How to get from Prague airport to Brno?
The trip from Prague airport to Brno is about four hours.
Getting through the Prague
Public transport
The "default" way is to use public transpot. First, you need a CZK 26 ticket: either in a news stand, or get some change and buy at the bus stop. The ticket has to be stamped as soon as you enter a bus; look for a small yellow box, of size 15cm x 30 cm x 5 cm; take care to insert the ticket the right way (or stamp both end on both sides ;-). The ticket is valid for 75 minutes since stamping, it can be used for all city buses, tramways, underground, funiculars, and ferries.
(For the gory details, see our Prague Public Transport description.)
To get to a railway or bus station, take the bus No. 119 for the Airport to Dejvicka (end stop, no way to miss it ;-); this takes 25 minutes. Then go under the ground and use the undeground (metro) to get to the desired station. There are thousands of maps in "metro", you cannot get lost. If you are changing lines in metro, you have to walk to the platform of the other line, situated either below or above the platform to which you arrived.
You might be interested in these stations:
- Dejvicka; end stop of line A (green), this is where bus 119 arrives to
- Nadrazi Holesovice ("Railway station Holesovice"), line C (red),
near the centre of Prague
- Hlavni nadrazi ("Main railway station"), line C (red), near the centre of Prague
- Florenc, the main bus station, the crossing of line B (yellow) and C (red), near the centre of Prague
- Roztyly, another bus station, line C (red) 20 minutes by underground from centre
More complicated
If you want it a bit more complicated, then you can walk through the Prague Castle, one of the nicest places of Prague. When you arrive to Dejvicka, simply go to the south. (You can find south by the position of sun, right? Be sure to set the analogue clock to GMT+1, not CEST.) At the castle, you might climb up the tower of the cathedral. (Pay only the "tower" entrance fee, not "full cathedral round".) Then continue to the east and climb down by the "New Castle Stairs" and find the underground station Malostranska near its lower end.
Or climb down by the "Old Castle Stairs" (they are prallel, so they also go to the east), go through "Malostranske namesti" (Lesser Town Square) and "Mostecka ulice" (Bridge street) to the Charles Bridge, one of the oldest stone bridges in Europe. Enjoy the Old Town quarter on the other side of the river Vltava, and find a station of the underground there.
Though this may be a 30 minutes of fast walk for a local guy, you shall reserve 2 to 4 hours to quietly enjoy this.
Easier
Instead of bus line 119, you can take bus named Airport Express (line "AE") which goes directly to "Nadrazi Holesovice". The ticket costs CZK 45, and can be bought at the driver of the bus. If you decide to continue by underground line C to "Florenc" or "Hlavni nadrazi", the ticket is still valid for that.
Or, if you go with Student Agency, they will take care for you.
By bus
One of the possibilities is Student Agency.
They offer connections with departure directly from the Prague airport (Praha Ruzyne, terminal 1); it takes 4 1/2 hours. You can try to catch their bus on the Prague airport, and fall back to other alternatives if the bus is full.
Please see the map at the right, and look at our Student Agency page how their yellow buses look like.
Or you can buy their ticket online, either from the airport (CZK 250 ~ EUR 10) or from Florenc (CZK 200 ~ EUR 8) or from Roztyly (CZK 150 ~ EUR 6). See above how to get to Florenc or Roztyly.
The translated schedule is available here.
You can also book the combined flight/bus to Brno ticket with student agency.
By train
The Airport Express bus (see above) is scheduled to coincide with the arrivals and departures of SuperCity (Pendolino), EuroCity and InterCity trains. A ticket costs 45CZK (2 EUR) and covers the Airport - Holesovice Train Station - Main Train Station route. You have to find your connection from the Prague train station to the Brno train station, go to jizdnirady.idnes.cz and click on the english flag to switch the language, enter "Holesovice/Praha" for Holesovice train station or "Praha" for Prague main station, check "Direct connections only" and search for it.
Buy the ticket at a counter at the railway station. They should accept euros and credit cards, at least at some counters on each of the stations mentioned above.
The price is CZK 310 (EUR 12.70). Group discount is available for groups of 2+ people: the price is CZK 310 * (n+1)/2. If you buy the ticket at least one day in advance, you get it for CZK 175 (EUR 7), so it might be a good idea to buy tickets for return journey right with the tickets to Brno, or immediately after you get to Brno. This ticket is enough for EuroCity and InterCity fast trains, which go to brno 2 hours 40 mins.
There are also SuperCity trains, which are slightly faster (2:25), but you have to pay extra for obligatory seat reservation. In many cases, it is cheaper to buy "SuperCity Net" ticket, which is a combination of ticket for one person and the seat reservation, for CZK 400 (EUR 20). Otherwise, the seat reservation is CZK 200 (EUR 8), or CZK 86 (EUR 3.50) if you have "Rail+plus" card (issued by various European rail companies, AFAIK). (With the CZK 175 ticket for return journey, you can leave buying the seat reservation until just before going back to Prague.)
By car
If you rent a car, just use the GPS or consult google maps.