Nothing beats the excitement of booking a holiday: deciding where to go, finding the flights, choosing a hotel, reading up on your destination... But, sadly, we can't all holiday all year round. For times such as these, when the weather is grey outside the window and there’s a long stretch of work looming out across the afternoon, vicarious travelling is the next best option.
The armchair traveller likes nothing better than a good travel blog. Well-written, well-designed travel blogs are a joy to read. They can provide information, inspiration or just a browse at another part of the world through someone else's eyes. We've rounded up some of the favourite blogs from the team at Cheapflights. Take a look, sit back and dream...
Notes from the Road
Notes from the Road is one of the most beautiful travel sites we've ever seen. The author travels – on the road, yes, but also by other means such as kayak or seaplane – and photographs and writes about what he sees. The huge photos, full screen size, are stunning. The writing is funny and sharp. And you've got to love a blog that has the following sentence on its “about” page: "Travel writing always gets a bad rap, because of 'The azure sea was undulating and the hotel was fabulous.' But travel writing can be funny, powerful and personal." One of our absolute favourite sites.
west africa wins always
A journalist who has lived in the Ivory Coast since 2003 writes about daily life in West Africa (website: nofoodforlazyman.blogspot.com/). This site gives a fascinating insight to a little known country, to which the UK government currently warms against all travel. The posts cover everything from information about the unrest to musings about the definition of beauty in Africa.
Travel Rants
An excellent and intelligent blog. Travel Rants (website: www.travel-rants.com) includes interesting thoughts (and sometimes rants) on everything from the state of the airline industry, the best way to use the internet to book holidays and staying healthy on holidays. Almost all posts have further comments, as readers share information and answer questions. More about the travel industry than actual travelling, this is a useful resource for those searching news and opinions.
The Longest Way Home
Hard on the eyes, but a travel blog in its fourth year. The British author travels the world looking for somewhere to call home. The blog (website: www.thelongestwayhome.com) is essentially an online journal of these travels along with reasons why each country visited would – or wouldn't – make a good place to settle. Readers can also vote “where do you think the best place is for me to find a home”.
goWander
Not really a blog, but the community site from Wanderlust, the publishers of one of the best travel magazines there is. GoWander (website: www.gowander.com) has a range of different sections, from photos and videos to "experiences" where members add short stories about recent travel. It's large and fairly well-populated and if you know what you're looking for there is a host of information here. As you'd expect from a site that is entirely populated by users, the quality varies hugely from piece to piece.
Sabrina Wolfe
© Cheapflights Ltd
Updated April 2009
