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The riverside gardens and chateau of Troja are an excellent destination for a day trip out of the city. Cross the Vltava from Stromovka, take in the château’s beautiful garden and art collection (see Troja Château), the Baroque chapel of St Clare and the zoological gardens. There is a bus from here that will take you back to the centre.

Also known as Týn Courtyard, this was a fortified merchants settlement in the 11th century. The Baroque and Renaissance houses were completely renovated in the early 1990s, creating what is now one of the Old Town’s most charming mercantile centres.

Malá Strana has many green pockets, but Vojan’s gardens top them all for their romantic charm. Tulip beds, flowering fruit trees and the occasional peacock add to the fairytale atmosphere (see Vojanovy Sady).

The former fortress of Vyšehrad (see Vyšehrad Sights) is steeped in legend. Bedřich Smetana paid tribute to the second seat of the Přemyslid dynasty that resided here in the 10th century in his opera Libuše and in his rousing patriotic work Má vlast (see Bedřich Smetana). The composer is buried here in the National Cemetery, as are many other luminaries of Czech culture.

In addition to Křižík Fountain, the Prague exhibition grounds are home to the Lunapark carnival: ferris wheels, roller-coasters and similar other rides will toss and turn the kids for hours, and, if they can still stomach it, there’s even candy floss (cotton candy). The fun begins in March and carries on through the warmer summer months.

The fair grounds here were originally built at the end of the 19th century to host trade shows, but nowadays you’re more likely to see a hockey match or a rock concert at Paegas Arena, or a Shakespeare performance at a replica of London’s Globe Theatre. There’s an amusement park with rides for the kids, an outdoor cinema and the oddly charming musical Křižík Fountain. If you want to see the original statues that graced Charles Bridge, rather than today’s replicas, pay a visit to the Lapidárium, where they are preserved (see Lapidarium).

This former horse market, in contrast to its medieval counterpart in the Old Town (see Old Town Square), expresses the history of 20th-century Prague, from its beautiful Art Nouveau façades to the memories of the many marches, political protests and celebrations that have shaped the city over the past 100 years.

This is one of the more entertaining spots at Prague Castle. Here they can shoot a real crossbow, pick out their favourite suit of armour and imagine the grisly goings-on in the torture chamber. Little people will have no trouble negotiating the low, narrow passages, but adults might.

The Communists unashamedly cleared away a Jewish cemetery on the site in the 1970s to make way for this eyesore, reaching almost 100-m (300-ft) in height. However it didn’t begin transmitting until after the Velvet Revolution. Despite a viewing platform, the tower is actually too tall to see anything clearly, but thrill-seekers may want to try.