Is Prague Safe?

This year about sixty two people will be murdered in the Czech Republic. With a population of a little over ten million, the odds are very low that you would be one of them. Being shot in the head is a theoretical possibility but the practical advise I can offer is that you do not worry about it. It will not happen. Regardless of which dark alley you walk down or which eight-hundred year old castle dungeon you stumble into, you will not be murdered.

Your life is safe in Prague.

Will You Fall Down a Manhole?

The most likely cause of injury you will suffer in Prague is spraining your ankle strolling down a cobble street. The cobblestones are pretty and they do bring you back to old days before asphalt and concrete, but they are dangerous. Step on a cobble the wrong way and you can be down on your knees rubbing your foot. Wearing high heels is just asking for trouble - walking a on street strewn in banana peels is safer.

If you fall down a man hole in Prague, the consensus attitude amongst the locals would be that it's your fault for not looking where you are going. Few would question why there was not a barrier preventing you from falling in. Czech common sense dictates that if there is a hole in your path you are responsible enough not fall into it.

And if you are climbing up a six-hundred year old staircase that has no hand railing with low lighting be careful. You come to Prague to get a taste of how things were in the past six-hundred years ago when there were no handrails and there was no lighting. Prague is not Disneyland with cardboard characters advising how tall you need to be to walk around the city.

Czech standards for personal safety are a slightly lower than the rest of the EU. But that is slowly changing. The EU is forcing Czech to make it a safer place for those who are not looking where they are going. Laws are being written and enforced stating that manholes must either have a cover or a barricade to allow for people who cannot be bothered with looking where they are going. Some consider this progress.

There are drawbacks to this kind of progress. The Charles Bridge has been around since at least 1360. In 2009, it was decided that the bridge was unsafe and there was a risk that people might fall off. So they errected a special guardrail along the sides of the bridge to protect people from falling off. For over six hundred-fifty years nobody had a issue with people falling off the bridge - now they do. The bridge is safer now, but at a cost. Which is better - a majestic old bridge untouched by modern hand or a safe bridge with a skirt to catch the drunk and foolish?

Will They Take Care Of You At The Hospital?

Let's say you had one too many and are trying to get a better look at the river from the Charles Bridge. The wind blows, catches under your jacket and tosses you over. You hit the saftey net, bounce off, and land head first in the river. In a matter of minutes as you bobble down the river you will hear the weeeeeee-woooooooo sounds of the ambulance coming to your rescue.

This kind of thing has not happened to me so I have never been to the hospital. But I have a friend who was running down a cobblestreet road in her high heels and slipped on a banana peel. She had to go to the hospital.

She is ok and her ankle was taken care of. She said the doctors were nice and the rooms were clean. The only complaint was the long wait and the stale food. In other words, hospitals in Prague are the same as in every western country.

As long as you have your travel insurance and can point to your injury (if it is not obvious) then you will be taken care of.

So to answer the question, is Prague safe?: yes, Prague is safe and they will take good care of you if you are shot.