When using your sim in another country the internet connection will always be routed through the sim provider, it's something that people at my work have been using to work from Portugal and Spain and still have local IP so they don't get caught:D
best ad read ive seen for a long time, showing an actual usable thing that is not just hyped up hyperbole from the company paying for the ad, you truly are the Honest Guide, your vids have saved me off from plenty of tourist scams!
protip: get vpn and spend about 2 or 3 us whereas without it will be 15-20 us. just imagine you're in a country with very very high rates of inflation. works this way with many such digital products:) netflix
I visited Prague last week and I couldn't fathom the number of times where I almost got ran over by a gang of electric scooters, mostly ridden by multiple people at the same time on sidewalks
You are so right it’s not just Prague. I’ve seen it in Warsaw and I’ve seen it in Vienna and of course I see it in Chicago where I live and it is absolutely ridiculous. These things should be banned to save the very least!
Those things are so annoying they are in Poland too - tons of reckless teens riding them, usually 2 or 3 riding one scooter, i've even seen 5 people riding one! They do not have any idea about the traffic rules, they go from one side of the road to another, from sidewalk to bike path, ride through the middle of intersections, stop abruptly, you name it, just causing danger and being a nuisance. And then when they finish their ride they drop those things everywhere, it's not only annoying but also dangerous when they drop them in the middle of narrow bike paths with tight corners.
Well, I live in Sweden. Scooters and bikes are forbidden on the sidewalkes, but people just don't give a shit. Not just turist, even the swedes. Why? Simply because the police doesn't care. This is in the hole country, not just in Stockholm.
@@jencici100 it's banned on sidewalks even here, but in some places, it makes no sense to drive it on road in that crazy traffic when you have 10 m wide sidewalk next to it and in some places, nobody walks, so it's ridiculous to paint bike lane to bussy road instead of that empty sidewalk, but in places where people really walk, it's very annoying
I’m from Taiwan and I just came back from a semester long student exchange in Europe. Trust me you don’t want scooters to become common in your city they make the traffic situation even more miserable as scooters squeeze in and out of blind spots. It’s so much easier to drive in Europe than in Taiwan.
How did you find such student exchange programs, besides Erasmus which is mostly for EU counties, i have never heard of anything for taiwan or any other asian country 🥺
Important distinction that you missed about the e-scooters: Only 8% of Parisians voted in that referendum. Another big thing to point out: No, scooters shouldn't be the solution to traffic. The one solution to traffic -> More public transport.
even in tokyo puiblic transport is not faster than individual transport. public transport is definitely not the solution to everything. it is more about how something is implemented. in tokyo you think twice before taking anything else than public transportation, because of the cost that are involved in parking everything (including bikes). the key think is, that a city needs to be planed in a way, that almost everything one need everyday can be reached in less than 15minutes by food or bike. than you do not think about talking public transport or a motoriced vehicle. that is something especially japanese cities are very good at. korean and taiwanese are almost as good. most cities in germany are actually pretty good at that as well, except berlin. berlin is just to large and almost anyone who lives there ends up using a motorized vehicle for everyday life, even though the public transport is one of the best in europe. fairly cheap, runs 24hours and reaches almost everything. problem is, that it usually takes double the time and you can not really solve that.
Just came back from Prague last month. Before this trip, I watched a lot of HONEST GUIDE videos, which were very helpful. Even though I am no longer in Prague and don’t know if I will have the chance to visit again, I still enjoy watching your videos every week. Thank you HONEST GUIDE, you are great.
Another misconception : 7:43 Riding in the middle of traffic is in fact dangerous and normally illegal by french law , there are only a few streets where it is "Okay" . It is NOT allowed. There is just VERY LITTLE traffic police in France (hence the carparts on the side of the road everywhere)
It was actually excplicitly allowed since 2021 (hence the signs) in a number of regions as an experiment but that ended on August 1st 2024. Right now they are still discussing if it will be brought back for whole France.
As a person with a bad back, I am unable to stand for long periods of time. When I was in Vienna, that was not really a problem because there are benches and places to sit in many places! Almost every Bus and Tram stop had benches, also in the U Bahn stations and there are many parks and recreational areas to sit down. I wish every city did that more! The worst was in Italy (Rome, Florence and Venice) where if you were not in a Piazza, there was nowhere to sit and if you tried to sit on a stoop of a building or by the street, or even (God forbid!) a statue or monument, people would shoo you away like you are some kind of vagrant. I probably won't be returning to those places as I felt a hostile attitude as a disabled person. Vienna also did a nice job of having public restrooms in many places, mostly for free but there were a couple where there was only a hand sanitizer pump and not a sink with water to properly wash up afterwards. Still, it was nice to have a place to go not too far away if you really needed to. These 2 things contribute greatly to quality of life and the more cities that do this, the better for everyone, locals and tourists alike.
Sadly, free public restrooms get increasingly rare in Vienna. Also it's very hard to find them in some places. There are signs, but sometimes it's a few minutes of walking in the opposite direction of where you are going. To end on a positive note: Where they bother to put up new public restrooms, they do have a clever design. And there are ones where you have to pay only during the (peak) time when a cleaner is present, which is fair I guess.
@@PaulFromCHGO I am aware of those designs. From the perspective of old people or somebody handicapped, ever shitty bench is better than no bench. From perspective of all humans I prefer benches that don´t limit how they can be used or by whom.
I just arrived at Prague this Saturday and we flew from Rome and Paris. In My 2 days experience at Prague, I can say: 1. Prague is cheaper. We got 2 huge room with a price lesser than hotel in Paris 2. The transport really affordable. One day pass in Paris can give you 72 hours pass in Prague 😊 3. Walking is easier at Prague. Less traffic, friendly walking distance for kid, and more relaxed atmosphere. We tried to do walking tour at Paris from Notre dame to Champ Elysee to Eiffel. But our child gave up in first kilometer. The tired case Not happening in Prague 😂
I've been to both city's. Regarding transport, in Paris, I got a Navigo card, that I could load up, for one week, it cost me 40 Euros, for all zones, for all transport. But, my card was for locals. My cousin vouched for me, since I was staying with him. Tap and go, is way less of a hassle, than paper tickets, having to make sure your ticket has been validated. Prague should add the option to extend the time of it's multi day passes. Walking? I think both cities are fantastic walking cities. I walked around Paris, extensively, last year, with no problems, enjoying the scenery. Google maps, was my best friend. I didn't have google maps, when I was in Prague, that was about 14 years ago. I found that, in Paris, all the major attractions were relatively "close" together, and if not, a metro stop wasn't far away. I am an English speaker only, who understands a bit of Czech, so I don't know how common "English", is spoken in Prague. In Paris, most people in the hospitality industry, spoke a passable English. Enough to be able to communicate. I would love to go back to Prague again. Sorry for the long winded reply.
I was really happy to see Paris had gotten rid of the pay scooters. The last time we were there, precovid it was horrible either you were getting run over by someone on one or you were tripping over the ones left laying all over the sidewalks.
What I really liked, in Jakarta and São Paulo, on Sundays they closed up some major streets in the city center for traffic and made them available for pedestrians and cyclists only.
In France you can enter any bar or restaurant and ask for a glass of water for free. By law. If you're polite and nice enough you can even ask them to fill a bottle and they might do it sometimes (they don't have to).
Only good thing I can think of is that the rentable electric scooters here has to be parked in a painted square or the renting doesn't stop. So no randomly placed ones all around the city.
4:45 Internet traffic is often routed through your provider at home, even when roaming. So all the server sees is your Czech IP. However, it is still a terrible app, because why should someone who might not be in France not be able to access it? At least give them a proper error message.
I just came back from Czech Republic. Prague, Kutna Hora, Karlovy Vary, Decin/Hrensko and your maps on Patreon were amazing! They really helped us and we have fallen in love with your country and coming back in Autumn when its cooler.
Despite being regularly criticized there are some goods ideas for cities in Paris. I wish we could find free restrooms everywhere ! But free restroom in Paris are usually very nasty and not as welcoming as the other restroom you can find in other countries (hence the price) Can't wait to see the other videos you guys filmed in Paris !
You should try going to Amsterdam. I've been in multiple European cities and I've never seen city design being this good. The problem with today's cities is that they are car-centric and this causes a lot of problems ranging from basic stuff like health and environment to more serious like economy (just look at USA). I come from a major car-centric city which is Warsaw and when I lived for a couple of weeks in Amsterdam, I've never felt so safe and comfortable. Moreover, I hope that they will push the idea of polycentric city, it will be another milestone in the great Dutch design.
I would have to disagree... between the bicycles everywhere and trams in the middle of the street I found navigating Amsterdam a real pain as a pedestrian. And it's far too busy for its size IMO, I don't think that design was done with that crazy influx of people in mind, and locals would tell you as much.
@@g-man4744 As I've said, I've been to multiple European cities. It's not based on just one trip and lack of exposure to other societies. Sure, it's crowded but it's due to too much of tourism which they fight with. Aside from decreasing the amount of tourists, the idea of polycentric city will fix that. Furthermore, I do feel safer there as a pedestrian. While there is a lot of bicycles, the amount of respect everyone has for everyone else (again, I'm not saying this for everyone and mostly the incoherent people are not the locals but people who moved in and don't care about assimilation) is huge. Not only that, the infrastructure is just built differently and you don't feel excluded whether you are a pedestrian, cyclist or a car user. I've never had a problem there, you just need to be mindful of others and that's all. The feeling of not worrying about getting hit by some dumbass that's going 80km/h inside the city is hard to explain, especially if you've never had situations like me. Poland is unfortunately the worst in it since we have a culture of speeding and being a dick for everyone else on the road. I've stopped counting how many times I had a close call with a car that is legally obliged to stop before a crosswalk. As for locals, I've had different experience. While they do complain about some stuff, most of it is caused just by too much tourism. The crazy influx you're saying is just tourism, not people actually living in that city. In reality, it's a quite small town with about 1m population which is nothing. Though outside of Amsterdam, the infrastructure is also great and on a much better standard than the rest of Europe. At last, we Europeans tend to forget how blessed we are by living in this corner of the world. The rest of countries don't have the amenities we do let alone public transport. Edit: i forgot to mention that Dutch design is just something else. Just look at their country, at what they did with dikes and recovering the lands, preventing floods and everything. No one and nothing is perfect sure, but in terms of design they can teach the Europe with ease.
@@marekzielinski9211 you're right, tourism is definitely what has overwhelmed the Amsterdam infrastructure but it's been a permanent feature of the city for decades now, and they are struggling badly. There's plenty of reasons why/how the design works for the Dutch cities, while impressive it would not be applicable in Poland or elsewhere. To start with the country is small and totally flat, so building dense cores and at scale is much easier than elsewhere. There's obviously other reasons...it's been a commercial hub for centuries, it wasn't flattened in 2 world wars, it's been very rich for a long time etc...
8:30 I strongly disagree, scooters are not a solution, especially gas ones, it's noisy, generate pollution, is dangerous for others, etc... The solution is ebike, it's easy, works for plenty of people even elderies, works even in hilly places (btw the Lime ebikes worked well in Prague for me), etc....
@@Pidalin It takes less place in traffic but it's really bad in any other regard. Paris is trying to make them less appealing, for example since 2023 they now can't park anywhere for free anymore (walkways were full of scooters and motos), they have to park at actual parking spots now and have also to pay to park (it was free before). For the rest yeah I do think that electric scooters are fine, especially having seen how it works in China after that they banned all gas scooters, the silence in most streets is pretty crazy, if we can push people to take electric scooters instead, why not, it's an interesting solution I recon, at least then it doesn't pollute, no noise, no gas consumption, it's still a threat to pedestrians as they have a way higher kinetic energy than bikes/ebikes but yeah less than a car, indeed.
@@manu.yt25 Parking for free is wrong, but paying the same as much bigger car is a nonsense, they should motivate people to get rid of their cars and this will not help. Scooters can be annoying, but if everyone was using scooter instead of 2 ton car, traffic in cities would be much better.
@@manu.yt25 I wouldn't take Paris as an example of gas-scooter management. The city is just doing it to get more money to the local budget. Please keep in mind that electricity does generate pollution, because you need to produce electricity somehow. And no matter how many windmills and photo-voltaic cells you use, you need power generating capacities that can function non-stop at least to compensate the grid, not to mention the situations when wind stops and sun is covered in clouds. And those generating capacities are... nuclear and gas/oil/coal. That's why in every country, there's a guaranteed minimum power generation through these methods. And, also, domestic electric grid was not designed to charge e-scooters, e-bikes or, worst, e-cars. A totally electric vehicle world is completely impossible without a new, higher power electric grid. But this raises another concern: the safety. For instance, you can charge an e-bus at a high power charging station, which you can power from, let's say, the subway electric substations at night, when subway doesn't run. But you and me, unless we take a course of authorized electrician, can't operate with voltages higher than 420 V. Because for high power you need high voltage, in order to reduce the heat losses that increase with the increase of the current's values.
@@Pidalin It's not the same price as for cars, it's 2x cheaper for motorbikes/scooters than for cars. You're right that the ultimate goal is to motivate people to get rid of their cars, but so far the easy and cheap option was scooters because they had huge advantages like free parking and no one was paying attention to the problems they are causing. Anyway now Paris is very very welcoming for bikes and ebikes, and introducing paid parking for scooters helped some of them to use a bike instead which is better for everyone... And for your last phrase, having seen the chaos in South East Asia with an ocean of scooters, I guarantee you that this is ultimately not a great plan, except if you want a city even more filthy, full of noise and pollution 😅 For 2 wheeled mobility, bikes, ebikes or electric scooters are the way to go.
Your observation about the barriers around monuments and other historical venues is so true. In Edinburgh the 'Royal Mile' is blighted by huge black metal barriers and gateways erected after Islamic mass terror offences in the UK. Now that these ugly things are in place they will likely never get removed.
My experience of Paris, regarding toilets, was that I had to pay. Not much, but still. The street toilets weren't kept up very well. Now in restaurants, I didn't have to pay. In Prague, I had to pay to use the toilet, in a MacDonald's restaurant. What I did appreciate in Prague, was that metro stations had toilet facilities, unlike Paris.
All the comparisons about public toilets are misleading. In Prague, men just go to the bushes, or even a nearby wall. I was waiting for a tram next to a park recently, and could see a man peeing a few away, barely concealed by shrubbery. And once,, a grandfather was walking with his grandson, who needed to ''go,'' so Dedka just dangled the kid over the grass surrounding a tree in the sidewalk as people walked by. I think Honza did both cities a disservice by comparing them, though. Czechs assume all Americans are rich and have really never recovered from the many years they were exploited by first, Germans, then Russians. They still have a mental chip on their shoulders,
Miami Beach made two-way Ocean Drive into a narrower one-way street, clearing the rest for bikes, electric scooters, and skateboarders. They still give the sidewalk to pedestrians. Zurich, Switzerland also does a good job of separating cars, pedestrians, and bikes/scooters/skaters.
I am from Barcelona and i really think that Praha should add a sea for both locals and tourists. It brings fresh air and fresh fish too. You should really try that option! Just put Karlin and Holesovice under water.
Seeing you fighting for this city of yours is a beautiful thing and is sad at the same time. I feel how much u love Prague and how much u want Prague to be beautiful for people. i have been in Prauge in may this year and it wasnt bad and wasnt it good either. i have really big hope that u will win good times for Prague. greeting from Poland
Ahoj kluky! 😁I'm Italian, been in Prague 13 years. I' m from Rome and my second loved EU city is Paris. Nowadays, all these cities and others, are suffering overtourism, high prices and low level bad service. In Paris and Rome we also have more troubles with immigration and crimes than Prague. And the stupid stuff that silly tourists do I guess is worse than Prague, actually. Big cities, big problems! I've worked into gastro/hospitality biz all my life: let's shortly say that "before" people and tourists were different. More interested, respectful, curious about city, culture, monuments, etc. Now its all about fast tour, selfies, cheap accomodations and junk food. Sad but true in high percentage. Its ok, sign of the time; but maybe because of social media, reviews, ego, people are induced to do more stupid things than before. And many think that, paying, they are allowed to do all crazy stuff they want or to bad behave as in their own home. So silly. NB: What I like from Prague and Czech people: safety, transports, česká koruna 😁, cleanliness, social order, Health system with private H.I.; indipendency, girls, good guys, weird humor 😉, beer, public and personal discretion(not the fobic one). I saw you a couple of time around city centre once you was fighting about taxi stuff! Ciao Janek&Honza, Nashle! 🙂
Problem with immigration and crime is massive even in Prague, but we have immigration from east, not from Africa, but you still recognize those people immediatelly because they all look the same - adidas tracksuits, tasteless fake golden stuff and typical soviet round faces. I say soviet, because I don't really care if they are from R country or U country, they look and act the same.
Been to both cities. Been to Paris twice, probably won't ever go back, expensive, didn't feel safe, panhandle, scammers aggressively approaching you, pickpockets. Prague on the other hand affordable very safe, no aggressive panhandle, very clean and the best beer in the world ! Will be there in October for 4 days, can't wait. This will be my fifth time in Prague.
Lane splitting on a scooter is definitely one of those things where you should Google if it's legal or not before you do it. I know for a fact it's not legal in my country. Though, some scooters, depends on the engine and registration, can drive on most bicycle lanes. But, the speed limit for that is 30 km/h.
Paris resident here. After the terrorist attacks of 2015, barriers were erected at places where tourists congregate. At the Eiffel Tower these barriers were replaced in 2018 by the glass you see today. I also don't think it will go away soon. ATM: interesting point.There were these non-bank ATM's only at airports previously. I didn't know the regulation had changed. Avoid anyway, it's expensive. Electric scooters: yes, mostly scooter haters voted and the for-hire scooters are now banned. I think it's a good thing. Restaurant terrasses in parking spots: during covid restaurants were closed for a while and reopened gradually, first only with outside service. It made sense to use the parking spots as there were many fewer cars.The following year the municipality allowed some restaurants to continue using the parking spots but the rent went up by about 10x. They have to replace the revenue they lose from not having cars park there any more! Also, parking for motorcycles and scooters is no longer free since 2022.
@@vladimiradoshev5310 humm I don't know but our government and UE elites call this a cultural enrichment, so it must be fantastic even if I still searching why.
I love this concept! It's so full of hope that you can change the problems of your city😀🙏 Thank you and I am looking forward for seeing this concept on your channel again (by the way, I am Czech and I write to you, Czech boys, in English about Prague from Quebec😀😀😀, funny world)
The last one would never go down well in the UK. We already complain about the lack of car parking space so to give what little we have over to cafe owners would be a step too far.
Paris is not as "touristic" as Prague, I feel that in Prague the city centre is just filled with tourist trap after tourist trap (duck shop, souvenir shop, cannabis shop, euronet, silly priced supermarket, ...) while in Paris a normal life is still present and not only maintained by tourist.
My daughter and her partner were just in Prague this week for a couple of days. They got up really early to see Charles Bridge and the Castle before everyone else, and after that they avoided Old Town. They found a really nice park, live music being played in the evenings, and just really had fun seeing all of Prague.
4:16 - for comparison, in my part of Australia, these scooters are not permitted to be ridden on the road, they must be ridden on the footpath, privately owned scooters are NOT permitted on roadways of footpaths *at all*
Right but don't get too afraid either, I visited Paris (as a french person) myself last year and was actually surprised by how nice it is and rather safe overall (at least if you are reasonably cautious). Paris gets too much hate sometimes and some people not living there or visiting lose their mind over it, on French Twitter you find guys who literately trash talk Paris 24/7 but never visits....
@@g-man4744 No, its pathethic excuse unsupported by empirical data. Its about cultural and social environment. Vienna is about the same population as Paris, but is absolutely safe. Compare crime rates of more populated Prague to less populated Marseille. You quickly see your argument has no merit.
03:40 That referendum was a joke with an 8% turnout. You had to pre-register offline before the information campaign started. Many didn't know about the referendum. Also, the number of polling stations was limited, which resulted in lengthy queues (even with such a low turnout)
In rennes [still france] municipality can 'destroy' few centimeter of the walking path in front of your apartment if you ask and they replace it with dirt to plant many plant. So the walking path is full of plant the long of the wall, it's even better and bigger when they remove some parking spot to alow more plant and walking space.
Hello, I am French, I just saw your video, regarding the bulletproof windows/barriers around the Effel Tower, they were installed following the attacks of 2015, as a precaution
6:26 "So its only purpose is to, I guess, water the scooter" You should rename that one "straw" to "scooter sprinkler" 😂 10:19 I'm assuming those fresheners are called "brčko" (drinking straws) because of their shape, despite not being drinking fountains. On that note, here's a bonus Czech word: "pítko" (drinking fountain).
In the U.S. driving a motorcycle between cars is called 'lane splitting' (legal in California) or "filtering' (legal in 5 other states, rules vary). Other states are considering it.
About the Eiffel Tower: it was done like that after the 2015 attacks that really had a major impact on french security. I remember the same thing as you but I think it's really useful. For ATM, the rule at least was, (did not check for the new one) that you must be a primary SWIFT accessing organisation to get the right to have ATMs. I'm not 100% sure of this information but it's very likely to be true. Euronet is not a primary SWIFT accessor as they use someone else service to do so that also charge them fees to exchange money. The terrasses were in theory temporary. They try everything to keep it but I hate it. It takes a lot of place and when driving it's sometimes dangerous.
well, Paris is a failed city, so thats why there needs to be the barrier at the Eiffel tower. At least now noone harasses you right under the tower like everywhere else in the city. Its truly quite unfortunate what has Paris become nowadays.
@@enyrox ok, so you think that its ok that in a touristy spot like the Sacre Coeur people get regularly harassed and attacked? My gf and I got literally attacked by a group of what looked like migrants at midday during summer. The police DIDNT care at all. Its obvious that it got totally out of hand. You literally are scared to walk in the city which makes it a failed city for me. It used to be a perfect city to visit and probably live in, but that was 20 yrs ago, definitely not now. Prague is definitely far superior to Paris.
Last time I was in Paris they tried to do the "You dropped your ring" scam on me. And what I thought was perfect when I was in Prague was to see the city towards the evening, not during the day.
It's funny you put the fountains and restrooms as a + for Paris. As a Parisian that loves to walk everywhere in Paris, I've been complaining for a lot of time of the insufficient number of those. Number of fountains is getting a little better lately but mostly for touristy places, there are still 30min A-to-B walks I do in center Paris where I don't encounter any. Toilets there are way not enough, 1/3 of the time they are out of service, if there is a queue those self cleaning toilets are very very slow between people, and I really don't like using those. During the Olympic Games they installed a lot of small container shape restroom blocks with 6 toilets' in each (taking the same space than 1 self cleaning toilet), they were in Olympic sites but also around. Those were mostly very clean while being regular toilets, with frequent cleaning and reloading. It proves it's possible to have a enough nice toilets if there is the political will...
In Amsterdam they have some narrow streets that lead to some quite populair destinations. They wanted it to be friendly for pedestrians but also have tramlines run through it in both ways. So what they did is made a double track tramway in the middel. And no i don't mean 2 tracks next to each other, that only happens at stops on the bridges, i'm talking about dubble railed single track where trams in both directions can drive on in the middle of the street, as far from the shops as possible, without the need for switches when the track splits up, making it more safe for pedestrians because it means there's no moving track where people walk.
IMPORTANT question, when you are eating a tangerine and one of the pieces are connected/attached to a little baby, what do you do? Do you eat the baby first, separating it? Do you go the other way around? Do you toss them away? Do you eat them both at the same time?
I believe the „Schanigarten“ or as you refer to space on the street for the restaurant, was an Viennese invention in the 18th century. They are all over Vienna and had to be rebuild every year. Since covid they are allowed to stay all year long.
Haha i use the scooter as a local. If you get the day-pack and have a lot of short trips to do, then they are super nice. But yeah, mostly not for everyday use.
I would rather have a car-free inner-city zone (except for public transport and cabs). This would provide enough space for pedestrians, scooters, and bicycles while making the area much quieter, less polluted and more enjoyable to enjoy and relax in such a space to meet people and enjoy culture. For the large regular scooters I like the concept of many Chinese Cities. Electric scooters with a universal battery system and stations everywhere where you can put your empty battery in and get a fully loaded one out for a fair price. Similar to the package stations we have everywhere.
Electric scooters = e-litter. The British had the better idea: dump them in the canals which forces the scooter businesses to close due to lack of profit.
First time commenter, long time viewer. Always love your videos guys - I’m an Aussie but my late mother was Czech, born in Prague. Enjoy watching and being reminded of a great place I’ve visited a few times myself. I live in Melbourne - our council for the central business district recently banned hire e-scooters but like Paris, e-scooters owned privately will still be allowed. No referendum or anything but the ban takes effect in a month! Maybe Prague can follow? 😅
I remember when no border around Eifel Tower. Was there for Olympics and dislike security. Been that way for some time. I dislike the scooters and think Euronet is terrible. I find local banl ATM that does not mention conversion gives you a better rate with your bank. Poland Polish Bank is good but I have fpubd Santander in most countries as well. I loved water fountains in Paris and Disney Paris. Was great to just fill up my bottles. I loved the toiletd in Paris. The seperate urinal was neat. In 2000 they did not have those and smelled like you would find in some streets in Prague, Warsaw, Krakow, etc today: urine on walls.
But why? I allways thought 50 scooters are much better for traffic jamm than 50 cars. In Prague there are very small amount of scooters so I dont have experience. But I am courious, Its about loudness? or something else? I mean compare with cars.
@@ncspcrew2566 If you compare with cars it's easy indeed, but even so scooters are loud, pollute, their drivers are madmen (at least in Paris), and they used to block every walkway when parked before the mayor banned that and made parking paid. Maybe that one some aspects scooters are less worse than cars, but that doesn't make them great, electric scooters eliminate some of their problems (noise, pollution) but still. Getting those people on an ebike would probably be a much better solution, ebikes are very popular in France and makes using a bike pretty easy for anyone.
They have those rental scooters and bikes in Washington DC. Not only are they super annoying to the average person walking around, but thieves love to steal them, hack them, and make them their own personal property. Not to mention, many people use them and then just leave them laying wherever
Great video and thanks for your great work and dedication! I disagree with only one thing. I lived in Prague and Paris and I would deduct the score for using scooters to avoid traffic. It might make sense for individuals to use them but they are terrible. Most of them would not pass any serious assessment (with the exception of electric scooters, those are cool, like from a Batman movie) - they pollute the air, they are very noisy, and, crucially, dangerous to pedestrians and cars. So not really a great solution and I appreciate the fact that there are mostly no serious traffic jams in Prague compared to Paris (e.g., good luck driving home in Paris on Sunday or any day from suburbs) so that is why we (Czechs) do not have to use scooters. Also, the Prague's public transportation is more reliable and convenient than the one in Paris.
As a local from Prague-yes, even locals use the electric scooters and its actually a good experience if you ride it in the bike lanes. However the city should build a lot more of these bike lanes and then the scooters wouldnt be to any trouble. And just fyi- regular scooters are very enviromentaly unfriendly, they produce tons of poisonous fuel exhausts so Id recommend using the electric scooters instead Janek
@@vitkrivan9380 Lime scooters? I know people who have their _own_ e-scooter, but noöne who ever used the rental Lime scooters (or their Segway brethren). And yes, regular motorbikes and scooters are awful, just like leaf blowers or lawnmowers. Incredibly noisy and smelly with disgusting exhaust. Though unfortunately that also got a lot worse with personal cars (as if they weren't bad enough already!) as they got fitted more commonly with diesel engines... especially as they age and lack proper maintenance. And then people get the bright idea to make them even worse with exhaust modifications and such. Cities aren't loud. Cars (and motorbikes) are loud. So loud that we can't even complain about the _birds_ being loud anymore, because you can't hear them over the noise from the internal combustion engines and tires :D
@@LuaanTi well if the locals wouldn’t ever use the rental e-scooters then why would the companies have their scooters even in smaller cities in Czech Republic like Ostrava, Budějovice and many other where there aren’t a lot of tourists to rent them? And yes I agree on your view of internal combustion engines, I think that EVs are definitely the way to go especially in these larger cities where there’s a lot of problems with noise and air pollution. Hybrids sort of work too.
I live in Prague and never used a rented electric scooter until recently. Last week, I was in hurry and there was no taxi or cycle on rent so I rented an electric scooter. To my surprise it costed more than a taxi for a short ride 😂 I don't get it why people use this expensive and unsafe mode of travel.
I have been to Prague and I loved it. Have not been to Paris. The most important things I want to know as a tourist is Which between the 2 cities is safer for tourists? Which between the 2 is cleaner? Be honest noww
Watching these while you live in Athens is really painful because it shows how much we are lacking in terms of infastracture. No mayor has actually tried to improve anything. Barely any bike lanes, broken and narrow sidewalks, inefficient public transport, not enough trees and proper parks and very little public space in general. Makes sense why it is ranked lowest in Europe in terms of livability.
@@leob4403 Yes :) It's called Kluci z Prahy I was also not aware of this separate channel till very recently... Maybe they should advertise it more strongly!
@@leob4403 No problem! I'm also learning. It can be a lesson in itself to sit through and get exposure to normal speech, perhaps on 0.75x speed, though :) although subtitles would be great
@@326Alan yeah I might try that slowing it down. I know some Russian so hopefully it could help. But honestly I have no idea how to spell the words in Czech that he's saying. I have some books in Czech which is probably an easier way to start off
I don't know in Paris, but in Milan you'll find thousands of scooter parked on the sidewalk, even thought there are many (free) parking spaces for motorbikes. Why? Because, unlike cars, you can park them wherever you want, so "why shouldn't I park my scooter in front of my building?". Nobody's complaining and I've never seen a cop giving a ticket...
Raised and still living inside Paris, I can think of a few marker that chocked me, for the public toilet, they makes a huge effort to clean them only this year and mostly in touristic parts. I remember one time trying to use that at night, and really I almost puke. For the e scooter only less than 10% vote on this, it was badly publicized. You should have try to visit non tourist quarter in Paris to compare there to prague, it would have been perfect ( btw I just love Prague too :-) )
I was in Madrid a few weeks ago and what I really liked there was affordable e-bike sharing. Now that I would other cities to 'steal'. They are basically everywhere and cost only 0.50 € for the first 30 minutes. Coming back to Berlin, where the rent of a normal bicycle ( not e-bike) costs 1€ for 15 minutes (so 4x the price) is very disappointing.
Im curious how many hours would you consider "a day drive" as someone who lives in the US i often hear Europeans shocked by how far some people in the US would drive for a family visit or vacation.
It's about ten hours, already pushing what would _reasonably_ be "a day drive". Have you driven on European "highways"? All the Americans I drove with were quite scared of them and couldn't imagine driving as long as they do "home". Though I do know plenty of people who see nothing wrong with driving twenty hours in one long stretch for a vacation even here :D Most Americans seem to severely overestimate the size of the USA. Europe is (very slightly) bigger. It's just not nearly as empty, which makes it all the more likely that your destination is much closer on average :) And of course, it helps that European gas prices are still about twice the US prices, there is better public transport infrastructure, people are generally slightly more environmentally conscious and it's not nearly as common for kids to move across the whole of Europe from their parents as it is in the US (and again, even when they do, they are unlikely to take _a car_ to visit back home). Cheaper gas (and generally pro-fossil-fuel propaganda and policy) has a great effect on this. Some of the refugees living here in Prague we befriended didn't see anything weird with doing a trip from Kharkiv to Madrid in a car for a vacation (40+ hours without any stops along the way)... while my Bahrain/Saudi/Syrian acquaintances were astonished we even use cars given how much more expensive gas (and cars) are here :D Even then, most would use a train or a plane (and a decade or two back, a bus; those eventually became the basis for only the cheapest vacations, unfortunately). Overall, long car trips are _really_ expensive, and not just on fuel. American middle class is a much smaller proportion of the population than in Europe (and steadily dropping), but they do have more income (though not necessarily actual _disposable_ income) - and cars are generally fairly light on taxation and regulation in the US, making their use much cheaper (and ultimately, you probably don't have a real alternative to using a car anyway).
@LuaanTi thansk for the reply. I have not been on a European highway, but even the tight roads make me generally nervous, but I am aware that I'm just used to these big ole American streets lol. Yes Europe is larger, but correct me if I'm wrong. Usually, Europeans aren't going across multiple countries like how Americans will cross multiple states. We don't have much access to a longer form of public transport, which is rather dumb if i do say so myself.
Mobile roaming service works the way that your internet access is originating from your mobile operator location, not from where you are. Roaming means transfer your activity back to your network, despite network your mobile is.
Some quick elements from someone french who lives in Paris : - clock vs tower : I can only agree, and this seems quite recent. - ATM : I hope we are not getting those ATM. I do not think there are many places in Paris where you cannot pay with bank cards. - Electric scooters. Very few people voted in this referendum and I do not think it is a good idea even if I voted against the scooters (because the scooters companies where trying to influence the vote). - Water : there is even free sparkling water fountains ! And railway stations are now legally obliged to have free drinking water fountains. Since 2022, hotels, cafés and restaurants have been required to have a drinking water fountain accessible to the public (not just customers!). - restroom : we also have some place that stink urine. Being a local I am not familiar with the restroom issue. - Motorcycles and scooters in Paris are a nuisance in terms of behavior and noise. But measures have been taken to remove them from sidewalks and to charge for parking. - parking spots : that is great, I hope there would be less parking spots in the street as there are lots of underground parkings.
the clock vs tour effeil is a bit harsh. I mean, yeah it's certainly less pleasant for a tourist, but they were put in place after the 2015 terror attacks. And I think it's a good thing to protect tourists and the monument, in spite of themselves.
In two weeks in France and Spain last year I think I spent €100 in cash and paid for most everything either with my phone or by tapping my card. There's very little besides sidewalk vendors where you will want or need to pay in cash these days.
I also hate those barriers. Especially this on the Eiffel tower is such a shame. Also those barriers in Berlin around the Reichstag are annoying. With scooters or similar you will only see US tourist in Prague. Have in mind for young Europeans a lot of museums in Paris are free of charge even the Louvre on some days. Paris improved so much on cycle traffic. A bit annoying to motorists but so much better than before.
In Melbourne Australia, rental e-scooters are being banned this year and about time. Bloody menace as they just don't give a crap where they ride and frequently go through red lights or cut in front of traffic.
I will never ever go to France. Only to drive through it to Spain for example. It's not that I dislike the country, it's the people that live in it that are absolutely horrible to deal with on every single occasion.
Paris doesn’t have metro ticket inspectors targeting honest tourists with 40€ fines for making an honest mistake that is the fault of ticket machines. We bought tickets that are apparently for seniors only, except nothing on the ticket machine said anything about it being for seniors. When we validated the tickets an inspector immediately approached us and gave is 40€ fines even though we had not even boarded a train. I said, “oh, I didn’t know that. Let me go get another ticket” and started walking toward the machine.” Then the inspector grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back and said “It’s too late. You have to pay the fine or I will call the police for resisting.”
It's written on each machine which ticket you should buy. You must have a validated ticket before entering the passenger area, it doesn't matter if you're on the train or not. Maybe next time would be better to find out at least basic rules of the public transportation you intend to use.
You should have let them call the police. They have no right to do this. Unless you were in a metro station, that is - you already need a valid ticket to enter the station, not just to board the train. But still, they have no right to actually detain you (and neither does the city police, in fact - only the state police can do that in most cases). As for the ticket distinction, it's written on all the ticket machines in multiple languages (usually at least Czech and English, in fewer places German too), including information about what makes you eligible for the reduced ticket prices... but it's definitely easy to miss if you have absolutely no experience with anything like this. I wouldn't ever expect to be eligible for reduced fare without checking the rules first, but there's other things that are just as easy to miss - for example, the fact that you have to buy extra tickets for luggage. Annoyingly, this is a relatively recent phenomenon. Inspectors used to be very fair and reasonable most of the time just a few years back. But then someone had the bright idea to reward how many fines they issue, and to employ people who aren't really professionals, which is always a stupid thing to do for something that is essentially customer service! And keep in mind that the vast majority of the cost of the transport system comes from taxes anyway (about 85%). The whole ticket inspector thing should be about reminding people to follow the rules and pay proper fare. It shouldn't be a money racket.
I have been to both cities. I love both but one is better than another one in some ways I like the food and art museums in Paris over Prague while I like the people and streets in Prague over Paris. And, the price is much better in Prague than Paris.
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Euronet is heading for collapse ;)
When using your sim in another country the internet connection will always be routed through the sim provider, it's something that people at my work have been using to work from Portugal and Spain and still have local IP so they don't get caught:D
netflix for 2$ or 3$ w/ vpn. think countries with developed economies but very high rates of yoy inflation:)
best ad read ive seen for a long time, showing an actual usable thing that is not just hyped up hyperbole from the company paying for the ad, you truly are the Honest Guide, your vids have saved me off from plenty of tourist scams!
protip: get vpn and spend about 2 or 3 us whereas without it will be 15-20 us. just imagine you're in a country with very very high rates of inflation. works this way with many such digital products:) netflix
I visited Prague last week and I couldn't fathom the number of times where I almost got ran over by a gang of electric scooters, mostly ridden by multiple people at the same time on sidewalks
yeah, these are mostly British, German and Danish tourists who travel here just for cheaper beer
You are so right it’s not just Prague. I’ve seen it in Warsaw and I’ve seen it in Vienna and of course I see it in Chicago where I live and it is absolutely ridiculous. These things should be banned to save the very least!
Those things are so annoying they are in Poland too - tons of reckless teens riding them, usually 2 or 3 riding one scooter, i've even seen 5 people riding one! They do not have any idea about the traffic rules, they go from one side of the road to another, from sidewalk to bike path, ride through the middle of intersections, stop abruptly, you name it, just causing danger and being a nuisance. And then when they finish their ride they drop those things everywhere, it's not only annoying but also dangerous when they drop them in the middle of narrow bike paths with tight corners.
Well, I live in Sweden. Scooters and bikes are forbidden on the sidewalkes, but people just don't give a shit. Not just turist, even the swedes. Why? Simply because the police doesn't care. This is in the hole country, not just in Stockholm.
@@jencici100 it's banned on sidewalks even here, but in some places, it makes no sense to drive it on road in that crazy traffic when you have 10 m wide sidewalk next to it and in some places, nobody walks, so it's ridiculous to paint bike lane to bussy road instead of that empty sidewalk, but in places where people really walk, it's very annoying
I’m from Taiwan and I just came back from a semester long student exchange in Europe. Trust me you don’t want scooters to become common in your city they make the traffic situation even more miserable as scooters squeeze in and out of blind spots. It’s so much easier to drive in Europe than in Taiwan.
I did a semester abroad in Taipei. Bicycles were super cheap but it was way to scary to ride one with the hundreds of motorcycles in the street 😱
How did you find such student exchange programs, besides Erasmus which is mostly for EU counties, i have never heard of anything for taiwan or any other asian country 🥺
Its is so much easier to walk 🙈🙈
@@Zetornatorits very common. I think you should do some reseearch. Its not new concept. Its older than erasmus 😂😂😂
scooters should be used instead of cars
Important distinction that you missed about the e-scooters: Only 8% of Parisians voted in that referendum.
Another big thing to point out: No, scooters shouldn't be the solution to traffic. The one solution to traffic -> More public transport.
Amen!
even in tokyo puiblic transport is not faster than individual transport. public transport is definitely not the solution to everything. it is more about how something is implemented. in tokyo you think twice before taking anything else than public transportation, because of the cost that are involved in parking everything (including bikes). the key think is, that a city needs to be planed in a way, that almost everything one need everyday can be reached in less than 15minutes by food or bike. than you do not think about talking public transport or a motoriced vehicle. that is something especially japanese cities are very good at. korean and taiwanese are almost as good. most cities in germany are actually pretty good at that as well, except berlin. berlin is just to large and almost anyone who lives there ends up using a motorized vehicle for everyday life, even though the public transport is one of the best in europe. fairly cheap, runs 24hours and reaches almost everything. problem is, that it usually takes double the time and you can not really solve that.
More PT and more guards to keep out the "undesirables" from polluting them and making the rides... les~ miserables!
More public transport but also walkable areas and bicycle roads preferably separated from roads
According to Copenhagen, a bicycle is the answer
Just came back from Prague last month. Before this trip, I watched a lot of HONEST GUIDE videos, which were very helpful. Even though I am no longer in Prague and don’t know if I will have the chance to visit again, I still enjoy watching your videos every week. Thank you HONEST GUIDE, you are great.
I didn’t watch enough Honest Guide, but I did learn to just avoid the ATMs and use Apple Pay the whole time.
Another misconception : 7:43 Riding in the middle of traffic is in fact dangerous and normally illegal by french law , there are only a few streets where it is "Okay" . It is NOT allowed. There is just VERY LITTLE traffic police in France (hence the carparts on the side of the road everywhere)
UK would disagree
It was actually excplicitly allowed since 2021 (hence the signs) in a number of regions as an experiment but that ended on August 1st 2024. Right now they are still discussing if it will be brought back for whole France.
As a person with a bad back, I am unable to stand for long periods of time. When I was in Vienna, that was not really a problem because there are benches and places to sit in many places! Almost every Bus and Tram stop had benches, also in the U Bahn stations and there are many parks and recreational areas to sit down. I wish every city did that more!
The worst was in Italy (Rome, Florence and Venice) where if you were not in a Piazza, there was nowhere to sit and if you tried to sit on a stoop of a building or by the street, or even (God forbid!) a statue or monument, people would shoo you away like you are some kind of vagrant. I probably won't be returning to those places as I felt a hostile attitude as a disabled person.
Vienna also did a nice job of having public restrooms in many places, mostly for free but there were a couple where there was only a hand sanitizer pump and not a sink with water to properly wash up afterwards. Still, it was nice to have a place to go not too far away if you really needed to.
These 2 things contribute greatly to quality of life and the more cities that do this, the better for everyone, locals and tourists alike.
Sadly, free public restrooms get increasingly rare in Vienna. Also it's very hard to find them in some places. There are signs, but sometimes it's a few minutes of walking in the opposite direction of where you are going. To end on a positive note: Where they bother to put up new public restrooms, they do have a clever design. And there are ones where you have to pay only during the (peak) time when a cleaner is present, which is fair I guess.
Benches might attract homeless people and that cannot be allowed. That reasoning is behind our public places being this hostile.
@@xc43t There are a couple of ways around this. Make the bench smaller or put partitions in the middle so you can sit but not lie down and sleep.
@@PaulFromCHGO I am aware of those designs. From the perspective of old people or somebody handicapped, ever shitty bench is better than no bench. From perspective of all humans I prefer benches that don´t limit how they can be used or by whom.
I just arrived at Prague this Saturday and we flew from Rome and Paris.
In My 2 days experience at Prague, I can say:
1. Prague is cheaper. We got 2 huge room with a price lesser than hotel in Paris
2. The transport really affordable. One day pass in Paris can give you 72 hours pass in Prague 😊
3. Walking is easier at Prague. Less traffic, friendly walking distance for kid, and more relaxed atmosphere. We tried to do walking tour at Paris from Notre dame to Champ Elysee to Eiffel. But our child gave up in first kilometer. The tired case Not happening in Prague 😂
@@yogasamsu Prague is my favorite city. It's so beautiful and walkable and amazing. I just love it!! We've been lucky enough to go 4 times so far.
I've been to both city's. Regarding transport, in Paris, I got a Navigo card, that I could load up, for one week, it cost me 40 Euros, for all zones, for all transport. But, my card was for locals. My cousin vouched for me, since I was staying with him. Tap and go, is way less of a hassle, than paper tickets, having to make sure your ticket has been validated. Prague should add the option to extend the time of it's multi day passes. Walking? I think both cities are fantastic walking cities. I walked around Paris, extensively, last year, with no problems, enjoying the scenery. Google maps, was my best friend. I didn't have google maps, when I was in Prague, that was about 14 years ago. I found that, in Paris, all the major attractions were relatively "close" together, and if not, a metro stop wasn't far away. I am an English speaker only, who understands a bit of Czech, so I don't know how common "English", is spoken in Prague. In Paris, most people in the hospitality industry, spoke a passable English. Enough to be able to communicate. I would love to go back to Prague again. Sorry for the long winded reply.
olympics increased prices in paris by a lot though, been in paris maybe 5 times, this year checked airbnb and was quite shocked 😂
1 kilometer and your child gave up? The future looks WEAK.
I was really happy to see Paris had gotten rid of the pay scooters. The last time we were there, precovid it was horrible either you were getting run over by someone on one or you were tripping over the ones left laying all over the sidewalks.
I loved the clever integrated Surfshark advert - this was actually a useful tip!
What I really liked, in Jakarta and São Paulo, on Sundays they closed up some major streets in the city center for traffic and made them available for pedestrians and cyclists only.
Is it not the same in Bogota also?
They do that on a couple streets in America around state and national parks, but it also means that it makes it harder to go out on your day off.
That's the only minor positive thing about Jakarta.
@@Darwinekis Jakarta a hellish place?
@@leob4403 Yes
In France you can enter any bar or restaurant and ask for a glass of water for free. By law. If you're polite and nice enough you can even ask them to fill a bottle and they might do it sometimes (they don't have to).
Only good thing I can think of is that the rentable electric scooters here has to be parked in a painted square or the renting doesn't stop. So no randomly placed ones all around the city.
4:45 Internet traffic is often routed through your provider at home, even when roaming. So all the server sees is your Czech IP. However, it is still a terrible app, because why should someone who might not be in France not be able to access it? At least give them a proper error message.
I just came back from Czech Republic. Prague, Kutna Hora, Karlovy Vary, Decin/Hrensko and your maps on Patreon were amazing! They really helped us and we have fallen in love with your country and coming back in Autumn when its cooler.
Despite being regularly criticized there are some goods ideas for cities in Paris.
I wish we could find free restrooms everywhere ! But free restroom in Paris are usually very nasty and not as welcoming as the other restroom you can find in other countries (hence the price)
Can't wait to see the other videos you guys filmed in Paris !
I was also like this dude found the one working restroom that wasn't shat on on the floors walls and ceiling.
In Australia free restrooms attract a certain group that paint the walls with feces to get back at whitey.
You should try going to Amsterdam. I've been in multiple European cities and I've never seen city design being this good. The problem with today's cities is that they are car-centric and this causes a lot of problems ranging from basic stuff like health and environment to more serious like economy (just look at USA). I come from a major car-centric city which is Warsaw and when I lived for a couple of weeks in Amsterdam, I've never felt so safe and comfortable. Moreover, I hope that they will push the idea of polycentric city, it will be another milestone in the great Dutch design.
I would have to disagree... between the bicycles everywhere and trams in the middle of the street I found navigating Amsterdam a real pain as a pedestrian. And it's far too busy for its size IMO, I don't think that design was done with that crazy influx of people in mind, and locals would tell you as much.
@@g-man4744 As I've said, I've been to multiple European cities. It's not based on just one trip and lack of exposure to other societies. Sure, it's crowded but it's due to too much of tourism which they fight with. Aside from decreasing the amount of tourists, the idea of polycentric city will fix that. Furthermore, I do feel safer there as a pedestrian. While there is a lot of bicycles, the amount of respect everyone has for everyone else (again, I'm not saying this for everyone and mostly the incoherent people are not the locals but people who moved in and don't care about assimilation) is huge. Not only that, the infrastructure is just built differently and you don't feel excluded whether you are a pedestrian, cyclist or a car user. I've never had a problem there, you just need to be mindful of others and that's all. The feeling of not worrying about getting hit by some dumbass that's going 80km/h inside the city is hard to explain, especially if you've never had situations like me. Poland is unfortunately the worst in it since we have a culture of speeding and being a dick for everyone else on the road. I've stopped counting how many times I had a close call with a car that is legally obliged to stop before a crosswalk.
As for locals, I've had different experience. While they do complain about some stuff, most of it is caused just by too much tourism. The crazy influx you're saying is just tourism, not people actually living in that city. In reality, it's a quite small town with about 1m population which is nothing. Though outside of Amsterdam, the infrastructure is also great and on a much better standard than the rest of Europe. At last, we Europeans tend to forget how blessed we are by living in this corner of the world. The rest of countries don't have the amenities we do let alone public transport.
Edit: i forgot to mention that Dutch design is just something else. Just look at their country, at what they did with dikes and recovering the lands, preventing floods and everything. No one and nothing is perfect sure, but in terms of design they can teach the Europe with ease.
@@marekzielinski9211 you're right, tourism is definitely what has overwhelmed the Amsterdam infrastructure but it's been a permanent feature of the city for decades now, and they are struggling badly. There's plenty of reasons why/how the design works for the Dutch cities, while impressive it would not be applicable in Poland or elsewhere. To start with the country is small and totally flat, so building dense cores and at scale is much easier than elsewhere. There's obviously other reasons...it's been a commercial hub for centuries, it wasn't flattened in 2 world wars, it's been very rich for a long time etc...
@@marekzielinski9211 F the gay cyclists
I see you cut the part about the conflict in Paris for an international audience.
okie wokie
What conflict would that be?
3:45 actually, in Tallinn we use Bolt scooters and bikes all the time, even as residents 😅
Maybe u don't have as good public transportation as Praguers.
We do! And it's free for all residents 😅
But only during the day 🫣
@@realhawaii5o how do you know? Have you ever visited Prague?
8:30 I strongly disagree, scooters are not a solution, especially gas ones, it's noisy, generate pollution, is dangerous for others, etc... The solution is ebike, it's easy, works for plenty of people even elderies, works even in hilly places (btw the Lime ebikes worked well in Prague for me), etc....
but scooter is still better than thousands of giant cars
@@Pidalin It takes less place in traffic but it's really bad in any other regard. Paris is trying to make them less appealing, for example since 2023 they now can't park anywhere for free anymore (walkways were full of scooters and motos), they have to park at actual parking spots now and have also to pay to park (it was free before). For the rest yeah I do think that electric scooters are fine, especially having seen how it works in China after that they banned all gas scooters, the silence in most streets is pretty crazy, if we can push people to take electric scooters instead, why not, it's an interesting solution I recon, at least then it doesn't pollute, no noise, no gas consumption, it's still a threat to pedestrians as they have a way higher kinetic energy than bikes/ebikes but yeah less than a car, indeed.
@@manu.yt25 Parking for free is wrong, but paying the same as much bigger car is a nonsense, they should motivate people to get rid of their cars and this will not help. Scooters can be annoying, but if everyone was using scooter instead of 2 ton car, traffic in cities would be much better.
@@manu.yt25 I wouldn't take Paris as an example of gas-scooter management. The city is just doing it to get more money to the local budget. Please keep in mind that electricity does generate pollution, because you need to produce electricity somehow. And no matter how many windmills and photo-voltaic cells you use, you need power generating capacities that can function non-stop at least to compensate the grid, not to mention the situations when wind stops and sun is covered in clouds. And those generating capacities are... nuclear and gas/oil/coal. That's why in every country, there's a guaranteed minimum power generation through these methods. And, also, domestic electric grid was not designed to charge e-scooters, e-bikes or, worst, e-cars. A totally electric vehicle world is completely impossible without a new, higher power electric grid. But this raises another concern: the safety. For instance, you can charge an e-bus at a high power charging station, which you can power from, let's say, the subway electric substations at night, when subway doesn't run. But you and me, unless we take a course of authorized electrician, can't operate with voltages higher than 420 V. Because for high power you need high voltage, in order to reduce the heat losses that increase with the increase of the current's values.
@@Pidalin It's not the same price as for cars, it's 2x cheaper for motorbikes/scooters than for cars. You're right that the ultimate goal is to motivate people to get rid of their cars, but so far the easy and cheap option was scooters because they had huge advantages like free parking and no one was paying attention to the problems they are causing. Anyway now Paris is very very welcoming for bikes and ebikes, and introducing paid parking for scooters helped some of them to use a bike instead which is better for everyone... And for your last phrase, having seen the chaos in South East Asia with an ocean of scooters, I guarantee you that this is ultimately not a great plan, except if you want a city even more filthy, full of noise and pollution 😅 For 2 wheeled mobility, bikes, ebikes or electric scooters are the way to go.
Your observation about the barriers around monuments and other historical venues is so true. In Edinburgh the 'Royal Mile' is blighted by huge black metal barriers and gateways erected after Islamic mass terror offences in the UK. Now that these ugly things are in place they will likely never get removed.
idk if u guys did it on purpose but i think title-thumbnail and video content doesnt match
No youtuber would dare to do that on purpose !
@@davidhlavac3998i mean i feel like they mixed up the thumbnail with an another video, cuz they said we will share other videos about Paris
He's helping but also part of the system
I visited Paris and Prague before, if I have a chance to see one of two city again, I will choose PRAGUE.
No illegal migrants in Prague, feels much safer to walk during the night in Prague than in Paris. Especially outside of city center.
@@fotoz2363 be patient, it's coming.
Loved the phrase "Barriers are easy to add, but hard to remove"
My experience of Paris, regarding toilets, was that I had to pay. Not much, but still. The street toilets weren't kept up very well. Now in restaurants, I didn't have to pay. In Prague, I had to pay to use the toilet, in a MacDonald's restaurant. What I did appreciate in Prague, was that metro stations had toilet facilities, unlike Paris.
All the comparisons about public toilets are misleading. In Prague, men just go to the bushes, or even a nearby wall. I was waiting for a tram next to a park recently, and could see a man peeing a few away, barely concealed by shrubbery. And once,, a grandfather was walking with his grandson, who needed to ''go,'' so Dedka just dangled the kid over the grass surrounding a tree in the sidewalk as people walked by. I think Honza did both cities a disservice by comparing them, though. Czechs assume all Americans are rich and have really never recovered from the many years they were exploited by first, Germans, then Russians. They still have a mental chip on their shoulders,
Problem is Not sitting on stairs but sleeping and drinking alcohol
Hello visiting Prague this September. Can’t wait 😊
Hello, this was great video! Thx Janek & bf!
Miami Beach made two-way Ocean Drive into a narrower one-way street, clearing the rest for bikes, electric scooters, and skateboarders. They still give the sidewalk to pedestrians. Zurich, Switzerland also does a good job of separating cars, pedestrians, and bikes/scooters/skaters.
I don't like scooters in paris because they tend to be incredibly dangerous for everyone, I don't think I am the only one.
Here in Milwaukee, they're completely fine.
I am from Barcelona and i really think that Praha should add a sea for both locals and tourists. It brings fresh air and fresh fish too. You should really try that option! Just put Karlin and Holesovice under water.
Seeing you fighting for this city of yours is a beautiful thing and is sad at the same time. I feel how much u love Prague and how much u want Prague to be beautiful for people. i have been in Prauge in may this year and it wasnt bad and wasnt it good either. i have really big hope that u will win good times for Prague. greeting from Poland
Ahoj kluky! 😁I'm Italian, been in Prague 13 years. I' m from Rome and my second loved EU city is Paris. Nowadays, all these cities and others, are suffering overtourism, high prices and low level bad service. In Paris and Rome we also have more troubles with immigration and crimes than Prague.
And the stupid stuff that silly tourists do I guess is worse than Prague, actually. Big cities, big problems!
I've worked into gastro/hospitality biz all my life: let's shortly say that "before" people and tourists were different. More interested, respectful, curious about city, culture, monuments, etc. Now its all about fast tour, selfies, cheap accomodations and junk food. Sad but true in high percentage.
Its ok, sign of the time; but maybe because of social media, reviews, ego, people are induced to do more stupid things than before. And many think that, paying, they are allowed to do all crazy stuff they want or to bad behave as in their own home. So silly.
NB: What I like from Prague and Czech people: safety, transports, česká koruna 😁, cleanliness, social order, Health system with private H.I.; indipendency, girls, good guys, weird humor 😉, beer, public and personal discretion(not the fobic one).
I saw you a couple of time around city centre once you was fighting about taxi stuff! Ciao Janek&Honza, Nashle! 🙂
Immigration = problem according to you. Fascista italiano.
"Immigration and crime", that tells one what they need to know about your opinion. Btw, whom did you vote for in the Italian elections?
@@nedludd7622 does it matter? he just said his opinion...
Problem with immigration and crime is massive even in Prague, but we have immigration from east, not from Africa, but you still recognize those people immediatelly because they all look the same - adidas tracksuits, tasteless fake golden stuff and typical soviet round faces. I say soviet, because I don't really care if they are from R country or U country, they look and act the same.
13 years and you don’t know it’s ahoj kluci
Been to both cities. Been to Paris twice, probably won't ever go back, expensive, didn't feel safe, panhandle, scammers aggressively approaching you, pickpockets. Prague on the other hand affordable very safe, no aggressive panhandle, very clean and the best beer in the world ! Will be there in October for 4 days, can't wait. This will be my fifth time in Prague.
Just watched your video and now visiting from US. You do have a beautiful city. Thank you for all the great information.
I was wondering when the next upload would be! Meeting you in the Netherlands was a honer! Hope we ever meet again in Prague!
Lane splitting on a scooter is definitely one of those things where you should Google if it's legal or not before you do it.
I know for a fact it's not legal in my country. Though, some scooters, depends on the engine and registration, can drive on most bicycle lanes. But, the speed limit for that is 30 km/h.
Paris resident here. After the terrorist attacks of 2015, barriers were erected at places where tourists congregate. At the Eiffel Tower these barriers were replaced in 2018 by the glass you see today. I also don't think it will go away soon. ATM: interesting point.There were these non-bank ATM's only at airports previously. I didn't know the regulation had changed. Avoid anyway, it's expensive. Electric scooters: yes, mostly scooter haters voted and the for-hire scooters are now banned. I think it's a good thing. Restaurant terrasses in parking spots: during covid restaurants were closed for a while and reopened gradually, first only with outside service. It made sense to use the parking spots as there were many fewer cars.The following year the municipality allowed some restaurants to continue using the parking spots but the rent went up by about 10x. They have to replace the revenue they lose from not having cars park there any more! Also, parking for motorcycles and scooters is no longer free since 2022.
what was the point of bringing all those immigrants and then create the barriers?
@@vladimiradoshev5310 humm I don't know but our government and UE elites call this a cultural enrichment, so it must be fantastic even if I still searching why.
@@vladimiradoshev5310 There is no correlation between immigration and the bareers.
I love this concept! It's so full of hope that you can change the problems of your city😀🙏 Thank you and I am looking forward for seeing this concept on your channel again (by the way, I am Czech and I write to you, Czech boys, in English about Prague from Quebec😀😀😀, funny world)
We also have a great ideas as well. Unfortunately we have never been in Paris. We love this video and this channel♥
8:17 people aren't sitting in traffic (jams), they are the traffic (jams)
Best VPN add I've seen very well executed
The last one would never go down well in the UK. We already complain about the lack of car parking space so to give what little we have over to cafe owners would be a step too far.
Paris is not as "touristic" as Prague, I feel that in Prague the city centre is just filled with tourist trap after tourist trap (duck shop, souvenir shop, cannabis shop, euronet, silly priced supermarket, ...) while in Paris a normal life is still present and not only maintained by tourist.
My daughter and her partner were just in Prague this week for a couple of days. They got up really early to see Charles Bridge and the Castle before everyone else, and after that they avoided Old Town. They found a really nice park, live music being played in the evenings, and just really had fun seeing all of Prague.
Oh God, so its like Split?
@@FinestFantasyVI No, they split.
@@paradoxparade1 I mean the croatian town Split
Its become a tourist trap
Paris is also full of tourist trap.
4:16 - for comparison, in my part of Australia, these scooters are not permitted to be ridden on the road, they must be ridden on the footpath, privately owned scooters are NOT permitted on roadways of footpaths *at all*
Pros and cons to everywhere but from a safety prospective Prague is a lot lot lot more safe than Paris
Prague is a village compared to Paris, way more people usually means way more trouble.
Right but don't get too afraid either, I visited Paris (as a french person) myself last year and was actually surprised by how nice it is and rather safe overall (at least if you are reasonably cautious). Paris gets too much hate sometimes and some people not living there or visiting lose their mind over it, on French Twitter you find guys who literately trash talk Paris 24/7 but never visits....
@@g-man4744 No, its pathethic excuse unsupported by empirical data. Its about cultural and social environment. Vienna is about the same population as Paris, but is absolutely safe. Compare crime rates of more populated Prague to less populated Marseille. You quickly see your argument has no merit.
You are more likely to get stabbed by bigfoot than something happening to you in a big city anywhere in the world lol
because it's a mono-nation and no immigrants there (only European ones such as Ukrainians)
03:40 That referendum was a joke with an 8% turnout. You had to pre-register offline before the information campaign started. Many didn't know about the referendum. Also, the number of polling stations was limited, which resulted in lengthy queues (even with such a low turnout)
06:50 Brno has free public restrooms too 😁 And they are quite clean
I don't remember pre-registering or queuing to vote. But I agree this kind of referendum do not makes sense.
1:29 What happened?
In rennes [still france] municipality can 'destroy' few centimeter of the walking path in front of your apartment if you ask and they replace it with dirt to plant many plant. So the walking path is full of plant the long of the wall, it's even better and bigger when they remove some parking spot to alow more plant and walking space.
In Munich we have this "gardens" every Sommer, called "Schanigarten". Looking forward for a Prag vs Munich. Děkuji Praha kluci!
Hello, I am French, I just saw your video, regarding the bulletproof windows/barriers around the Effel Tower, they were installed following the attacks of 2015, as a precaution
6:26 "So its only purpose is to, I guess, water the scooter" You should rename that one "straw" to "scooter sprinkler" 😂
10:19 I'm assuming those fresheners are called "brčko" (drinking straws) because of their shape, despite not being drinking fountains. On that note, here's a bonus Czech word: "pítko" (drinking fountain).
In the U.S. driving a motorcycle between cars is called 'lane splitting' (legal in California) or "filtering' (legal in 5 other states, rules vary). Other states are considering it.
About the Eiffel Tower: it was done like that after the 2015 attacks that really had a major impact on french security. I remember the same thing as you but I think it's really useful.
For ATM, the rule at least was, (did not check for the new one) that you must be a primary SWIFT accessing organisation to get the right to have ATMs. I'm not 100% sure of this information but it's very likely to be true. Euronet is not a primary SWIFT accessor as they use someone else service to do so that also charge them fees to exchange money.
The terrasses were in theory temporary. They try everything to keep it but I hate it. It takes a lot of place and when driving it's sometimes dangerous.
who let those terrorists in? they shouldn't have brought those immigrants to Europe
well, Paris is a failed city, so thats why there needs to be the barrier at the Eiffel tower. At least now noone harasses you right under the tower like everywhere else in the city. Its truly quite unfortunate what has Paris become nowadays.
@@vitkrivan9380 "Paris is a failed city"
Most horrendous opinion I've ever seen in my life.
@@enyrox ok, so you think that its ok that in a touristy spot like the Sacre Coeur people get regularly harassed and attacked?
My gf and I got literally attacked by a group of what looked like migrants at midday during summer. The police DIDNT care at all. Its obvious that it got totally out of hand. You literally are scared to walk in the city which makes it a failed city for me. It used to be a perfect city to visit and probably live in, but that was 20 yrs ago, definitely not now. Prague is definitely far superior to Paris.
@@vitkrivan9380paris is extremely safe, if you're scared I'm sorry but it's a you problem
Last time I was in Paris they tried to do the "You dropped your ring" scam on me.
And what I thought was perfect when I was in Prague was to see the city towards the evening, not during the day.
It's funny you put the fountains and restrooms as a + for Paris. As a Parisian that loves to walk everywhere in Paris, I've been complaining for a lot of time of the insufficient number of those.
Number of fountains is getting a little better lately but mostly for touristy places, there are still 30min A-to-B walks I do in center Paris where I don't encounter any.
Toilets there are way not enough, 1/3 of the time they are out of service, if there is a queue those self cleaning toilets are very very slow between people, and I really don't like using those. During the Olympic Games they installed a lot of small container shape restroom blocks with 6 toilets' in each (taking the same space than 1 self cleaning toilet), they were in Olympic sites but also around. Those were mostly very clean while being regular toilets, with frequent cleaning and reloading. It proves it's possible to have a enough nice toilets if there is the political will...
In Amsterdam they have some narrow streets that lead to some quite populair destinations. They wanted it to be friendly for pedestrians but also have tramlines run through it in both ways. So what they did is made a double track tramway in the middel. And no i don't mean 2 tracks next to each other, that only happens at stops on the bridges, i'm talking about dubble railed single track where trams in both directions can drive on in the middle of the street, as far from the shops as possible, without the need for switches when the track splits up, making it more safe for pedestrians because it means there's no moving track where people walk.
That's true, when I visit Czechia (recently once a year) I always have to spend some time to check which website selling vignetes is legit.
I WANT YOUR SHIRT!! I love "diving goggles"
Vienna has a good solution. Many of the straws include a tap for drinking water.
I travel one hour I am still in the same State here in US, y'all are so lucky to visit different countries.
IMPORTANT question, when you are eating a tangerine and one of the pieces are connected/attached to a little baby, what do you do? Do you eat the baby first, separating it? Do you go the other way around? Do you toss them away? Do you eat them both at the same time?
Great Brejlovec/Goggles sweatshirt! Czech and Czechoslovak railway engineering is top notch and world class
This might be the best sponsorship I've seen. Also, props to you for educating people and encouraging using bikes!
Really excited, I’ll be in Prague soon.
8:05 now why would you show the temperature in Fahrenheit. If you must, at least also show it in Celsius.
I believe the „Schanigarten“ or as you refer to space on the street for the restaurant, was an Viennese invention in the 18th century. They are all over Vienna and had to be rebuild every year. Since covid they are allowed to stay all year long.
i'd love to give you a tour around Riga, Latvia sometime, maybe get some inspiration or a new perspective on European cities
Haha i use the scooter as a local. If you get the day-pack and have a lot of short trips to do, then they are super nice. But yeah, mostly not for everyday use.
I would rather have a car-free inner-city zone (except for public transport and cabs). This would provide enough space for pedestrians, scooters, and bicycles while making the area much quieter, less polluted and more enjoyable to enjoy and relax in such a space to meet people and enjoy culture. For the large regular scooters I like the concept of many Chinese Cities. Electric scooters with a universal battery system and stations everywhere where you can put your empty battery in and get a fully loaded one out for a fair price. Similar to the package stations we have everywhere.
Electric scooters = e-litter. The British had the better idea: dump them in the canals which forces the scooter businesses to close due to lack of profit.
First time commenter, long time viewer. Always love your videos guys - I’m an Aussie but my late mother was Czech, born in Prague. Enjoy watching and being reminded of a great place I’ve visited a few times myself.
I live in Melbourne - our council for the central business district recently banned hire e-scooters but like Paris, e-scooters owned privately will still be allowed.
No referendum or anything but the ban takes effect in a month! Maybe Prague can follow? 😅
I remember when no border around Eifel Tower. Was there for Olympics and dislike security. Been that way for some time. I dislike the scooters and think Euronet is terrible. I find local banl ATM that does not mention conversion gives you a better rate with your bank. Poland Polish Bank is good but I have fpubd Santander in most countries as well. I loved water fountains in Paris and Disney Paris. Was great to just fill up my bottles. I loved the toiletd in Paris. The seperate urinal was neat. In 2000 they did not have those and smelled like you would find in some streets in Prague, Warsaw, Krakow, etc today: urine on walls.
surprised that you counted the presence of scooters as a positive thing 🤯 for me that's definitely a negative one 😬
But why? I allways thought 50 scooters are much better for traffic jamm than 50 cars. In Prague there are very small amount of scooters so I dont have experience. But I am courious, Its about loudness? or something else? I mean compare with cars.
@@ncspcrew2566 If you compare with cars it's easy indeed, but even so scooters are loud, pollute, their drivers are madmen (at least in Paris), and they used to block every walkway when parked before the mayor banned that and made parking paid. Maybe that one some aspects scooters are less worse than cars, but that doesn't make them great, electric scooters eliminate some of their problems (noise, pollution) but still. Getting those people on an ebike would probably be a much better solution, ebikes are very popular in France and makes using a bike pretty easy for anyone.
Exactly! That’s true they’re more efficient and cause less traffic. But their noise 🤯 it is sooo loud.
They have those rental scooters and bikes in Washington DC. Not only are they super annoying to the average person walking around, but thieves love to steal them, hack them, and make them their own personal property. Not to mention, many people use them and then just leave them laying wherever
Great video and thanks for your great work and dedication! I disagree with only one thing. I lived in Prague and Paris and I would deduct the score for using scooters to avoid traffic. It might make sense for individuals to use them but they are terrible. Most of them would not pass any serious assessment (with the exception of electric scooters, those are cool, like from a Batman movie) - they pollute the air, they are very noisy, and, crucially, dangerous to pedestrians and cars. So not really a great solution and I appreciate the fact that there are mostly no serious traffic jams in Prague compared to Paris (e.g., good luck driving home in Paris on Sunday or any day from suburbs) so that is why we (Czechs) do not have to use scooters. Also, the Prague's public transportation is more reliable and convenient than the one in Paris.
Having recently been to Vienna, they have those water misting things figured out, they're usually paired with water fountains.
As a local from Prague-yes, even locals use the electric scooters and its actually a good experience if you ride it in the bike lanes. However the city should build a lot more of these bike lanes and then the scooters wouldnt be to any trouble.
And just fyi- regular scooters are very enviromentaly unfriendly, they produce tons of poisonous fuel exhausts so Id recommend using the electric scooters instead Janek
As a local from Prague-no, I dont know any local who ever tried e-scooter. I recommend bikes. E-scooters are for tourists and drunk kids.
@@ncspcrew2566 not true. Ppl under 30 use them quite regularly…
@@vitkrivan9380 Lime scooters? I know people who have their _own_ e-scooter, but noöne who ever used the rental Lime scooters (or their Segway brethren).
And yes, regular motorbikes and scooters are awful, just like leaf blowers or lawnmowers. Incredibly noisy and smelly with disgusting exhaust. Though unfortunately that also got a lot worse with personal cars (as if they weren't bad enough already!) as they got fitted more commonly with diesel engines... especially as they age and lack proper maintenance. And then people get the bright idea to make them even worse with exhaust modifications and such.
Cities aren't loud. Cars (and motorbikes) are loud. So loud that we can't even complain about the _birds_ being loud anymore, because you can't hear them over the noise from the internal combustion engines and tires :D
@@LuaanTi well if the locals wouldn’t ever use the rental e-scooters then why would the companies have their scooters even in smaller cities in Czech Republic like Ostrava, Budějovice and many other where there aren’t a lot of tourists to rent them?
And yes I agree on your view of internal combustion engines, I think that EVs are definitely the way to go especially in these larger cities where there’s a lot of problems with noise and air pollution. Hybrids sort of work too.
In Slovenia if you want to change money to Euro you need to to to bank, but most of stores take cards not a big problem 😊😅
Key point overlooked is that it is far far far more expensive to visit Paris than Prague
I live in Prague and never used a rented electric scooter until recently. Last week, I was in hurry and there was no taxi or cycle on rent so I rented an electric scooter. To my surprise it costed more than a taxi for a short ride 😂 I don't get it why people use this expensive and unsafe mode of travel.
I have been to Prague and I loved it. Have not been to Paris.
The most important things I want to know as a tourist is
Which between the 2 cities is safer for tourists?
Which between the 2 is cleaner? Be honest noww
Last summer I visited all the pitko marked on the map around Prague. Maybe 20% of them actually worked.
Every VPN providers who buy ads on UA-cam is not secure at all, rethink your choice.
Watching these while you live in Athens is really painful because it shows how much we are lacking in terms of infastracture. No mayor has actually tried to improve anything. Barely any bike lanes, broken and narrow sidewalks, inefficient public transport, not enough trees and proper parks and very little public space in general. Makes sense why it is ranked lowest in Europe in terms of livability.
If anyone understands Czech, the Czech version of this episode had some drama they didn't mention here! 😮
Are those on a separate channel?
@@leob4403 Yes :) It's called Kluci z Prahy
I was also not aware of this separate channel till very recently... Maybe they should advertise it more strongly!
@@326Alan thanks, I was hoping it would be texted in Czech but unfortunately not, I'm at beginner level so it's too hard for me
@@leob4403 No problem! I'm also learning. It can be a lesson in itself to sit through and get exposure to normal speech, perhaps on 0.75x speed, though :) although subtitles would be great
@@326Alan yeah I might try that slowing it down. I know some Russian so hopefully it could help. But honestly I have no idea how to spell the words in Czech that he's saying. I have some books in Czech which is probably an easier way to start off
I don't know in Paris, but in Milan you'll find thousands of scooter parked on the sidewalk, even thought there are many (free) parking spaces for motorbikes. Why? Because, unlike cars, you can park them wherever you want, so "why shouldn't I park my scooter in front of my building?". Nobody's complaining and I've never seen a cop giving a ticket...
Raised and still living inside Paris, I can think of a few marker that chocked me, for the public toilet, they makes a huge effort to clean them only this year and mostly in touristic parts. I remember one time trying to use that at night, and really I almost puke. For the e scooter only less than 10% vote on this, it was badly publicized.
You should have try to visit non tourist quarter in Paris to compare there to prague, it would have been perfect ( btw I just love Prague too :-) )
I think Bosnia did roads well. Lots of pedestrianised areas in Sarajevo and Mostar and crossings were frequent and safe
I was in Madrid a few weeks ago and what I really liked there was affordable e-bike sharing. Now that I would other cities to 'steal'.
They are basically everywhere and cost only 0.50 € for the first 30 minutes.
Coming back to Berlin, where the rent of a normal bicycle ( not e-bike) costs 1€ for 15 minutes (so 4x the price) is very disappointing.
Im curious how many hours would you consider "a day drive" as someone who lives in the US i often hear Europeans shocked by how far some people in the US would drive for a family visit or vacation.
It's about ten hours, already pushing what would _reasonably_ be "a day drive". Have you driven on European "highways"? All the Americans I drove with were quite scared of them and couldn't imagine driving as long as they do "home". Though I do know plenty of people who see nothing wrong with driving twenty hours in one long stretch for a vacation even here :D
Most Americans seem to severely overestimate the size of the USA. Europe is (very slightly) bigger. It's just not nearly as empty, which makes it all the more likely that your destination is much closer on average :) And of course, it helps that European gas prices are still about twice the US prices, there is better public transport infrastructure, people are generally slightly more environmentally conscious and it's not nearly as common for kids to move across the whole of Europe from their parents as it is in the US (and again, even when they do, they are unlikely to take _a car_ to visit back home).
Cheaper gas (and generally pro-fossil-fuel propaganda and policy) has a great effect on this. Some of the refugees living here in Prague we befriended didn't see anything weird with doing a trip from Kharkiv to Madrid in a car for a vacation (40+ hours without any stops along the way)... while my Bahrain/Saudi/Syrian acquaintances were astonished we even use cars given how much more expensive gas (and cars) are here :D Even then, most would use a train or a plane (and a decade or two back, a bus; those eventually became the basis for only the cheapest vacations, unfortunately). Overall, long car trips are _really_ expensive, and not just on fuel. American middle class is a much smaller proportion of the population than in Europe (and steadily dropping), but they do have more income (though not necessarily actual _disposable_ income) - and cars are generally fairly light on taxation and regulation in the US, making their use much cheaper (and ultimately, you probably don't have a real alternative to using a car anyway).
@LuaanTi thansk for the reply. I have not been on a European highway, but even the tight roads make me generally nervous, but I am aware that I'm just used to these big ole American streets lol. Yes Europe is larger, but correct me if I'm wrong. Usually, Europeans aren't going across multiple countries like how Americans will cross multiple states. We don't have much access to a longer form of public transport, which is rather dumb if i do say so myself.
Mobile roaming service works the way that your internet access is originating from your mobile operator location, not from where you are. Roaming means transfer your activity back to your network, despite network your mobile is.
Some quick elements from someone french who lives in Paris :
- clock vs tower : I can only agree, and this seems quite recent.
- ATM : I hope we are not getting those ATM. I do not think there are many places in Paris where you cannot pay with bank cards.
- Electric scooters. Very few people voted in this referendum and I do not think it is a good idea even if I voted against the scooters (because the scooters companies where trying to influence the vote).
- Water : there is even free sparkling water fountains ! And railway stations are now legally obliged to have free drinking water fountains. Since 2022, hotels, cafés and restaurants have been required to have a drinking water fountain accessible to the public (not just customers!).
- restroom : we also have some place that stink urine. Being a local I am not familiar with the restroom issue.
- Motorcycles and scooters in Paris are a nuisance in terms of behavior and noise. But measures have been taken to remove them from sidewalks and to charge for parking.
- parking spots : that is great, I hope there would be less parking spots in the street as there are lots of underground parkings.
the clock vs tour effeil is a bit harsh.
I mean, yeah it's certainly less pleasant for a tourist, but they were put in place after the 2015 terror attacks.
And I think it's a good thing to protect tourists and the monument, in spite of themselves.
In two weeks in France and Spain last year I think I spent €100 in cash and paid for most everything either with my phone or by tapping my card. There's very little besides sidewalk vendors where you will want or need to pay in cash these days.
Try Istanbul once mate :) you will love it...
I also hate those barriers. Especially this on the Eiffel tower is such a shame. Also those barriers in Berlin around the Reichstag are annoying. With scooters or similar you will only see US tourist in Prague. Have in mind for young Europeans a lot of museums in Paris are free of charge even the Louvre on some days. Paris improved so much on cycle traffic. A bit annoying to motorists but so much better than before.
In Melbourne Australia, rental e-scooters are being banned this year and about time.
Bloody menace as they just don't give a crap where they ride and frequently go through red lights or cut in front of traffic.
I will never ever go to France. Only to drive through it to Spain for example. It's not that I dislike the country, it's the people that live in it that are absolutely horrible to deal with on every single occasion.
Paris doesn’t have metro ticket inspectors targeting honest tourists with 40€ fines for making an honest mistake that is the fault of ticket machines.
We bought tickets that are apparently for seniors only, except nothing on the ticket machine said anything about it being for seniors. When we validated the tickets an inspector immediately approached us and gave is 40€ fines even though we had not even boarded a train. I said, “oh, I didn’t know that. Let me go get another ticket” and started walking toward the machine.” Then the inspector grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back and said “It’s too late. You have to pay the fine or I will call the police for resisting.”
It's written on each machine which ticket you should buy.
You must have a validated ticket before entering the passenger area, it doesn't matter if you're on the train or not.
Maybe next time would be better to find out at least basic rules of the public transportation you intend to use.
You should have let them call the police. They have no right to do this. Unless you were in a metro station, that is - you already need a valid ticket to enter the station, not just to board the train. But still, they have no right to actually detain you (and neither does the city police, in fact - only the state police can do that in most cases). As for the ticket distinction, it's written on all the ticket machines in multiple languages (usually at least Czech and English, in fewer places German too), including information about what makes you eligible for the reduced ticket prices... but it's definitely easy to miss if you have absolutely no experience with anything like this. I wouldn't ever expect to be eligible for reduced fare without checking the rules first, but there's other things that are just as easy to miss - for example, the fact that you have to buy extra tickets for luggage.
Annoyingly, this is a relatively recent phenomenon. Inspectors used to be very fair and reasonable most of the time just a few years back. But then someone had the bright idea to reward how many fines they issue, and to employ people who aren't really professionals, which is always a stupid thing to do for something that is essentially customer service!
And keep in mind that the vast majority of the cost of the transport system comes from taxes anyway (about 85%). The whole ticket inspector thing should be about reminding people to follow the rules and pay proper fare. It shouldn't be a money racket.
I have been to both cities. I love both but one is better than another one in some ways I like the food and art museums in Paris over Prague while I like the people and streets in Prague over Paris. And, the price is much better in Prague than Paris.
You have Brčko town in bosnia and Hercegovina
has it the same meaning as it has in czech?
@@saad-t7k means "mustache" in Bosnia
@@Kyk_cz that is funny 😁