Money in Prague

You will find an ATM on the right side of the exit concourse just before you reach the shopping area. It sticks out.

There are ATMs at that train station. It's a creepy station and I wouldn't linger long, but there should be enough people to feel safe. An alternative would be to exchange a small amount of money in Berlin to Crowns before you leave. Only change enough to get you on the subway and find an ATM in the city center.

We were in the Prague train station for two hours on a Friday afternoon and didn't find it creepy at all. As a matter of fact it was full of people, several of whom where very helpful.

We were in that train station twice in May (arrived from Budapest; departed to Berlin). Not creepy at all. You should have no problem finding an ATM. If you need a taxi, I recommend AAA Taxi. Check out their website. You can also pre-order the taxi online and they take credit cards (in case you don't get to the ATM). They publish their rates and can tell you in advance what your fare will be. We used them to get from Old Town Square to the train station and their quoted fare was within a $1 (20 czk) of their estimate.

Agree with Douglas. I don't remember the station we got off in Prague...but you had to walk through a tunnel and it was very creepy with weird people hanging around. I know now to use the main tran station in Prague which pickpocets hang out in. We have friends that live in Karlstejn and they said each train station in Prague is flooded with pickpockets. They look like tourist and often have a piece of luggage. They use the pass-off method.

There used to be a more remote train station that served trains to/from Germany - it WAS creepy. Filled mostly with vagrants hanging out and very little other pedestrian traffic. Perhaps that has changed since 2009...

We were in Prague a couple of years ago, and every place we went, (hotel, restaurant, stores) did take Euro's. This is not to say the every place does this, but we were fortunate that we didn't have to worry about converting from Euro's to Crowns.

Two words of caution: This is probably common sense for everyone, but do NOT exchange money with anyone who wants to help you break down your big bills. We just got to Prague and after finally decding on an ATM machine that looked safe, right as my (large, 6'3) boyfriend grabbed the cash from the ATM and realized he was given only large (1,000 and 2,000) bills someone came up from out of nowhere "offering" to give him small bills. We quickly said no, but only because we read RS's Prague book on the way from Vienna and were alert for random scams. The many continued to follow us and finally got distracted with someone else. We tried to tell a police officer, but he showed no interest. Caution point number 2 (as mentioned in the book), is that the ATM will ask you if you want to convert your money to dollars on the statement, say no. It will then ask "are you sure?!" say yes so you can get your money without paying extra fees. Hope this helps!

"We were in Prague a couple of years ago, and every place we went, (hotel, restaurant, stores) did take Euro's." You'll find places in Prague that accept euros, but it's a better deal to pay in the local currency. That's because if you pay with euros, the hotel or restaurant is going to do the converting for you, and the rate they use will never be as good as what you would have gotten from an ATM.

I arrived at the train station from Vienna, and took money from the ATM without a problem. There were several uniformed policemen patrolling the area. There was a TI office a few meters from the ATM, just before the entrance to the metro. They have pretty long hours, since my train didn't arrive until almost 9.30 pm. I went in for a map and found out they also sell transport cards. I asked for a 3-day card and the clerk told me to buy 3 one-day cards (cheaper). She would have taken a credit card but I already had cash. If you are worried about having left-over currency, use it to pay part of your hotel bill on your last day.