About project
Hi! I’m glad you’re here. On pages like this you usually read about a big mission and corporate visions. With me, it was a bit different. Taterki.eu was born out of pure, travel-related irritation.
Why did I create Taterki.eu? Imagine this: you’re heading to the Tatra Mountains. You want to check whether you can reach a given trail with a stroller, how long the uphill part will take, and whether there are chains at the end. What do you do? You open Google. And that’s where the drama starts. You click the first result. You wait 10 seconds for a pop-up video to load, close three cookie-consent dialogs, skip shoe ads taking up half your screen, and force your way through 10 paragraphs of “filler”. And you just wanted to know where to park!
I decided I’d had enough. I set out to create a place on the internet that would work the way I’d want to use it while standing on the trail: when LTE coverage is a dream and your phone battery is screaming 15%. What makes this portal different? I built Taterki.eu from scratch, coding the site (using modern Astro technology), with three main principles:
- Speed and clarity. No floating pop-ups. You open the description of the Giewont trail and immediately see: distance, time, elevation gain, and the trail color.
- No fluff. If a trail is boring and will wreck your knees, you’ll read about it. If parking costs a fortune, I’ll warn you. I’m not writing a “thank you” brochure for TPN (Tatrzański Park Narodowy); I’m writing a guide for you.
- Respect for beginners. I remember my first trip in the mountains. That’s why I try to explain everything in plain language: from how to buy an e-ticket to clarifying that “raczki” (traction cleats) are not the same thing as crayfish.
Who am I? I’m not a TOPR rescuer, not a guide with an IVBV badge, and I don’t run up to Rysy before breakfast. I’m passionate about mountains and technology (a web developer).
I love the Tatras (yes, my wife knows :) ) — the Polish ones (with their lodge atmosphere) and the Slovak ones (with their wildness). I know the pain of a blistered heel on Ceprostrada and the joy of a cold beer at Hala Ornak. I design this site in my free time. It takes a lot of sleepless nights (and coffee).
How can you help? Taterki.eu are, and will always be free. I won’t lock trail descriptions behind a paywall. Keeping servers running, paying for the domain, and developing the site costs money, though. If the site helped you plan your trip, saved your knees from a bad trail, or you simply like what I’m doing — you can buy me a virtual coffee. It’s voluntary, there are no strings attached, and it’s damn motivating.
When I see a “coffee” notification, I know that late-night coding makes sense. Buy me a virtual coffee ☕ .
And if it’s not coffee? Share the site forward! Send the link to friends you’re planning a trip with, or share the post on Facebook. That’s a huge support for me too.
See you on the trail! 🏔️