Why I’m A Sucker For A Good Travel Blog

Travel blogs are a not oft mentioned, yet not entirely secret, pleasure of mine. I love travel writing in general. But a good travel blog, especially of someone actually living in a new place long term, is really my thing. Not only do they feed my desires and intentions for my own future journey, they provide brief and unique perspectives from someone who is both within and outside. A person that may be inside of a place but is now and likely will forever remain slightly outside a culture.

The things that make a “good” travel blog are, of course, subjective. To me they are this:

• Good Photos.
• Great storytelling.
• Deep insight into the truth of a place.

In other words, I would like to be transported. I want, for just a few moments, to be where the writer is and see with their eyes and experience through these words and understand a place as they do.

Recently, I have been enjoying a few of these that I will mention here:

• Spartan Wanderer — This is the blog of Seth who is spending a year in Daqing, China teaching English. It fits all of the criteria mentioned above. Compelling observations about life in China .

• David Byrne’s Journal — As multimedia artist David Byrne has been on tour with St. Vincent in support of their collaboration, he has been writing wonderful insights on all of the cities they play. Everything from a visit to a creationist museum to the circuses of Ancient Rome.

• Idle Words — Maciej CegÅ‚owski, developer of Pinboard has a blog where he writes about travel and food and it is really good. I had no idea until Chris Gonzales alerted me to that fact today. Since, I have devoured several posts in what little free time I’ve had.

There are more but that should give you some idea of why I love this particular genre of writing. And, if you know of any you’d recommend please feel free to send them my way. I’m always open to sugestions in this area.