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While many cafés in the Czech Republic offer patrons a complimentary sweet or a glass of water with their cup of coffee, a growing number in the country’s second city Brno are providing something altogether more unusual – the free use of a bicycle. Under the novel scheme, customers can borrow a bike at one café and return it at another.

Adam Gebrian is a young architect and journalist who has a regular column in the newspaper Lidové noviny, so naturally a tour of “his Prague” included stops at a couple of the city’s most interesting contemporary buildings. But let’s start today’s show at what he considers the most vibrant spot in the Czech capital right now: the Náplavka riverside walkway beneath the embankment Rašínovo nábřeží. Over a beer at (A)void, a rusty old boat converted into a “floating gallery” with a great view, I put it to Adam that Náplavka can at times be

In the recent decades, Fanta’s café at Prague’s central railroad station has been more of a mythical place, known mostly to a select few. Visitors to the capital who happened to find out about its existence had quite a bit of trouble finding their way out of the communist station up into its oldest, and arguably most beautiful parts. The search, though, is rewarding. The tall, ornate dome from early twentieth century is breathtaking, especially after the not-so-modern main part of the station with its low ceilings and until recently notoriously

Formerly a sleepy, in some parts grimy, neighbourhood, Vršovice has in recent times become one of the liveliest districts of Prague. Much of this activity centres on Krymská St., home to the very successful Café v lese and several other relatively new businesses. One of the people responsible for the rejuvenation of Vršovice is Kateřina McCreary, owner of the popular café-bar Sladkovský. When we spoke there, I asked McCreary what had inspired her to open the place three years ago.

In the warmer summer months Praguers have started flocking to cafes, just as much as to beer gardens, enjoying a dark cup of joe, good company, and often pleasant street-side seating. Some cafes around the city have begun to offer much more sophisticated coffee choices that the traditional infamous Czech ‘Turek’ coffee or the misnamed ‘presso’. To find out how and what’s brewing in Prague these days, I went to visit Jaroslav Tuček at his small, but quite well-known, café in the Karlín district.

Few people are as qualified to provide an insider’s tour of the Moravian capital as Michal Kašpárek, author of the guidebook Poznej Brno (Get to Know Brno). On a warm evening recently, Kašpárek took me to a hopping pub in the city and a former “workers’ colony” taken over by alternative types. But we started out at a table outside Café Falk, near the university’s Arts Faculty.

Aleš Rumpel is the head of the Mezipatra queer film festival, one of the leading events of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe. He has also been involved in numerous other cultural activities and currently works at the National Film Archive. Our tour of “Aleš’s Prague” begins on Národní třída, or National Street, an avenue that is home to institutions, such as Café Slavia and the National Theatre, as well as shops and restaurants of varying standards. So, what does Národní mean to Aleš Rumpel?

Glen Emery has been in Prague since the early 1990s and today owns the lively and cosmopolitan bar Bukowski’s in Žižkov. But the Canadian, a seasoned raconteur, started out in the city with Jo’s Bar, just off the main square in Malá Strana, or the Lesser Quarter. In this edition of My Prague, Emery takes us on a short tour of the historic area, which lies below Prague Castle on the left bank of the River Vltava.

The US singer Tonya Graves is extremely well-known in the Czech Republic. A member of the popular funk group Monkey Business, she also performs solo and has been involved in various other musical projects since she first arrived here in the mid 1990s.

Prague’s wealth of traditional coffeehouses is a legacy from the era of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. But even in today’s hectic time, grabbing a quick cup on the run is fortunately not the only option for coffee lovers in the Czech capital. Probably the best-known café in the golden city is Kavárna Slavia, or Café Slavia. We recently visited this traditional coffeehouse.