Maciek Czarnota

Hi! I’m Maciek Czarnota. Back in 2018, I came up with the idea for Audiotourista, founded it and have been running it ever since. I’m also the main author of our guides and blog articles.

I studied marketing, but I’ve spent almost 35 years working in IT. Deep down, though, I’ve always been fascinated by geography and history. Perhaps that’s why I love travelling – usually independently, whether it’s a short break or a longer adventure. To famous landmarks and places off the beaten track alike.

Sharing the journey with me is Edyta, my wife, who bravely puts up with my occasional stubborn streak. She also works with me on our content and looks after marketing (and happens to be one of the best market researchers in Poland!).

Our two sons are equally brave when it comes to putting up with our sometimes lively debates over dinner. And breakfast. And lunch, for that matter.

And, of course, we travel together. It used to be the four of us, but these days we tend to travel in smaller groups. The boys have grown up, after all…

My Audiotourista

An audio guide is a story. About a place, its history, its people, its nature… Told in a way that stays with you.

You can find a wealth of information online about any place on Earth. Usually, though, it gets lost among adverts and text copied from Wikipedia. The guides and leaflets available on site are full of dry facts (and abroad, they’re rarely available in your own language!).

I have no ambition to create “comprehensive” or “academic” guides. If that kind of encyclopaedic knowledge is what you’re after, you won’t find much of it here. I want to make guides that keep the stories, people and places in your head. To tell them in plain language, without long-winded lectures. So that the place stays with you for longer – and so that you don’t die of boredom on holiday. And, along the way, to lead you by the hand – sometimes finding the way is far from easy!

Audiotourista in numbers

• 8 years of creating guides – our first app was released in 2018 (Zakopane!)
• 4 authors and co-authors, more than 15 translators and 3 developers 🙂
• Almost 50 mobile guides and more than 100 audio guides in 14 countries on 3 continents
• 20 language versions
• Hundreds of thousands of app downloads worldwide
• A further 40 apps and over a dozen audio guides published independently by our clients

My favourite places

My place on Earth? There are many – it’s hard to name even a few. The Galápagos Islands will stay with me forever. I love the Cyclades (especially out of season and away from the most popular islands). In Poland, I visit the Czarna Hańcza river every year, and I love the mountains… especially the Beskid Sądecki. My city is Toruń, where I spent a great deal of time “in a previous life”. And I spend many weeks a year on the Costa del Sol…

Who I work with

Audiotourista is my own project, but I don’t do everything alone. Edzia – my dearest (and still my first ;)) wife – helps me run the “factory”. None of it would have worked without her (and she has written a few guides herself). Since 2025, Robb Maciąg – an educator and author of books for children and young people – has been creating guides for younger travellers with me. Our scripts are written by Antonina Małowiecka, a traveller and tour guide… I could go on. Thank you all!

You can meet our authors on the Our authors page, and read more about the project itself on the About Us page.

Working together and getting in touch

We publish the Audiotourista guides ourselves… But of course – being an IT person – I wouldn’t be myself if I hadn’t turned it all into a “system”. Thanks to that, you too can have your own mobile app or audio guide. I’m always happy to talk about working together – with cultural institutions, companies, the media, other creators and, not least, authors who would like to publish something with us. Drop me a line via the contact form.