Hi, I'm Haki

As a teenager, I was already organizing hikes with friends from various folk ensembles around Banská Bystrica. So when I moved to Munich in 2023, my hiking boots came with me already properly broken in.

I just didn't know yet that Bavaria would be the one to really wear them out.

Heading into the mountains every Saturday wasn't an option back then — I worked weekends at a hotel. But almost every week, I still found myself on a train somewhere.

Why Munich, of all places?

The reason was actually pretty simple.

I wanted to properly learn German, gain new experience, and build a somewhat better quality of life. And since part of my family and some close friends were already here and made the start a lot easier, it felt like less of a gamble.

Alongside language courses, I was job-hunting. English helped, but for everyday life in Germany, I mainly needed German.

And after years of working ten-hour days, sometimes weekends too, I didn't want another marathon like that.

So I ended up at the reception desk of a hotel near Ostbahnhof.

And ironically — the job I originally took mostly for the language ended up teaching me far more about Bavaria than I expected.

Since August 2026, I'm not working at the hotel anymore. I moved to a German startup specialising in Business Process Management, where I now work in PMO.

Suddenly, I was traveling alone

For a long time, it never occurred to me that I could travel alone.

At first, I traveled mostly in groups with the Slovak travel agency Spoznaj s nami svet.

Morocco, Georgia, Bulgaria, the Balkans, Jordan...

Then came visits to my brother in Canada, a friend in Vancouver, a friend in Australia, and — thanks to the legendary nine-euro ticket — plenty of trips around Germany.

There was always someone there.

Until one day I realized you can actually travel alone.

And I started to enjoy it.

Not because I don't like people. Quite the opposite.

But when you travel alone, you suddenly get to do things your own way. Stop wherever you want. Change the plan. Sit down for a coffee. Get lost in side streets. Or just not plan a single thing for an entire day.

Slowly I understood that travel isn't just about photographing the most famous landmark.

It's about people. Culture. Food. Smells you remember for years. Places that were never even on the original itinerary.

It all came together in January and part of February 2025, when I set off alone for around six weeks through Southeast Asia — Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Six weeks. Alone.

And I realized it didn't bother me at all.

Today, I guide groups for the same agency through countries like Georgia, Oman, and Morocco.

So yes — sometimes you end up exactly where you never would have imagined going a few years earlier.

And then I discovered Bavaria

Between the hotel job and guiding, I kept getting to know Bavaria better and better.

And the best part was that I didn't have to wait for a proper vacation.

Sometimes it was just an ordinary Tuesday.

I'd look out the window in the morning, the weather looked good, I'd grab my backpack, my hiking boots, and my Deutschland-Ticket, and head out.

No airport. No packing a suitcase for two weeks. No boarding pass.

Just a train.

And weekdays had one big advantage — fewer people.

The mountains were quieter, the trains weren't as full, and some places that get absolutely swarmed with tourists on weekends suddenly felt completely different.

Other times, instead of the mountains, I'd head to a castle, a palace, or one of the small Bavarian towns.

And gradually, I realized something:

Bavaria is incredibly photogenic.

Wooden houses, mountain huts, cows with enormous bells, lakes, mountains, castles, palaces, and historic towns.

A bit like a fairy tale.

Except nobody told us, back when we admired those pictures on TV as kids, that you could simply hop on a train in Munich and step right into that fairy tale.

That's how Haki Travels was born

And then, one day, sitting on top of some mountain and looking around, it hit me:

"Someone should see this."

At first, I just started sending my trips to friends and family.

Then I thought maybe someone else might be interested too.

And that's how Haki Travels was born.

Not another blog with ten tips titled "10 Best Places You Must See."

I want to show places the way I actually experienced them.

What's worth it. What to skip. Where you can get by train. When to show up so you're not standing in a crowd. What's genuinely beautiful, and what maybe looks better on Instagram than in real life.

And above all — how to travel a bit slower, a bit deeper, with a smaller footprint.

Travel greener. Explore deeper.

I write the blog in English, German, and now Slovak too.

And if you enjoy Haki Travels and want to help it keep growing, you can symbolically "buy me a train ticket."

To me, that means another trip, more experiences, and another story I get to share with the world.

So who is Haki, really?

And why Haki?

That's a slightly longer story.

I moved to England in 2000, right after military service. First as an au pair. When Slovakia joined the EU, I studied International Relations in London and later Diplomacy in Prague. During my years in England, I also got involved with the local Slovak community.

In London, I co-founded a Slovak center and a folk ensemble called Karpaty.

The accordion stuck with me even longer, though — almost fourteen years, all in.

And it's thanks to folklore that I developed a real connection to tradition, folk culture, and everything that makes a country or region genuinely unique.

That's why, on Haki Travels, you won't just find mountains, trains, castles, and nice views.

I care about people, traditions, food, stories, and all the small things that give a place its own atmosphere.

Haki is basically my little online alter ego, in lederhosen.

He'll guide you through the blog, recommend a thing or two, warn you about others, and — above all — everything he says comes from my own experience.

So if Haki ever tells you a place is worth reaching by train, chances are I've already sat on that train.

If he recommends a dish, chances are I've already eaten it.

And if he says something isn't worth it, chances are I've been there too.

So he's not entirely a made-up guide.

Haki is basically me — just in lederhosen.

From EU funding to hiking boots

Starting in 2010, I worked for the Bratislava Self-Governing Region, where I handled regional development.

Together with my team, we prepared and negotiated EU funding for the region. And there I learned something that still comes in handy today:

A good story isn't enough. You need data too.

With EU funding, it was never enough to say, "This would be great."

We had to be able to explain why, for whom, at what cost, and what it would actually deliver.

And maybe that's exactly why I look at travel a little differently today.

It's not enough for someone to tell me a place is a "must-see."

I want to be there. I want to walk it myself. I want to know how to get there, what it costs, when it's actually worth going, and whether it's really worth it at all.

After ten years in Bratislava, I wanted to leave and travel.

Then COVID happened.

So I had to wait a bit longer.

When Australia reopened in 2022, I told myself: now or never.

I resigned after twelve years, packed a backpack, and set off around the world.

And since then, I honestly can't stop looking at maps.

One rule

There's one thing on Haki Travels that matters to me more than any tip, ranking, or algorithm:

If I say I've been there, I've been there.

Everything I recommend on this site is based on my own experience.

If I haven't been somewhere yet, you won't find an article here pretending otherwise.

Maybe it'll show up one day. But first, I have to go. And then I'll tell you about it.

Haki

Travel greener. Explore deeper.