Is the Plague Doctor Tour Worth It? 

The answer is YES! But this is not your typical tour. But 100% Yes, you need to go on it! My name is Hannah Letwinsky, and this summer I am a study abroad + intern student at CEA CAPA, staying in Prague for two months. I work for a company called Light in the Dark s.r.o, where this summer I will be writing blogs, doing social media, and creating graphics for our website: https://night-watchman.net/. Why would I know, well I attended two tours since my stay, and let me assure you these experiences were both memorable.

The Plague Doctor is one of the two tours offered by our team at Light in the Dark. Founded in 2016, Light in the Dark (https://night-watchman.net/) is a company that specializes in Old Town Prague tours through memorable and exciting storytelling. You can even experience a storytelling class in addition to the two distinctive and eccentric tours: The Plague Doctor and The Nightwatchman (Both great experiences). 

The Plague Doctor tour is so much more than a simple walk through town; it’s a fully immersive experience with the fascinating history of Prague. For newcomers to Prague, it gives you great insight into the city, while also learning and engaging with facts about the bubonic Plague. This tour is for anyone that enjoys history, theater, or is visiting Prague for the first time. 

In this tour, you join one of our Plague Doctors, in full 17th century costume, beaked mask and mysterious leathered bag, for a 90-minute journey through the dark, fascinating, and sometimes disgusting history of the plague. You first meet the Plague Doctor at the Aurus Hotel Prague. This beautifully decorated House of the Golden Well was built in 1715 to celebrate the end of the Plague. Here, you meet Alexander Schamsky, a 28-year-old doctor who stayed in Prague and fought through the plague in 1713. You also learn about the plague saints Sebastian and Rochus, and find out why drinking three liters of garlic beer a day was considered solid medical advice. 

The next stop is the Klementinum, one of Prague’s most atmospheric courtyards, just 20 metres from the tourist crowds – Eww! Be sure to keep your distance! Here, you learn how the rich escaped the plague, how ordinary families were locked inside their own homes by armed night watchmen, and how Schamsky ended up becoming a doctor against all odds. Then, you go to the New Town Hall and Virgin Mary Square where you’ll get acquainted with two types of plague – bubonic and pneumonic – including symptoms, survival rates and the surprising texture of a bubo. 

Next, you take a stop in the Old Town Square, the most disgusting place in Prague. Why? Well because it is full of tourists that walk right by you. We like to make this stop nice and quick, that way we can get out of this area. You’ll learn about the 30 Years War, the role of merchants during plague times, and why French perfume was accidentally invented as a public health measure. You also get to sniff a mysterious oil (it’s lavender). Shortly after getting out of that awful place, we stop at the Franz Kafka Statue and Jewish Quarter. Here, you have a brief encounter with Franz Kafka who, like the plague, appears everywhere in Prague no matter what happens. You discover why certain communities of Prague fared significantly better during the plague.

The fourth stop in your tour is at the St. Francis Hospital, the oldest active hospital in Central Europe that has been running since the 16th century. You’ll meet another forgotten hero, Celestine Opitz, the surgeon who performed the first successful surgery under full anaesthesia in 1847. The patient woke up, everyone celebrated (Hooray), then the patient died. But hey, that’s progress. You also learn about the rat flea, Yersinia Pestis, and receive your anti-plague pill. Finally, you reach the endpoint at St. Agnes Convent, the 13th century convent where Prague’s very first plague cases were reported. Here, you learn about alternative medicine, and what happened to Alexander Schamsky. The tour closes with a short poem, then you can follow us on Instagram and give us a review. 

The Plague Doctor tour is different to other tours in Prague. It is not just some boring tour where you follow a tour guide through the city, eventually making you tired enough to fall asleep. Often other tours feel like you have just seen cool places, and forget really anything that you have learned. However, the Plague Doctor does a good job engaging with the audience, along with giving this history facts. Speaking from my personal experience, I remember both of the tours I did. Not just the places we went to, but also the historical facts that I learned about the city of Prague. Unlike other tours, where I think some of the places I went to are cool, but afterwards I forget any of the history that I had just learned. 

The Plague Doctor tour is rated 4.9/5 across over 8,000 reviews on Airbnb, TripAdvisor, and GetYourGuide. It has also been featured in New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Vogue and Forbes. When first hearing about this tour, I was intrigued to go on it. I did not really know what I was expecting. Will this be just another boring tour, where I have to wear some kind of weird earphones and listen to a boring speaker, barely recalling anything from it? The Plague Doctor Tour is different for a few reasons. First, because of the interactivity of the tourists, I was able to remember many of the places that I visited as well as the historical facts that I learned about the Plague. I also loved my tourist. They seemed so comfortable in this plague doctor role, that they have pretty much mastered it since they had been working with Light in the Dark. Everyone around me was also laughing and genuinely seemed to have a great time learning about the Plague. The Plague Doctor tour is able to take one of the darkest moments in European history, and turn it into a fun tourist experience. 

So, is the Plague Doctor tour worth it? 100% Yes. So, the next time that you come to visit Prague,  make sure to book it immediately. You won’t be sorry!