Resources
About
Hey fellow hiker — welcome to Bivigo.
This project was created by David, a chemistry-trained R&D specialist who got tired of planning hut-to-hut trips with twelve browser tabs open. The idea sprouted while hiking in New Zealand. It then started taking shape at Hack Your Weekend in Brno in autumn 2025, where it placed third — and turned into something a bit bigger.
What Bivigo does
Bivigo aggregates mountain huts, bivouacs, and emergency shelters from across Central Europe into one map — so you can spend less time researching and more time outside.
We currently cover the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, and Slovenia, with hundreds of shelters in the database. Data comes from official sources: KCT (Czech Tourist Club), PZS (Slovenian Alpine Association), OEAV (Austrian Alpine Club), and others. Every shelter is reviewed before it appears on the map.
The goal is simple: a calm, useful, map-first tool that gives hikers confidence about where they’re going to sleep tonight.
Contact
The fastest way to reach Bivigo is by email:
Use it for:
- Reporting incorrect shelter information
- Suggesting a missing shelter
- Reporting a bug
- Partnership inquiries
- General feedback
Replies usually come within a few days. Bivigo is a one-person operation, so please be patient — every email is read.
For technical issues or feature requests you’d like to track publicly, see the Community page.
FAQ
A bivouac (or bivak) is a small, unstaffed shelter in the mountains — usually a basic structure with a roof, sometimes a sleeping platform, occasionally a stove. Most are free to use, first-come-first-served. They’re meant for emergency shelter or planned overnights when you’re carrying your own gear. Don’t expect running water, electricity, or staff.
On Bivigo, “hut” generally means a staffed, serviced building with food, beds, and an operator — like the classic alpine Hütte or Czech chata. “Shelter” covers everything more basic: bivouacs, emergency shelters, unstaffed wooden structures, winterraum annexes. The map uses different icons to distinguish them.
Currently the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, and Slovenia. We’re prioritizing data quality over geographic spread, so expansion happens once existing coverage is solid. Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and Poland are on the roadmap.
Official alpine clubs and tourist organizations: KCT, PZS, OEAV, and others. Each shelter has its source listed on its detail page. We don’t include unverified data from open-source mapping projects.
We try hard, but mountain data goes stale fast. Opening hours change, shelters close for renovation, water sources dry up. Treat Bivigo as a planning tool, not a guarantee — and verify critical details with the shelter operator before your trip. If you find something wrong, please email us.
Not yet. Bivigo works on mobile browsers, but a dedicated app is on the roadmap for later in 2026.
Not currently. Offline maps are a planned feature for the future mobile app.
Not yet. User accounts, favorites, and trip planning are coming with the BETA release later in 2026.
Yes, completely free to use. We may introduce optional paid features in the future (offline maps, advanced filters), but the core map and shelter database will remain free.
Soon. We’re building a moderated contribution system for BETA. For now, send corrections and additions to hello@bivigo.app.
Bivigo aggregates data from third parties — we’re not the original rights holders for most of it. If you want to use specific data, please reach out and we’ll point you to the right source. See the Data License for details.
Map tiles come from external providers — OpenFreeMap (primary) and Mapy.com (fallback). If you see a blank map, try refreshing — sometimes a cached version gets stuck. If it persists, please report it.
One person — David, who started this after one too many evenings spent juggling browser tabs trying to plan a hut trip. See About for the longer story.