Happy Thanksgiving!! This year, Dan and I are celebrating at Dan’s favorite winery – Narbona in Carmelo, Uruguay. But last year, we celebrated in one of our favorite countries – Ireland! Particularly, Dublin & Galway – you can read about it here. In any case, I thought I would give you all a little gluttonous throw back regarding our food tour last Thanksgiving in Ireland.
Dan & I last Thanksgiving in Dublin.
Prague’s Vaclav Havel Airport is home to four Priority Pass lounges. When we visited in October, we spent a little over an hour in the MasterCard Lounge in Terminal 2. We had an enjoyable time and would definitely go back without question if in the Prague airport.
Beautiful Prague.
Prague is filled with delicious food – from high end Michelin starred restaurants to super casual and inexpensive ones. You will absolutely have a difficult time allocating your meals amongst the options. Despite my deep research on the best places to eat in Prague earlier this year, Dan and I stumbled on a fabulous restaurant while strolling along the Vltava River -Mánes Art Restaurant & Terrace.
The menu that enticed us in.
As you may know, Dan & I love a food tour. We find them as a great way to experience a lot of local dishes without doing much of the legwork, and we do them on almost every trip (see our tours in Kuala Lumpar, London, Mexico, Paris, Siem Reap, Singapore, Venice, the list goes on… ). Yes, we really do love a good food tour.
A food tour in Venice in 2016.
When visiting Prague, we found Prague Food Tour via a Google search before we left home and took its evening Delicious Food Tour on our second night in Prague. Prague Food Tours is owned by couple George and Leona, both natives of Prague, and this particular tour took participants on a walking tour through central Prague, stopping at four locations over the course of four hours, and eating and drinking a lot! Since the tour is four hours and the owners/guides are Prague natives, we also received a lot of information about Prague and we were welcome to ask questions! We met in the early evening in central Prague and dove right in to the “food” portion of the tour!
Strolling on the Prague Food Tour!
Prague is fabulous. But its also super touristy. And super congested,, especially around its main tourist sites, such as the Old Town Square and Hradčany castle. While I loved Prague, there were definitely more than a few times when I just wanted to lose the tourist hoards and enjoy the city.
Crowds at Hradčany Castle at 8:45 AM…
Cue Nový Svet. Nový Svet is a charming neighborhood in Prague behind Hradčany Castle. For whatever reason, Nový Svet lacks the crazy crowds in most of Prague, yet retains loads of classic European charm. We ended up in Nový Svet somewhat on a whim – I had read about a “local” coffee shop there by the same name, and Nový Svet was recommended by our tour guide in Ceský Krumlov. We ended up fitting in a stop on our past day in Prague.
Nový Svet.
Prague has a popular dining concept, whereby, rather thank picking up meat from a butcher shop, diners order and eat at the butcher shop. Who would have thought?! Clearly, I (or rather, Dan) was super interesting in trying this out in Prague. I initially thought that waiting, ordering, and eating at a Prague butcher shop would be stressful and confusing, but it turned out to be super easy and ridiculously delicious! We went back for a second night!
Our first foray into butcher shop dining!
Ah, Prague. For certain, one of the most beautiful cities in the World. Also, one of the most crowded with tourists. Seriously, SO MANY TOURISTS. In any case, Dan & I spent a really lovely long weekend in Prague in October 2018 with our friends Meghan and Tinh!
Prague 2018.
I first experienced Prague in 2004 (!!), when I was much younger studying abroad, much less traveled, and had barely even heard of Prague. I visited over Halloween weekend in 2004, and I remember it being the most exotic place that I had ever visited. Now all of that has changed, but Prague does still retain a certain Central/Eastern European charm that I really love. In my opinion and experience, Prague is a great destination for travelers who have been to a few “bucket list” places and are ready to brach off, at least seemingly, to a less visited destination.
Prague’s main square early morning.
As you probably gathered from my previous post about the American Express Centurion Lounge in Mexico City, Dan and I did a bit of lounge hopping when flying back from our trip to Mexico City earlier this year. We had a bit of time to kill in the airport (although not as much as I would have liked…), so we first hit the American Express Centurion Lounge and then jumped to The Ground Lounge Elite, a few minutes walk from the Centurion Lounge, via our Priority Pass.
Flying out of CDMX.
Like the American Express Centurion Lounge, the Grand Lounge Elite is airside not too far from the departure gates. The entrance is marked by a visible sign and entrance is complimentary to Priority Pass members. We checked in quite quickly despite the lounge being crowded.
American Express offers a series of airport lounges in the US, as well as a few outside of the US, which are complimentary for certain cardholders, including American Express Platinum cardholders. Since I have the American Express Platinum, I enjoy free access to these lounges. I first experienced a Centurion Lounge in Buenos Aries Ezeiza Airport (EZE), and have been a bit obsessed ever since. The Centurion Lounges in the US are rumored to be much nicer than the international lounges, but I, unfortunately, have not visited enough of these lounges to make a firm decision.
A new Centurion Lounge!
As I mentioned before, our Mexico City trip was alllllll about the food! For our second food tour of the trip, we signed up for an evening food tour through the Navarte neighborhood with Eat Mexico. Navarte is an old school neighborhood in Mexico City with a bit of hipster flair; it’s also where our tour guide grew up!
Cuidad de Mexico City (spoiler alert – this sign is not in Navarte!)
