Prague castle

We did a tour and enjoyed it. You can book them when you go. We were there in April and I am sure that was more crowded than December.

I booked a tour with Naked Prague - the night tour of the castle - everything is closed at that time.

Otherwise, the next day I went to the castle (it was actually nice that I did the tour the evening before as I had the backstory) and just did the self tour, no audio.

I also did another tour with an airbnb guide (not at the castle, but a tour called Colourful Prague and it was great) and he recommended just getting the 'B' package which I did and it seemed like enough (you can see the different options under tickets on their website).

I would recommend if you decide to book a tour - try and get a smaller group tour - some of those Viator type tours with 50+ people are just not good.

I think that doing the licenced castle guided tour is worth it i.e. the OFFICIAL castle guided tour by their own guides. It's 60 minutes and splits the time between ST Vitus and the Old Royal Palace. It only adds CZK100 to the normal ticket costs and because you are with a licenced castle guide then you skip the line for the buildings (this is important if you intend going there in the morning when it's particularly busy). Last time I saw a castle guided tour it had 12 people on it. Just email the castle to request details about a particular day and that you want a particular language and they'll get back to you with options. Then you reserve places and on the day you pay for it all at one of the castle ticket offices.

Thank you so much for all the suggestions.

Jason, so appreciate the insight. Will email them now. So looking forward to seeing this beautiful city!