The founder of Tour4U (Cacaotur) and the chief designer, Dušan Šmidák, has a lifetime of experience in tourism in the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava. He started as a bus owner, providing sightseeing tours in cooperation with professional guides. His enthusiasm for history, horses and tourism, combined with the vision of providing an unconventional form of sightseeing for tourists who had never experienced anything like it in Bratislava before, led to the founding of a family company in 1997 and the launch of sightseeing tours in period carriages. It didn’t take long for carriage tours to become one of the most popular attractions associated with exploring Bratislava.
During this period, Mr. Šmidák, with the help of his family and the Old Town, built the foundations of today’s most successful Slovak sightseeing vehicle brand, Prešporáčik® Oldtimer. At a time when the popularity of historical carriage tours reached its peak (there were a total of 3 carriages in the city center) and could not meet customer demand, Mr. Šmidák began to think about how to provide a city tour to as many people as possible and preserve the period atmosphere provided by the carriages.
The idea was born when he saw a painted period car on an old postcard - a veteran that was driving around Bratislava at the beginning of the 20th century. Armed with determination, a clear idea and an old "Škodovka 1203", he set to work in 2001 and not only designed but also built the first period Prešporáčik® Oldtimer, which roams even the narrowest streets of the Old Town of Bratislava and has become a historical icon of Bratislava.