My kind of place: Malá Strana, Prague

The Charles Bridge, which overlooks the Vltava River, is the entrance point to Malá Strana in Prague. Sergey Dzyuba / Alamy Stock Photo

Why Malá Strana?

Prague is sometimes built up as one of the world’s most romantic cities – but the reality often doesn’t match that expectation. Staying in the main Staré Mesto or Nové Mesto areas can be fun – this is where Prague is at its most energetic and a lot of the top architectural set pieces can be found. But the swoony side of the city is on the other side of the river, in the shadow of the castle.

Malá Strana is where Prague does romantic wonderfully well. Cosy restaurants with vaulted ceilings, often in semi-secret cellars, mix with squiggly warrens of courtyards, hillside parks and handsome stone buildings. Away from the main drag, it’s a delight to mooch around, and has many of the city’s most endearing oddities.

A comfortable bed

The Aria is a stellar example of how to do hotel theming and look sophisticated. Musical notes are worked into the mosaic flooring, specially commissioned artwork caricatures great composers and pop acts, the piano is tinkled in the restaurant during afternoon tea and dinner, and elegantly reserved rooms are named after musical styles. Double rooms cost from €207 (Dh818).

The Mandarin Oriental is inside a sumptuously converted 14th-century monastery. It's tastefully unflashy inside, but has large rooms by Prague standards, beautiful vaulted ceilings and makes good use of the historic courtyards and cloisters to make it feel like a calming retreat. Rooms cost from €339 (Dh1,339).

For something simple, bright and comfortable that doesn't stretch the wallet too much, U Schnellu does the rooms-above-a-restaurant thing pleasingly effectively. It's a small, family-run joint in a prime location. Rooms cost from €69 (Dh273).

Find your feet

The entrance point to Malá Strana is the statue-drenched Charles Bridge, which overlooks the Vltava River. From there, the temptation to aimlessly poke around is strong, but if you must have structure, start at the Lennon Wall, opposite the French Embassy. During the Communist era, this wall became a heavily graffitied shrine to John Lennon. Every time the slogans and Lennon pics were removed, more appeared as a symbol of defiance. Now, it’s thoroughly covered in peace signs, Beatles logos and more, while buskers stand alongside, inevitably playing McCartney compositions.

Stroll towards the KGB Museum, a glorious absurdity in which an unnervingly enthusiastic collector takes visitors through his KGB memorabilia, espionage paraphernalia and weapons.

If that's not weird enough for you, there's the Kafka Museum. It doesn't explore the most famous Czech author, Franz Kafka, in a conventional literary museum way. Instead it covers the ground while deliberately bringing in the disorientating, nightmarish effects of Kafka's books through the layout and presentation.

Meet the locals

The Petrin Hill is one giant park, and it’s where the locals go to stretch their legs. Highlights include the thought-provoking Memorial to the Victims of Communism at the bottom, the funicular to the top, plus the views of monasteries, embassies, church spires and hidden courtyards from the semi-forested northern end.

Book a table

There's plenty of good dining in Malá Strana. Hergetova Cihelna is Prague's hottest riverside restaurant, with plum views of the Charles Bridge, several distinctive dining areas, a sizeable terrace and a commendably child-friendly policy for somewhere that positions itself at the classier end of the scale. The five-course tasting menu for 1,450 Czech korunas (Dh212) is the blowout option, but a baked perch with peas, grilled potatoes, bread crumbles and warm tartare sauce costs 495 korunas (Dh72).

U Modré Kachnicky turns its walls and wooden doors into elaborate artworks, then focuses the menu on duck. It's 475 korunas (Dh69) for roast duck with apples, raisins, honey and gratinated potato.

Shopper’s paradise

Malá Strana's shopping has got better in the past few years, with tacky souvenir shops replaced by genuine craftsmanship. Two examples are on the main street, Mostecká, where S&A Jewellery Design specialises in brooches, earrings and pendants made from amber. Nearby, Manufaktura is a celebration of Czech design, ranging from locally made tablecloths and oven gloves to cosmetics made with thermal salts.

What to avoid

Malá Strana does a nice line in quirky, niche museums, but don’t be conned by the Gingerbread Museum – it’s basically a shop selling stuff made out of gingerbread.

Don’t miss

For unexpected excellence, the Karel Zeman Museum is hard to top. Even if you have never heard of film director Zeman or filmed his movies, the influence on other directors – Wes Anderson, Terry Gilliam, Ray Harryhausen – is immediately apparent. His heavily stylised production design and special effects ingenuity were far ahead of their time, and the museum goes into the techniques used to mix animation and live action, create monsters and concoct fantasy worlds long before computer trickery was available.

Getting there

Flights with Emirates from Dubai to Prague cost from Dh2,860.