Czechia: Where the Weekend Means a Cottage in the Woods

An ordinary working day in Czechia tends to start early, runs through a hot lunch that is often the main meal rather than a quick sandwich, and, for a great many people, ends at the local pub rather than straight home. Beer is close to a national institution here — Czechs drink more of it per person than anywhere else in the world, and in 2025 the country's beer culture, from hop growing to pub life itself, was formally recognised as national intangible cultural heritage. Then Friday arrives, and many urban families head out of the city entirely, to a modest countryside cottage, a chata or chalupa, that has often been in the family for a generation or two and exists for exactly this purpose.

Family and home life

About 1.4 million people live in Prague, a compact city that suffered far less wartime damage than many others in the region and still runs largely on Gothic, Baroque and Art Nouveau architecture rather than postwar rebuilding. Daily life is generally described as orderly and home-centred, and it remains common for urban families to have access to a small countryside cottage, inherited or bought decades ago, that serves as a second, informal home for weekends and holidays. Housing costs in Prague and Brno are a real and growing pressure, pushing many younger families out into the suburbs or smaller towns.

Work, school and the rhythm of the day

The economy is industrial and export-driven, built around car manufacturing above all, plus machinery, electronics and engineering, and tightly bound up with Germany's economy as both supplier and neighbour. Unemployment has repeatedly been the lowest in the EU in recent years. The school year runs from the first weekday of September to the last weekday of June, split into two semesters with exams at each one's end; primary school covers nine years in total, the first five taught mostly by a single class teacher and the next four bringing specialist subject teachers. A hot cooked lunch, often soup followed by a main dish and frequently eaten at a work or school canteen, is the main meal of the day for many people, with a lighter meal in the evening.

Community life and public spaces

The pub, called a hospoda or pivnice, is the country's real social institution, open through the day and into the evening and treated as a place to sit for hours over a beer rather than pass through quickly; U Fleků in Prague, a pub and brewery, dates back to 1499. Outdoor markets selling produce, flowers and handmade goods, such as Prague's Havelské tržiště, remain a genuine part of everyday shopping alongside the supermarket. Prague runs an extensive tram and metro network, the country's only metro, and Brno and Ostrava have large tram systems of their own, while smaller towns rely on buses and one of the densest rail networks in the world.

Free time and weekends

The chata or chalupa is where a great deal of Czech free time actually happens: gardening, simple repairs, and time outdoors that has little to do with the working week. Autumn brings widespread mushroom foraging in the forests, a pastime taken seriously enough that many families have their own trusted spots, often passed down much like the cottage itself. Weekends in the city, by contrast, tend to be quieter, with the pub remaining the default place to meet friends whether the occasion is a football match, a birthday, or nothing in particular.

A visitor's ordinary day

Czechia uses its own currency, the koruna, despite EU membership, and cards are accepted almost everywhere in cities, though small pubs, markets and rural buses still favour cash. A half-litre of beer in a pub outside the Prague tourist core costs a fraction of what the same drink costs on Old Town Square, a gap worth knowing before choosing where to sit down. Trams and the metro in Prague are cheap, frequent and easy to use once a ticket is validated, and trains reach most of the country reasonably well. Pickpocketing and overcharging by unofficial taxis are the main practical hazards in central Prague's most crowded tourist spots, easily avoided with ordinary care.

What to take away

An ordinary day in Czechia runs on a hot lunch, a well-used tram network and a pub that functions as a genuine second living room — and an ordinary weekend, for a great many families, runs on leaving the city behind entirely for a modest cottage in the woods.