dubeč, Chodov, Písnice and Pátkova.
- Hours
- The four central pounds I could check — Těšnov, Motol, Kundratka and Písnice — each publish Nonstop. The other six do not publish hours at all, so ring before you set off.
- What it costs
- Set by city resolution and in force since 1 September 2024: 3,800 Kč for a completed tow, 2,500 Kč if the tow was started but not finished, 7,000 Kč for a return tow, and 2,400 Kč for a technický úkon — lifting the car and putting it back where it was. Storage is 500 Kč a day for the first 180 days. The parking fine is separate.
- Bring
- A valid photo ID and the vehicle documents (either the small or the large registration certificate). If the documents are not in your name you need the car keys as well. And the part nobody expects: SSHMP says it does not normally exercise a lien, so you can take the car away and settle the bill afterwards.
03 · EVThe one network that prints a price for a stranger
PRE runs the strongest network here and, unusually, publishes what someone with no app and no account pays: 10 Kč/kWh AC, 13 Kč DC, 15 Kč ultra-fast, by QR code or card terminal. Bay time is free for three hours on AC, one on DC, thirty minutes on ultra-fast, then 1–2 Kč a minute.
ČEZ publishes no ad-hoc tariff at all — contract tariffs and nothing else — so plugging in there means accepting a price you cannot look up. The cheapest published rate in the city is Lidl: 7 Kč/kWh AC, 10 Kč DC, card through the QR code.
Two rules that cost money. A charging bay stays inside the paid zone, so charging does not pay for your parking. And since 1 January 2026 the hybrid perk is gone: only fully electric and hydrogen cars keep a 50% discount, and on short stays only when paying online.
Where to charge
- PRE POINT — the network you will actually meet — The biggest operator in Prague, on shopping centres, hotels and district car parks. Ad hoc by QR code or card terminal, no app: 10 Kč/kWh AC, 13 Kč DC, 15 Kč ultra-fast. Free bay time of 3 h on AC, 1 h on DC, 30 min on ultra-fast, then 1–2 Kč a minute
- PRE hub, Novovysočanská — Novovysočanská, Praha 9 — the largest hub in the city. Up to 161 vehicles at once; the two public ultra-fast stations run to 400 kW. Street number not published
- Lidl stores — Chargers at Lidl branches across the city. The cheapest published rate in Prague: 7 Kč/kWh AC, 10 Kč/kWh DC, paid by bank card through the QR code on the charger
- Tesla Supercharger Zličín — Skandinávská 144/25, 155 00 Praha 5. Energy price not published in CZK. The idle fee is: 10 Kč a minute once you pass 80% or the session ends, 20 Kč when the site is full, with no cap
04 · Free spotsThe kerb after hours, and six lots that cost nothing
Outside the posted hours the kerb is free and unlimited for everyone — in most of the city, evenings and weekends; in Prague 1, the two hours between 06:00 and 08:00.
Six P+R lots are free: Běchovice and Běchovice-střed, Braník, Modřany, Nádraží Hostivař, Radotín — but free means twelve hours, not twenty-four. The paid ones are 50 Kč for 24 hours then 10 Kč an hour, Holešovice 100 Kč, and all want a PID transport ticket, used while the car sat there, shown on the way out. Lose the parking ticket and it is 1,000 Kč.
My own pick is neither. Garáže Letná caps 19:00 to 08:00 at 50 Kč, and you can walk to the castle from it through the gardens.
Free or nearly-free spots
Outside the posted hours, the kerb is free
Charged hours are set street by street, not citywide — the city's own wording is that they vary by district and street and are shown on the zone sign, and that outside those hours parking is free and unlimited for everyone. Prague 1's blue zone is the harsh end, charged 08:00 to 06:00 every day of the week. Prague 7 runs its orange and green zones only Monday to Friday 08:00–18:00. Read the sign on the pole; it beats anything you read before you came.
The free P+R sites
Six of the city's P+R lots cost nothing: Běchovice and Běchovice-střed, Braník, Modřany, Nádraží Hostivař and Radotín. They are the outer ring and the free stay is twelve hours, not twenty-four — enough for a day in the city, not for a night.
Letná at night
Garáže Letná caps 19:00 to 08:00 at 50 Kč. That is the same price as a whole day at most P+R sites, for a garage you can walk to the castle from. If I arrive in the evening and leave in the morning, this is where I put the car.
Hotels with free parking
- Hotel Olšanka — Táboritská 23/1000, 130 00 Praha 3 Map. Its own site publishes 60 Kč an hour or 400 Kč a day in the underground garage, entrance from Lupáčova
- Hotel Duo — Teplická 492/19, 190 00 Praha 9 Map. 55 Kč an hour or 550 Kč a day on its own outdoor car park, day rate for guests only, 30 minutes free to leave
- Hotel Prokop Square — Prokopovo náměstí 472, 130 00 Praha 3 Map. 650 Kč a night in its own indoor garage, arranged in advance with the hotel
⚠ The small print on 'free' parking
- There are no parking meters in a blue zone. The city says so plainly. Payment is online only, through the city's web machine or one of the licensed apps, so a dead phone means you cannot legally park at all.
- Prague 1 charges its blue zone 08:00 to 06:00, seven days a week, and a visitor may buy only one hour a day at 80 Kč. The purple zone is 40 Kč an hour and lets you stay far longer.
- The app list changed on 1 January 2026. MPLA stopped working on 31 December 2025. What works now: the city's own web machine, PID Lítačka, EasyPark, Citymove, ParkSimply and SEJF 2.0. Partner apps may add their own service fee.
- Free parking for hybrids ended on 1 January 2026. Only fully electric and hydrogen cars keep a 50% discount, and for short-term parking that discount applies only when you pay online — an on-street machine will not give it to you.
- Block street cleaning is the classic way to lose a car. Portable no-stopping signs go up about a week ahead with the exact date and the 08:00–15:00 window on a supplementary plate. Often the car is not towed away but lifted and set back down afterwards — that is the 2,400 Kč technický úkon, and the fine comes on top.
- Czechia has no low-emission zone anywhere, and no windscreen sticker to buy. What it does have is a motorway e-vignette tied to the plate: 230 Kč for a day, 300 Kč for ten days, 480 Kč for a month, from edalnice.gov.cz and nowhere else worth paying.