5 Days in Prague: Christmas Markets, Castles, and a Day Trip to Kutná Hora
A five-day December plan for Prague that front-loads the castle and Jewish Quarter before winter hours cut them short, treats Day 3 as recovery, and sends you to Kutná Hora with the right ossuary ticket price and timed-entry rules.
By the Fortrip editorial desk — last reviewed 25 October 2025, checked against hrad.cz, Trhy Praha, and sedlec.info.
This 5 day Prague itinerary fits a traveler visiting during Advent who wants the two marquee Christmas markets, the castle interiors, and one out-of-town day without feeling rushed on any of them. The pace is front-loaded — Day 2 at the castle and Day 4 at Kutná Hora are the two days with hard clocks, so Day 1 and Day 3 are built deliberately loose. Base yourself in Old Town or Malá Strana within walking distance of Old Town Square; the plan leans on foot traffic between sights rather than trams, since December's early sunset rewards a short walk home over a tram transfer in the dark. The trade-off: this is not a shopping-and-café week. Two full days go to the castle and Kutná Hora, which means Prague's other neighborhoods — Vyšehrad, Letná, most of Žižkov — don't make the cut. If that's the wrong trade for your trip, see how to .
Frequently asked questions
Does the Sedlec Ossuary ticket cover St. Barbara's Cathedral too?+
No. The 220 CZK ossuary ticket and the 220 CZK Cathedral of the Assumption ticket are both part of the Sedlec site, but St. Barbara's Cathedral in the old town is a separate building with its own admission — check its price locally rather than assuming it's bundled.
Why does this itinerary put the markets on Day 1 instead of saving them for the last night?+
A first-night walk through lit stalls works better as a gentle welcome after travel than as a rushed last outing before a flight. Day 5 is intentionally left loose for departure logistics, not for sightseeing, which is also why it absorbs delays better than a market visit would.
If I can only keep one of Prague Castle or Kutná Hora, which should I cut?+
Keep the castle. It sits inside the city, doesn't require timed-entry tickets booked days ahead the way the ossuary does, and can flex around a half-day if your schedule gets squeezed — Kutná Hora can't, since its train and ticket slot are fixed in advance.
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Treat this table as a starting point, not a ticket in hand — check each link for your travel dates, especially the ossuary row.
Before you go: what this itinerary assumes
Built for a December visit during Advent, when several sights switch to shorter winter hours and the sun goes down mid-afternoon. Sunset in mid-December runs close to 4:00 pm and creeps toward 4:15–4:30 pm by early January, per timeanddate.com's Prague sun calendar — check the exact time for your travel date rather than treating any single number as fixed for the whole trip.
Assumes a base in Old Town or Malá Strana, close enough to Old Town Square to walk rather than plan around trams.
Christmas market dates shift by a few days each year. Trhy Praha's listing confirms the 2024/25 Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square markets ran 30 November to 6 January, daily 10:00–22:00 — check the current season's dates within a week or two of booking rather than reusing last year's calendar.
Prague Castle keeps a split schedule. Per hrad.cz, the grounds stay open 6:00–22:00 year-round, but the historical interiors (Old Royal Palace, St. George's Basilica, Golden Lane) run 9:00–16:00 in winter, and St. Vitus Cathedral runs Monday–Saturday 9:00–16:00 in winter (from 12:00 on Sundays), with last entrance 20 minutes before closing. Build Day 2 around that earlier interior closing time, not the 22:00 grounds hours.
The castle's official site also posts short-notice closures for state ceremonies or technical reasons, separate from the seasonal schedule. Check the hrad.cz closures page the morning of your visit so a last-minute closure doesn't strand you at the gate.
Day 1 — Old Town: arrival and first look at the Christmas markets
Morning and afternoon
Land, check in, and treat the first half of the day as settling in rather than sightseeing. Walk to Old Town Square by late afternoon when the lights and the central tree are already on — arriving at dusk beats arriving at 11 am for atmosphere.
Evening
The Old Town Square and Wenceslas Square markets run daily 10:00–22:00 with free entry — you only pay for food, drink, and crafts (Trhy Praha). Mulled wine and trdelník stalls cluster near the astronomical clock, and prices there run higher than a block away. Walk to Wenceslas Square for the second, larger market before the crowd peaks in the early evening. Close the night with a slow walk across Charles Bridge — fewer vendors after dark in December, and the bridge towers are lit.
Day 2 — Hradčany: Prague Castle on a winter schedule
Morning
Arrive at the castle complex at opening and go straight for the interiors — St. Vitus Cathedral, Old Royal Palace, St. George's Basilica, Golden Lane — before the 16:00 winter cutoff (hrad.cz). Buy the combined interiors ticket rather than paying at each building separately, and check the hrad.cz closures page that same morning in case a state event has pulled a stop off the list.
Afternoon
St. Vitus Cathedral draws the longest queue by midday, so do it first. Golden Lane and St. George's Basilica together take under an hour to walk through at a normal pace — that's our estimate from typical visit lengths, not a timed figure published by hrad.cz, so give yourself slack if you like lingering in small rooms. Together, the four stops fit before the winter close without sprinting.
Evening
Once the interiors shut, the outer courtyards and ramparts stay open until 22:00 — use this window for the river-facing viewpoint after dark rather than fighting daylight crowds for it earlier. Walk down through Nerudova Street into Malá Strana for dinner; the descent takes about 15 minutes at a casual pace. That roughly matches the 12–15 minute walking time Google Maps shows for the same route — though sidewalks ice up in December, so build in more cushion than the map suggests. Most restaurants right at the castle gate cater to day-trippers and close early.
Day 3 — Josefov and Malá Strana: synagogues, Charles Bridge, and the castle view
Morning
Go to the Jewish Quarter (Josefov) early. The Old-New Synagogue, run by the Jewish Community of Prague, and the Spanish, Pinkas, and Maisel Synagogues, part of the Jewish Museum in Prague, all run shorter winter hours and typically close in mid-afternoon — this is a morning stop, not an after-lunch one. Confirm current hours directly on the Jewish Museum in Prague's site before you go, since synagogue schedules change seasonally and around Jewish holidays.
Afternoon
Cross into Old Town for a slower pass through the market stalls you skipped on Day 1, before the afternoon crowd builds. Walk Charles Bridge at midday, when the statues and towers photograph more clearly than at the Day 1 evening crush, then continue into Malá Strana.
Evening
Climb to Kampa Island's riverside or the base of Petřín Hill for a castle view across the Vltava that's quieter than the bridge itself. Keep the rest of the evening open — this is the day most Prague plans over-schedule, and sandwiched between a full Day 2 and an early Day 4 train, it works better as a built-in recovery day than a third packed itinerary day. If you're tempted to compress Day 2 and Day 3 into one, check the merged version against the itinerary validator to see whether the castle's winter closing time still leaves room for Josefov afterward.
Day 4 — Kutná Hora: Sedlec Ossuary and St. Barbara's Cathedral
No verified photo of Kutná Hora's old town or the Sedlec Ossuary turned up in sourcing for this piece, so the image above is a general winter view of Czech Gothic architecture, not a shot of Kutná Hora itself.
Morning
Take a direct train from Praha hlavní nádraží. Czech Railways' own timetable at cd.cz lists direct services running roughly 50 minutes to just over an hour depending on which train you catch — look up the exact departure and duration for your date there before buying tickets.
Ticketing and practical notes for the ossuary and cathedral:
Book Sedlec Ossuary tickets in advance, either online or at the Sedlec Information Centre (279 Zámecká Street); entry is sold only as a fixed date and time slot, never at the door (sedlec.info).
Confirm the price directly on sedlec.info before you travel: the current official adult rate is 220 CZK, well above the 90 CZK figure still repeated on several third-party guides — that older number appears to be out of date, so don't budget around it.
The Cathedral of the Assumption, also part of the Sedlec site, runs the same 220 CZK adult admission.
St. Barbara's Cathedral in Kutná Hora's old town is ticketed separately from the Sedlec site; check its own posted price on arrival or through the local tourist information office, since it wasn't part of this round of verification.
The ossuary's interior is unheated stone, so dress for it specifically — real layers under your coat, not just the coat itself.
Small shops and ticket counters in Kutná Hora don't all take cards reliably, so carry some cash for the day.
Midday
Winter hours run roughly November–February, 9:00–16:00, but ongoing partial reconstruction has shortened the schedule further in recent seasons — verify the exact hours within a day or two of your visit rather than trusting a published calendar. The ossuary is a short walk from Sedlec station; check the exact route and timing on Google Maps, since signage from the platform isn't continuous.
Afternoon
Kutná Hora's old town and St. Barbara's Cathedral sit a couple of kilometers further on from the ossuary. Google Maps shows this as roughly a half-hour walk, or a shorter hop by local bus or connecting train — check current bus and train timings locally rather than assuming a fixed schedule. Given how early the December sun sets, as noted earlier, aim to finish the ossuary by early afternoon so there's usable daylight left for St. Barbara's and the old town streets.
Day 5 — Nové Město and Vinohrady: last market, then departure
Morning
Use this time for anything missed — the Museum of Communism, a last pass through Wenceslas Square, or souvenir shopping before the market stalls get busy.
Midday
If time allows, walk or tram to Náměstí Míru, where the neighborhood Christmas market runs a shorter calendar window than the two main squares — confirm it's still open before making the trip out.
Afternoon
Prague Airport doesn't publish one fixed transfer time, since it depends on whether you take the Airport Express bus, public transport with a change at Nádraží Veleslavín, or a taxi. Check current routes and durations on prg.aero before fixing a departure buffer, and build in extra time if your flight is in the late afternoon. Leave this day loose rather than tightly scheduled; it's the natural place to absorb a delay carried over from Day 4's train or ossuary timing.
Is five days enough?
Five days covers the castle interiors, both central Christmas markets, the Jewish Quarter, and a full Kutná Hora day trip without stacking two hard-clock days back to back. It doesn't leave room for a second out-of-town trip or a deep dive into neighborhoods like Žižkov or Letná — see the adjustments below if either of those matters more to you than Kutná Hora.
Does the Sedlec Ossuary ticket cover St. Barbara's Cathedral too? No. The 220 CZK ossuary ticket and the 220 CZK Cathedral of the Assumption ticket are both part of the Sedlec site, but St. Barbara's Cathedral in the old town is a separate building with its own admission — check its price locally rather than assuming it's bundled.
Why does this itinerary put the markets on Day 1 instead of saving them for the last night? A first-night walk through lit stalls works better as a gentle welcome after travel than as a rushed last outing before a flight. Day 5 is intentionally left loose for departure logistics, not for sightseeing, which is also why it absorbs delays better than a market visit would.
If I can only keep one of Prague Castle or Kutná Hora, which should I cut? Keep the castle. It sits inside the city, doesn't require timed-entry tickets booked days ahead the way the ossuary does, and can flex around a half-day if your schedule gets squeezed — Kutná Hora can't, since its train and ticket slot are fixed in advance.
How to adjust: who should cut, swap, or extend a day
Short on time (3–4 days): merge Day 2 and Day 3 by doing the castle in the morning and Josefov in the afternoon, skipping Kampa and Petřín.
Traveling with young children: swap the Sedlec Ossuary for extra time in Kutná Hora's old town and St. Barbara's Cathedral, or drop the Kutná Hora day entirely in favor of a second half-day at the castle grounds and markets.
A closure lands on your Day 2 date: if hrad.cz shows a closure affecting St. Vitus Cathedral or the Old Royal Palace, swap Day 2 and Day 3 so the unaffected half of the itinerary comes first while you rebook around the closure.
Extending to 6–7 days: add a day trip to Terezín Memorial or a second Bohemian town. Český Krumlov is commonly cited as needing closer to three hours each way by bus or train, but that figure isn't independently confirmed for this piece — check current timetables at idos.cz or cd.cz before building a day around it, and only add it with a day to spare.
Reconstruction closes part of the ossuary on your dates: Kutná Hora's old town, St. Barbara's Cathedral, and the Italian Court still justify the train trip on their own.
For a plan built around your actual dates and party size rather than a generic calendar, the AI trip planner can reshuffle the day order around a confirmed flight or a closure without starting from scratch. For a broader look at trading one day's focus for another, the itinerary selection guide covers the common swaps in more detail.
