TOP 100 TRAVEL BLOGS 2015

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THE BIGGEST TRAVEL BLOG AWARD ON THE INTERNET

Hello travel blogger,

Welcome to the ultimate travel blog evaluation. I analyzed more than 2100 blogs and rated them from 0 to 5 stars. Before I explain WHY  I did this, WHO made it in the list, and most importantly HOW I rated the blogs, I am sure you want to see which award your own travel blog got in our Top 100 Travel Blogs list.

IMPORTANT: This list is neither sorted according to the success of a travel blog nor how SEO friendly it is or its number of facebook fans etc. It only focuses on the travel blog itself and the activity of the travel blogger! It is a very subjective list as it is based on BoB’s, Liane’s and my opinion. BUT there is a quite complex system behind it as we analyzed 7 different categories of each travel blog. You find detailed information about each category at the end of this post.

Okay, enough talking. Here is the list! Please do me a favour and read the information below the list before leaving a comment. And let me know if you want to be in another category. (I have too many solo travel bloggers)

2100+ ANALYZED TRAVEL BLOGS

Couple

Travel Blog Award Gold 5 Star

Bridges and Balloons – Don’t Forget to Move – Getting Stamped – Goats on the Road – Hecktic Travels – Ordinary Traveler – The Planet D – Uncornered Market – Wanderlusters

Travel Blog Award Silver 4 Star

2 Aussie Travellers
2 People 1 Life
20 Years Hence
365 Travel Dates
501 Places
A Couple Travelers
A Cruising Couple
Abandon the Cube
Adventure Bimbling
After Globe
Alison and Don
Backpacking Travel Blog
Bizarre Globe Hopper
Blonde Brunette Travel
Born 2 Travel
Breathe With Us
Captain and Clark
Catch our travel bug
Chasing Adventure
Consulting Rehab
Crazzzy Travel
Deafinitely Wanderlust
Empty Rucksack
Flashpack at Forty
Flip Flop Travellers
Forget Someday
Four Jandals
Free our mind travel
GQ Ttrippin
Inspiring Travellers
Jenny & Ewout Grand Adventures
Just a Pack
Just Chasing Rabbits
Karolina & Patryk
Kathmandu and Beyond
Land of Marvels
Live Dream Discover
Living in Another Language
Living the Dream RTW
LivingIF
Made in Moments
Man Tripping
Next Stop Who Knows
No Place to Be
Nomad’er How Far
Nomadic Lifestyle
Old World Wandering
On Our Own Path
One Giant Step
One Road at a Time
One Weird Globe
Our Dream Adventure
Outbound Adventurer
Over Yonderlust
Passport Chop
Patascha’s world
Renegade Travels
Round We Go
Sandal Road
See You Soon Mom
Short Road to Happy
Slightly Astray
Surfing the Planet
Tammy and Chris on the Move
Teach Travel Play
The Constant Rambler
The Lazy Travelers
The Travels of BBQboy and Spanky
The Walking Tourists
Travel Addicts
Traveling 9 to 5
Traveling Bytes
Traveling Thru History
Traveling Triplets
Travelling Book Junkie
Travelling Weasels
Travels With Two
Traveltelling – Stories of an active traveler
Tripper
Turnipseed Travel
Turtles Travel
Tusen Takk II
Two Worlds One Life
Unhook Now
Vagabond 3
Vagabond Quest
Venturists
Wandering on
Wanderlust marriage
We Are from Latvia
Where Is Your Toothbrush
Wise Monkeys Abroad
World Walk About
World Wild Travel
Your Own Trail

Friends

Travel Blog Award Gold 5 Star

 Alex in Wanderland – Man on the Lam – The Blonde Abroad – That Backpacker

Travel Blog Award Silver 4 Star

A Lady in London
A Life Full of Serendipity
Adventures with Dan
Alicia Explores
Angie Away
Around the World in 80 Jobs
Backpacker Banter
Backpacking Man
Banker in the Sun
Bitten by the Travel Bug
Blogger at Large
Breathe Dream Go
Bren on the Road
Bucket List Journey
Choosing Figs
Chris Guillebeau
Crazy Sexy Fun Traveler
Dave’s Travel Corner
Dont’ Stop Living
Eff It, I’m on Holiday
Escaping Abroad
Fearful Adventurer
Ferreting Out the Fun
Fevered Mutterings
Finding the Freedom
Girl Tweets World
Global Gallivanting
Globetrotter Girls
GloboTreks
Go See Write
Going Awesome Places
Grrrl Traveler
Heart My Backpack
Hop Scotch the Globe
I Dreamed of This
Intrepid Escape
Jessie on a Journey
Journey Wonders
Keep Calm and Travel
Kisty
Krisi Trimmer
LandLopers
Leave Your Daily Hell
Lee Abbamonte
Lemonicks
Live Wonderful
Lost Boy Memoirs
Mags on the Move
My Travel Affairs
My Wanderlust
Neverending Footsteps
No Money Will Travel
Nomad Revelations
Nomadic Samuel
One Step 4Ward
Planet and Go
Polkadot Passport
PS I’m on My Way
Rome New York London World
Runaway Guide
Runaway Juno
Seattle’s Travels
See the World in My Eyes
Simon’s Jam Jar
Stop Having a Boring Life
The Broke Backpacker
The Candy Trail
The Expeditioner
The Hungry Partier
The Love Assembly
The Professional Hobo
The Shooting Star
The Travel Tart
The Wandering Orange
This American Girl
This Girl Loves
This Life in Trips
Travel around with me
Travel Freak
Travel with Pedro
Travelholic Nomad
TravMonkey
Triphackr
True Nomads
Twenty Something Travel
Wandering Earl
Wandering Trader
Where in the World Is Rita
Women on the Road
Wonderful Wanderings
World of Wanderlust
Yes and Yes

Travel Blog Award Silver 4 Star

A Backpacker’s Tale
A Chinese Nomad
A Globe Well Travelled
A Life Less Beige
A Little Adrift
A Passport Affair
A Thing for Words
A Traveler’s Library
A Year Of Reading The World
Absolute Travel Addict
According to Zascha
Active Planet Travels
Adrian’s Travel Tales
Adventures of a Carry-On

Ah Trini Travelogue
Ali Adventures
An American Abroad
Anna Everywhere
Around the World L
Ashley Abroad
Aussie on the Road
Backpacker Ben
Backpacker’s Guide to Earth
Backpacking Addictz
Backpacking Diplomacy
Backpacking Worldwide
Barefoot Beach Blonde
Be My Travel Muse
Bemused Backpacker
Blonde Gypsy
Borderless Travels
Borders of Adventure
Breakaway Backpacker
Buddy the Traveling Monkey
C’est Christine
Camels and Chocolate
Candace Rose Rardon
Candice Does the World
Caroline in the City
Cheryl Howard
Chicky Bus
Chris Travel Blog
Come Away with Me
Completely Gone Nomad
Cosmos Mariners
Curb Free With Corylee
Curious Cat Expat
Curious Nomad
Curiosity Travels
D Travels Round
Dauntless Jaunter
Discovering Your Truth
Elenas Travelgram
Emily Luxton
Emma’s Travel Tales
Escape Artistes
Find a Happy Place
Fit travels
Fleeting Life
Flights and Frustration
Flying Dutch Girl
Foreign Sanctuary
foXnoMad
Free Me
From Shores to Skylines
Further Bound
Gallop around the globe
Geeky Explorer
Getting Close To
Glamour Granny Travels 
GlobalGaz
Globe Guide
Globe Trottica
Go Travel Your Way
Go Travelzing
Groove Traveler
Gutsy Traveler
Hanna Travels

Heather on Her Travels
Helen in Wonderlust
Hole in the Donut
I Live to Travel
Indie Traveller
Inside the Travel Lab
Itchy Feet
Itinerant Londoner
Jackie Travels
Jetting Around
Joao Cajuda
Joe’s Trippin’
Jones Around the World
Jungles in Paris
Justin Was Here
Katie Aune
Kirst Over the World
Lakshmi Sharath
Lash World Tour
LatinAbroad
Laura the Explorer
Leah Travels
Lights Camera Travel
Lines of Escape
Little Things Travel
Live Learn Venture
LL World Tour
Lose the Map
Lucy Smiles Away
Luggage And Lipstick
Man vs Clock
Me Go
Meganotravels
Midnight Blue Elephant
Mindful Travel
Miss Tourist
Mostly Amelie
Mrs Ayla’s Adventures
My Wanderlist
My Yatra Diary
Nerd’s Eye View
Nick’s Travel Bug
Nomad Girl
Nomadic Chick
Nomadic Lives
Nomadic Notes
Nomadical Sabbatical
Nomads Nation
Not Without My Passpor
Notes from Over There

On a Junket
One Girl: One World
One Penny Trip
Oneika the Traveller
Open Road Before Me
Overlander TV
Packing My Suitcase
Peter Moore
Pinay Travel Junkie
Points And Travel
Pommie Travels
Poor Explorer
Psycho Traveller
Quirky Travel Guy
Raising Miro
Ramble and Wander
Real Man Travels
Rexy Edventures
Rising Roads
RTW in 30 Days
Sarah Somewhere
Sateless Suitcase
Savoir Faire Abroad
Senyorita
She dreams of travel
She loves to travel
Shoestring Adventurer
Side Tracked Travel
Solitary Wanderer
Solo Friendly
Solo Trips and Tips
Sophie’s World
Spartan Traveler
Stories of Conflict and Love
Susan Shain
Suzy Guese
The Anthrotorian
The Aussie Nomad
The Bohemian Blog
The Boho Chica
The Cosy Traveller
The Culture Map
The Fly Away American
The Happy Passport
The Longest Way Home
The Mochilera Diaries
The Modern Nomad
The Nomad Notes
The Redheadstory
The Pin The Map Project
The Road to Anywhere
The Russian Abroad
The Tech Gypsy
The Travel Chica
The Travelers Way
The Traveling Dutchman
The Traveling Scholar
The Travelling Editor
The Trusted Traveller
Third Eye Mom
This Battered Suitcase
This Is My Happiness
This World Rocks
Time Travel Turtle
To Europe and Beyond
Totally Sam’s World
Travel Candy
Travel Chameleon
Travel Dave
Travel Experience Live
Travel Feeder
Travel on the Brain
Travel Yourself
Traveler Folio
Traveler Legacy
Travelin’ Kait
Traveling with MJ
Traveller Soul 76
Travelosio
Travels Hop Girl
Treasure Tromp
Tripologist
Two Feet, One World
Tynan
Unbrave Girl
Vagabonding
Vicky Flip Flop Travels
Vizeo
Voyager for Life
Wanderful World
Ways of Wanderers
What A Trip

What an Amazing World
What’s Dave Doing
Where in the World
Where Is Tara
Yomadic

Travel Blog Award Bronze 3 Star

A Travellers Journey
A View to a Thrill
Adventure Girl
Andrea on Vacation
Arctic Nomad
Art of Adventuring
Bamboo Butterfly
Beats the Office
Beyond Blighty
Bisbocci Abroad
Blocal Travel
Bohemian Traveler
Borderlass
Bridge Keeping Traveller
Brooke vs the World
Chasing the Unexpected
Chasing Travel
ChicaDeeDee
Confessions of a Free Bird
Crazy in the Rain
Cheryl Keit
Cubicle Throwdown
Digging Art
Dream Explore Wonder
Dreams of Freedom
Drink Just Drink
Duff’s Suitcase
Eager Journeys
Eat Sleep Breathe Travel
Eat Sleep Travel Repeat
Emily Meets World
Endlessly Changing Horizon
Engineer on the Road
Ever the Nomad
Exotic Gringo
Expedition Hobo
Explore du Jour
Farflungplaces
Five Feet Flat
Flight of the Travel Bee
Flora the Explorer
Fly Brother
Foreign Geek
Francis Tapon
Garfors
Girl Unstoppable
Global Citizen
Globetrek
Globetrotter Guru
Going Nomadic
Gotta Keep Movin
Greg Goes Global
Gutter Pup Adventures
Headed Abroad
Health Conscious Travel
Hello Guanster
Hither & You
Hobo Traveler
Holes in My Soles
I Put My Life on a Shelf
I’m Black and I Travel
Imperator Travel
Inside Journeys
Inside Other Places
Isabelle’s Travel Guide
Italy and son
Ivan About Town
J The Travel Authority
Jet Set Chick
Jouljet
Journey Tom
Just Wanderlust
Kyle The Vagabond
Lateral Movements
Life’s Wanderlust
Live More Happy
Living Rootless
Lola’s Travels
Mackenzie on the Fly
Mad Travel Diaries
Made All the Difference
Mai Travel Site
Mallory on Travel
Man Versus World
Mapping Words
Mc Cool Travel
Meander the World
Miss Adventure Travel
Miss Wanderlust
Ms Traveling Pants
My Adventures Across the World
My Life Untethered
My Travel Stamps
My Trip This Year
Nerdy Nomad
Net Nomad
Nomad Woman
Nomadder Where
Nomadic Experiences
Notes on Slow Travel 
Null & Full
One Dusty Camel
Paper Boats
Passport Packed
Phil in the Blank
Philatravelgirl
Pilgrimito
Places People Stories
Reclaiming My Future
Red Bohemia
Red Hunt Travel
Roads Less Traveled
Roam Far and Wide
Romancing the Planet
Rosalind Cummings Yeates
Runaway Jane
Sam’s Playground
Sara Hardman Travels
Sara Sees the World
Scarlet Wonderland
Sharon Travelogue
Small World Travels
So Many Places
Stay Adventurous
SuitQais Diaries
Sushiyama Travels
Tales Told from the Road
Tao West Ventures
Taylor Hearts Travel
Tell Them I Said Something
That Time In
The Accidental Birder
The Barefoot Beat
The Black Backpacker
The Blond Travels
The Epic Adventurer
The Life Less Travelled
The Mellyboo Project
The Most Alive
The Nature Jotter
The Picktures
The Quirky Traveller
The Red Head Explorer
The Touristin
The Travel Camel
The World or Bust
The World Wanderer
The World is Waiting
There and Back Again Travel
This is my happiness
Tony Wheeler
Travarella
Travel Andy
Travel Candy
Travel Junkie Julia
Travel Run Live
Travel With G
Travel with Mia
Travel with Mrs. T.
Traveling Teri
Traveling Vanilla Bean
Travelling Assassin
Travelling Blogger
Travpacker
Trip Wellness
Trips That Work
Troy Story
Twenty First Century Nomad
Vagabond Impulse
Vagabonding Life
Veronika’s Adventure
Victor’s Travels
View From the Pier
Virtual Wayfarer
Voyager Vicki
Waegook Tom
Wandering Stray
Wanderlass
Wanderlusting
Where Is Jenny
Where the Road Goes
Wide Sea No Anchor
Without a License
Woman Seeks World
Zenaida

Family

Travel Blog Award Gold 5 Star

Almost Fearless – Our Oyster – Where’s Sharon – Y Travel

Solo

Travel Blog Award Gold 5 Star

Be On The Road – Brendan’s Adventures – Everything Everywhere – Ken Kaminesky – Martin Bailey Photography – Stuck In Customs

Photography

Travel Blog Award Gold 5 Star

Migrationology

Outdoor

Travel Blog Award Gold 5 Star

 Alastair Humphreys – Pedaling Nowhere – The Adventure Junkies

Budget

Travel Blog Award Gold 5 Star

Nomadic Matt – The Poor Traveler

Travel Blog Award Gold 5 Star

Luxury

Holy Smithereens

Destination

Travel Blog Award Gold 5 Star

CheeseWeb – Drive on the Left – Just 5 More Minutes – Live Less Ordinary

Travel Blog Award Silver 4 Star

2 Gringos in the Caribbean
99 Boomerangs
A Taste for Travel
A Walk on the Run
A Wandering Mind

Adventure Flair
Albania or Bust
Along the Mekong
Anki On The Move
Arabian Notes
Asia Is For Lovers
At Home in Tuscany
Australia Rocky Travel
Bangkok Girl
Barcelona Blonde
Bewildered In Morocco
Blue Abaya
Blue Balu
Bolivian Life
Caravanistan
Chengdu Living
Cheskie’s Gap Life
China Travel Go
Crazy Chinese Family
Da Social Climber
Defying Gravity
Discover Your Indonesia
District 365
Do In Dubai
Drew Gilbert
Eat, Show And Tell
Emm in London
Europe Up Close
Expat Heather
Family Freedom Project
Far West China
Find Me A Break
Flip Travels
FlipNomad
Follow Your Sunshine
Footsteps of a Wanderer
French Foodie in Dublin
Gail at Large
Ginger and Scotch
Girl in London
Go Borneo Travel
Good Food In Mexico City
Gypsy In The ME
Ian Edelman in Doha
In Nica Now
Indian Columbus
Inside Cambodia
Irish Fireside
Italian Notebook
Japan It Up
Japan Travel Mate
Jared Gulian
Jeddah Daily Photo Journal
Jessica Mudditt
Journeying James
Just Wandering
Katharina’s Italy
Let’s Go Kuala Lumpur
Life in Kuwait
London Unattached
Medellin Living

My Melange
Mount Rewild
Move To Cambodia
Ms. Adventures in Italy
My Journey Through India
My Sea Story
My Several Worlds
My Tha
My Travelogue
Never a Dull Day in Poland

Not Your Average American
O’Sullivans Abroad
Pearls And Passports
Photokatha
Polish Housewife
Prêt à Voyager
Runawaykiwi
Secret Italy
See Think Explore
Sleepless In KL
Sofia Na Australia
Something Swedish
Susie of Arabia
Tails From The Lion City
Tales Of A Nomad
The Bike Wife
The Daily City
The Duncan Adventures
The European Mama
The Kathmanduo
The Migrant Expats
The Travelling Feet
The Wanderblogger
The World of Deej
To China And Beyond
Travel with Me
Tropical Travel Girl
Turkish Travel Blog
Two Hundred Degrees East
Urbane Nomad
Wroclaw Uncut

Travel Blog Award Bronze 3 Star

A Modern Girl
A Muslim Traveller
A Nomad In The Land Of Nizwa
A Yankee-in-Belgrade
Adventures of the Seoul
Alison In Cambodia
All Things Riviera
American Black Chick in Europe
American Girls World
An Asian Traveler
Around Cambodia
Bali Expat
Bolivia In My Eyes
Budget Trouble
Busan Kevin
BuzzInRome
Byahilo
Catching The Magic
Cayman Expat
Cayman Islands Blog
Dear England, Love Canada
Dominique Kane
Eguilbs
Europe a la Carte
Europe Travel Destination Guide
EuroTravelogue
EuroTribe
Expat in the Philippines
Feisty Blue Gecko
Fiji Diaries
Filipina In Flip Flops
Finland Adventures
Flavors of Bogota
Frog & Cheese
Good Morning Yesterday
Got Ireland
Greeker than the Greeks
Haiku Girl
Here Is Havana
Hogan’s Blog
Honestly Cali
How To Say Tacos In Spanish
I Backpack Canada
Iceland Eyes
India Untravelled
Indohoy
Iran Expat
Island Girl Traveller
IslandMomma
Israel Travel Ideas
It’s An Expat Life For Us
Jakarta News
Knee How Shanghai
La Tortuga Viajera
Living in Egypt
Living in Malaysia
Luxury Latin America Blog
Malaysia Food & Travel Blog
Markisapayne – My Saudi Arabia Blog
Mexico Retold
Monk Bought Lunch
Moroccan Nomad
Moscowed
My Spanish Adventure
Naija Expat Wife
Notes from Spain
Octopus Diaries
Oh, The Places We Will Go
On Life in St.Petersburg
Our Man in Abiko
Panama Daze
Pared Blanca
Piglet in Portugal
Planes, Trains & Autobahns
Polska Dotty
Quite Alone
Rakhee Ghelani
Rewired and Retired in Nicaragua
See Beautiful Places
Simbahan
Skeptic in Qatar
Solo Flighted
Someday I’ll Be There!
Southwest Compass
Story of My Life
Surviving Europe
Taraustralis
The English Gaucho
The Fourth Continent
The Girl in Seat 5A
The Great Adventurer
The Nomads Land
The South AfriKhan
The Turkish Life
The Unexpected Traveller
Tiffany Horan
Tracy’s Travels
Travel Experta
Travel Happy
Twisted Red Ladybug
Unearthing Asia
Worldwide Scott
Your Saucepans

German

Travel Blog Award Gold 5 Star

Bravebird – Home Is Where Your Bag Is – Off the path –  Planet Backpack – Sonne & Wolken – We travel the world – World meets girl

Travel Blog Award Silver 4 Star

5Reicherts
7meilenstiefel girl

Abenteuersüchtig
Abwesenheitsnotiz
Aktiv-Reise
An Irishman on Tour
Anders reisen
Andrés Reise Blögle
Anita Arneitz Reiseblog
Annewhere
Atterata
Ausreiser
Ausreißerin
Aussteigen bitte
Auszeitnomaden
Auszweit
Ayca und Silvan on the Road
Back-Packer.org
Backpacker’s Guide to the World
Bambooblog Hamburg
Be happy & travel
Beautiful Places
Bedouin writer
Bettendecker
black dots white spots
Boarding completed
Bruder Leichtfuß
BUNTERwegs
Chronic-Wanderlust
City Sea Country
Claudi um die Welt
Creativelena
daysandnightsworldwide
DeeperTravel
Die Traumteiler unterwegs
Edel Trips
Family Escapes
Family4travel
Ferndurst
Ferngeweht
Fernweh … ist unheilbar!
Fernweh Blog
Fernweh und so
Five Summer
Flügge
Follow the shadow
Follow Your Trolley
Fräulein Immerglück
Funkloch
Gen Süden
Get On Board!
Gipfelglück
Globusliebe
Good Morning Saigon
Gustofrenzy
Hallo Welt
He who walks alone
Hidden Gem
Hunde Reisen Mehr
Irgendwie woanders
Itchyfeetish
Jannislife
Jo Igele Reiseblog
Jumping the world
Kind am Tellerrand
Kleiner Elefant
Last Paradise
Le Gourmand
Lichtemomente- Reise & Fotografie
Life&Dive
Live Travel Enjoy
Live2travel
Luzia Pimpinella
Mad-traveling
Marcus Schoft
Mee(h)r erleben
mehr-berge.de
meikemeilen
Methoden zur Fernwehbewältigung
Mighty Traveliers
Moose around the world
Nach Holland
Nomad Earth
Nordic Family
Out and indoor
OUT OF OFFICE
Overlandtour
Patotra
Pixelschmitt
Ready for Departure
Reise-Junkie
Reise-Wahnsinn
Reiseblog by Elischeba Wilde
ReiseFreak
Reisekladde
Reisekraniche
Reisemeisterei
Reisen in Europa, Amerika
Reisen und Essen
Reiseratte
Reisetante Claudi
ReiseWorld
Robins world
Run, humans!
Saltinmyhair
Schienenreisen
Snippets of a Traveller
Sommertage
So viel zu sehen
Soschy on tour
Spinagel
Sven blogt
Swiss Nomads
Synke unterwegs
Takly on tour
Teilzeitreisender
The Backpacker
Tino on Tour
Train Journey Blog
Travel Sisi
Travelguide
Traveling Shapy
Travelisto – Reisen mit Kindern
Travelita
Travellerblog
Travelling the world
Travelpicture24
Travelpins
Travelschick
Travelstoryteller
TravelWorldOnline Traveller
Um die Welt Reise
Unterwegs & Daheim
unterwegz.com
Von Unterwegs
Welt kopfunter
Weltblicke | Jakob unterwegs
Wo der Pfeffer wächst
Wolfgangs Reiseblog
Wolkenweit
Zauberhaftes anderswo
Zug nach irgendwo

Top 100

TOP 100 GOLD travel blogs

Travel Blog Award Gold 5 Star

95 – 105 points

Travel Blog Award Gold 5 Star

87 – 94 points

WHY?

I know this looks like I am totally crazy and that I have too much time, but there are two reasonable reasons why I made this list:

1. There are so many awesome blogs out there but only few poeple recognize them because it needs such a long time to get your blog noticed. I wanted to give new blogs a better chance of being seen as well. You should check out a few travel blogs you have never heard of before; most of them are really amazing!

2. If you want to become a professional travel blogger, you start to realize that other travel bloggers in your niche are not just friends but also “competitors”. A competition check is very very helpful to understand why the top travel blogs are on top and others will probably never reach this level. This list gives everybody an opportunity to compare his or her blog with others of the same niche. I know, I know. Many professional travel bloggers say you should never look at other blogs and just concentrate on your own work. But we are all curious, right? And I can just repeat myself. Checking out other travel blogs will help you to improve yours!

WHO IS IN THE LIST?

For me a travel blog definitively needs personality; a writer readers can identify with. And of course its main focus should be on travel relevant topics.  The language of the blog must be English or German. As we are a trio from Germany I also analyzed some travel blogs from our home country.

WHO IS NOT IN THE LIST?

No commercial websites, community sites, magazines or forums. So, in comparison to some other great travel blog lists e.g.  Top 2300 you won’t find hostelworld.com, workaway.info or travelandleisure.com etc. in this list. (Sorry, even if they have a blog, it is not what I call a personal travel blog).
I also had to kick out every travel blog that has MORE than 3 authors who post on the blog ON A REGULAR BASIS. That’s why a lot of excellent travel blogs are missing in this list. It’s a shame, I know, but it just wouldn’t be fair to compare them with a “normal” personal travel blog as they have much more man power.

HOW DID WE COMPARE THE BLOGS?

As mentioned before, this is an absolute subjective list. If you want to compare travel bloggers by their success, there is just one way to do it: You need to compare the blog’s number of unique visitors or page views. There is only one list I know of which compares exactly these figures. You find it on the blog of The Expeditioner: Top 50.
Every other rating system which compares the numbers of facebook fans, twitter followers or even the Alexa rank, is just bullshit and not reliable.

The categories

We analyzed every travel blog in 7 different categories. You could reach a maximum number of points for each category:

Design (max 15 points)
The first impression is very important. We looked for a trendsetting design which fits the travel blog’s niche. Also if there is some kind of Corporate Identity e.g. the logo, the colors etc. But also if pop-ups (which were most of the time really annoying), e-books etc. are integrated well in the blog’s layout.
Content (max 20 points)
Most important for a good travel blog is, of course, the content. We checked the quality AND quantitiy of pages AND posts. I read at least one featured and one recent post of every travel blog.
Usability / Speed / Visibility (max 15 points)
Readers want to find the information they are looking for in no time. We checked for example the blog’s menu, but also how fast the pages and posts load, and how the blog is displayed on mobile devices and on a different browsers e.g. safari, firefox or mozilla.
Photos / Videos (max 15 points)
Travel blogs should inspire with great stories AND some great pictures/videos. You can, of course, reach the max points without having both, pictures and videos. IMPORTANT: For a photo blog or a vlog the pictures/videos have another evaluation.
Activity (max 20 points)
This is so important for a good blog and I am sure every blogger agrees. A great travel blog needs to publish a new post 2-4 times a week.
Social Media Activity (max 10 points)
Social Media is getting more and more important. 5 posts, shares, tweets or pins per day are the minimum and a MUST nowadays.
Creativity (max 5 points)
While comparing the travel blogs we realized that they very often look the same and write about the same topics. This is absolutely fine! Nobody compares as many travel blogs as we did :). But some travel blogs really surprised us with great ideas and therefore we added this category.

The final rating

If you sum up all the max points, you should get exactly 100 points. All you have to do is to divide the total points by 20 and you’ll get your final result. Some examples:
81 points : 20 = 4,05 Final stars = 4
74 points : 20 = 3,7 Final stars = 3,5
64 points : 20 = 3,2 Final stars = 3

We are rounding up at ,3 / ,4 / ,8 / ,9 and rounding down at ,1 / ,2 / ,6 / ,7

IMPORTANT: Some travel blogs are so great in a certain category that from time to time we gave some EXTRA 5 points. It is not mandatory, but some blogs really blowed us away with their awesome stories or incredible photos etc.

Let me show you an example of how our system works. This is our actual list and the travel blog we are analyzing is our own, BoB around the world. The enumeration is alphabetical.

Example rating BoBaroundtheworld

Brief explanation:

Design:
+The blog’s concept with golf ball BoB is visible everywhere.
+Modern theme with a fullwidth layout which is “up to date”.
– The kind of childish design doesn’t please everyone.
Content:
+The last 40 posts are very informative and helpful,
– but not the first ones when we starteed blogging.
– We are no native English speakers which is quiet obvious and therefore our stories are just okay.
USV:
+ Sticky menu
+ Good mobile site
+ Looks good on almost every screen resolution and browser
– Speed is okay but not the best; just shared server, no CDN, homepage too large etc.
Photos/Videos:
+/- Good photos, okay videos but none is really super awesome
Activity:
+ Activity was better in the last 3 months but
– in total we only postet about 90 posts in 2 years. Not enough.
SM Activity:
+ Post on facebook, twitter, instagram und google+
– but just 6-10 times a day (in total)
Creativity:
+ Unique with BoB
+ How BoB is integrated everywhere in the blog
Special:
+ For creativity

If you have more questions about our rating system, please feel free to leave a comment.

I AM NOT IN THE LIST. WHAT CAN I DO?

I still have over 300 travel blogs on my to-do-list and you are probably one of them. Please leave me a comment and I will put your blog in the list asap.

MY RATING IS TOO LOW. YOU MADE A MISTAKE!

This can, of course, happen. I am just a human, not a machine :). Also some of you updated their blog in the last couple of weeks. (Nomadic Matt for example needed the latest design update of his travel blog to get 5 stars). The difference between for example 3,5 and 4, or 4 and 4,5 stars is very often just one or two points, so yes, it is definitely possible that you deserve a better award.

I would like to kindly ask you to double check your rating with our points system: How often do you post? What about the design? Do you have decent content in your posts or just many pictures? How fast does your blog load? How does it look on mobile devices? etc. etc. If you still think my rating is too low, please leave me a message and I am more than happy to check your blog again.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO MAKE THE LIST AND WILL YOU MAKE ONE FOR 2016?

It took me more than 3 months to set up this list. I worked on it almost every day for 2-3 hours. (And also BoB and Liane helped me a lot!) I wish I could do such a list again in 2016 but I don’t know if I can handle it again. There are just too many travel bogs out there and I just saw the tip of the iceberg. It was really time-consuming; however, I learned so much about travel blogging with this competition check. So, my clear answer to this question is….maybe 

I WANT TO BE BETTER!

If you agree (more or less) with our ranking of your travel blog and you want to improve it, you have several options. You can go to my “How to become a professional travel blogger” posts which are good for beginners and absolutely free. If you want to push your blog to the next level and you have some coins left, you can find many books, webinars, and blogging courses on the internet. Here are the best all-in-one packages:

Travel blog success
Blog Camp (GER)

FINAL THOUGHTS

I really hope I did not offend anyone out there with my list. It is my/our honest opinion and a 3-star blog is already awesome for family and friends but has so much more potential. As we only know just one travel blogger in person you can be sure that we never gave any travel blogger some kind of a “buddy bonus”.
If you don’t want to see your travel blog here in this list, please let me know (you can also write me an email) and I will delete it right away. However, you should really take the chance and compare your blog with others if you want to have a better blog and more success in your travel blogging career.
By the way: We will not show our detailed list to anyone and I am sorry, but we won’t send you the detailed analysis of your blog. We are working on a concept for an even more detailed analysis including helpful suggestions about how to pimp your blog. The new analysis will probably be available later this year for a reasonable price. Sign up for our newsletter so you won’t miss it.

As always, I am more than happy to answer your questions and I hope you will share this list. Like us on facebook,  twitter and youtube and leave me a comment for the following 3 questions:

a) Does this list make any sense at all?
b) Do you have any ideas how we can improve it?
c) Do you want another list in 2016?

Thank you so much for reading, keep on posting and safe travels!

Yours,
Lars

PS: Feel free to copy your blog award from our page and paste it into your sidebar etc. You don’t have to link it back, but we would highly appreciate it :).

About the Author
Liane, Lars, and BoB

Liane, Lars, and their unique travel companion, BoB, are the adventurous trio behind the hit travel blog, "BoB around the world." With over 2 years on the road, they've embraced diverse cultures, witnessed breathtaking landscapes, and shared their tales with the world. Their passion for travel and storytelling led them to join the staff of writers at TraveLover Planet, further amplifying their inspiring stories.

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