Prague With Kids: Stay in a Hostel or a Hotel?

 

Can a family stay in a hostel in Prague?  It can if it’s this one!

By Larry Berle

Prague may be one of the oldest, primarily intact cities in Europe that did not get wiped out by the World Wars.

The Mosaic House, where we stayed, is a new form of accommodation that is a combined youth hostel and hotel.  It Opened in Spring of 2010.

It has 330 beds 64 of them are separate and contemporary hotel rooms and the rest are dorm rooms of 4, 6, and 8 beds.  Mosaic House is very eco friendly, has free Wi-Fi and internet access with their computers. All rooms have private baths.   The entire hotel is non-smoking and has 24-hour reception.  Hostel beds range from 15 to 25 dollars a night. The hotel rooms range from $45-95 depending on the season.  For a family of four booking a 4-bed hostel room, you just can’t beat the price.

In our room we found a double bed with oversized pillows, flat screen TV, telephone, desk, iPod docking station, mini-fridge, pin-code safe for valuables, air-conditioning, and a stylish bathroom with low-flow rain head shower.   We also have an outdoor deck overlooking the city.

The lobby bar, called Belushi’s, is where young people from all over the world meet to discuss their travels.  They also have wonderful food, including a full menu of gourmet burgers, and tonight we had the spare rib special with salad and fries.  It was outstanding and under $15.  It’s also a sports bar with several big screen TV’s and several times a month they have live music on their stage.  It’s hard to believe it’s a hostel!!

Mosaic House is also a very environmentally friendly and green building.  The roof is totally solar panels. They also have gray water recycling.  Sink and shower water is reclaimed, heat is extracted, and reused for flushing of the toilets.

The staff, which is very helpful, is from 19 different countries and just about as diverse as the guests.

We took a free walking tour of the old town (just tip the guide at the end if you want; most did) visiting most of the important sites of Prague, which has beautiful old buildings and wonderful winding cobblestone streets.   The Spanish synagogue is the oldest synagogue in Europe.  And the nearby castle is the largest in Europe.  It was the birthplace of the composer Dvorcak and of course Franz Kafka.

This is a fascinating old city, with lots of Jazz clubs, lots of history to learn from the old sites, and we even went to see the “Image” black light theatre. www.imagetheatre.cz… a captivating dance performance done all in black light with fascinating moving images.

If you are coming you will love Mosaic House.  It’s like a 5 star experience for a 1 star price.

 

If you go   www.mosaichouse.com

Larry Berle is a travel writer who writes on many travel topics but specializes in golf travel.  He is author of A GOLFERS DREAM: HOW A REGULAR GUY CONQUERED THE GOLF DIGEST LIST OF AMERICAS TOP 100 GOLF COURSES.   Learn more about his book at www.GolfersDreamBook.com and from there you can also access his travel blog.

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