Prague Entertainment

  1. Abaton

    This enormous, atmospheric warehouse complex hosts everything from Prodigy concerts and dance-music awards to the annual Sperm electronic music festival and benefit gigs for Tibet. Although it's out in the industrial wastelands, it's worth the trip for its array of scenes - chic cocktail bars, down-and-dirty table football and more - throughout its warren of bars and rooms.

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  2. AghaRTA Jazz Centrum

    Agharta has been staging top-notch modern Czech jazz, blues, funk and fusion since 1991, but only moved into this very central Old Town venue in 2004. A typical jazz cellar with red-brick vaults and a cosy bar and café, it hosts local and international artists. The centre also contains a music shop (open to ).

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  3. Alcohol Bar

    A booklike drinks menu more than 80 pages long, a selection of 400 cocktails, a glinting display of rum, tequila and whisky and a cigar humidor - this New York-style bar wheels in a reasonably sophisticated mix of international and local guests.

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  4. Aloha Wave Lounge

    The cocktail menu at this popular Hawaiian surf-themed bar is heavy on drinks involving rum, coconut, pineapple and banana, while the décor tends towards palm fronds and 1950s surf-dude posters. Head for the candlelit downstairs lounge, with its leather sofas and laid-back sounds (Latin Monday and Tuesday, beach hits Wednesday, live bands Thursday and dance parties Friday and Saturday).

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  5. Bar & Books

    The walls are indeed lined with books at this branch of the famous Manhattan cocktail bar, but the well-heeled clients are more likely to be reading the labels on the vast range of single malts, bourbons, brandies and vintage ports on offer, along with Cuban and Dominican cigars. The black-waistcoated staff are unerringly polite and efficient, and mix a mean martini, margarita or champagne cocktail.

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  7. Baráčnická Rychta

    Atmospherically tucked away behind Nerudova along a winding Malá Strana street, this 19th-century beer hall feels a bit furtive and secretive - at least for this neck of the woods. In the small upstairs bar you can sup four types of Svijanský beer as well as the more common Pilsner Urquell; food is also served. Downstairs, the larger Cabaret Hall hosts big bands and offbeat live gigs.

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  8. Blatouch

    Nobody will think you're anti-social if you turn up with a book for company and curl up in a corner for the night. Serving tea, coffee and snacks, Blatouch is a pleasantly relaxed literary hang-out, with a long, narrow bar lined with antique bookcases and Edward Hopper prints, and a tiny garden courtyard out the back.

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  9. Blind Eye

    The owners keep the lighting very low in this scurrilous little speakeasy-style bar, because they reckon we all look better that way. Here a mix of expats and Žižkov locals lounge around, play table football or quaff the legendary 'Adios m*therf*cker' cocktails. Thursday's electroclash DJ evenings sees the place particularly mobbed.

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  10. Blue Light

    The Blue Light is an appropriately dark and atmospheric jazz cavern, as popular with locals as with tourists, where you can enjoy a relaxed cocktail as you cast an eye over the vintage posters, records and grafitti that deck the walls. The background jazz is recorded rather than live, but on a quality sound system that never overpowers your conversation.

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  11. Bombay Cocktail Bar

    This spacious central bar is always going to be a little mainstream - and a lot too loud! - for some tastes, but it's such a ridiculously popular meet-up spot, you probably should know where it is. Reasonably strong cocktails fuel a happy atmosphere and even a little dancing. (No stag parties allowed.)

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  13. Café Bambus

    Bambus is a dimly lit and often smoky café-bar sporting potted bamboo plants, a pleasantly laid-back atmosphere, and a good cocktail menu. It pulls in a mixed crowd of young locals plus occasional backpackers who have found their way from nearby hostels.

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  14. Café Gaspar Kasper

    Gaspar Kasper is a convivial, nonsmoking café-bar in an L-shaped nook overlooking the courtyard at the Celetná Theatre, hidden away from the tourist crowds. Its arty credentials include lots of theatrical literature lying around for your perusal, and a naked scarlet lady with green nipples perched above the bar. The inexpensive snack menu includes sandwiches, potato pancakes and cheeseburgers.

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  15. Café Louvre

    Others are more famous, but French-style Louvre is arguably Prague's most amenable grand café. The atmosphere is wonderfully olde-worlde, yet there's a proper nonsmoking section among its warren of rooms and it serves good coffee (a Prague rarity) as well as food. Pop in for a great breakfast before , play a little billiards, and check out the associated art gallery downstairs when leaving.

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  16. Café Savoy

    Established in 1893 and restored in 2004, the Savoy fairly glows with belle-époque splendour, its colourful, ornately decorated ceiling decked with crystal chandeliers (grab a table on the mezzanine for a closer view) and its waiting staff dressed in matching red waistcoats and ties. Great coffee and hot chocolate, and a decent wine list too.

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  17. Caffé Kaaba

    Kaaba is a stylish little architect-designed café-bar with retro furniture and pastel-coloured décor straight out of the 1959 Ideal Homes Exhibition. It serves excellent coffee (made with freshly ground imported beans), offers an extensive list of Czech and imported wines (house wine only 30Kč a glass), and also has an in-house news and tobacco counter.

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  19. Casa Blu

    This Latin American bar feels a little secretive, and if the windows on Kozí are covered over, just turn the corner onto Bílkova to be let in. Inside, street signs in Spanish, Aztec blankets and lots of tequila create a cosy atmosphere. Get here before to catch happy hour.

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  20. Chateau L'enfer Rouge

    Chateau is a raucous, late-night party pub where the cheap(ish) beer, table football, pinball machines and dance-club cellar never fails to pull in a huge, mixed crowd of tourists, stag parties, expats and slumming Praguers - by mid-evening it's often standing-room only. Everything in this self-consciously cool bar is backlit, including the smiles of the clientele.

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  21. Club Stella

    Club Stella is an intimate, candlelit café-bar that seems to be the first place everyone recommends when you ask about gay and lesbian bars in Prague. There's a long narrow bar where you can just squeeze onto a bar stool, an armchair-filled lounge that looks like somebody's living room, and a welcoming crowd of locals. Ring the doorbell to get in.

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  22. Cross Club

    An eclectic programme from D&B, jungle, dub and reggae to electro, techno and live music goes on in this bar, but the main attraction is the venue itself. Both the ground floor and basement of a rundown apartment block have been transformed into a work of industrial or sci-fi art, with glowing homemade lighting installations, kinetic sculptures formed from bits of junk metal, film reels, engine parts and even a bus outside. Alternative and unique.

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  23. Dobrá Čajovna

    This tearoom, tucked up a passage off Wenceslas Square, is a little haven of warm orange walls, oriental rugs and cushions hidden away from the heaving crowds on the nearby street. They take their tea seriously here, and you can choose from a wide range of Chinese, Indian, Sri Lankan, Japanese and Turkish leaves. There are also cakes and vegetarian snacks, such as hummus and pitta bread.

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  25. Duende

    Bedecked with intriguing photos and all matter of quirky ephemera, this bohemian drinking den attracts an arty, local crowd of all ages. They come for a chat, a glass of wine or to take in acoustic music performances, from guitar to violin.

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  26. Duplex

    Located in a glass cube perched on the 6th and 7th floors above Wenceslas Sq, this opulently decorated club has great views over the city and a penchant for trancey house music. Hosting a range of so-called MTV parties, Dirty Dancing and Bohemian eves, its central location attracts numerous stag parties.

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  27. Face-To-Face

    Cheap drinks, plus 'all-inclusive' parties where your entry fee covers wine, beer and soft drinks, pull in a very young mix of locals and foreigners on a budget. Otherwise, mainstream dance music, DJs and emcees fuel the uncomplicated party atmosphere in this former exhibition hall.

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  28. Friends

    Friends is a welcoming gay music-and-video bar serving excellent coffee, cocktails and wine. It's a good spot to sit back with a drink and check out the crowd, or join in the party spirit on assorted theme nights, which range from Czech pop music and movies to cowboy parties. DJs add their own spin from on Friday and Saturdays.

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  29. Grand Café Orient

    Prague's only Cubist café, the Orient was designed by Josef Gočár and is Cubist down to the smallest detail, including the lampshades and coat-hooks. It was restored and reopened in 2005, having lain closed since 1920. Decent coffee and inexpensive cocktails.

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