Avant-Guide Prague: Insiders Guide to Progressive Culture

Avant-Guide Prague: Insiders' Guide to Progressive Culture   Worth it for the nightlife sections alone $20.00 $13.60 (32% off)

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 5 out of 5 One of the biggest problems about visiting another city is that, unless you know somebody there, your chances of finding your way into the local "scene" are about nil. I've tried TimeOut, which has a few bars and event listings, but other than the 1% chance that there's a concert you like right then, it's pretty unhelpful. Avant-Guide is the answer, as far as I'm concerned, steering you away from (in Prague) huge touristy places like Karlovy Lazne, "a teen-tourist club on four floors for those who don't know anyplace better to go." It has paragraph-long descriptions of 79 bars and clubs, detailing not only the music and decor but, more significantly, the crowd, the vibe, and the fact that "nobody we know has ever gotten laid here." Owning this bar is like having a best friend who's lived in the city for a dozen years and has done nothing but look for a "spectacular after-hours DJ bar that just gets going at 3am and hits its stride hours later." Of course, there are other sections. The Restaurants section is equally good, even if it tends to favor restaurants out of the average twentysomething's budget. Ditto 20 pages on "boutique hotels." The weakness, other than occasionally MTV-cool writing, is the Sights section, tellingly placed at the back, which gives a rudimentary paragraph to places that a Frommer's or Michelin might have written a chapter on. But if you're traveling with friends rather than family, you probably won't care: you'll be recovering from the best nightlife you've ever had. Click here to buy

Posted: Friday 5th August 2005, 1:01 AM