Prague

By plane

Ruzyně International Airport, IATA: PRG, +420 220 111 111, +420 296 661 111 (http://www.prg.aero/). Located 20 km 12 mi northwest of the city centre, it generally takes about 30 minutes to reach the city centre by car. The airport is served by a number of airlines:

Czech Airlines ČSA (http://www.czechairlines.com) is the national carrier operating to many European and international destinations.

Wizz Air (http://www.wizzair.com) is a low cost airline with a significant base in Prague operating to European destinations including Liverpool, London, Barcelona and Milan amongst others.

easyJet (http://www.easyjet.com) operates low cost services to European destinations.

BMIbaby (http://www.bmibaby.com) low cost services from the UK only.

Jet2.com (http://www.jet2.com) low cost services from Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds/Bradford & Edinburgh

SmartWings to Europe & Turkey.

Swiss International (http://www.swiss.com) flies to Zurich, Basel and Geneva.

Aer Lingus from the Irish cities of Dublin & Cork.

Norwegian (http://www.norwegian.com) from Scandinavia.

Delta Air Lines (http://www.delta.comfrom) New York.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (http://www.klm.com) 5 direct flights per day from Amsterdam.

British Airways (http://ba.com) has 4 direct flights from London Heathrow daily.

Brussels Airlines (http://www.brusselsairlin...) offers 3 flights a day to Brussels.

Lufthansa (http://www.lufthansa.com) offers 6 flights a day from Frankfurt and 4 from Munich.

TAP (http://www.flytap.com) offers daily direct flights from Lisbon and Oporto.

Iberia (http://www.iberia.com) offers 3 flights daily from Madrid.

Germanwings (http://www.germanwings.com) offers daily flights from Cologne/Bonn.

By car

Prague has highway connections from five major directions. Unfortunately, the highway network in the Czech Republic is quite incomplete and some highways are old and in poor condition. Thus, the highway connection from Prague to the border of the Czech Republic is available only in two directions: southeast and southwest.

The southwestern highway D5; international E50 leads through Plzeň to Germany. The D5 highway continues in Germany as A6. Riding from the state border to Prague takes about an hour and a half 160 km / 99 mi.

The southeastern highway D1 is the Czech Republic's oldest and most used highway but is in a rather poor condition. It leads through Brno to Bratislava in Slovakia. It offers a good connection to Vienna, Budapest and all traffic from the east. It runs for 250 km 155 mi, and usually takes over two hours.

To the northwest, you can take highway D8 E55, but it is not complete to the German border. It ends now at Lovosice about 60 km (37 mi from Prague and starts again in Usti nad Labem and continues to the northern Germany via A17 Dresden, Berlin, Leipzig.

To the northeast, you can take highway R10 E65. It is strictly speaking a motorway, not a highway, but it has four lanes and differs little from a highway. It leads from Liberec to Turnov. It is not regarded as an important access route, as there are no major cities in this direction Zittau in Germany, some cities in Poland, but it offers a good connection to the Czech mountains Jizerské hory and Krkonoše Riesengebirge with the best Czech skiing resorts.

To the east, you can take the newly completed D11 E67, which goes to Hradec Kralove. It leads to Poland.

Czech highways are under development D8 and D11 are being extended, D3 to Ceske Budejovice and Linz is supposed to be completed in 2020 so things will get better. Unless there are road works, there are only seldom traffic jams on Czech highways, with the exception of D1 near Prague and near Mirosovice (direction to Ceske Budejovice and Linz, and Brno, too).

Prague suffers from heavy traffic and on week days the main streets are one big traffic jam. Moreover, Prague doesn't have a complete highway outer ring yet. It is a really good idea to use the P+R park and ride parking places, where you can park your car for a very small fee and use public transport.

The P+Rs are situated near all highways and are well marked. Note that traffic wardens are rife and parking in most residential streets in and around Prague city centre even after dark without a valid permit will result in a parking fine. In particular, avoid blue-marked areas which are parking-restricted area if you don't want your car to get towed away within the hour.