For many people, travelling is a true passion — a way to collect unforgettable experiences and broaden their horizons. Most travellers prefer hitting the road with a buddy or even a whole group of fellow adventurers, but finding the right person who shares your expectations for a trip can be surprisingly tricky. That’s exactly why a new travel platform called Cestolidi was created, with the main goal of connecting travellers on their way to new adventures.
Plenty of people want to explore the world, but they often find themselves without the means or the company to do so. On the Cestolidi platform, anyone can safely find a travel companion with similar plans and set off together. And who knows — your ideal travel buddy might even turn out to be a lifelong friend (or more). The platform ensures maximum safety through an identity verification feature for every user, keeping scammers at bay.
“I wanted a place to log my own trips and find someone to travel with. Co-travelling does happen on social media, but posts get buried quickly, or people reach out with no proper introduction. That’s exactly why we fine-tuned the My Profile section — it works like a traveller’s calling card and builds trust within the platform,” explains Kryštof Paleta, the platform’s creator and an avid traveller himself.
Beyond co-travel matchmaking, this community-driven travel platform offers its users a whole range of useful features. After returning from a trip, users can create free “cestologs” — essentially travel blogs — in their My Profile section, where they can write down and save all their travel memories. Every destination they’ve visited gets pinned on their personal travel map. These cestologs also serve as inspiration for other readers and travellers looking for tips on new adventures anywhere in the world.
By writing cestologs, organising co-travels, and supporting fellow adventurers, users earn points and badges that can later be exchanged for rewards from partners. Among the partner brands, you’ll find interesting companies like Peak Design, Onlinejazyky.cz (an online language learning platform), Travel Bible, and Czech-us.
In the coming months, users can look forward to a host of new features. On top of what’s already available, a curated experiences section is in the works — offering unique activities hosted by Czechs living all over the world, bookable directly on the platform. Think surf camps, yoga retreats, work-and-travel programmes, white-water rafting in Slovenia, and much more.
“We’re currently working on fine-tuning the experiences section. Right after that, we want to make trip planning easier for our users — and with that will come a way for them to earn money on our site. Finances are a real barrier for many of our users when it comes to travelling, so we want to help with that. User verification for greater trust is also just around the corner,” Paleta hints at what’s coming next.
About the Cestolidi Project
Cestolidi was founded by Czech traveller and travel influencer Kryštof Paleta, whose vision was to build a space where travellers could come together, inspire each other, and fuel their passion for exploring the world. Kryštof started travelling back in secondary school, but his biggest adventure came in 2018 when he embarked on a round-the-world trip — a journey that kicked off and filled his YouTube channel.
Back in 2017, he created a Facebook group for this purpose, which has since grown to nearly eight thousand members. He had the idea, but lacked the resources and experience to bring it to life. Two years later, he teamed up with Martin Jač, and together they built the first test version during a time when the world was gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over time, another passionate traveller, David Šindelář, joined the duo to handle the technical development and help shape the platform into what it is today. Just one week after launching the live version of Cestolidi in July, the team broke through the one-thousand registered users mark — giving them valuable feedback and the energy to keep pushing the project forward.
“From idea to reality, it was a long road — four years — and on top of everything, the pandemic hit. I felt we needed to launch because after all that time, our motivation was starting to fade. So I convinced the lads, and we went live without extensive testing or a grand strategy. In the end, it worked out well. Even though we know the pandemic will still throw obstacles our way for a while, we see it as an opportunity to iron out the bugs and build momentum,” Paleta adds.
Tips and Tricks for Your Vacation
Don’t Overpay for Flights
Search for flights on Kayak. It’s our favorite search engine because it scans the websites of all airlines and always finds the cheapest connection.
Book Your Accommodation Smartly
The best experiences we’ve had when looking for accommodation (from Alaska to Morocco) are with Booking.com, where hotels, apartments, and entire houses are usually the cheapest and most widely available.
Don’t Forget Travel Insurance
Good travel insurance will protect you against illness, accidents, theft, or flight cancellations. We’ve had a few hospital visits abroad, so we know how important it is to have proper insurance arranged.
Where we insure ourselves: SafetyWing (best for everyone) and TrueTraveller (for extra-long trips).
Why don’t we recommend any Czech insurance company? Because they have too many restrictions. They set limits on the number of days abroad, travel insurance via a credit card often requires you to pay medical expenses only with that card, and they frequently limit the number of returns to the Czech Republic.
Find the Best Experiences
Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace where you can book guided walks, trips, skip-the-line tickets, tours, and much more. We always find some extra fun there!
