Veronika G., Author at Prague Morning

The official first day of Summer is still yet to come but the temperature outside screams summertime already.

We all know that feeling of summer in the city – long sunny days, late nights out, kilos of ice-cream…

But for people living in the city, the summer season can be a pretty nightmare.

But what to do in summer in the city if we still want to leave an active lifestyle but not locking ourselves in air-conditioned gyms? Yes, we can try to wake up early in the morning or try it out later in the evening at the park, but we have a better option – swimming!

Swimming is not just an amazing workout for the body but has also several benefits for your physical and mental health. While exercising in the water, you can enjoy a nice summer sun, get some tan, play some water games with friends. Because outdoor swimming pools are simply fun!

Prague has several swimming pools both indoor and outdoor. For the summer season, we pick outdoor ones because let’s be honest who would like to spend time inside these days.

Podolí swimming pool
Address: Podolská 74, 140 00 Prague 4
Opening hours: daily 6-21:45
Website

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Divoká Šárka swimming pool
Address: Divoká Šárka 8/2, 164 00 Prague 6
Opening hours: daily 8-21
Website

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Petynka swimming pool
Address: Otevřená 1072/4, 169 00 Prague 6
Opening hours: Daily 7-21
Website

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Hostivař reservoire
Address: K Jezeru 1, 100 00 Prague 10
Opening hours: Daily 9-22
Website

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Džban reservoir
Address: Nad lávkou 5, 160 00 Prague 6
Opening hours: Daily 9-21

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SK Motorlet Praha
Address: Radlická 298/150, 150 00 Prague 5
Opening hours: Opening hours different every day. Check on the website!
Website

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Biotop Radotín swimming-baths
Address: K Lázním 9, 153 00 Prague 5
Opening hours: Daily 9-20
Website

Very popular with international visitors, the city has seen most of its hotels close as the pandemic has kept tourists away. But we often forget that hotels are not just for tourists but also offer a great experience for locals.

Hotel Maximilian is one of the great examples of why locals should visit city hotels more often.

Hotel Maximilian is located in the heart of the historical center of Prague opposite the Haštal church – just 5 minutes walk from Prague’s leading monuments and famous places: Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square, Charles Bridge, Powder Tower, and more.

The four-star Hotel Maximilian underwent a complete renovation – you may have visited the hotel some time ago, but today you would not recognize it anymore.

The design of all interior spaces is the responsibility of the London design studio, Conran & Partners. Maximilian combines sophisticated strategy with luxurious comfort and impeccable but friendly service, attracting travelers worldwide, whether they come for a business trip or to relax with family and friends.

Part of the hotel is the Brasserie Maximilian – the place proves that even in the hotel restaurant, you can find creative cuisine with excellent service at a reasonable price, to which it makes sense to return. Behind the concept stands no one else than Scott van Wagenen from New York, reflecting on the whole approach.

Restaurants aim to have a significant part of the menu focused on vegetarians and vegans and prove that even meat-free meals can be prepare creatively and with interest.

They follow the motto “local products – world taste” – they believe that the key to sustainable gastronomy is precisely quality & local ingredients. All products are local, and customers can be sure of the quality approach and ethics for picking their products.

Brasserie Maximillian is honestly a unique hidden gem in Prague, very stylish and cozy – in the summertime, you can enjoy pleasant outdoor seating in the beautiful courtyard.

The place is perfect for any occasion, whether it is a morning coffee, business lunch, romantic dinner, or a weekend brunch.

Besides accommodation and restaurants, guests and locals can also visit Planet Zen Spa and enjoy a fantastic massage or pamper themselves with other spa treatments.

Brasserie Maximilian in Prague

Are you constantly wondering where to go on a trip in Czechia? You don’t have to anymore – Placehunter mobile app gives you a handful of tips for trips.

Placehunter is a mobile app in English where you can find around 150 unique places to see in Czechia. In addition, you will also find practical information for each location – such as photos, place description, parking space, physical and time requirements, weather forecast for the place, whether the area is suitable for strollers, dogs, camping, and more.

“The goal was to create an app with all the information the user needs to know before the trip, so they don’t have to look for anything else and can spend the trip without headaches,” says Eliška Hudcová (travel blogger), who is one of the two creators of the app.

Her fiancé Jarda is a graphic designer, who has his own company specializing in creating mobile and web applications, so all the development was done in-house.

The idea to create a placehunter started during the first wave of covid-19. As passionate travelers, they couldn’t travel the world as they were used to. And so they began to discover Czechia, but they often spent an incredible amount of time searching the information that was very difficult to find.

That’s why they decided to create an app that solves this problem and shows people places they have had to look for hours and hours in one helpful app. Going around all areas is logistically very demanding, but for Czechia, they chose it themself to oversee the quality of sites and their processing. Both of them have personally visited all the recommended places.

The app has a free and paid version; in the free version, the user will find 20 full-fledged trips. They are not truncated in terms of information or functionality, so the user can get a picture of what type of places they will find in the app and how the whole app works. In the paid version, all 150 sites with complete information are then available.

The premium version costs CZK 54 / month in the case of an annual subscription or CZK 79 / month in a monthly subscription.

You don’t need to worry about running out of places – they are regularly adding new ones, so it doesn’t happen that there is nowhere to go.

Eliška and Jarda are constantly working on new functionalities that will simplify trips even more. In the latest update, a filter or a link to the place’s official website has been added – so that the user can check, for example, the opening hours.

In the future, they would like to expand the map to other European countries, and they also play with the idea of adding interesting bistros and restaurants or selected accommodations.

Still, so far, these are just plans. Now they want to focus on the Czech Republic and work with the application so that quality prevails over quantity.

Eliška Hudcová

Virtual reality (VR) is becoming increasingly popular. At present, these catchy technologies are used, for example, for non-traditional forms of employee training, but also to support communication and cooperation within companies or to improve the customer experience.

Simultaneously, the expected market for virtual reality is referred to as a new wave of communication and is predicted to proliferate. In 2021, the value of the VR and AR (Augmented Reality) market is expected by analysts to reach $ 215 billion.

Given that we have already seen several highly successful uses of these technologies in business, it can be expected that half of the companies not yet using VR will become interested in these technologies in the following years.

Let’s have a look at some of the VR Prague-based startups.

Beat Games

Beat Games is a Prague-based game studio and makers of the hit VR game Beat Saber. Beat Saber is a VR rhythm game where you slash colorful cubes to the beat of adrenaline-pumping music as they fly towards you.

The studio was founded in 2018 and is based on simple game principles – a red and blue lightsaber, and with them, you have to cut blue and red boxes to the beat of the music. However, as simple as it is, it is addictive, and the game is so successful that it was even declared VR Game of the Year in 2019 at The Game Awards.

Facebook bought the studio in 2019 through its company Oculus. Beat Games continues to work on new content for Beat Saber; however, it is not known whether it forms a new title.

Yord Studio

Yord is a development and creative mixed reality studio that provides comprehensive services in virtual & augmented reality, 3D projects, visualization, and virtual showrooms. Among its clients, Yord has companies such as Škoda Auto, ČSOB, or Adidas and likes to cooperate with international NGOs such as Human Right Watch or Equality Now.

The diversity of clients is something they are keen on. Still, it also invests its experience in creating innovative products in the world of immersive reality. Currently, they focus on their new project, Virtual Showrooms (VS) – a web/app e-commerce solution where companies present and sell their products and services and at the same time communicate with their customers as in offline stores.

In Yord, they believe that another milestone is the sale of products in virtual space.

VRgineers

VRgineers is a tech start-up that deals with developing professional glasses for virtual reality, among the current world leaders. Their portfolio includes NASA, the US Air Force, the US NAVY, BAE Systems, Audi, BMW, and Westfield. In the Czech Republic, for example, Škoda Auto uses XTAL glasses to visualize new models.

VRgineers is the manufacturer of XTAL; a new VR headset grew according to the needs and requirements of professional designers and engineers who require top image quality and accuracy, a wide field of view, easy integration, and data security.

DIVR Labs

DIVR Labs is an independent VR gaming studio that strives to create immersive and exhilarating experiences that challenge and excite its audiences while pushing the VR industry forward. The studio develops unique multisensory experiences that combine the latest dimension of virtual reality with real-world movement.

In 2018, it launched the largest European VR attraction, the Golem. For technology enthusiasts, the toy store Hamleys offers the opportunity to try out the Golem VR project; Golem VR belongs to the category of experiential multisensory games, where the player gets to know the surrounding virtual world and simultaneously moves quite usually.

In the case of the Golem VR, the environment revolves around Prague, and the player has the opportunity to get to know the city and interact live with various objects and solve tasks.