Prague Castle tickets: 450 CZK for the Main circuit, valid two days, sold at the Castle and on GetYourGuide

💡 The Short Version: The Main circuit is 450 CZK (about £15.60): the Old Royal Palace, St George’s Basilica, Golden Lane and St Vitus Cathedral. It is valid for two days, each building once, with no timed slot. The Castle sells it in its information centres, and names GetYourGuide as its online seller. St Vitus Cathedral needs a ticket and opens at 12:00 on Sundays. Buildings close at 17:00 until 31 October and at 16:00 from 1 November. Or book a tour: the Castle tour with a local guide, entry includedad (from £44.30, GetYourGuide) takes 2.5 hours.

The tickets, compared

Official prices from the Castle’s price list, converted at about CZK 28.8 to the pound. Discount tickets are for ages 6 to 16, full-time students up to 26 and adults 65 and over, and need proof. GetYourGuide prices are its lowest “from” prices. Look-alike ticket sites turn up in search results: the operator is hrad.cz.

• The cathedral is inside the ticket, not in front of it. The Castle says the free part of St Vitus Cathedral has been closed since 25 October 2023 until further notice, so entry is with a circuit ticket only. People attending services enter free.
• Tickets cannot be refunded. The Castle also reserves the right to close buildings or the whole Castle for operational or state-ceremonial reasons.
• Free: children under 6 and holders of a disability card. The courtyards, the streets and the Garden on the Bastion cost nothing, and the buildings are the paid part.
• The Old Royal Palace was closed from 3 September to 1 October 2026 and has been fully open to visitors since 2 October.
• The crown jewels are shown free in Vladislav Hall for ten days around St Wenceslas Day each year (19 to 28 September in 2026). The rest of the year they sit in the Crown Chamber in the cathedral, which visitors cannot enter.

Prague Castle above Malá Strana, seen from across the Vltava. Photo: R Boed, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.

How to buy

• At the Castle: buy at an information centre inside the grounds, including the one in the Third Courtyard opposite St Vitus Cathedral. The police can search visitors at the gates, and that security check comes before the ticket desk.
• Online: the Castle’s ticket page says Main circuit tickets can be bought through the GetYourGuide ticketing network, and links to it. Only the Main circuit is sold this way: every other ticket is bought at the Castle.
• Keep the ticket. You show it at each building and it is valid for two days, so a visitor who arrives in the afternoon can finish the circuit the next morning.
• The audioguide is hired at the Third Courtyard Information Centre. The Castle’s own guides are also paid for only there, and booked in advance on +420 224 372 187 or +420 224 373 568.

The gate to the First Courtyard from Hradčany Square. Photo: Tilman2007, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Tours worth paying for

The tickets above are enough for most visitors. The Castle’s audioguide and ticket come to 800 CZK (about £27.80); the tours below cost £42.52 to £44.30 with entry included, which buys a guide and a fixed meeting time. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” prices, per person.

The official Main circuit ticket

From £15.68 · 4.4 stars from 21,784 reviews · valid 2 days

Prague: Official Entry Ticket to Prague Castlead is listed on GetYourGuide by the Prague Castle Administration itself, and it is the ticket the Castle’s own page points to. At about 450 CZK it matches the Castle’s price, so GetYourGuide adds nothing to it. It is a mobile ticket, scanned at the door of each building, and it carries free cancellation up to 24 hours before.

A 2.5-hour tour with entry and the tram up

From £44.30 · 4.7 stars from 11,883 reviews · 2.5 hours

Prague: Castle Tour with Local Guide and Entry Ticketad meets in front of Malostranská metro station and takes the tram up to the Castle. The guide gives you headphones, and the tour covers St Vitus Cathedral, the Old Royal Palace, St George’s Basilica and Golden Lane, with the entry ticket and tram fare included. It runs as a small group or a private tour, in English and five other languages. Free cancellation.

A tour that starts on Charles Bridge

From £42.52 · 4.7 stars from 9,699 reviews · 2.5 hours

Prague Castle 2.5-Hour Tour Including Admission Ticketad opens with a half-hour on Charles Bridge, then takes a tram from Lesser Town Square to the Castle. Entry to the cathedral, the Old Royal Palace, St George’s Basilica and Golden Lane is included, with a tram ticket. It is not suitable for wheelchair users. Free cancellation.

The Main circuit and Lobkowicz Palace

From £29.82 · 4.4 stars from 5,414 reviews · self-guided

Prague: Prague Castle and Lobkowicz Palace Entry Ticketsad pairs the Main circuit with the private museum in Lobkowicz Palace, with an audio guide for each. Collect the tickets at the Lobkowicz Palace cash desk on Jiřská, not at the Castle ticket office, and swap the voucher for the official tickets. Luggage and large bags are not allowed.

A midday concert in Lobkowicz Palace

From £21.30 · 4.6 stars from 1,248 reviews · 1 hour

Prague Castle: Midday Classical Concert at Lobkowicz Palacead is an hour of music by members of the Czech Philharmonic in the palace’s Baroque concert hall. It is a concert ticket, separate from Castle entry. The classical concerts in Prague guide compares the others.

What to see

The Main circuit is four buildings. Allow about two and a half hours with a guide, and up to three with the audioguide, whose recordings run about three hours in all. Go in this order:

1. St Vitus Cathedral. Go first: it is the one building that opens late on Sundays (12:00), and the last entrance is at 16:40. Building began in 1344 under Charles IV, the cathedral stayed unfinished for centuries, and it was consecrated in 1929. The St Wenceslas Chapel holds the saint’s tomb, with walls faced in precious stones, and the royal mausoleum stands in front of the high altar.
2. The Old Royal Palace. The late-Gothic Vladislav Hall, where presidential elections were once held, with a gallery on its south wall looking over the Garden on the Ramparts. The Riders’ Staircase leads out, built so knights could ride into the hall. In the Czech Chancellery, in 1618, two governors and a scribe were thrown from the window, which began the Czech uprising.
3. St George’s Basilica. Romanesque, rebuilt after a fire in 1142, with the tombs of the Přemyslid dynasty in the nave.
4. Golden Lane. Small houses from the late 15th century. Franz Kafka lived at No. 22 during the First World War. The stairs in No. 12 lead to a terrace over Daliborka Tower, whose lower floor was a prison.

The small houses of Golden Lane. Photo: Diego Delso, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Leave by the Old Castle Stairs to Malostranská metro, or walk down through Malá Strana, which passes the Lesser Town Bridge Towers and the river.

What to skip: the Permanent exhibitions ticket on a first visit. The four buildings above are the reason to go, and the exhibitions are an extra 300 CZK. The Picture Gallery is 200 CZK separately.

Hours, rules and getting there

• Gardens: the Royal Garden, Stag Moat and South Gardens are open 10:00 to 19:00 from April to June, to 20:00 in July and August, to 19:00 in September and to 17:00 in October. They are closed from 1 November to the end of February and open 10:00 to 17:00 in March. The Garden on the Bastion keeps the Castle’s grounds hours.
• Closed: the historical buildings are closed on 24 December. The Castle lists other closures on its current closures page.
• Services: St Vitus Cathedral closes for religious services at these times, which the Castle lists on its GetYourGuide ticket.

• Security: the police search visitors on request at the gates, and anyone who refuses is not let in. You cannot leave luggage anywhere in the Castle except in places set aside for it, and before entering a building you put luggage and umbrellas in the place provided, where there is one.
• Inside: no food or drink, no selfie sticks, and no photography or filming in The Story of Prague Castle, the Cathedral Treasury, the Powder Tower or the Picture Gallery.
• Getting there: tram 22 to the Pražský hrad stop is five minutes from the Second Courtyard. Metro line A to Malostranská and the Old Castle Stairs up to the Na Opyši gate is the other way in, and metro A also stops at Hradčanská. From Pohořelec tram stop it is a 10-minute walk down to Hradčany Square. Prague public transport has the fares.
• Access: the buildings are barrier-free except the White Tower, Daliborka Tower, the Powder Tower, the Great South Tower and the defence corridors in Golden Lane.

The Castle is free on the Prague Visitor Pass, which the guide to the pass weighs against paying for each sight. The Vltava river cruises show the Castle skyline from the water, and Vyšehrad is the other fortress on the river. The Jewish Quarter tickets guide, the Old Town Hall and Astronomical Clock guide and the Petřín Tower and funicular guide cover the sights readers pair with it. For the rest of the city’s bookings, see what to book before you go in Prague. 3 days in Prague and Prague in one day build the plan round the bookings. To sleep within walking distance, where to stay in Prague compares the areas, and a day trip is covered in day trips from Prague. For lunch, where to eat in Prague lists Kuchyň on Hradčany Square.