Prague: The Scariest City in Europe (2025)

Aside from the gleaming panoramas of the old gothic cathedrals, I distinctly remember one thing about Prague: it adored anything that could instill a fright. It was that reason alone that I found myself returning with Hollie; she had never been to the Czech Republic before, and so, to commemorate her 29th birthday, I decided to book what would go on to be her “scariest” trip to date. And if you haven’t booked a flight to Prague yet, then allow me to shed light on the reasons why you might want to consider it as your next pre-Halloween destination.

Credit: Thrill Park

Prague Fear House Catacombs

Prague Fear House is located in the center of Praha 1—a bustling area of the city that not only houses several intriguing bars and nocturnal landmarks, but a significant cultural heritage that includes several alchemy lairs, underground tunnels, and more importantly, this absolute powerhouse of a scare attraction.

The Prague Fear House is a two-for-one ordeal; it acts a nightmare bar during most opening hours with an extensive collection of themed drinks, cobweb-riddled set pieces, and an unsettling but oftentimes mismatched soundtrack. But at night, Fear House doubles up as an escape room, with short but terrifyingly good scare maze experiences. With three choices to consider—a daytime tour that includes a “family-friendly” walk through of the catacombs by candlelight; a mid-level tour that requires you to traipse through the aforementioned catacombs and, in some cases, receive a chainsaw up the backside from one of the two in-house scare actors; or an EXTREME tour, which daringly asks that you, well, bring a spare change of clothes. Full disclosure: the latter isn’t for the faint of heart.

Thrill Park

Thrill Park stands as one of, if not the best scare attraction in all of Europe, with two incredible experiences to choose from. Firstly, there’s The Experiment—a forty-minute escape room that asks that you sign a waiver, shackle yourself to a wall with chains, and meander around a scientist’s decrepit laboratory in search of answers pertaining to a psychological experiment. And yes, the actors can touch you, which means that, while the puzzles aren’t overly invasive, the mentally ill patient who stalks you from the other side of the room is. With several pitch-black areas to explore, hidden puzzles to solve, and an endless quantity of well-timed jump scares, The Experiment stands its ground as one of the most memorable escape rooms in Prague.

The Dungeon of Horror is another story, and one that, quite frankly, has the potential to become one of the most nerve-wracking scare mazes of all time. It’s thirty minutes in length, but, like The Experiment, it invites you to enter complete darkness and follow the tiny red dots on one of several CCTV cameras. There are trap doors, ridiculously tight crawl spaces, rope ladders, flashing lights, and a lot of scare actors, few of whom have chainsaws and other means of instilling fear into your life. And to reiterate, it’s all in the dark — so you never know who’s behind you, much less where you’re going. That is, until you hear the revving of a chainsaw in a nearby closet.

Credit: Thrill Park

House of Ghosts — The Chamber Escape Room

While Prague certainly isn’t short of horror-themed escape rooms, the city does have one in particular that yearns to be seen. House of Ghosts, or Poltergeist, is an award-winning escape room that features professional cabin-centric set pieces, automated puzzles and shifting objects, haunted two-way radios, and a tremendous variety of intriguing puzzles.

Credit: The Chamber

Nightmare Horror Bar

Prague is no stranger to quirky bars and clubs, but the one that stands out the most (at least for us horror aficionados) is the Nightmare Horror Bar, which is located on the western outskirts of Praha 1.

The bar, which doubles up as a metal-obsessed cellar bar of sorts, offers themed cocktails, licensed props, and a generous selection of eccentric bar snacks. And the ambiance, well — that speaks for itself. With franchise poster children such as Freddy, Ghostface, Annabelle, and Art the Clown flying the blood-soaked flag for the bar, it instantly becomes a must-see spot on the map.