Since 1926, the phrase reach for the stars took on new meaning for those in the restaurant world. André Michelin, who had been publishing his French guide for some 26 years already, decided to add a star to acknowledge what he considered good food. Soon after, he understood the need to add a second and third star. These days the Michelin guide covers cities all over the world and getting a star can catapult a restaurant’s popularity into the stratosphere.

Prague is not one to be left behind in the worlds of gourmet cuisine, architecture or technology. Why would their level of passion for sports and recreation be any different? It’s not. Today, the golden city of Prague is right on target as it becomes a destination for the hot, new, ultimate recreational sport known as Paintball.

When people travel to a new destination, if they’re the sort of people who really try to experience the culture while on their visit, the evidence of their new found loves can be found snugly packed into their suitcases to be brought home. Prague is a city of sights like the Orloj and Castle, which can be captured in photos. It is a place full of the sounds thumping out of the world’s hottest DJ booths. Perhaps you took a walk on Charles Bridge and touched the worn-back-to-gold panel on the statue of Saint John Nepomuk for good luck. And, there’s a chance you can still smell the “chleb” baking fresh in the early mornings. But, as far as tasting goes, there’s only one sweet way to take that home.

People often speak of the idea that there are generally three things you want when trying to make something happen: you want it to be good, fast and cheap. However, they also say that the truth is that you can only have two of these things exist at once and that you cannot have the third. For instance, if you are remodeling your kitchen, it can be good and fast, but it won’t be cheap. Or, it can be fast and cheap, but it won’t be good. Or, it can even be good and cheap, but it won’t be fast. You can imagine how you could apply this theory to nearly anything.

People speak of Prague’s beauty, of the buildings and bridges and river and castles. The city is camera ready and it’s no wonder so many films have been made and continue to be made here.

With a city of such diverse interests, it is not surprising that the hot tickets in town would be as varied as they are. In the month of December alone, the genres of performances are as exciting as Prague itself.

Apparently, it’s not enough to go on vacation to get away from the stress of your job, your everyday life, your tired streets. More and more people are looking to enhance the vacation experience, to take it beyond sightseeing and shopping, room service and spas. A number of travel agents and websites offer Extreme Adventure vacations for those interested in canyoning or skydiving. There are vacations structured around opportunities to volunteer.

If you were going to open the first of what promises to be the hottest new destination in boutique hotels and you had your pick of any city in the world, you couldn’t make a smarter move than to choose Prague! And, that’s exactly what happened when Buddha Bar, with inviting spots in New York, Paris, Dubai, Sao Paolo and Beirut decided to make its mark in the hotel business.

It’s hard to imagine it now, but Prague did not have traditional centers for shopping until the halfway point of the nineties. There were, of course, individual spots primarily catering to one’s necessities, but the selections were limited. The shopping mall, so big and phenomenally popular in the west became a part of the Prague scene in roughly five years later and now there seems to be a new mall popping up all the time. And, very recently, the outlet mall had made its way to the people of this gorgeous city, already filled with amazing things to do and see.