Projects / 03 · Media and blogs · travel
justKowalski
A traveller’s blog that readers use to plan their own trips
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Krzysztof Kowalski is a journalist who has visited more than 70 countries. I built his new blog in Polish and English, preserving all 1,212 existing URLs.
Travel map on a globe
Countries coloured by the number of stories, continent filters and a ranking of top destinations show where the author travels most often.
4-question trip planner
Readers tick what they are in the mood for, then choose when to go, how far to travel and who with, and the planner suggests stories from places the author knows first-hand.
Story with “In brief” box
Each story opens with its title over a photo, and an “In brief” box with a postcard-style postmark and a small map show straight away what the text is about.
Full English version
The English version has separate URLs, English place names and its own planner and attraction search, so the blog can reach readers outside Poland.
Krzysztof Kowalski is a journalist and traveller who has visited more than 70 countries and has spent ten years running a blog with 203 travel stories from 50 countries. For his readers, I designed a trip planner, a search tool covering 1,347 attractions and a globe of travel stories, and I tested the migration of 206 older posts to the new editor on a copy of the blog before launch. The new website has a full English version, and each of the 1,212 existing URLs still leads to the right story.
- Industry
- Media and blogs · travel
- Year
- 2026
- Scope
- Development, English version, Reader tools, AI automations, Content migration, SEO, Performance, Accessibility
- Technologies
- WordPress 7.1, PHP 8.5, Custom theme without plugins, d3 (globe), Claude API, GA4 with Consent Mode v2, JSON-LD, hreflang
- Website
- justkowalski.pl ↗
01Challenge
The blog ran on an off-the-shelf theme with a page builder, and 206 older posts had to be moved to a new editor with all their photos, captions and lists. The author wanted a full English version and tools to help readers choose a destination. Throughout, each of the 1,212 URLs that search engines and other websites link to had to keep working.
02Solution
- I checked each of the 1,212 URLs in the sitemap and, on a copy of the blog, tested the migration of 206 older posts with their photos and captions.
- I designed a planner that suggests travel stories after four questions, and a search tool for 1,347 attractions that understands related terms and Polish word endings.
- I built a globe that colours countries by the number of stories and shows places within a selected country, so readers can see the author’s destinations at a glance.
- I prepared a full English version with its own URLs, and an AI-based mechanism translates each new post after publication and adds its places to the catalogue.
03Key website features
- 01
Travel map on a globe
Countries coloured by the number of stories, continent filters and a ranking of top destinations show where the author travels most often.
- 02
4-question trip planner
Readers tick what they are in the mood for, then choose when to go, how far to travel and who with, and the planner suggests stories from places the author knows first-hand.
- 03
Story with “In brief” box
Each story opens with its title over a photo, and an “In brief” box with a postcard-style postmark and a small map show straight away what the text is about.
- 04
Full English version
The English version has separate URLs, English place names and its own planner and attraction search, so the blog can reach readers outside Poland.
04Results
After the migration, each of the 1,212 URLs that search engines link to still works.
Polanex →
Ongoing development of a Polish shirt brand’s online shop
