Blog Reviews by Bloggeries

We all have an inkling to travel somewhere within us, even if it just means we want to simply getaway from the everyday if only for a few minutes, hours, days, weeks, what have you. The blog we are looking at today is going to allow you to live your travel dreams vicariously through the blog. The blog is called the Everything Everywhere Travel Blog. For those that love to travel for the sheer enjoyment of seeing places all around the world, this blogger is living the dream. The blogger is Gary Arndt and has been traveling, and blogging around the world since March 2007. In his journeys, as you will see on the header, Gary has traveled for 12 months, visited 34 countries, traveled 92,000 kilometers, and is currently blogging out of Australia. As you read the blog, you will find out more interesting information about Gary, such as, how many times he’s crossed the International Date line, or how many times his travels have taken him across the equator. If you would like to live vicariously through this dream travel blog, have a look at any of Gary’s recent bloggeries: Daily Travel Photo – Puerto Princessa, Palawan, Phillippines; Tasmania: Australian for Cold; Daily Travel Photo – Tokyo, Japan; Off to Tas!; Daily Travel Photo – Mount Bromo, Java, Indonesia; Mungo National Park; Daily Travel Photo – Savai’I, Samoa; and My Walk up the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

The blog is very cleanly laid out which makes it very easy to navigate. The blog is divided into window box menus that separate the blog items from each other in a clean organized manner. When you load the blog before the boxes appear, you will be greeted with a lovely background of a mountain and rainbow scene. Bloggeries are left marginalized and the blog has a right-sided navigation bar. Bloggeries are in white text on black background, and links are highlighted in a bright blue. In the right navigation bar you will find a ‘Follow Me’ subscription button that is followed by different places online that you can find the blogger (like Flickr, facebook, etc.) You will then find here a Pages Menu with links for the About page, Airport Codes, FAQ, Contact info, Travel Blog Directory, Travel Gear, and Travel Map. Also in the right navigation bar is a travel scorecard, Upcoming Locations, Blog Calendar, Recent Comments Menu, Archives Menu, and widgets where you can join this bloggers online communities at MyBlogLog.

Overall I give this blog a 5/5, as it is excellently presented on all blog scoring criteria. The blog appearance is clean and organized with relevant pictures associated with each bloggery. This makes the blog very easy to navigate as well. The blog has well written content in a reader friendly tone that gives the blogger’s travel memoirs a lovely personal voice that takes you into the heart of each location he visits. The blog is also updated very frequently on a daily basis which is keeping this blogger’s readership nice and healthy. If you love to travel, or just want to, this blog overall is an excellent read and would be appreciated by everyone from the novice to seasoned traveler.

-Chrissie

If you are at all looking to travel the Eastern Hemisphere then you should take a moment to check out a professional looking Asia travel blog.  The blog is a blog that operates under the business of Asiahotels.com which is a leading Asian accommodations reservations site. As a reservations network from Asia, you will find it very comprehensive as it offers blogging with a personal voice, yet access to destination guides, travelers tales and guest reviews. Have a look at any of the recent bloggeries to see what I am referring to: Beautiful Sceneries in Japan, Pho King Strange Shirts, Top Noosa Holiday Accommodation, Typical Asian Photo Poses, How to Take Photos in Beijing China, Environmentally Friendly 5 Star Hotel in Beijing, How to Overcome Con Artists in Asia, The Three Most Luxurious Airlines, Best Beaches in Asia, and Ten Things to Do if you are Trapped on an Island.

Navigation on the blog is very easy, and very straightforward. The blog has a well-organized template and a clean layout and design. Bloggeries are black text on white background and the blog has yellow bordering with yellow accents on the menu titles. Bloggeries are centralized and there is both a left and right navigation bar. In the left navigation bar you will find the categories menu, recent posts menu, and the About page. In the Right navigation bar, you will find Hotel Club Blog information, and ‘On the Go’ menu, and an ‘Accom Blog’ menu. The categories menu also is very comprehensive, and for the Asian traveler contains all of the vital information – Airlines, Asia, Australia, Beaches, Japan, Things to Do, Vietnam, and much more. Most of the bloggeries also contain relevant pictures which adds to the overall design and aesthetic appeal of the blog. I took some time to visit a few travel guides and found the guide to Taj Mahal very informative.

This blog is definitely raising the bar for other travel blogs in terms of almost all other criteria we score on here. For this reason I am giving it a 4.5/5. The blog scores perfectly on almost all accounts – Navigation, Appearance, Uniqueness, and Content. The blog is designed with a very professional appeal, and this gives it much credibility to its readers which are obviously the travelers demographic. This lends well to the success of the blog given that travelers looking for information are always looking for credible sources. The pictures and the professional but good personal voice in the blog serve this purpose well for Asia Hotels. The only thing I would suggest is more frequent activity and this is the only section where Asia Hotels lost points. Currently bloggeries are coming in every other day, but I am seeing periods where the posts lapse with a couple of weeks in between. The blog would definitely get more traffic with daily updating and thus, be an even bigger success than it clearly already is. Otherwise however, I am taking a mental note of this one should I ever see the opportunity to Go East.

-Chrissie

If you like reading international blogs, then you will really find this one unique in its own right. The blog is called Trendy Palermo Viejo. The author of the blog is Nancy, previously known as Dalila, and she lives and works in Palermo, Buernos Aires, Argentina. The blog is unique in its own right in that it is the first trilingual blog about shops, restaurants, hotels, places, and events of Palermo Viejo which happens to be the trendiest neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argetina. She writes the Trendy Palermo Viejo blog because well, trends happen too fast for print so she brings it all to you in three beautiful languages. You can check out any of her recent posts to get a true taste for this trilingual niche: Casa FOA 2007, Today is the World Lymphoma Awareness Day, New Business by Celebrities in PV, Photos by Nancy Kulfas Sept. 11, Jewish Music and Tradition in Palermo, More changes in the neighborhood, Photos from a Neighbor in Buenos Aires Argentina.

The blog is very easy to navigate. Posts are right marginalized and are black text on neutral background with faint pastel polka dots adding just the right amount of color to the background. A few posts have relevant pictures or videos attached, and all posts are written in three distinct languages. I am NOT trilingual so I am not 100% certain what the other two, besides English are, so to prevent errors I will not venture to guess. You will just have to check it out yourself! In the left navigation bar you will find the about page; archives menu going back to 2006; advertising; flickr album; menus for shopping, eating, walking, lodging; map of argentina; blogroll, recent readers widget; and a scrolling menu for recent news in the area. Each post does have labels attached to it, but there is no current categories menu despite the fact that there is space in the navigation system dedicated to a categories section.

I give this one a 4/5 overall, and I think that the activity is hurting the mark the most. Currently the blog is updated every few days to a week at times and the blog would probably score better if there was daily content. I also think the lack of a categories section in a blog of this niche is affecting the mark a little bit. With so many elements to this blog – dining, shopping, etc, this blog would do very well with a categories menu to aid in navigation. The content scores are very good as this blog offers a trilingual approach in absolutely every element to the blog which must be very challenging at times. I find this trilingual effect adds to the uniqueness of both the blog and its niche as well. The readership clearly enjoys this blog which is evidenced by its regular comments and active email feed of 89 readers. I don’t think it would hurt the blogger to add some AdSense or other advertising to the blog to take advantage of this healthy readership and monetize the blog a little more. Overall however, this was a very pleasant and interesting read and I recommend it to anyone that has an interest in international affairs.

-Chrissie