<p>Tree-top walkways attract considerable interest from tourists</p>

photo: BoysPlayNice

Prague - A selection of information about tree top paths in the Czech Republic and their inspiration from abroad (a new Tree Top Path will open for tourists on July 2 in the Giant Mountains):

- From the beginning of July, tourists will have the opportunity to visit the Tree Top Path on the edge of Janská Lázně in the Giant Mountains. The construction of the 1300-meter-long path, costing approximately 170 million crowns, began last autumn. The path will offer visitors an underground cave covering 400 square meters and will lead above the surface, featuring, for example, a 45-meter-high observation tower. The Giant Mountains National Park (KRNAP) expects that the path could attract 200,000 visitors annually.

- In 2012, the Tree Top Path was opened in Lipno nad Vltavou in the Český Krumlov region. The tree top path offers visitors a view from a height of up to forty meters. The route runs through the tops of mature trees by the Lipno Lake and measures 675 meters. Its construction cost 62 million crowns. The Lipno path attracts several hundred thousand visitors each year, making it one of the most sought-after attractions in the South Bohemian region. At the end of the path, visitors can descend to the ground via a spiral slide that is 52 meters long.

- The Bavarian Baumwipfelpfad near the town of Neuschönau in the heart of the Bavarian Forest, which opened in September 2009, inspired the Czech tree top paths. The path measures 1.5 kilometers and allows visitors to observe the surrounding wilderness from various heights. The dome-shaped tower at the end of the path is 40 meters high and cost more than 65 million crowns. Germany has several other paths of a similar type, such as in the Black Forest or in Rügen.

- At the end of 2015, the Sky Walk was opened in Dolní Morava in the Ústí nad Orlicí region in the Králický Sněžník mountain range. The fifty-five-meter-high viewpoint, which cost approximately 100 million crowns to build, stands on a rocky ridge in the massif of Mount Slamník at an altitude of 1116 meters above sea level. The basic supporting structure of the building consists of three towers connected by a ring at the top of the construction. The path is barrier-free, allowing even people in wheelchairs and with strollers to comfortably reach the top. Adventurers can then slide down a 101-meter-long tube slide. From the top, one can see the massif of Králický Sněžník, and the main ridge of the Jeseníky mountains, such as Suchý vrch and the Giant Mountains with Sněžka. The Sky Walk was visited by 180,000 tourists in its first year of operation and was awarded Construction of the Year 2016 for creating an unconventional yet comfortable new-type structure.

- Since November 2015, people can also walk on a suspended bridge in the tree tops in Frenštát pod Radhoštěm in the Novojičínsko region. The bridge is part of the educational trail Beskydské nebe - Life in the treetops, aimed at revitalizing the former tourist destination Horečky, which lies on the border of Frenštát and the village of Trojanovice. The tree top path is 85 meters long and features six stops. A similarly themed path can be found in the Karlovy Vary area at Linhart.