Living Like A Local With @Roomorama: Prague Edition.

Editors note: This is the first review of three about our stays with Roomorama. Stay tuned for Istanbul and Venice!

I’ve got a raw onion half on the arches of each foot–a home remedy Beth read about, which is suppose to draw out the debilitating toxins from my body–as I lay in bed staring out a huge window into the soul of a city I fear I may never see.

“Sick in Prague,” I say to myself. “Unbelievable!

We’ve been in the Czech capital for less than 10 hours–all of it, except probably 20 minutes, have been spent in our apartment at 14 Liliova Street unpacking and settling in.

Beth isn’t doing much better either. Though, her illness peaked a few days earlier, so she’s slowly coming back to life. She’s decided to go out and forage for food (i.e. find a grocery store). I drift off to sleep.

*     *     *

I awake a few hours later to a smell I haven’t experienced for months: home cooking. The aroma of sauteed onions fills the apartment and brings me to full attention.

Flipping on the lamp next to the bed, I look around our room and see a soft glow of light steaming in from the kitchen and living room. It’s dark now, but our two bedroom flat has made the transformation from day to night perfectly– cozy, warm, it feels like home.

After a little soup and tea, I fall back to sleep to the sounds of Beth typing away on her laptop in the living room.

*     *     *

Dawn comes early and I’m excited to get the onions out of my socks. According to the lore, the onion should have turned black with toxins.

Feeling much better–my aches, shakes and stomach pain are gone–I rip my socks off only to find the onions haven’t changed a bit; they are still white.

Was it the onions that helped me? Or the Tylenol Cold and Flu I took throughout the day? I don’t know, but I feel better and we’ve got about 24 hours left in Prague.

I hop from bed, throw on a pot of hot water for tea and proceed to explore this magnificent flat. Outside the overcast sky is no match for the red clay piped roofs and the golden facade on the corridor of three story buildings leading to the Charles Bridge.

Strolling from room to room, I feel like I’m in a New York City flat circa 1950.

There’s a vintage feel to the place. Its old in a way that feels chic, but never dated. The kitchen and bathroom are lined with tile, while the rest of the rooms have hardwood floors. Each room is large and the space could easily accommodate four to six people, in fact there is no extra charge for a third or fourth person, raising the bar of this place in the sea of other Prague short-term rentals. It blows nearby hotels out of the water.

Overall, the place reminds more of a penthouse suite than an apartment, and I think a lot of that has to do with its layout. The bathroom is large and contains a shower as well as bathtub (the toilet or WC is located in a separate room off from the kitchen). Each bedroom contains two queen-sized beds (two fulls pushed together) and the living room has two more couches (one is a pullout), chairs and cable TV. The kitchen is huge and stocked to the max with anything you could possibly need from rolling pins, pots & pans to about 20+ tea cups. There’s a host of spices to use in the cabinets as well.

After stirring around for 20 minutes or so–opening closets, drawers, doors– Beth awoke and joined me in the kitchen. As she went through all the items she got at the market for about $33 as well as the spices provided by the hosts, it became clear we would be eating breakfast and lunch in.

*     *     *

Our lunch menu consisted of Brussels sprout with a touch of ginger (Bobby Salvon-style), a tomato, cucumber and feta salad as well as baked dish consisting of the left over noodles from the soup.

Kicking back that afternoon during lunch, we laughed about our big plans for Prague that would, for now, have to wait. In fact, Beth even confessed she used the Czech-Republic and all its frothy goodness (plenty of beer!) as a sort of carrot on a stick to get me excited about long-term travel.

And despite being ill, we both agreed that having an apartment to hole up in to weather the storm is far better than a tiny European hotel. We were able to cook homemade comfort foods that reminded us of home and when you’re sick that’s what you really want! Especially, since the process of booking the apartment was simple and straight forward. And unlike some other short term rental sites we’ve checked out in the past, Roomorama had a great selection of places to fit any number of price points from budget to luxury.

Additionally, booking through Roomorama is also reassuring because if  you have any issues in your apartment or need directions or suggestions then your host is just email or phone call away. Unlike booking a hotel online, which is generally a sterile process, finding and securing a place through Roomorama puts you in direct contact with the owner, so before you even arrive you’ve already developed a personal connection.

After our lunch, some work and a nap, we did finally make it out into Prague for a couple hours, and man am I glad we did.

It turns out our flat was only about a 5 minute walk from the Charles Bridge as well as the Old Town Square. Talk about location! We were situated between both spots the entire time! We wondered around both places, grabbing a beer and strudel–kind of like a speed date with the city–before heading onward with a heartache for more.

Below are the photos from our stay and the yummy food we made in our Prague apartment. Enjoy!

The Living Room:

The Kitchen:

Bedroom #1:

Bedroom #1 & #2:

Bedroom #2:

The Bathroom & WC:

The View From The Living Room & Bedroom – Cute!:

The View From The Living Room – Loved the huge windows throughout the apartment:

All this food – $33!

Greek Style Salad:

Making Brussel Sprouts:

Making Soup:

Brussel Sprouts & Yogurt with Bananas:

Hot Ginger & Lemon Tea (this is great for a cold):

Mac n’ Cheese & Noodle Soup:

Time for Lunch:

The View Of the Front of the Apartment (Inside the apartment complex):

The Neighbors & Complex:

The Front of the Building:

The Street The Apartment is on:

In short, we loved this place. It was so spacious! There was a ton of room for us and like I mentioned above, the kitchen was stocked. We spent $33 on groceries that lasted us for the two days we were in town so we saved a ton of money preparing our own food. Even more of a bonus was having a comfortable spot to recuperate from being sick. It was nice, REALLY nice to have our own space that was homey and allowed us to make soup, mac n’ cheese and other various feel-good staples – something you definitely can’t do in a hotel. The location was perfect – literally a 5 minute walk each way to the famous Charles Bridge and the Old Town Square. When we come back to Prague we would love to stay in this apartment again and we recommend it to any of our readers. Great for everyone – especially a larger group or a family.

Our apartment in Prague was compliments of the good folks at Roomrooma who have short term rentals all across the world. If you would like to stay in the flat mentioned in this story you can find it online here: Prague Holiday Rental

*While our lodging was sponsored, the views and opinions in the story are entirely our own.

*Please remember all photos on this website, unless otherwise noted, are copyrighted and property of Beers and Beans Travel Website, Nariko’ s Nest Weddings & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you do want to use one of them please contact me first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. Thanks!