Rather than staying on someone’s couch you eat in their house! Eataway is the new traveler craze
Sometimes, great ideas are born from necessity. With Marta Bradshaw from Kraków it was born from hunger.
In 2015, Marta decided to take her Zimbabwean husband Mark around Poland.
But after a string of disappointing meals Marta came up with an idea.
She told TFN: “We stopped in the town of Kazimierz Dolny. I remember searching for places to eat, but all we found were tourist-trap restaurants.
“I remember looking up above the restaurants and seeing windows open in private apartments and people eating at home.
“I was thinking to myself that I'd prefer to eat with them instead! This gave us the idea to allow people to book meals at private homes."
Eataway caters for travelers from across the globe.
And thus was born the idea for www.ewataway.com, a social media platform connecting travelers with dinner hosts.
To see if it was possible, Marta took out a small advert with a local travel website saying that she was cooking every Wednesday, and people were welcome to invite themselves to her meals for a small fee. And they did.
Marta told TFN: "At my first meal I had guests from Zanzibar, Malta and Iceland!
"So I realised this could work. With my husband Mark and our friend Will, we then decided to build a proper website to grow this idea.
“We also translated it into 16 languages. We now have almost 1,000 cooks around the world, although mostly in Eastern Europe.
“We've had Russians eating with Turks in Istanbul and Norwegians eating curry with Indian families in Poland.
“We know how great this is for bringing people together and making our world just a little bit better.”
Marta took out a small advert with a local travel website saying that she was cooking every Wednesday, and people were welcome to invite themselves to her meals for a small fee. And they did.
An artist and sculptress by profession, Marta is also a keen cook and enjoys giving cooking lessons before meals, her speciality being pierogi.
She said: "“Foreigners are surprised at how delicious Polish food is, even though it is not well known.
“But of course, they have heard about pierogi, and this is mostly what we make together!
“It is nice to think that people will go home and be able to pass on this skill and pleasure to others. Our world is moving so fast today that we do not have time to really be part of our communities and even families.
“I hope Eataway will make a small contribution towards slowing people down a bit so they have time for each other.”
A plate of pierogi for the hungry diners.
Eataway is now available in Kraków, Warsaw, Wrocław and Bratislava.
To find out more, go here: https://www.eataway.com/
