What to Buy in Czechia (and What to Skip)

Quick answer: The Czech souvenirs most worth carrying home are glass from a named glassworks such as Moser, Bohemian garnet jewelry sold with a certificate from Granát Turnov, and edible and drinkable things: Becherovka, Karlovy Vary spa wafers and Czech beer. Skip the uncertified “garnets”, the anonymous “crystal” shops and the rack of identical witch marionettes. The trdelník is not a Czech tradition either.

Glass: buy the maker, not the shop window

Bohemian glass is the Czech craft with the longest reputation, and it is the easiest one to get wrong. Central Prague is lined with shops whose windows look the same: gilded goblets, colored stemware, porcelain clocks. Very little of it tells you who made it.

The clearest way around that is to buy from a glassworks that sells under its own name. Moser was founded in Karlovy Vary (then Karlsbad) in 1857 by Ludwig Moser, starting as a workshop for engraving and polishing glass. Its Prague gallery at Na Příkopě 12 opened in 1925 in the Black Rose palace, and the upstairs rooms keep their Neo-Renaissance interior. Moser is expensive. Go anyway, even just to look, because it shows you what hand-cut Czech glass is meant to look like. After that, the tourist-shop version is easier to judge.

What to look for: a maker’s name on the label and on the receipt, plus a shop that can tell you which glassworks made a piece. What to avoid: “Bohemian crystal” with no maker named, sold next to fridge magnets.

Garnets: certificate or nothing

The Bohemian garnet is a deep red pyrope that has been mined in Bohemia for centuries, and it is also the most faked souvenir in Prague. Czech trading standards inspectors have warned that many shops sell imitations or cheaper garnet varieties as “Bohemian”.

Granát Turnov, a jewelry cooperative founded in 1953, is the only holder of a permit to mine Czech garnets and owns the “Bohemian Garnet” geographical indication. Its pieces come with a certificate of authenticity. In Prague it runs company shops on Dlouhá, Havířská and Panská, plus a garnet museum with a sales gallery on Karlova.

The inspectors’ advice is simple. Genuine Czech garnet jewelry should carry a G or G1 hallmark. Ask for the certificate and keep a dated receipt. If a shop cannot give you both, walk on.

Marionettes: skip the witch rack

Czech puppetry is a real living tradition. UNESCO added puppetry in Slovakia and Czechia to its intangible heritage list in 2016, and Czech puppets are mostly carved from wood. That is the thing to buy: a carved wooden marionette, not a molded face on a cloth body.

Prague’s best-known marionette shop, Marionety Truhlář near Charles Bridge, closed its gallery in September 2020 after 27 years. Its workshop still makes puppets from linden and beech in a studio in Vinohrady, where it also teaches puppet-making classes. Order from the studio or book a class rather than hunting for the old shop.

The witches, jesters and Charlie Chaplins hanging three deep in Old Town doorways are a different product. If the same face appears in every shop, it came from a distributor, not a carver.

What to eat and drink home

Becherovka is the Czech bottle most worth packing. It is a herbal bitter made in Karlovy Vary since 1807 from Karlovy Vary water, alcohol, sugar and a secret blend of herbs and spices. Ordinary supermarkets stock it, so there is no need to pay souvenir-shop prices.

Karlovy Vary spa wafers (Karlovarské oplatky) are thin, round wafers with a sweet filling. Since 2011 the name has been an EU protected geographical indication. They pack flat and survive a suitcase.

Czech beer travels fine in a checked bag if you wrap it well. Buy bottles at a supermarket, and taste first so you know which brewery you like.

For the food side, Náplavka Farmers’ Market runs every Saturday from 8:00 to 14:00, February to December, on the riverbank. More than 90 stalls sell produce, cheese, bread, fish and some handicrafts, and plenty of Praguers shop there. Honey and preserves from these stalls make better gifts than anything with a Prague skyline printed on it. Midweek, Gurmet Pasáž Dlouhá is a 1920s arcade off Dlouhá with a butcher and a cheese-and-wine shop, good for picnic supplies.

If you would rather taste before you buy, a Prague Old Town food tour covers Czech classics and tells you what is worth bringing home. And if Becherovka and glass are what you came for, a Karlovy Vary day trip from Prague takes you to the town where both are made. You can also visit the Moser glassworks there.

Cosmetics: what Manufaktura is and isn’t

Manufaktura is a Czech cosmetics brand founded in 1991. It is also a chain, with branches across Prague: on Celetná and Melantrichova in the Old Town, on Na Příkopě, in shopping malls and at the airport. Its beer shampoo and its products with Karlovy Vary spring salt are genuinely Czech-made and make good light gifts.

Just don’t treat it as a discovery. It is a well-run brand store, not a craft workshop, and you will pass a branch without trying.

Blue-print, toys and design

Blue-print (modrotisk) is indigo-dyed cotton printed with hand-carved wooden blocks. It was added to UNESCO’s intangible heritage list in 2018 as a joint nomination of Austria, Czechia, Hungary and Slovakia. Czech sources named two family workshops that still do it by hand: Danzinger in Olešnice, founded in 1816, and Joch in Strážnice, founded in 1906. Both are in Moravia, so if you see blue-print in Prague, ask which workshop it came from.

For toys, Hugo chodí bos sells wooden toys, puzzles and picture books made in Czechia, with shops on Milady Horákové in Letná and on Vodičkova in the New Town. This is where to find a Krtek (the Little Mole) that wasn’t made for the tourist trade.

CzechTourism also points design-minded shoppers to In August Company in Bubeneč, whose products come mostly from small workshops in the Vysočina region. The brand also works with sheltered workshops.

Coffee and cake that employs people

These aren’t souvenirs, but they are easy to fit into a shopping day. Café Therapy on Školská opened in 2005 as the first Czech social enterprise built to help people back into work after addiction treatment or prison. It is run by the nonprofit Sananim. Bílá vrána (“White Crow”), on Ve Smečkách near Wenceslas Square, has employed people with intellectual and combined disabilities since 2011.

Tichá kavárna in Prague 8 opened in 2011 as Prague’s first cafe with deaf staff. You order by pointing or signing, and the profits support services for deaf people. Back in the Old Town, Skautský institut is a scout-run cafe on the first floor of a building by the Astronomical Clock, with prices well below the square around it.

What about Havelské tržiště?

Havelské tržiště dates from 1232 and is the only surviving marketplace in the heart of old Prague. Prague City Tourism says it sells fruit and vegetables, with mostly souvenirs at weekends.

Treat it as a walk-through, not a shopping destination. Some stalls sell fruit, wooden toys and wafers. Many sell the same marionettes, magnets and “crystal” you have seen everywhere else, at Old Town prices. Buy fruit, look at the building fronts, and save your souvenir money for the makers above.

Four questions that sort real from tourist

Would a Czech person buy this? Becherovka, spa wafers, beer, a Moser glass: yes. A trdelník or a nesting doll: no. The trdelník is a Slovak and Moravian pastry that only appeared on Prague’s streets in the 2000s.

Can you name the maker? Moser, Granát Turnov, Truhlář, Danzinger. “Bohemian crystal” on its own tells you nothing about who made it.

Does it come with paperwork? For garnets you should get a certificate and a hallmark every time.

Does the same item appear in every shop? Then you are buying from a distributor, not a maker.

A local tip

Do your edible shopping last. Becherovka, wafers and beer cost the same at the supermarket near your hotel as anywhere else, and there is no reason to carry glass bottles around the Old Town all day. Buy the fragile things (glass, garnets) from the maker, ask for proper packing, and leave room in your bag.

Frequently asked questions

What should I buy in Czechia?

The most reliable Czech souvenirs are glass from a named glassworks such as Moser, Bohemian garnet jewelry sold with a certificate by Granát Turnov, a carved wooden marionette from a real maker, and edible gifts: Becherovka, Karlovy Vary spa wafers and Czech beer.

How do I know if Bohemian garnets are real?

Buy from Granát Turnov, the cooperative that holds the only permit to mine Czech garnets, and ask for its certificate of authenticity. Czech trading inspectors advise checking for a G or G1 hallmark and keeping a dated receipt.

Is Havelské tržiště worth shopping at?

It is worth walking through. The market dates from 1232 and still sells fruit, but many stalls sell the same marionettes, magnets and glass found across the Old Town. Buy fruit or wafers there and save serious souvenir money for named makers.

Is Manufaktura a local shop?

Manufaktura is a Czech cosmetics brand founded in 1991 and sold through its own chain of shops across Prague, including the airport. Its beer and spa-salt products are Czech-made and good light gifts, but it is a brand store rather than a craft workshop.

Where can I buy Becherovka in Prague?

Becherovka is sold in ordinary Prague supermarkets, so you don’t need a souvenir shop for it. It is made in Karlovy Vary, where the Jan Becher Museum tells its story, if you want to see where it comes from.

More Prague: The best strudel in Prague · How many days in Prague · Where to stay in Prague · What to buy in Poland. Or browse the full Prague guide.

Featured image: Bohemian glass in a Prague shop window, by Øyvind Holmstad, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.