TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Other links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission that helps contribute to the running of the site. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to all credit card welcome offers, earning rates and benefits and some credit card benefits will require enrollment. For more details please see the disclosures found at the bottom of every page.
Better late than never, this is my review of the Andaz Prague, a property which Joanna and I visited a few months ago when I finally stopped talking about visiting Prague and actually booked us a 3-night visit.
The property opened in April 2022 (making it one of the newer European properties) and it gets quite a lot of praise online, so I was interested to see how reality and online chatter compare.
Fortunately for us, for once, the internet wasn’t full of hot air and hype because the Andaz Prague did not disappoint.
The admin
- Length of stay: 3 nights
- Room booked: 1 King Bed
- Upgrade instruments used: Suite Upgrade Award
- Room we upgraded to: Junior Suite
- Room received: Andaz Suite
- Actual cost of stay: 67,000 World of Hyatt points (Category 6 off-peak/standard booking)
- Cheapest nightly room rate for the same dates*: $543.82 (inc. taxes)
- Cheapest nightly rate for a Junior Suite for the same dates*: $878.57 (inc. taxes)
- Cheapest nightly rate for an Andaz Suite for the same dates*: $892.26 (inc. taxes)
- Elite status at time of stay: Hyatt Globalist
- Points earned from the booking: 0 (zero)
*At the time of booking
Getting there/location
The Andaz Prague is located approximately 12.5 miles/20 km east of Prague International Airport and sits just outside the city’s “Old Town” (it’s a 5 minute walk from the hotel to the Old Town boundary).
The easiest way to get to the hotel from Prague International Airport if you have checked luggage is to take a taxi/Uber from outside the airport. The travel time can range significantly depending on traffic (25 – 50 mins).
We took an Uber in both directions and paid $32 from the airport to the hotel and $28 from the hotel to the airport.
Easiest way to get to the hotel by public transport from Prague International Airport to take the train from Terminal 1 to Prague’s main train station (Hlavní Nádraži) from where you’ll have a 5 – 8 minute walk to the hotel (total travel time ~50 mins).
If you’re hoping to explore a lot of what Prague has to offer, you’ll find that the property’s location is excellent (you’ll find that a lot of the city’s tours start in a square just 5 minutes’ walk away) and we had no problem walking to everything we wanted to see during our 3-night trip (including Prague Castle).
The upgrade
I booked an entry-level room (1 King Bed measuring 269sqft/25sqm) in the knowledge that I would use a Suite Upgrade Award to get us in to one of the property’s Junior Suites.
The full suites at the Andaz Prague are all classified as “Premium Suites” and so you can’t use a Suite Upgrade Award to upgrade into them, but given that a Junior Suite and an Andaz Suite (the lowest level Premium Suite) are listed as being the same size (570sqft/53sqm), this probably won’t be an issue for most people.
On this occasion, we got lucky as on the day of arrival, the Hyatt app showed that the property had moved us out of our Junior Suite and into an Andaz Suite.
This was a very nice (if unexpected) surprise, and the pleasant surprises continued when we found that our suite was ready for us when we arrived at the hotel.
Arrival, lobby & check-in
There are two entrances to the Andaz Prague. If you’re approaching from the city’s main station, you’ll enter through the doors on the south side of the building (next to the Jindřišská tram stop), and if you arrive by car/taxi/Uber or from any other direction, you’ll probably enter through the main doors on the north side of the building which sits on a cobbled square (of sorts) – Senovážné square.
To get to the main lobby area from either of the building’s entrances, you pass through a couple of brightly lit corridors before finding yourself standing in front of the 2-person check-in desk with a self-serve complimentary coffee machine to one side.
Adjacent to the check-in area are a couple of seating areas where guests can relax while waiting to be checked in or while waiting for their room to be prepared.
On this occasion, we had no need of the sitting areas as the wait to be checked-in was under 5 minutes long (we arrived at just after 3pm) and once we were being attended to, the whole check-in process took no longer than a few minutes.
The Andaz suite
There are five floors above the lobby level at the Andaz Prague and we were assigned an Andaz Suite on the top floor.
The hallways off of which the rooms and suites are located are well-lit and the patterned blue carpet gives the hallways a bit of character.
There’s a feeling of elegance about how this Andaz has been designed and decorated, and as soon as you’re through the front doors, you’ll probably notice that the property has a more “grown up” feel to it than some of the other Andaz properties around the world (e.g. the Andaz West Hollywood).
In the case of this particular Andaz Suite, the doors open to reveal an open closet on the left and the suite’s sitting area directly ahead.
The open closet is the Andaz Suite’s one weak spot.
This is the only closet space in the whole suite and while there’s plenty of hanging space here, there are just two drawers, and the whole open nature of the closet leaves quite a bit to be desired.
I don’t dislike this closet anywhere near as much as I dislike the open closets at, for example, the Hyatt Regency London Blackfriars (those closets look like they’ve been purchased in an Ikea sale), but there’s nothing elegant about an open closet and, frankly, the first thing that I see when I return to my room at the end of the day shouldn’t be my clothes hanging up in the hallway.
Moreover, if you want to invite someone back to your suite (e.g. for a business meeting or for a drink), do you really want them seeing your clothes hanging up?
Granted, this is hardly a big issue, but given how much else this property has got right, I’m surprised at this design choice.
That aside, however, things inside the suite are generally very good.
Moving into the suite’s sitting area, the decorations and most of the furniture have a modern feel to them, and the overall look is clean and elegant.
You’ll find a table and four chairs towards the middle of the sitting area and an armchair and a long sprawling sofa (which reminds me of the Nike swoosh) in the corner.
On the wall opposite the sofa is the entrance to the bedroom, and by this entrance, is a wall unit housing the first (of two) flat screen TVs, and a drinks cabinet.
On top of the drinks cabinet (which looks like an Art Deco piece from the 1920’s) is the coffee maker and the complimentary bottled water (which is replenished daily).
Within the drinks cabinet you’ll find glassware, a kettle, an ice bucket, tea/coffee/hot chocolate sachets and the mini bar with complimentary drinks (non-alcoholic).
There are a number of European-style 2-pin AC power outlets above the drinks cabinet which can make this a good place to charge any devices that you may have (bring an adapter if your devices are from outside Europe – affiliate link).
There’s a good feeling of space in this sitting area and while a couple of the walls look a bit bare, overall, this is a nice place to relax, to catch up on some reading, or to get some work done (all three of which I did on this visit).
One thing to note at this point is that because this suite is located on the top floor of a building with a sloping roof, you’ll find that some of the walls slope and leave certain areas of the suite with a lower than usual ceiling.
This isn’t an issue in the sitting area, but you have to be a little careful in the bedroom (more on that in a moment).
Walking through the entrance to the bedroom, you find yourself face to face with a European King bed (slightly wider than a UK King bed and slightly narrower than a US King bed) with a large padded headboard and multiple reading lamps.
Both sides of the bed have night stands and both sides of the bed have access to the suite’s lights as well as to more European 2-pin power outlets.
The one thing of which you have to be careful in this room (and this is probably something to note for a lot of the top floor rooms), is that the sloping wall on one side of the bed reduces the height clearance quite a bit.
At 6ft/182cm tall, I had to make sure I didn’t stand up straight around that side of the bed.
This isn’t a major issue. This is, after all, just part of the design of a beautiful old building, but it’s something to keep in mind – you can request a room that isn’t on the top floor at the time of booking if you think this will be a problem for you.
Facing the bed is the suite’s second large flat screen TV, and on one side of the bed is a window which looks out onto the square below.
The building with the green roof across the square from the Andaz Prague is the Julius Prague, one of the city’s top ranked hotels.
The feeling of space from the sitting area continues into the bedroom (probably because there are no storage units anywhere in this part of the suite), the bed strikes the right balance between soft and firm, and the subtle understated decor works well.
On the opposite side of the bed to the room’s window, is the entrance to the ensuite bathroom.
The bathroom is beautifully designed with white/grey marble walls, a grey marble floor, a large stand-alone soaking tub, a double vanity unit, a large shower cubicle (with rain shower as well as a regular shower head), and a separate cubicle for the toilet.
As we have come to expect at most hotels nowadays, the toiletries here are full-size and in the case of the Andaz Prague, they are from Byredo (a brand I last saw at the InterContinental London O2).
This is what an bathroom at a property aspiring to greatness should look like.
Thought has gone into the design (the mirrors are heated, and the toilet is in a separate cubicle), the marble tiling has been used tastefully, all aspects of the bathroom function as you’d hope they would function (there’s no style over substance here), and it feels and looks high-end.
Overall, and as you’ve probably deduced from what I’ve written so far, I really liked this suite.
Yes, there are one or two things which could have been done a little better (even after all the traveling that I’ve done I still haven’t found a perfect room), but it’s hard to be critical when looking at it as a whole.
The feeling of space is nice, the decor is (mostly) beautiful (I love the nods to the 1920s), the bathroom is fantastic, and I got a great night’s sleep on every night of our stay.
Space, comfort, and elegance. Those three words sum up this suite quite well.
Dining, restaurant & bar
ZEM
The hotel’s restaurant is called “ZEM” and it’s described as an “avant-garde Czech bistro” offering a menu which blends Czech produce “with occasional hints of Japanese flavors, crafted from a theatrical kitchen stage of charcoal and steam”.
This is where breakfast, lunch, and dinner are served.
- Breakfast: Monday to Sunday 07:00 to 11:00
- Lunch: Monday to Saturday 12:00 to 15:00
- Dinner: Monday to Sunday 18:00 to 23:00
- Sunday brunch: 12:00 to 15:00
Here’s a link to the latest dinner food and drinks menu.
The restaurant sits on the ground level on the same side of the hotel as the property’s main entrance and it looks out onto Senovážné square.
The dining space is relatively small, but the tables are well-spaced so there’s no feeling of being “squeezed in”.
As a dinner venue, this is popular with guests and locals alike, so reservations are strongly recommended.
It’s rare for us to eat dinner a hotel we’re staying at as we prefer to eat out at whatever local establishments are in the area, but the ZEM menu looked interesting and the restaurant had space for two, so we decided to try it out.
There were no tables available at the time we wanted to eat, so we accepted two seats at the restaurant’s counter area that looks into the kitchen.
I couldn’t get a picture of this area the evening, but this is what the it looks like at breakfast time (during the dinner service, there are stools on two sides).
Dinner was an excellent experience and you’re going to have to believe me when I say that the pictures I took don’t do the food justice (the restaurant is dimly lit at dinner time and that’s not great if you need to take pictures for a review!)
The restaurant was full, there was a nice buzz in the room, and because we were seated up at the counter area and looking into the kitchen, we could watch all the food being prepared and we even had a couple of the chefs come over to us to have a quick chat.
Our starters were pork gyozas (pork, ginger, shiitake mushrooms, spring onions) with ponzu sauce and venison carpaccio with smoked chestnut, farm cheese and fermented blueberries.
Our main courses were tuna steak with a small side salad and wild boar cheeks with smoked potato purée, truffles, pumpkin, kale, and pumpkin seeds.
We also had two sides: Grilled vegetable and a small portion of French fries.
Everything about the experience was good. The service was friendly and efficient, the food was great and the restaurant felt like it was full of people having a good time (without being loud or obnoxious).
Dinner (the dishes mentioned above), a bottle of Japanese beer and a large bottle of mineral water cost 2,615CZK (approximately $125).
Usually, I would suggest that visitors should eat out and experience the city they’re staying in rather than eating at their hotel, but I’ll make an exception for ZEM because the food and the ambiance was that good.
If you’re visiting the Andaz Prague, try this restaurant out and try to get a seat at the counter. You won’t regret it.
MEZ
The hotel bar is called MEZ and it sits between ZEM and the lobby.
The bar is open from 11:00 to 00:00 Monday to Sunday and serves wines, beers, cocktails, local Czech specialties, juices, soft drinks, teas, coffees and even hot chocolate.
It also serves a small selection of “nibbles”, “small bites”, and “big bites”.
Link to the latest drinks and food menu
As hotel bars go, this isn’t going to win any prizes, and while the staff are unquestionably friendly, helpful and polite, it feels like space that doesn’t really know what it wants to be.
It’s a bar because it serves alcoholic drinks, but it’s also an overflow area for ZEM at breakfast time and it acts more like a coffee shop than a bar during the afternoon, so it doesn’t really have an identity.
While ZEM gets its ambience just right, MEZ feels a bit nondescript and bland and when your in a city as beautiful and historic as Prague, there’s no need to settle for anything bland.
Breakfast
Breakfast is served in ZEM between 07:00 and 11:00 daily and guests are offered a small continental/cold buffet and an a la carte menu.
If you have breakfast included in your room rate or if you’re a World of Hyatt Globalist member, your menu comes without prices and you can choose whatever you feel like eating.
If you’re staying on a room only rate and don’t hold top-tier World of Hyatt elite status, you get the same menu, but with prices.
At the time of writing, the continental buffet isn’t showing on the main menu, but the a la carte dishes cost between 285CZK/$$13.50 and 425CZK/$20.50.
The small continental buffet:
A few of the a la carte options:
Czech Benedict – Czech Buchta (a bun), pickled kohlrabi (a type of cabbage), Prague ham, and hollandaise sauce.
Turkish eggs – Yoghurt, poached eggs, chilli oil, and herb oil.
Garden to plate breakfast – Fresh farm eggs any style, butter beans in tomato sauce, herb roasted tomato, rosti potatoes (not shown) and portobello mushroom.
“Refreshing smoothie” – Watermelon, strawberry, peach and lime.
The quality of the food in the buffet was high (the bread and cheeses were particularly good), and the staff were very good at replenishing the buffet before things started to run out.
The a la carte items were also very good (flavorful and fresh), and because breakfast wasn’t just one big buffet, there wasn’t a continual stream of guests walking around giving the room the feel of a railway station concourse.
Even on the one morning when we arrived at breakfast at one of its busier times, the experience felt orderly and civilised and the overall breakfast experience at the Andaz Prague was a noticeable step up over the breakfasts I’ve had at quite a few other similarly priced properties in the past couple of years.
Tip: Try to avoid the more peak breakfast hours if you can. The restaurant can get busy between 9:00 and 10:00, so service can slow down, and because the dining area is quite small, you may find that you have to sit in the MEZ bar area or another small overflow area (just outside ZEM) rather than in the restaurant itself.
Gym
The gym is located one level under the lobby so, like so many other city center hotel gyms, it lacks natural light.
It’s also not particularly big, but it’s very well lit, it looks very nice, it’s well maintained, and it somehow manages to hold quite a lot of equipment without giving off the feel that someone just crammed everything in without much thought.
For a subterranean gym with no access to natural light, this one is surprisingly nice, and it holds more than enough different types of equipment to give most guests a good workout.
Note: The hotel also offers a spa on the same level as they gym but as we were in Prague to explore the city and not to sit around being pampered, we didn’t try it out.
Two tips
Before I move on to my closing thoughts, here are two small tips for anyone considering booking an entry-level room at the Andaz Prague.
Tip 1
Above one of the seating areas in the lobby you’ll find a large skylight, and this is a feature worth noting.
The skylight is there as a result of the building’s design which gives it two central atriums (as can be seen from the Google Maps aerial view of the property).
The aerial view also shows that a number of the hotel’s rooms look into the central atrium and that will probably mean that they will be noticeably darker than the rooms facing outwards.
Keep this in mind when it comes to choosing which room to book, especially as a room which guarantees a view can often cost just a few dollars more than a room where a view isn’t specifically guaranteed.
Sure, there’s a chance that won’t get an inwardly facing room if you book the cheapest rate, but why not pay just $9/night more to guarantee yourself a view of the outside world?
Tip 2
The north side of the hotel (facing Senovážné square) is relatively traffic free.
The south side of the hotel, however, looks out on to a road with tram lines, so there’s a chance that you may be able to hear the trams from your room.
I can’t be sure of this as our suite overlooked Senovážné square and we were never disturbed, but if you’re a light sleeper, consider requesting “a quiet room which doesn’t overlook the tram lines”.
Final thoughts
Before booking, I usually do quite a bit of research on the properties at which we stay and as this trip was no different, I was expecting the Andaz Prague to be good – when I’m traveling with Joanna, I never book a property where there’s a chance that it could be disappointing.
What I wasn’t expecting, however, was for it to live up to some of the more gushing reviews that I have read. But it mostly did.
We stayed in a suite and not in a standard room, so that makes hard for me to say, with 100% certainty, that the Andaz Prague is a fantastic hotel at which to stay regardless of which room you book.
What I can say, however, is that every single member of staff with whom we interacted was friendly and helpful, the ambience and dinner at ZEM were both great, the breakfast was just right, the building is beautiful, the decor in the common areas gives the hotel a grown up, elegant feel and high-end feel, and the location is perfect for exploring Prague.
Based on all of that, I’d be more than happy to “take my chances” with a non-suite room here.
Naturally, the next time we visit (and there will definitely be a next time) I’ll try to use another Suite Upgrade Award (because the suites are a good size and they look great), but even if an upgrade isn’t available, this will still be the property that I book because I liked it that much.
This was a really fantastic trip and while the starring role across the three days was played by Prague itself (a truly beautiful city that I’d encourage you to visit), the Andaz Prague played its part beautifully and we cannot wait to return.
Related (reviews of other Hyatt properties in Europe):
- Review: Park Hyatt London River Thames (a high-end Hyatt in the wrong location)
- Review: Park Hyatt London River Thames – Park Suite River View Deluxe (I was right!)
- Great Scotland Yard Hotel London review (Hyatt Unbound Collection)
- Hyatt Regency London Blackfriars review
- Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill review (Regency Suite)
- Hyatt Regency London Albert Embankment review
- Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport review
- Hyatt Centric The Liberties Dublin review
- Review: Hyatt Centric Milan Centrale (Terrace Suite)
- Review: Hyatt Place Kraków (a great base from which to explore the city)
Stayed here last year, it is a beautiful property!