Anyone travelled about Czech Reupblic?

Did you have a good time? Could you manage with English?

Many years ago. yes and yes but its always polite to learn a few words.

Twice. Prague is no problem at cafes/hotels/shops with the language, most know a few words of English. Outside of the capital, then I’d say you’d have difficulty communicating. Even the main train station at Prague had only one person who spoke any English. At little villages/towns, you’d be lucky to find anyone who speaks English.
I learnt a few words, beer, orange juice, yes, no, thankyou, hello and other such regular words, and got by fine.
Alan.

Lovely times there, many many times. English has been fine in Prague, German is better in the mountains as loads of Germans go there. MTBing and mountaineering aplenty, beer cheap, ladies friendly.
Go and enjoy!

its always polite to learn a few words

Thanks for the etiquette tip. Or should I say merci, grazie, kittos, danke, diolch, tak etc etc 🙂 I was expecting there to be plenty of tourists so I thought we’d be ok not speaking Czech.

Just randomly searched campsites on google maps and found some lovely spots 🙂

Take a bike, go to Spindleruv Mlyn, enjoy! In the Winter take skis there instead.
http://www.spindleruv-mlyn.com/en/

I’m off out there soon. Find Czech very hard to learn. My brother in law has been stuck out there for almost a year and has picked up the language quite quickly considering he’s an idiot. Seem a fair few Brits in Prague though

What everyone else said. It’s a very hard language to learn, but people will appreciate the effort. Wherabouts are you thinking of going?

Well I’m in Munich currently so I was just thinking of nipping over the border. Can’t go too far for a weekend. And I am not sure I can manage learning much Czech – currently all my appetite for learning languages is taken up with German 🙂

Pivo = beer
I can phonetically help a wee bit as i have been a few times.

A / 1 beer please.-
Jano pivo prosim

Hi or Hello.-
Ahoj ( ahoy )

Prosim = Please

Bromin = Sorry

Dequisa = Thanks

Nast-a-la-vie = Cheers

Dva = 2

You could get to Plzen, but not so much to do once you’ve seen the brewery. Or Cesky Krumlov, which is a lovely little town to wander around for a day or two. Sadly, it’s getting pretty “tourist”, but language shouldn’t be a big issue.

I think Krumlov was near the nice site I found.

Head down to Susice its awesome for biking and the people are totally cool, love the brits and hate the germans and russians.

Its just endless trails well worth the trip.

Beer and food and accommodation are cheap and its just ace

This will not be a biking trip! Although a bike ride might feature in the singular.

Susice is even closer though.

Brno for the MotoGP?

When I first went to Czech it was CZ…, Russian and Czech were the accepted languages, then later German worked and the last time I went, English was pretty much the second language.

But then thats in the cities.

i went round czech republic a few years ago. Out of prague very few people spoke english. Just point at anything on a menu, it will be meat and potatoes with a sauce but will be good. One problem we had was finding cash machines as only some of the towns we went to had one. This was normally in the main town square.
Watch out for pickpockets in the touristy places.
Some places have loads of torists during the day but come 6pm they all get back on thier coaches and head back to prague, so totaly empty in the evening

I lived there for four years before I moved to the UK and am shortly to marry my Czech partner, so know a bit. Unsurprisingly, I love the place and would never have moved to the UK if it weren’t for what appeared to be better job opportunities at the time.

As above, you can survive speaking only english but once you are out of Prague or other major tourist towns you will struggle. When I first moved there I lived in Ostrava in the far east of the country and very few people in shops etc spoke any english. However many younger people do, as they now generally learn at least something in school. I guess it really depends what your expectations are, how long you are going for and where you are going as to how much Czech you’d want to learn. It’s true that in some ways it’s very difficult (very complex grammar) but in other ways it’s fairly simple (completely phonetic, consistent application of grammatical rules). Certainly learning a few words to get by is not the end of the world – having a meaningful conversation is another matter.

Anyhow, a couple of recommended places to visit other than Prague. Karlštejn is a lovely old castle (there are loads of castles – something like 2000 across the country) just a short distance from Prague. ?eský Krumlov is beautiful but a little touristy. Olomouc is my hot tip for beautiful Prague-like architecture but without the tourists. As for nice mountains etc ?eský ráj (czech paradise) is less than a couple of hours from Prague and is simply stunning. Both the šumava and Krkonoše mountains in Bohemia are lovely, especiallz šumava. The east of the country is also a very interesting combination of heavy industry with some beautiful natural landscape. Well worth going to the Beskydy and Jeseníky mountains if you have the time.

If you have any more detailed questions just fire away.

Yes, you will have a good time!

P?eju t? p?knou dovolenou!