Prague Castle

When I went in mid-September four years ago, we bought our tickets at the palace. The line was fairly long and if I remember correctly I think that the tour guides were given priority in the lines, but I may be mistaken. For some excellent videos about visiting Prague, check out the "Honest Guide" channel on YouTube. Those guys are excellent.

You don’t have to stand in line to purchase tickets now. You can scan the QR code with your phone when you get to the palace. The QR code is on multiple placards posted near the ticket office. A guide always provides more detail unless you have really done your research. Just weigh how much detail you are interested in. We wandered on our own and had a delightful lunch at the cafe in Lobkowicz Palace on the castle grounds looking back and down to Prague. Highly recommended.

If you do it on your own first decide what you want to see. If you are intending to see an exhibition like Story of Prague Castle or climb the Cathedral Tower then you'll need to go to a ticket office anyway. Also if you buy your ticket at the castle you can use it for free entry to the Charles Bridge Museum. If you carry your passport then aged 65 or over and you get a 50% discount and 70 or over means entry to the historic buildings is free. When you leave Golden Lane you'll have the Lobkowicz Palace in front of you and it's worth buying the ticket for that because it shows you the Baroque decor that you'd find in the castle buildings that you don't have access to. The official castle 1 hour group tour is maximum 20 people and focuses on ST Vitus Cathedral and the Old Royal Palace leaving you ST George Basilica and Golden Lane to explore on your own (worth it just to skip the entry lines in peak season).

Thank you, your responses were very helpful. I found a great resource on how to visit the Castle (a book by Krysti Brice, "The Walking Tour of Prague) on Amazon. So I think we can do it ourselves without a tour.

Here's my vote for a visit to Lobkowicz Palace. They have a great display of "The Hay Harvest" (also known as Haymaking), an oil painting on wood panel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525–1569), executed in 1565. The most important of the Lobkowicz family's Northern pictures is also one of best preserved works by Bruegel. It was originally part of a series of six large scale panels, each presumed to represent two months of the year – in this case Early Summer (June and July). Three of these paintings are in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna: Early Spring, Autumn and Winter. Late Summer is at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The 6th painting ("Spring") is lost with only descriptions recorded. As of May of this year I've seen all of them!