The answer: navigate Prague by squares and house signs, not by straight-line distance. Old Town and Mala Strana lanes bend so often that a 150-metre gap can be a 600-metre walk, and many buildings still carry a symbolic house sign - a lion, a bell, a golden snake - that identifies them better than the number. Fix on the nearest square (Old Town Square, Mala Strana Square, Bethlehem Square), then use a photo route for the final lanes.
Prague's historical centre was built on lanes that curve to avoid old property lines: a street you enter heading east can leave you heading south-west. Add two numbering systems and historic house signs instead of addresses, and the last 200 metres become the hard part.
The centre is a web of squares - namesti - connected by lanes that rarely run straight. If you navigate square to square (Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square, Republic Square, Mala Strana Square, Bethlehem Square, Charles Square), you can always re-orient, even without signal. Trying to navigate by individual lane names is much harder: the same lane changes name mid-block more than once.
Before modern numbering, Prague buildings were identified by painted or carved signs - U Zlateho hada (At the Golden Snake), U Dvou sluncu (At the Two Suns), U Zvonu (At the Bell). Many are restored, and hotels often display both the number and the old sign. If you are told 'look for the house with the red lion', that is not folklore - it is the most precise instruction available on that lane. Photograph the sign in your route and you will recognize the building instantly.
Prague buildings commonly carry two numbers: a blue one for the district (orientacni cislo) and a red one for the historic house register (popisne cislo). They rarely match. If your booking shows one and the door shows the other, you are probably in the right place - check the district number against the blue plate rather than assuming the address is wrong.
Many hotels sit in a courtyard reached through a passage (pruchod) in the street facade, which looks like a closed door until you are standing in it. Others sit above an arcade (podsieni) so the entrance is set back. In Mala Strana the lanes also climb toward the castle: check whether your final route is uphill, because with luggage the same 300 metres feel very different.
1) Get to the nearest metro or tram stop and walk to the square closest to your hotel. 2) Take a saved Prague photo route from that square - it shows the passage entrance and the house sign. 3) Screenshot it for offline use. 4) Check for a passage entrance before deciding you have the wrong address. Our Czech beer price comparison is a light way to measure the local cost level before you book.