How much cash?

We will be in Prague for one week and we will use our credit card wherever possible.

We are trying to calculate how much cash to take.

Any suggestions? Thanks

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Maybe enough to cover a taxi to your hotel if you aren%26#39;t feeling brave enough to get the bus, but even then you don%26#39;t need to as there are cashpoints at the airport.

I personally just bring whatever change I have in my pocket (usually not very much).

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Can I use a credit card for all restaurants, sight-seeing fees, (including entrances), bus or train for daytrips? Supermarket?

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It is, like the most of mainland Europe, a cash-based society, as opposed to the UK where we pay for everything by card, so you can use your card but it is quite unusual - I can%26#39;t remember the last time I used my card for any of the transactions that you mention. Best to use cash, especially in restaurants (you will find that many places don%26#39;t even take cards). You won%26#39;t need to spend much on sightseeing fees as a lot of places are free anyway or don%26#39;t cost that much. For buses you pay the driver anyway, unless you book a student agency bus on-line, and trains don%26#39;t cost a lot to most places you might go - just a couple of quid.

Actually I think I used a card in the supermarket a few months ago ...

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Tesco takes cards if that%26#39;s of any interest :)

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The best is to withdraw the money u need from the atm and keep the card in the wallet.

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I would take at least enought cash in reserve that you could avoid disaster should ATMS (or your cards) stop working.

If you want your cards to work in Prague, I would recommend giving your bank %26quot;travel notification%26quot; before you leave home (wouldn%26#39;t want them to think someone in Prague has stolen your card number). This can usually be done by calling the customer service number on the back of your card - sometimes it is even done through automation so be sure listen to all the prompts.

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Also, as a general travel rule (not specific to Prague) you may want to consider keeping your resources in more than one place (don%26#39;t carry everyting around in the same wallet or purse). That way if a wallet or purse is stolen or lost, you have a backup.

One more thing that I do when traveling is to scan passports/any visas and e-mail them to myself - in case passports are lost for any reason.

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In addition to taking credit cards, Tesco is a really good place to get food if you stay in an apartment and have refrigeration. The one at the corner of Narodni and Na Perstyne (if I remember correctly) is huge and has pretty much anything you way want including a huge selection of bottled beer. My wife had to show me how to get a cart unchained, as you have to put a coin in to unlock/unchain (and then you get the coin back when the cart is returned.) I truly miss the loaves of crusty bread and the pastries we bought there.

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Just a question - call me naive if you will - but how do you do it in the US? I would have thought that putting a coin in a shopping cart was a standard procedure ...

If you didn%26#39;t have them tied down in the UK, for example, half of them would end up in the local river, or students would take them to go racing in :)

I remember in Czech %26#39;supermarkets%26#39; when you couldn%26#39;t even go in without a handbasket - a sort of crowd control as there were usually a limited amount - and then you had to go in a single direction (směr nákupu = %26#39;direction of shopping%26#39;), picking up what you needed as you went, and woe betide you if you forgot something and tried to go back against the flow. There would also invariably be a fierce woman standing on an upturned crate wearing a long white coat, monitoring the shoppers to make sure no rules were broken. Then the checkout girl would seemingly know the price of everything and type the prices into the till at amazing speed and then woe betide you yet again if you didn%26#39;t have the correct change - being given a 500 Crown note for a packet of cigarettes would inevitably result in a huge amount of muttering, possibly also from people behind you in the queue, and a deliberately laboured search for change - aaah those were the days :))

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%26quot;směr nákupu%26quot; that made me laugh - I remember that and it is still enforced in some village shops! Hard to believe:)