(photo: www.czechtourism.com)

New Year’s Eve in Style

If you want to celebrate New Year’s Eve in style, go to the theatre or opera: you will not regret it! The boards will be mostly dominated by comedies on the last day of the year. The National Theatre in Prague (http://www.narodni-divadlo.cz/) will produce a comedy opera by Gaetano Donizetti, “The Elixir of Love”, on New Year’s Eve; Jiří Myron Theatre (Divadlo Jiřího Myrona, http://www.ndm.cz) in the town of Ostrava has prepared a performance for its visitors called “New Year’s Eve” (Silvestr) including an operetta and musical. You will enjoy an evening in style at the Prague State Opera (www.opera.cz), where you will welcome in the New Year with the music and smile of Johann Strauss’s “Bat” (Die Fledermaus). After the performance, you will be able to dance on stage to the music of a swing orchestra and enjoy mouth-watering delicacies.

High Spirits on Prague’s Squares

As usual, a New Year’s Eve fun programme with a number of celebrities and fireworks is going to be prepared on many Czech squares. Right in the centre of Prague, you can celebrate on Old Town Square waiting for midnight with a cup of mead or mulled wine in your hands. A rich programme for both Prague inhabitants and tourists will also be prepared for the feast night on Wenceslas Square. The town of Brno will also be celebrating in high spirits, on Náměstí Svobody (Liberty Square), and other towns will not miss the opportunity either: you can visit, for instance, Náměstí Republiky (Republic Square) in the town of Plzeň or Náměstí Míru (Peace Square) in Zlín.

However, the best fireworks will be displayed the day after, on New Year’s Day, in the Czech capital (www.prague.eu), where you can enjoy a wonderful stroll along the waterfront on the first day of the year. The fireworks will light up the sky right above the River Vltava at around 6 p.m.

Dance in the New Year

In case you don’t like to be freezing outside on a square, almost every club and disco offers a rich line-up for New Year’s Eve. You will definitely not be disappointed in Ostrava’s Stodolní Street that never sleeps (www.stodolni.cz) and is full of clubs, bars and discos. In Prague, you can enjoy your night in Roxy club (www.roxy.cz), Lucerna Music Bar (www.musicbar.cz), Lávka club (www.lavka.cz) or Sasazu (www.sasazu.com), among many others. The town of Brno will also keep in step: Fléda club (www.fleda.cz) will be crowded as usual, and Livingstone (www.livingstoneclub.cz), Metro (www.metromusic.cz) or Mersey (www.mersey.cz) clubs will be full of dancers, too. 

Ski in the New Year

If you have had enough of the city the whole year you can say goodbye to the old year in the mountains of the Czech Republic. You will definitely find a place that will suit your wishes, but do not hesitate with your booking: many Czechs like celebrating their New Year’s Eve in the mountains. The most preferred Czech ranges include the Giant Mountains (Krkonoše), Šumava, Ore Mountains (Krušné hory) or Jeseníky (www.holidayinfo.cz), for instance. In the town of Lenora, Šumava, you can bake bread or pies with your own hands under the supervision of local bakers. A number of ski resorts will prepare New Year’s Eve skiing accompanied by fireworks (http://lyzovani.spicak.cz/; www.klinovec.cz; www.skiregion.cz). However, we do not recommend you drink alcohol before or during your skiing.

New Year’s Eve in a Spa

If you feel you have neglected your health during the past year, you can make up for it at the very end of the year. A number of spa hotels throughout the Czech Republic offer New Year’s packages. One of the most luxurious ones is awaiting you in a Carlsbad hotel called Pupp (www.pupp.cz): there is nothing better than to indulge in a thermal pool with a glass of champagne on a chilly evening. And the spa town of Luhačovice (www.luhacovice.cz) will welcome you with healing baths and massages as well as a dulcimer band from the Moravian country, for instance.