Links

Here leaks the links to the underbelly of the web’s most entertaining travel blogs. Tread carefully friends; for if you got lost on The Trail, you’ll lose your mind along this luge of links. If you know of a blog that is deserved of a tip-tapped plaque then lead me into temptation and send me a link.

Travel Blogs – The Crème de la Crème
Wow, wowow and triple wow. This lot are a bunch of inspiration stuffed into my backpack…
Almost Fearless: In July 2008 Christine took the step up from a Fortune 500 company to a quill-toting travel writer and photographer. Almost Fearless is at the top of its class; a classical collaboration of skills and spills along the roads.

Spoke About: Spoke About is the little-known travelogue of my good friends, Rachael and Andrew. It follows them as they freewheel around whichever lands offer them a vista and a visa. Their combination of writing and imagery is simply mesmerising.

Matt Harding: Matt Harding has got to be one of the jammiest people on this earth. He travels to dance and dances to travel. He loves to move in more than one way, check these vids and his blog.

Vagabonding: It’s almost criminal that Mike is no longer travelling. He’s completed his journey, but reading his site will take you on a journey of your own. As a writer I aim to mesmerise, but as a reader I am rarely afforded that affliction, until I read Mike’s tales of Vagabonding.

Travel Blogs: Take one simple website window, strip back the curtains to reveal a room full of bare essentials and fill with informative reviews of the www’s best travel blogs and the real world’s travel issues. TravelBlogs.com is like a department store you discover to be full of all the things you’ve ever looked for.

Notes from the Road: This site is supreme. It’s beautiful while bold, and magnetic while faraway. If the images on Erik’s site don’t send you into the giddy heights of an unbridled orgasm then take a deep breath, lick your lips, sit on your hands and read, baby, read.

Flickr Places: Is it wrong to have a mainstream link on this little market stall of a blog? Go ahead, click through to Flickr Places and tell me you didn’t just spend half an hour looking up where you grew up. Or in my case, didn’t.

National Geographic // Photography: I’m sorry. I couldn’t put Flickr in and not the NG! The images used by NG are simply incredible. It’s well known that they never manipulate their imagery, what you see is what the photographer sees. A thrill for your vision.

Vanguard Journalism (Current TV): This is why I don’t watch much television. Vanguard is the epitome of the work I’d love to do (and possibly will still do). In the thick of it, with a camera and a notebook.

Travel Blogs – Real People
These are the people I’ve laughed, loved and lounged around with on The Trail. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the best of my friends’ travel blogs…
Pam & Rog: Don’t ever think there’s a stereotype to travel. I’m great friends with Pam’s proud daughter and son-in-law who introduced me to this magical journey from South Africa to Yorkshire, entirely by Jeep (sorry, with Zebedee).

Our Big Journey: “How long have you been travelling?” Jez inquired, “About a month, how about you guys”, he waited a moment “Ummm… I think about 4 years now?”. A fantastic read, full of inspiration (especially here)

Spinn Cafe: If you ever get to Lhasa, then be sure to drop in on Kong and Oat for a coffee and a card trick or three. They’re living the dream, and their homely cafe became a home away from home for a couple of weeks back then.

Bike World Tour: Annemarie isn’t the first cycle-tourist I’ve met in Asia, nor will she be the last. She exudes the modesty of all others cycle tourists, but as well as this she exudes the “just do it” spirit that I find so marvelous.

Lu and Ollie: Lu and Ollie are the poster girl and boy of the backpacking world, I sat on their porch and talked about everything from Games Workshop to mud volcanoes. Their site is as cozy as their conversation, and should be read with your hands wrapped round a steaming hot brew.

Ramblings of a Traveller: Steven and Katherine met in an exam room, and a couple of years later I found them in a hostel in Ulaanbaatar with plans afoot to fill 5 months with first degree fun.

Joe Rodriguez: There’s something about Joe, something dark. His literary style draws you into dark corners where you feel yourself reassuring him, “It’s ok, Joe”. I like that.

The Best of the Rest
The travel blogosphere is swelling with some awesome reading, these are just a few that have hollered my way.
The Lost Globe: I was wandering around The Trail one day when I discovered a Lost Globe. I promptly picked it up and gave it a rub and out pops an Aussie fellow named Dan.

Ken Douglas: When I visit the Great Wall of China it will no doubt open my eyes, but when Ken visits it will hopefully open many more– to the work of two very worthy charities for autistic children. Please, consider sponsoring him.

Craig & Tina’s Cubicle Boycott: From 2005-2006 Craig and Tina realised a dream to travel, so suspending all things “normal”: they sold the house, rented out the dogs and quit their jobs to do so. My kinda people, an interesting read.

Vagabondish: In Mike’s own words, Vagabondish “follows the story of Mike, a lifelong travel addict, on a two year journey ’round the world”. Sound familiar? An informal, appealing collation of all things travel with a dash of Vagabond(ish).

Jenn & Jon’s Roadtrip 2007: I can’t quite figure out where they’re from, or where they’re going. But where ever they are, they take me on an amazing literary journey.

Feisty Blue Gecko: In her own words, ‘Living and working in Asia (Nepal, Mongolia and now India) for the past 7 years. Mostly (but not always) thriving on the challenges, always marveling at how privileged I am to be here.’ A fascinating insight of a feisty, blue gecko.

Travelhacker: At first I labelled this site as Spam. It’s main reason for existence is credit cards, those thinning shards of plastic. But. I’ve got to hand it them, their ’50 Best…’ lists are both relevant and resourceful. Anyway, they’re not doing any harm now, are they?

Indie Travel Podcast: A sterling example of travel podcasting is created here by this pair of love-laced kiwis, they’re generating great articles and insights as they munch across global borderlands.

That Place Called Home: A pleasant blog about a TCKid (a kid who is brought up in a different culture to his own) who rediscovers the world.

We Blog The World: A multifaceted travelzine. It was looking slightly faded and broken the last time I visited, but delve in and you’ll be rewarded with some informative posts.

Forks and Jets: Eva and Jeremy casually protest they’re “not crunchy granola hippies trying to bring about world peace” however these cute little yuppies realised “the economy is upside down, [and] our way of life is changing”. The result? The sleek storyboards of their food-meets-world blog

Forty-Two: You can take the Kiwi out of Singapore but you can never take the Cambodian out of the Kiwi. A Kiwi mum stabs her fingers into a great little expat site.

Solo Safari: A bright and breezy blog, a mixture of all things pleasant about intelligent women in their twenties. Sugared with the great outdoors and spiced with the great indoors, this isn’t just a coffee blog, its also a chilled-out-Sunday glass of vino blog.

[F]oxymoron: I actually think this guy might be crazy, however he writes so eloquently that I keep looking in on his site and nodding my head in agreeance with him as he cloaks the weird in the wonderful.

Where are Liz and Adrian?: This is a fantastic site for people umming and arring about whether to hit the road or not. Liz details everything from saving money to seeing where to spend it in a friendly, fluid style.

Polly Evans: ‘Quirky Adventures in an Offbeat World’ is how Miss Evans labels her website, and if you’ve read her books you’ll know why. I’d love to meet Polly one day, not planned or at some corporate event, just a meeting of chance over a coffee and carrot cake in some faraway cafe.

Primitive Culture: A vibrant look at the world, through some great pictures and well-placed words. This guy knows what it is to be a traveller; it’s well worth wandering his way for a quick fix.

foXnoMad: This site is like your sisters bedroom; at first glance it’s a complete mess, but dig around for ten minutes and you’ll find some real treats to keep you amused. Updated incredibly often, so you’re never short of a snippet.

Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site: Super Blogger, Matt has it all worked out. He’s a dedicated traveller, with a dedicated blog with a dedicated style which he dedicatedly delivers. This is more than just a travel blog, but less than the boring business end.

Two Go Round-The-World: Absorb he observations of Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip set to depart Toronto, Canada in July 2011

Locomotoring: A well written blog, featuring informative posts and powerful imagery. Mainly concentrating on India and its polar opposite, the US.

True Life Planet: Take a deep breath before you delve into this blogoholic’s emotive account of life as a volunteer in Calcutta, India.

Me-Go: Megan has a clean, fresh and exciting style which will nail you to your desk for an hour at least. She carries a host of souvenirs and is never short of a tale. Also a great site for anyone planning a RTW trip as has some comprehensive details.

The Press Run –
It’s a fact of fame that the press will find us, even in the quietest coves. Now, I’m not famous but these lot still found me
Travel Blogs: I like the way these boys roll, therefore it’s always a pleasure to contribute. Discover my insight into ‘Dealing with Loneliness’ in their three part series.

Travel Blogs: Another opportunity to write for the Melbourne-based website found me explaining how “My Travel Blog Saved My Life”

Single Edition (Nov ’08): Their people spoke to my people and between us we fashioned an informative (typo ridden) and insightful interview into my life as a traveller.

Travel Blogs: Part of a twenty-one person crew to decipher exactly what is The Difference Between Tourists and Travellers?. See if you agree.

Take it or Leave it –
I picked these up from the mulch of The Trail, I found them all useful in their own little way.
Visas
Project Visa: An invaluable website full of insanely useful and easily accessible visa information for the whole wide world.

Reference
Lonely Planet Thorn Tree: Whether you’re a traveller or a tourist I implore you to use this site to get the most out of your destination. Their books are pretty cool too, but if you’re tighter than a penny proud Scotsman then the Thorn Tree is next best thing. Och aye.

World Nomads: As well as offering great insurance policies (use World Nomads Promo Code TRLANT for 6% discount!), the World Nomads site also displays some fantastic blogs to do a bit of light reading (obviously after you’ve read ToA.com!). They also offer travel advice, but bear in mind World Nomads is an Australian outfit therefore it’s more relevant to them, and they’re most likely drunk when updating it.

Matador: No, they don’t taunt little bulls into a gruesome death, nor do they wear tight velvet trousers, but what the Matadors do is produce one of the finest online magazines this side of your monitor. This is more than inspiration over a quick coffee break, this site will earn you the a Skiver title and ultimately lose you your job.

Money Saving Expert: Save money and time with this fantastic site. It caters for all sorts of things, for the traveller in you there’s some great tips on securing those bargain flight tickets.

Seat 61: Don’t even consider getting on a train without having a peek over the shoulder of the man in Seat 61. Whatever he’s been reading, its priceless. Timetables and advice for pretty much the entire worlds rail network. Tickets pleeeeease.

Real Russia: Real Russians as well. If you’re planning on getting within an inch of a Kalashnikov then you’ll need an invitation. These guys will sort that out, and much more.

NHS Fit For Travel: This site is the perfect accompaniment to the wandering hypochondriac. Written by the government funded drug dealers the site is bursting with medical tips and advice that you should ignore, at your peril.

Kit
Moleskine: If their notebooks are good enough for Picasso, Matisse, and Hemingway then they’re just about good enough for me. There’s something romantic about a timeworn Moleskine notebook and pencil.

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