Milan Bez Mapy | About the author of the Bez Mapy travel blog

Slovenská verzia

Milan Bardún, known as Milan Bez Mapy, is a Slovak travel blogger, content creator and the author of the book Influencer (Ikar, 2021). In December 2013 he started the blog Bez Mapy (Slovak for “without a map”), and since 2016 it has been his full-time job. He writes and films about flying, airports, airfares, passenger rights and why things work the way they do when you travel. Bez Mapy is the first Slovak travel blog with its own intelligent trip planner. He is a four-time winner of the SOWA Social Awards Slovakia and was ranked 2nd (2023) and 10th (2024) in Forbes Slovakia’s Top Influencers list.

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01Milan Bardún (Milan Bez Mapy): age, height, education, star sign and social media
02My story: from Erasmus to my own AI assistant
Erasmus in Tartu and the first blog (2013)
From the office to the road (2014 – 2016)
From backpacker to holidaymaker
The book Influencer (2021)
Ships, Greenland and South America (2020 – 2026)
Television and media
Taxis at Bratislava Airport (2026)
Aida, the blog’s AI assistant (2026)
03What I write about and why
04My travels in numbers
05Awards and rankings
06The book Influencer and e-books
07Milan Bez Mapy in the media
Interviews and profiles
Television and radio
Taxis at Bratislava Airport (2026)
08Collaborations, talks and debates
09Where to find me
10Frequently asked questions about Milan Bez Mapy
What is Milan Bez Mapy’s real name?
How old is Milan Bez Mapy?
What did Milan Bez Mapy study?
How many countries has Milan Bez Mapy visited?
Is Milan Bez Mapy a travel agency?
How can I contact Milan Bez Mapy?

On this page you will find everything important about me in one place: biography, education, awards, my book, travel in numbers, media coverage and answers to the questions I get asked most often.

Milan Bardún (Milan Bez Mapy): age, height, education, star sign and social media

Full name	Milan Bardún
Known as	Milan Bez Mapy
Date and place of birth	2 July 1991, Bratislava, Slovakia
Star sign	Cancer
Lives in	Bratislava
Height and weight	184 cm, 80 kg
Education	Bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture and landscape planning, Faculty of Architecture, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (2013) Ing. (master’s-level engineering degree) in landscape engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (2015)
Languages	Slovak (native), English and Spanish (fluent), German (basic)
Occupation	travel blogger, content creator, author
Blog	bezmapy.com, since December 2013 (originally called Cestujeme bez mapy)
Book	Influencer: Nakoľko poznáte ľudí, ktorých sledujete na internete? (How well do you know the people you follow online?), Ikar, 2021
Favourite country	Argentina
Favourite cities	New York, Buenos Aires, Sydney, Bratislava
Favourite food	stuffed peppers
Social media	Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn

My story: from Erasmus to my own AI assistant

Erasmus in Tartu and the first blog (2013)

During my engineering studies at the Slovak University of Technology, I spent an Erasmus semester in Tartu, Estonia, from September 2013 to January 2014. That is where the blog started in December 2013, back then under the name Cestujeme bez mapy (“We travel without a map”). I mostly wrote about how to travel cheaply. In those days I flew Ryanair from Warsaw to Budapest for 50 cents, and tickets like that were the best proof that travel does not have to be only for the rich.

From the office to the road (2014 – 2016)

After university I worked in marketing and wrote the blog on the side. In 2015 Bez Mapy came 4th in the Travel category of the Slovak Blogger of the Year awards. In October 2016 I quit my job, bought a one-way ticket to the Philippines, and the blog has been my full-time job ever since.

From backpacker to holidaymaker

In the early years I gave advice on how to travel cheaply and spent winters in Asia. But I did not end up living on a beach forever, and after a few years life under a palm tree, far from my family, stopped being fun. I turned the concept of a budget travel blog around by 180 degrees and swapped the backpacker for the holidaymaker. Instead of tips on how to save at any cost, I give advice on where it is worth spending money.

Thanks to this change, Milan Bez Mapy is today one of the most-read travel blogs in Slovakia, and my articles get almost two million reads a year.

The book Influencer (2021)

I started writing the book in 2015 and finished it in 2020. It was published in October 2021 by Ikar, one of the largest Slovak publishers. It is not a travel book and not an advert for blogging. It is a look behind the scenes of the “perfect” life of an Instagram influencer: what you see online and what is really behind it. More about the book below.

Ships, Greenland and South America (2020 – 2026)

I have travelled around Argentina on three long trips (2020, 2021 and 2024/2025), from the Valle de Uco wine region in Mendoza through Patagonia to the Iguazú Falls. In 2022 I spent seven days crossing the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2, along the route the Titanic was supposed to take. I have been to Greenland three times (2023, 2024 and 2026), and so far I have seen the northern lights three times: in Nuuk, in Kangerlussuaq and in Tromsø, Norway.

Crossing the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2 (in Slovak)
Visiting Greenland in summer (in Slovak)
What to see in Patagonia (in Slovak)
A trip to Easter Island (in Slovak)

Television and media

I have been a guest on the talk show Neskoro večer s Petrom Marcinom (RTVS, 2021), and in 2024 I competed in the TV show Milujem Slovensko (I Love Slovakia) on STVR’s channel Jednotka. Slovak media regularly ask me to comment on air travel and tourism, for example STVR news, TA3, Denník N, SME, Pravda, Aktuality.sk and Hospodárske noviny. You will find a selection in the section Milan Bez Mapy in the media.

Taxis at Bratislava Airport (2026)

In September 2026, after landing in Bratislava, Janka from the Travelhacker blog and I filmed how drivers kept cancelling our rides from the airport to the city centre. According to the daily Pravda, more than a million people saw the video, and several media outlets reported on it. Bolt then announced that from 22 September 2026, drivers who repeatedly refuse airport orders would lose access to them.

Aida, the blog’s AI assistant (2026)

The blog has more than a thousand articles, and nobody has time to go through them one by one. That is why in October 2026 I launched Aida, an AI assistant that answers questions based on my articles and helps you plan a trip. She only uses what I have written, and when the answer is not on the blog, she says so. This makes Bez Mapy the first Slovak travel blog with its own intelligent trip planner.

What I write about and why

I am not only interested in the question “Where?”. I am interested in “Why?”. Why a flight from Europe to California goes over Greenland, why you cannot open a window on a plane, why one country is full of tourists and another is not. After reading an article or watching a video, I want you to say not “that’s nice”, but “I didn’t know that”.

The topics I write about most often:

flying and airports – how airlines, airports, safety and baggage work,
airfares and money – how to find cheap flights and where it is worth spending more,
passenger rights – delays, cancelled flights and compensation under EU rules,
travel myths – in my series Milan búra mýty (Milan busts myths) I check how much truth there is in them,
destinations – Slovakia and the rest of the world, always from my own experience,
cruises, technology and travel tricks – eSIMs, roaming, insurance and the apps I really use when I travel.

I write from my own experience, and I value my readers‘ trust more than any collaboration.

My travels in numbers

I have logged every flight in a flight diary since 2009. As of October 2026:

597 flights since 2009,
191 airports and 70 countries where I have landed by plane,
88 airlines, most often Ryanair (135 flights), Austrian Airlines (64) and Wizz Air (59),
most flights in one year: 73 in 2023,
longest flight: Doha – Auckland with Qatar Airways (14,553 km, 2017),
most used airport: Vienna, followed by Bratislava and Košice,
I have been to New York ten times, the first time in 2012 on a KLM Boeing 747,
I have flown on the Boeing 747-400 and 747-8, the Airbus A350-1000, and also on small Dash 8 turboprops in Greenland.

Awards and rankings

Year	Award	Result
2015	#BLOGERROKA 2015 (Blogger of the Year), Travel category	4th place
2019	Superbloger 2019, Travel – social media	winner
2022	SOWA Social Awards Slovakia, Travel category	winner
2023	SOWA Social Awards Slovakia, Travel category	winner
2023	Forbes Slovakia, Top Influencers 2023	2nd place
2024	Forbes Slovakia, Top Influencers 2024	10th place
2026	SOWA Social Awards Slovakia, Travel category	winner
2026	SOWA Social Awards Slovakia, main award TOP SOWA	winner

The SOWA awards were not held in 2024 and 2025. In total I have won them four times: three times in the Travel category and once the main TOP SOWA award.

The book Influencer and e-books

Title: Influencer: Nakoľko poznáte ľudí, ktorých sledujete na internete? (How well do you know the people you follow online?)
Language: Slovak
Publisher: Ikar, Bratislava
Published: 18 October 2021
Length: 208 pages, hardcover
ISBN: 978-80-551-7905-6
Where to buy: Martinus

Before the book I published two e-books in Slovak: Ja cestujem za tretinu (I travel for a third of the price, 2016) and Bloger ako zamestnanie (Blogging as a job).

Milan Bez Mapy in the media

Most of the articles are in Slovak.

Collaborations, talks and debates

I am a brand ambassador of Visa, Samsung and ČSOB in Slovakia. I also work with O2, with Bratislava and Košice airports, and with regional tourism organisations. In 2026 I created a limited-edition matcha toothpaste with the Slovak brand Biela perla.

Every collaboration follows the same rule: first the traveller’s problem, then the story, and only at the end the product. I only promote what I would recommend even without a partnership. I turn down offers where the product would matter more than the content.

I also give talks at corporate events, for example on how airfares work, and take part in debates at schools. If you are interested in a collaboration or a talk, write to me via the contact form (in Slovak, but you can write in English).

Where to find me

Instagram: @milan_bezmapy
Facebook: Milan Bez Mapy
TikTok: @milan_bezmapy
YouTube: Milan Bez Mapy
LinkedIn: Milan Bardún
Podcasts: all episodes in one place (in Slovak), Podchaser
Books: Goodreads, Databáze knih

Frequently asked questions about Milan Bez Mapy

What is Milan Bez Mapy’s real name?

My name is Milan Bardún. Milan Bez Mapy is the name of my blog and the name you know me by on social media. “Bez mapy” means “without a map” in Slovak.

How old is Milan Bez Mapy?

I was born on 2 July 1991 in Bratislava.

What did Milan Bez Mapy study?

A bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (2013) and an engineering degree in landscape engineering at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the same university (2015).