Five Travel Blogs You Should Read

As we enter the busiest travel time of the year many find themselves seeking more travel information. The sheer number of travel sites online can be overwhelming, ranging from niche topics … such as Flying With Fish … to broad and almost disorganized content from a site I won’t mention by name … but through all the content some blogs seem to rise above others.

Sure you can read blogs by flight attendants, blogs about airlines, blogs about hotels, blogs about frequent flyer miles … even blogs about airport parking garages … but what most seeking travel blogs want is a little bit of everything.

So … in no particular order … here are five top travel blogs I read on a consistent basis. These blogs are excellently written, diverse, intelligent and most of all, will keep you interested and coming back for more.

1) Elliott.org – Christopher Elliott covers travel as both a journalist and a consumer advocate, his content is broad, frequently posting stories on helping travelers who encounter a few bumps along the way. Chris presently serves as National Geographic Traveler’s Ombudsman, writes regular columns for The Washington Post and MSNBC and is syndicated by the Tribune Media Service.    You won’t be disappointed by bookmarking Elliott.org

2) Jaunted.com – For those who know me, you’re probably shocked that I’d list anything that has “Pop Culture” in its title … but Jaunted’s diverse content, created by a multitude of talented writers, is a daily must read (well some days its a ‘must glance’) for me.  There isn’t a travel topic that doesn’t seem to come up in its content. Jaunted plays the fine line between serious and irreverent in a masterful way. Jaunted.com can frequently be found in the last few websites browsed on my iPhone (guys…can you just make an App please?)

3) Gadling.com – Gadling, brought to you by the same folks behind Engadget, covers a broad range of travel, at times bordering on what I would call the ‘mainstream quirky.’  The content on Gadling is contributed by some top notch travel writers, including one of my favorite flight attendant blogs, and will keep you coming back for more.

4) JohnnyJet.com – If I had any idea how to describe JohnnyJet I’d probably write this better … but I don’t. Maybe because I’ve had the pleasure of a brief travel experience with Johnny overseas, or because his blog is really hard to fit into a box. Sure his website looks a bit cluttered and he has sort of a James Bond thing going for him (despite being a Connecticut native living in Los Angeles) … but what he writes on his blog is interesting, informative … and despite the fact that he writes about cruises at times (I’m not a cruise fan) and his blog content is more sporadic than I’d like (hey Johnny, that’s a subtle hint) … I always find myself back at his blog hanging on his every word.

5) BoardingArea.com – OK, BoardingArea might be a bit self-serving since Flying With Fish is hosted on BoardingArea, but the depth of content found on the collective of blogs at BoardingArea is fantastic.  None of us on BoardingArea write a blog for a living, we all do it because we love what we do.  On boarding area you can find great hotel information, airline information, someone complaining about frequent flyer miles … or even a story about someone getting proposed to with a FlyerTalk twist.  Bookmark BoardingArea, you won’t be sorry.

As for me … I’m off to go see what is posted on  Jaunted as its top stories for today.

Happy Flying!