Eats - anywhere. It's cheap. Not as cheap as it was in 1999, but still a good deal for Europe. Beer halls will sell you a filling dinner and a beer for very little.
For lunch, get a schnitzel on a bun, with the works and a beer. You can get that on the street for about 2 bucks. Drinking beer while walking down the street is just cool.
The Czechs aren't known for their food, but it's certainly not bad. Hearty stuff, like German fare. You can eat local food most of the time, and go out for some other Euro meal, like French, for a special dinner. A top meal will be less there than any other place in Europe, and just as good.
For lodging, find a place a few hundred yards right outside the city wall. No further than that. Within the city walls will cost extra, and too far away gets you into Soviet Bloc looking neighborhoods.
I highly recommend
this place.
It's nice by European standards (more than good enough for me), meaning it's clean, safe, includes breakfast (a big one, so eat enough and you can get by with a light lunch), and the people are friendly. You can pack light because they will do your laundry for cheap (check on that before you go, to be safe). I went with carry-on only for four days.
Music is to Prague what visual art is to Paris. In fact, I consider Prague to be the new Left Bank, since Paris is so expensive these days. You can live well in Prague for a lot less. Make sure to see a lot of music. At 5pm, most churches will have a concert. See a performance of Dvorak's New World Symphony in the town it's about. See Mozart's Don Giovanni in the theatre where it premiered. Make sure to see as much jazz as you can. It's very popular there, and you'll love hearing it sung in a Czech accent. At night, the clubs are full of the usual dance stuff. If you're not into that, beer halls are sort of like pubs.
There will probably be a few good rock shows happening somewhere in town.
The beer is almost all Pils, natch. Budvar is good. Staroprammer is my favorite. Pilsner Urquel is from there.
Go to the Jewish cemetary, get your disposable yamulke, and see the place. Probably the coolest grave yard I've ever seen. Good restaurants and cafes in the area too.
The girls are cute, and if you are polite, the townspeople will fall all over themselves to make you happy. Learn a few words like "hello" "goodbye" "thanks" "please" and "no thanks" and you'll do even better. Very few people take the time to learn Czech so it's a nice touch. In fact, do this no matter where you go and you'll make friends that will show you the best places.
The Alphonse Mucha museum is fantastic. The whole town is Beaux Arts style, and the museum gives you insight into that in it's own way. Since the Czechs have had very little conflict on their soil (they surrendered a lot...) the whole town is well preserved. After the Russians left, they just scrubbed the place down and it was 1909 all over again. It's just gorgeous man.
Last of all, Prague is one of the few places you can get real Absinthe. Have it properly prepared and I promise you'll enjoy it. What you get in the rest of Europe, including France, is not the real stuff. Don't worry about the reputation, Absinthe made people go nuts the same way London Gin killed people young. Poor quality to meet high demand was detrimental to desperate people's health. The stuff you get now is fine. The buzz is like a cross between being high and being pleasantly drunk - the best of both, actually. Really nice.
Have a great time. It's possibly my favorite city.
Why are you going?
-A