Souveniers from Prague

I won´t give you the full shopping list here but I´m sure you will find useful tips for what to bring from Prague:

Crystal and glass

There´s a long tradition in the fine glass and crystal production. The typical design is usually clear cut crystal, but for example famous Moser glass is coloured, you can find the pieces with golden edges, enamel painting or modern design... You name it!

On the other hand be careful where you buy it – not all „Bohemia crystal“ shops sell pieces made in the Czech Republic. I´ll be happy to give you recommendation on the tour.

My tip: trip to the glassworks in Nizbor: you will see the whole process of glass making (furnace where they blow it, quality control and cutting) and of course you can shop in their factory shop.

Wooden toys and marionettes

Wooden toys for younger children, marionettes for the older ones – you can find many varieties, my favourite wooden toys are the moving ones – birds crawling down the tree, monkeys on the ladder etc.

Garnet jewels (and moldavites)

Don´t you worry, it´s not only for the millionairs! Bohemian garnets are special variety of the garnet which is found on the north of the country and they are dark red. Bohemian garnets are small in size so the goldsmiths use many of them to make the patterns. The most typical are the flowers or stars, but you can find it in many other designs.

In this case be double careful about the fakes! Remember the bohemian garnets are small, so if someone tells you the stone larger the appro. 4 mm diameter are bohemian garnets then just turn around and leave the shops. Even the official producer uses other kinds of garnets, which are larger, but they tell you the truth.

And good news – traditionally they were used with silver more often then with gold, what makes the jewels very affordable and yet they are very special!

There is only one producer of the garnet jewels, Granát Turnov. They have 3 factory shops in Prague:  http://www.granat.cz/en/retail-outlets

Moldavite is special mineral of green colour – ranging from light green to bottle green. They can be found only in a small area in the south of the country and probably originate in a fall of meteorite. They don´t have the crystalic structure, often they cut them, but they make wonderful combinations when used without cutting!

Spa wafers

If you don´t feel like buying jewels but rather want many little gifts for your friends, then spa wafers are great choice.
In every supermarket you can find this brand:

They are yummy, but for the souvenier purpose you may prefer spa wafers with fancier boxes:

Beer cosmetics

Beer is one of the most famous Czech products so either buy few bottles or go for beer cosmetics! Don´t worry, you won´t smell like a barrell, but the hops and malt might be what your skin or hair needs :-)

Manufaktura and Botanicus are two very good brands of natural cosmetics and of course they have the beer product line.

Seasonal products

Painted eggs

Christmas decorations

There are few shops which have the all the year round, but of course there is not such a wide choice as around the time of the Easter or Christmas.

What are NOT Czech souveniers:

Russian dolls – matryoshkas. You know: the doll, which has a smaller doll inside which has a smaller doll inside which has... Understand me – nothing against Russian dolls, many of them are really nice – if they are bought in Russia. We never produced them, so it makes no sense bringing them like souvenier from Prague.

Russian hats – same story as with the dolls plus they are extremely ugly in my opinion. The ugliest version are those with the Soviet red star – it is a symbol of a totality which killed millions of people and therefor it is kind of similar like buying a hat with svastika. Who would do that?!