If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR153.68), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
If you ever reached check-out at a hotel, turned to your fellow Smith and said ‘let’s never leave’, then the Julius hotel in Prague (steps from the Old Town) is for you. ‘Rooms’ are more Czech-modernist apartments, all with slick autumnal-hued decor, and almost all with a kitchen; there’s a sociable and stylish co-working space where you can clock in; a restaurant and bar for ‘don’t want to cook nights’; a gym, and even a laundry room. And it’s all overseen by a centuries-old Czech dining dynasty with a background in Viennese cafés – so get a cuppa on, you’re in for the long-haul.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A fruit basket, and, subject to availability, a room upgrade
11am. Earliest check-in, 3pm. Both are done at the self-service kiosk, and are flexible, subject to availability.
Prices
Double rooms from £147.40 (€172), including tax at 12 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €2.00 per person per night on check-in.
More details
Rates don’t include breakfast (€30 or CZK750 a guest), but you get 10 per cent off at the Julius Meinl Gourmet Shop.
Also
The hotel has a step-free entrance, lifts to all floors, and three accessible rooms with grab bars and a shower seat in the bathroom, wider passages and space for a wheelchair under the kitchen counter.
At the hotel
Co-working space with hot-desks and a break-out area, lounge, gym, self-service laundry room (staff service for an extra charge, on request), bike racks, and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: smart TV, organic bathrobes and slippers, ionic hairdryer, and vegan ADA Cosmetics bath products. And all rooms and suites have a kitchenette or kitchen with a ceramic stovetop, microwave, Smeg kettle (with teas) and toaster, coffee machine with capsules, fridge, and Villeroy & Boch bone-china crockery; some rooms have climate control too.
Our favourite rooms
A more burnished modern look here acts as a counterpoint to Prague’s fabulously fussy Baroque styling. However, the terracotta rooftops are reflected in the autumnal hues used, alongside sleek wood and marble finishes, and brass accents. The Penthouse has the best view that sweeps across the City of a Hundred Spires for lingering looks. And, if you do become so enamoured of Prague (easily done), all except the Superior Room have a kitchenette or kitchen and wardrobe space, for longer-term stays.
Packing tips
The hotel is as much a creatively charged community space as it is somewhere to relax, so bring your laptop for productive stretches in its co-working space, and download the Mywellness App, which can be linked to the gym’s equipment. And, staying here for, say, a month, is easily done, so bring a few extra outfits, and then download AppWash, which lets you use the self-service laundry room (a few euros a cycle, open 6am to 10pm) without the faff of finding change.
Also
The 98-square-metre guests-only gym (open 6am to 10pm) is divided into three zones (cardio, strength and ‘cooling down’), with top Technogym equipment (including a Kinesis Personal work-out machine).
Children
All rooms except the Superiors and Deluxe Studios have a fold-out sofa (free for under-6s), so families can comfortably stay; however, you can only watch the Astronomical Clock so many times, so bring your own distractions and any necessary toys or kit.
Sustainability efforts
The building has been awarded a LEED gold certificate and there are electric-vehicle charging stations on-site.
We like lazy dinners in-room if you’ve made use of your kitchen, but for a slightly more elegant evening slide into one of the Brasserie’s sage-green banquettes.
Dress Code
More modern minimalism than Bohemian maximalism.
Hotel restaurant
The Julius Meinl dynasty is behind the dining here, and having built part of their empire on high-quality coffees and teas, and Viennese cafés and delis (there’s a small one installed in the hotel for picnic-building), you’re guaranteed some good eating. The Brasserie has coolly contemporary Italian design in the signature wood finishes and burnt-sienna colouring. The breakfast buffet has a generous spread of meat-y, fish-y offerings alongside many carbs, pots of homemade granola and eggs many ways. Later, the grill is fired up (with veggie options) and sides piled on; or try pulled duck teriyaki on a potato pancake, short-rib soaked in dark beer, or prosecco-sloshed lemon sorbet.
Hotel bar
Enjoy Czech beers, local and international wines or perhaps a signature Julius Legacy cocktail (more of an end-of-the-night drink, with vodka, coffee and cacao liqueurs, sugar syrup, and espresso), alongside some classics, in the Czech modernist lobby bar or in the Brasserie.
Last orders
Breakfast is from 7am to 10.30am and the Brasserie à la carte runs from noon to 10pm. You can order drinks and snacks till midnight at the bar.
Room service
Most of the hotel’s rooms and suites have a dining table, so make use of it with room service from noon till 9.30pm.
The Julius is set at the edge of Prague’s Old Town (a very short walk away), but sits in a Neo-Renaissance building on a charming cobbled street.
Planes
Prague’s Václav Havel Airport is the closest to the hotel, just a 35-minute drive away; transfers can be arranged through the hotel on request (prices vary).
Trains
The city’s main railway station, Prague Hlavni Nadrazi, is a mere 10-minute walk from the hotel, for interrail links. It’s also the closest Metro station (on Line C).
Automobiles
Prague’s largely a mediaeval city, and walking is the far more romantic (and fairly easy) way to explore it, even if you are contending with cobbles at times. Should you want wheels, there’s secure parking at the Julius (€35 a day), which must be booked in advance. And electric-vehicle charging stations can be used (for €30 a time) on request.
Worth getting out of bed for
You’re in an excellent position for exploring the City of a Hundred Spires (even if you don’t hit that number), at an extremely leisurely pace if you’ve checked in for the long-haul. The Julius is a 10-minute walk from the Old Town Square – past the Jindrisska Tower and Belfry, and art nouveau Municipal House concert hall – a good starting point, where you can watch the Astronomical Clock’s mechanical show on the hour, admire the Gothic Church of Our Lady before Týn and old Prasna Brana city gate. Then wander over the Charles Bridge – pausing to rub the St John of Nepomuk statue for good luck (we’re not certain why, as he was martyred by being thrown from the bridge) – and up the hill to Prague’s 9th-century castle, from which there are glorious city views. While on this side of the Vltava River, see the John Lennon graffiti wall, climb the 299 steps of the Petrin Tower, and hop onto Kampa island to see its modern-art museum. The New Town lies to the south of the hotel, where you’ll find bustling Wenceslas Square, the National Museum and Frank Gehry’s woozy Dancing House. The Mucha and Kafka museums give you an insight into Bohemian culture – the latter has a curious tribute in sculpture form, by very avant-garde artist David Černý, depicting the author’s head in 42 rotating mirrored panels. Černý's mischief continues across the city, with a fountain featuring two urinating men, Freud hanging from a building in the Mesto district, King Wenceslas riding an upside-down horse in the Lucerna Passage, and gigantic babies crawling up the Žižkov TV Tower. While the Museum of Communism pokes fun at its proximity to the McDonalds as it delves into a dark period for Prague, and Kotva department store is delightfully retro and worth a stop for its basement food court.
Local restaurants
For an atmosphere of romantic antiquity, Zvonice Restaurant sits at the top of Jindrisska Tower, with tables surrounded by aged wooden struts, stone and ironworks. Cuisine is meaty and Bohemian, with traditional dishes such as hunter's pâté, venison with bacon dumplings and duck in sour-cherry sauce. And carnivores will do very well at Restaurace Červený Jelen (the Red Stag) too. But if you prefer plant-based, Prague has muchly improved in recent years, and largely vegan eatery Lehka Hlava (Clear Head) does meat-free takes on Czech signature dish svíckova (with dumplings, whipped cream and cranberries) and goulash, alongside more worldly eats. Lokál Dlouhááá is the city’s longest restaurant (at 73 metres), in an industrial-style corridor, where the food is very old-school (sausages, tripe soup, schnitzels, cabbage salad), washed down with a few home-brewed Pilsners or Kozels – and maybe some absinthe shots, if you dare.
Local cafés
Parlor ice-cream café is a bright, popular, plant-strung hangout, where you can mix and match flavours to make your own ice-cream sandwich. And for a touch more pomp to your pâtisserie, Café Imperial is fabulously old-school, from its parquet flooring, up through its carved columns to its frescoed ceiling.
Local bars
U Fleků is a legendary antique beer hall in Prague, where strong-armed waiters slam down steins of signature dark beer from laden trays and oom-pah-pah music plays in the background; soak it all up with ample dumpling platters and brace yourself for the bitterness of Becherovka shots. And, to pivot from lashings of pivo, head to Bar Cobra, a coolly shabby-chic space with DJ sessions, a lively atmosphere, and spookily named cocktails such as Paranormal Aquavity, Hammer for Witches or Red Sabbath.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this WFH hotel by Prague’s Old Town and unpacked their MacBooks and bottles of pivo and absinthe, a full account of their from keyboard tapping to beerhall taps break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside the Julius…
Working nine to five, it’s – well – not the case so much these days. Especially at the Julius hotel in Prague where clocking in is done remotely in their comfortable co-working space. And, the Meinl family behind the stay are a centuries-old dynasty built on fine coffee and Viennese cafes and delis (there’s one on-site), so you’ll want to take a lot of snack breaks, too. The live-work balance is finely tuned: rooms are suites, more like apartments, and are set for the long-term, with most having a kitchen and dining space. There’s a restaurant for when you don’t want to switch on the hob; and you can even freshen up your wardrobe in the laundry room. Daily life is carried out in style amid autumnally hued, modern interiors by Milan-based design team Matteo Thun & Partners, Prague’s best bits are a short stroll away, yet this is a post code where you feel a touch more connected to the local community – it all works, just as it pleases.
