Category: Travel

T-List and other Travel Related Blogger Communities

T-List

It was a hassle, but also fun to udate the T-List .

Here are some backgrounds, as I hope to get some advice from a more technical guy or girl who can give me some guidance (or maybe even a snipped of code) as I would like the list to be searcheable and thus sortable.

Why did you do it?

I did it, because my first approach of keeping track of the additions to the original T-List by simply deli icio us tagging them as T-List or TB-List and then widgeting them into a page of this Blog didn’t satisfy me anymore: The Deli Icio us widget provides a maximum of 100 links only. The number of links was nearing 200, so I would have to create a third del icio us tag TC-List and corresponding widget.

In a short time I will also update the T-List page with an updated list in stead of a widget and split the T-List and The L-List page in two pages.

How did you do it?

I wanted to bring more order in the list. I know that with advanced PHP / SQL techniques you can solve the problem (and the sorteability), but I am not that expert in PHP / SQL (yet). However I know the bit that you can export cell entries from a spreadsheet into a Database format. So I started to fudge around with a quatropro spreadsheet and exported it into HTM, then I picked it up in Dreamweaver, cropped it a bit so that its width would not ruin my template. I hear you moan “A Quattro Pro Spreadsheet?”. Yes the reason is that when you try to do this in Excel you have less export possibilities than in Quattro Pro and I am still a Word Perfect afficianado.

Sources

The T-list started as an idea of Matthieu Ouillet of Radar

Other Communities?

Yes! To me it seems there is an explosion of Travel Related Blogs (and not to forget an implosion of abandoned Travel Related Blogs).

  • Bloggers Choice Award 2008 with currently listed more than 630 Travel related Blogs
  • The Bobs Which means so much as Best of the Blogs. It is an initiative of Deutsche Welle and is multi lingual. It counts 184 Blogs under its Travel tag
  • The Blog Topsites & Blogflux combination. The link points to currently the latest page of its Travel related Blogs, counting 645 Blogs

So why do you keep wading through all those Blogs?

Very simple: Among them there are gems to be found. I like to share my finds. I also want to encourage those gems. I myself got encouraged by others in the field when I started to go on with what i did.

In the meantime (my version of) the list has grown to over 250 blogs. I found some gems already.

Keep in touch!

T-List Update: 200 Travel / Hospitality Blogs Listed and Ranked

T-List

Inspired by Guillaume’s Unofficial Travel / Hospitality Blogs Ranking I spent blood sweat and tears to get the T-List more up to date and used Technorati Authority as ranking method. Please do not hesitate to comment for any errors made. Also there may still be some differences with my T-List Page. They will be weeded out in a later phase (I have square television eyes now).

Funny to note that some heavyweights like Lonely Planet and others have not claimed their Blogs on Technorati (last column is “n” or “no”) If there are question marks in the last column I wonder whether the Blog is abandoned. With the “!!!” I indicate something is not entirely clear with the Technorati claim.

Finally I wonder of this work has been done already by the Spanish University researchers behind nr 199 of this list. I would like some of my Spanish language friends to look into this matter. They seem to use a much more modern approach than the old fashioned cutting and pasting I did here.

Nov
 Blog Name Subject Lng Cntry 1/>1
Auth
Favs
OK?
1
 Gadling Travel En US More
1615
0
y
2
 Gridskipper Destination En US More
1554
41
y
3
 Japan Probe Destination En Jap More
1399
26
y
4
 Jaunted Destination En US More
611
7
y
5
 Hotels and City Blogs Hotel Reviews En Can More
439
1
y
6
 Vinography: A Wine Blog Wine En US One
421
38
y
7
 World Hum Travel En US More
420
17
y
8
 Diario del Viajero Travel SP SP More
416
5
y
9
 My Marrakesh Destination En Mor One
407
25
y
10
 HotelChatter Travel En Us More
359
7
y
11
 Brave New Traveler Travel En Can More
334
14
y
12
 Viaje na Viagem Destination Port Brasil One
239
5
no
13
 Newyorkology Destination En US More
230
12
y
14
 Blog de Viajes Travel 2.0 Sp Sp One
225
8
y
15
 Buenos Aires Daily Photo En Arg One
224
8
y
16
 locuraviajes Travel Sp Sp More
215
0
no
17
 Les Explorers Travel 2.0 FR/En Fr More
207
8
y
18
 Vagablogging Travel En US One
170
9
y
19
 The Delicious Llfe Food En US One
162
13
y
20
 Intelligent Travel by Nat Geo Travel En US More
161
3
y
21
 Living with Legends: On Site En US One
159
2
y
22
 Wandalust Travel En UK One
159
3
y
23
 Bajo Coste[link dead] Air Travel En US More
158
2
y
24
 TravelBlog.it Destination It It More
152
6
y
25
 The Lost Girls Backpackers En US More
145
20
y
26
 Marriot on the Move Hotel Reviews En US More
144
0
!!!
27
 Brief Blog Marketing Sp NL One
140
2
y
28
 The Hague Daily Photo Blog Photo En NL One
140
2
y
29
 Hotelmarketing Com Marketing En US More
138
1
y
30
 A Luxury Travel Blog Luxury Travel En UK One
135
10
y
31
 Albert Barra Marketing Sp Sp One
128
10
y
32
 Family Travel Family Travel En US One
123
5
y
33
 Hotel Bed Jumping Bed Jumping En Can More
121
0
y
34
 Travel Rants Travel En UK One
120
8
y
35
 Blog on Travel Travel 2.0 En UK More
117
15
y
36
 Fasten Your Seatbelts Marketing Ger Au One
115
2
y
37
 Foreign Perspectives Destination En Fr One
113
219
y
38
 Travolution Blog Marketing En UK More
109
14
y
39
 DondeViajar.es Travel Sp SP More
107
2
y
40
 Restaurant Girl Rest. Reviews En US One
106
6
y
41
 Hotel Blogs by Guillaume Hotel Reviews En UK One
98
11
y
42
 Foodaholic Food En Aus One
97
4
y
43
 The Cranky Flier Air Travel En US One
97
2
y
44
 Buenos Aires Argentina Destination En Arg One
91
7
y
45
 Hotel hotsheet Travel En US More
91
5
y
46
 Hotels of the Rich and Famous Hotels En US One
88
5
y
47
 Geeky Traveller Gadgets En US One
85
6
y
48
 El Blog de un Hotel Marketing Sp Sp One
83
3
y
49
 Megustaelturismo Air Travel Sp Sp One
82
4
y
50
 Viator Travel Blog Travel En ?? One
82
4
y
51
 Primera Clase Air Travel SP SP One
81
1
y
52
 Social Media On the Fly Travel ? Il One
81
2
y
53
 E Hotelier Com News En US More
80
4
y
54
 Travel Post Insider Hotel Reviews En US One
80
5
y
55
 Despegar Travel 2.0 Sp Arg More
78
2
y
56
 Tim LeffelâWeb 2.0 Destination En US One
77
5
y
57
 Vagablond Travel En US More
77
4
y
58
 El Blog D’un Hotel [link dead] Luxury Travel En US More
77
4
y
59
 Tourism Internet Marketing Blog Marketing En Can One
76
5
y
60
 Europe String Destination En NL More
74
7
y
61
 Blog de Juan Sobe Marketing Sp Sp One
71
3
y
62
 Aquela Passagem Destination Port Brasil More
70
2
y
63
 CampingCoop.org [Link Dead] Travel Stories En US One
70
141
y
64
 The Sydney Morning Herald Backpackers En Aus More
68
1
no
65
 Guia de Viajes Destination SP Arg One
67
1
y
66
 Andrew Pascoe’s Marketing En Aus One
66
2
y
67
 Buenos Aires, City of Destination En Arg One
66
4
y
68
 BootBlog Travel En US More
65
2
y
69
 de viaje a Brasil Travel Port Brasil One
62
2
y
70
 Chileno – Life in Destination En Chile One
61
1
y
71
 Line of sight Photo En Arg One
61
4
y
72
 The Lobby from SPG Hotel Reviews EN US One
61
5
y
73
 Happy Hotelier Hotelier En NL One
60
37
y
74
 TripCart :: The Travel Blog Destination En US One
60
3
!!!
75
 Web 2.0 Travel Tools Travel 2.0 En ?? More
60
8
y
76
 Europe A La Carte Blog Destination En UK One
59
34
y
77
 New York Traveler Destination En US One
59
3
y
78
 Rolling Rains Report Travel En US One
59
8
y
79
 Marketing TuriBlog Marketing SP Sp One
57
2
y
80
 Kulinarisch Reisen Marketing Ger Au More
56
6
y
81
 Pasa en Buenos Aires [Link Dead] Destination Sp Arg One
56
1
y
82
 Escapadas Europa. Destination SP Sp More
55
3
no
83
 Absolut BCN – Blog de Barcelona Destination Sp Sp One
53
2
y
84
 De Viajero.com Destination Port – One
52
0
y
85
 La Coctelera: ZuHause Photo Sp Sp One
52
1
y
86
 Notes from the Road Photo En US One
51
4
y
87
 inFlightHQ Air Travel En US More
50
3
y
88
 m-Travel.com Air Travel En US One
50
0
no
89
 Toni MascarÃple Destination Sp Sp One
50
0
y
90
 Globorati Luxury Travel En US More
49
0
y
91
 Viajar Asia. Destination SP Sp One
48
3
y
92
 Bitur [Link Dead] Travel Sp Arg More
47
1
no
93
 Travel Weekly Blog Marketing En UK More
47
4
y
94
 Air France Mexico Air Travel En Mex One
46
0
y
95
 Online Travel Review Air Travel En US –
46
0
y
96
 The Informed Traveler Hotel Reviews EN US One
46
11
y
97
 Opus Hotel Hotelier En Can More
45
1
no
98
 Killing Batteries Hotel Reviews En Eur One
44
3
y
99
 Radaron Travel 2.0 En Can One
44
1
y
100
 Rick Seaney Air Travel En US One
43
0
y
101
 Brazil Travel Blog Destination SP Brasil One
42
1
y
102
 Exposed Planet Photo En NL One
42
1
y
103
 Zeitgeist Marketing En US One
42
0
y
104
 Bird to the North Destination En US One
41
1
y
105
 Explorando Peru Destination Sp Peru One
41
0
y
106
 Hotel Blog Marketing Sp Sp One
40
2
y
107
 Tourismus – Zukunft Travel 2.0 Ger Ger One
40
2
y
108
 Touristikblog.de Travel 2.0 Ger Ger One
40
3
y
109
 TravelerWIRE Hotel Reviews En US More
40
4
y
110
 Buenos Aires through my eyes Destination En Arg One
39
7
y
111
 The Travel & Hospitality Diaries Hospitality En US More
39
5
y
112
 Road Gladiator Air Travel En US One
38
3
y
113
 Dot tourism Travel En Can One
37
2
y
114
 France This Way Destination En Fr One
37
80
y
115
 Living in France Destination En FR One
37
80
y
116
 Relactions blog Travel En US One
37
2
y
117
 Vacant Ready Hotel Reviews En Can One
37
4
y
118
 The Travel Cooler Photo En US More
36
1
y
119
 The Travel PR Blog Travel 2.0 En Uk One
36
2
y
120
 Travel Horizons Destination En Aus One
36
5
y
121
 Kiwi Viajero Photo Sp Sp One
35
0
y
122
 Me-go: Around-the-World World Travel En US One
34
0
y
123
 Travel and Web 2.0 Marketing En US One
34
4
y
124
 Hostel Buenos Aires Hotel Reviews En/Sp Arg More
33
2
y
125
 ADV Italia [Link Dead] Travel Agents It It More
32
2
y
126
 Brasilien Destination Ger Brasil One
32
1
y
127
 Chronicles of On The Road Travel Destination En Arg One
32
3
y
128
 My Travel Backpack Backpackers En Can One
32
1
y
129
 Trabber Noticias Air Travel Sp Sp One
32
0
y
130
 Intermundial Travel Insurance Sp Sp One
31
1
y
131
 Rumboperdido Destination Sp Aus More
31
1
y
132
 City-Guide.cc UGC En – More
30
14
y
133
 Los viajes de Jota – – – –
30
0
y
134
 BuhlerWorks by Joe Buhler Travel 2.0 En US One
29
0
y
135
 Entreprendre dans le e-Tourisme Travel 2.0 Fr Fr One
29
0
y
136
 Hawthorne Hotel Hotelier En US More
29
0
no
137
 Nos vamos de turismo! Destination Sp Arg One
29
0
y
138
 Erin Julian [Link Dead] Travel En US One
28
1
???
139
 eTourismus.info Marketing Ger Ger More
28
1
no
140
 En Trancision Destination SP AR One
26
0
y
141
 Bull City Muttering [Link Dead] Mice En US One
25
0
y
142
 eurotrip Travel Sp Arg One
25
1
y
143
 They Let Her Travel Travel Stories En US More
25
0
??
144
 The McCluskey Blog Marketing En US One
24
2
y
145
 Top viajeros Destination SP Sp One
24
3
???
146
 Two Dog Zoo Travel Travel Stories En US One
24
0
no
147
 Weekendhotel Weblog Hotel Reviews Dutch NL More
24
2
y
148
 Airport Blog Airports En UK One
23
0
y
149
 Holiday Pad 2.0 Accomodation En UK One
23
0
y
150
 Blog.rydges.com Destination En US More
21
2
y
151
 E-hotel Destination En Latvia One
21
3
y
152
 Es Mi Peru Destination Sp Peru One
21
0
n
153
 Ibiza a pie de foto Photo SP Sp One
21
1
no
154
 Kirkland Weblog Destination En US More
21
2
y
155
 The Wine Camp Blog Wine En US One
21
1
y
156
 Travel & Tourism Technology Technology En US More
21
1
y
157
 Travel Stuff Aggregator En – One
21
1
y
158
 ComercializaciÃrismo! Marketing Sp – One
20
0
y
159
 Vuelos Baratos en Internet Air Travel Sp – One
19
0
y
160
 MACO Caribbean Living Destination En Carrib One
17
2
y
161
 Tango Diva Travel Blog Solo Woman En US One
16
1
y
162
 The Cottage Lake Placid [Link Dead] Hotelier En US One
16
3
y
163
 The Front Desk Travel En US One
16
0
no
164
 The Materialist Travel En US One
15
1
y
165
 VibeAgent Blog Link Dead] Hotel reviews En US More
15
4
y
166
 Focus Barcellona Destination It Sp One
13
0
y
167
 Mike Wylie [Link Dead] Marketing En US One
13
1
???
168
 The Trippist, Amsterdam Destination En NL More
13
0
y
169
 aaron dalrymple Marketing En US One
11
0
y
170
 Passions of a Zealot Hotel Property En US One
11
1
y
171
 Discover the French Riviera [Link Dead] Destination En Fr One
10
1
y
172
 Vintage Tees – En US One
7
17
y
173
 Canadian Tourism Destination En Can More
5
1
y
174
 Hotel Warrior [Link dead] Hotelier En US One
3
0
no
175
 The Suite Life Hotels En – One
1
1
y
176
 Adirondack Base Camp Destination En US More
0
0
n
177
 Argentinaân Destination En Arg One
0
0
no
178
 AviaciÃtor Air Travel En – –
0
0
no
179
 blog.entornao Travel 2.0 Sp – –
0
0
no
180
 Brand Canada Blog Marketing En Can –
0
0
no
181
 Chanters Lodge Hotelier En Kenia One
0
0
n
182
 Diane Clarkson Marketing En US More
0
0
no
183
 Farecastblog.com Air Travel En US One
0
0
no
184
 Gourmet Station Blog Food En ? 0
0
0
no
185
 Grub Street Restaurants En US More
0
0
no
186
 Guardian Travel Travel En UK More
0
0
n
187
 Hoteles Hotel Reviews SP Sp One
0
0
no
188
 Hotels , Friends and more Marketing Sp Sp One
0
0
no
189
 La Descripcià Blog de Barcelona Travel – – –
0
0
no
190
 Lonely Planet | Travel Blog – En – More
0
0
no
191
 New York Hospitality Hotelier En US One
0
0
no
192
 Notas do Turismo Destination Sp Arg One
0
0
no
193
 Randy’s Journal Air Travel En US One
0
0
no
194
 Real Travel Travel En – More
0
0
no
195
 Travel Blogdig Aggregator – – –
0
0
no
196
 Travel Start-Ups Startups En US One
0
0
no
197
 Travelvice Air Travel En – –
0
0
no
198
 TripAdvisor: Not Making Up Hotel Reviews En US More
0
0
no
199
 TurismoNet : Biblioteca digital [Link Dead] Research Sp Sp More
0
0
no
200
 Wine Goddess Wine En US More
0
0
no

Updates:

  1. Tim’s The Boot should have been here with an authority of 56 and 4 favs. at place 83. I Mixed it up with BootsnAll that I can’t get correct on their Technorati ranking.
  2. Vagablond should be once, not twice on the list.
  3. In one way or another I missed Vicky’s Tracking Tourism with an authority of 12 and rank of 169.
  4. And there he was on my link list all the time: My favorite waiter of Waiter rant with a – Wow – impressive rating of 917 and 121 Favs…..Should have been number 2 !!!
  5. And looking for the ranting Waiter’s authority I realized that I also forgot my friend Ken Burgin of Hot and Cool with an authority of 4
  6. From time to time I have to weed out Dead links

Last edited by GJE on November 13, 2011 at 2:33 pm

WTM 2007: First Impressions

Happy Hotelier's WTM Press Card
A proud member of the Press 🙂

Yes I succeeded to get the press card and I am proudly showing it here as proof. It is my first, but definitely will not be my last. Maybe the idea of applying for a press card will inspire fellow Bloggers to do the same for other venues, fairs, or whatever.

I hopped over to Londen City Airport from Rotterdam with VLM. This was very convenient time wise and legroom wise.

I was lucky to have some dear friends who had a bed and a breakfast for me, but the route door to door from The Hague to Excel took the same time as the commuting to my friend’s address in a little suburb North West of London (half way to Luton).

During my tubing around in London it surprised me how many Londoners are leaving their papers and big paper coffee cups in the trains where cleaners collected them by the sacks full.

WTM has the same problem: Almost all food is offered in paper or carton and they produce tons of waste: An idea for WTM 2008: Back to porcelain and glass as reportedly green conscious organization?

More to follow.

Too Sexy to Fly Update

Kyla Ebbert
Photo © Playboy

Remember Kyla Ebbert? Probably not, but you may remember my earlier post Too sexy to fly?, about the girl that was told by a South West flight attendant to cover herself to appear more decent to the other passengers while her ensemble was no more revealing than the average summer outfit of any college girl.

It now appears she has been posing for a Playboy photo shoot and appears on Playboy’s website.

Playboy:

After the incident Richard Branson told Kyla she was welcome anytime on his Virgin Airlines. “I definitely have a new airline of choice,” says Kyla, who had been a dedicated Southwest traveler before the incident.

Thankfully, there were no incidents when Kyla flew American to Chicago for her Playboy shoot. Kyla says her whole experience posing for Playboy was a dream come true. “I’ve wanted to do it since I turned 18,” she says. “The Playboy shoot was amazing.”

Given her troubles in the skies, we felt obliged to ask a final probing question. “Yes, I am a member of the mile high club,” Kyla says. “And no, it was not on Southwest. It was on a private plane.”

Getting kicked from a flight proves to be a nice promotional move…and she wants to become a lawyer!

Link: Thanks for the update, I’d rather be a Bear!

VibeAgent Officially Launched

Julian Prentice Reviews Villa D'Este
VibAgent‘s youngest Hotel Inspector Julian P. reviews Villa d’Este
Photo © Anne P.

On November 14, 2007 VibeAgent was officially launched. Read the official Press Release here at their Blog VibeAgent Launches to The World.

With much pleasure I have acted as a Beta tester for VibeAgent, see also my post VibeAgent: The Ultimate Web 2.0 Hotel Site? of June 13, 2007, because many of my comments and rants were taken very seriously and where possible used to enhance the quality of the site. The people behind VibeAgent have done a tremendous job at bringing it where it is now.

I choose this lovely photo of Julian P.,”VibeAgent’s youngest Hotel Inspector”, to celebrate this official launch, because this youngster will undoubtedly see many more exciting changes the Internet will bring to the travelers than I, or many of you, dear readers, will live to see.

His mom Anne reviewed Villa D’Este and graciously gave me permission to use this photo of Julian for a post. Since VibeAgent is out of Beta, I can direct my readers to her VibeAgent review of Villa D’Este without necessitating them to sign up or log in into VibeAgent’s site, although the experience of signing up is highly recommended!