All this year The HoliDaze has been paying tribute to the best new travel blogs of 2014 in a bi-monthly feature. Now, however, it has come to select one overall winner. And that is why I need your help.
Look through the following 35 blogs and vote for your favorite one. Make sure to choose wisely because you can only vote once.
Voting closes on January 4th at midnight UTC and the top five blogs with the most votes will be honored on January 5th. The prize for the top blog (besides free publicity and bragging rights, of course) is still TBD.
Additionally, if you know of any other kick-ass new travel blogs in 2014 that are not on this list then please leave a comment below.
To prevent multiple votes a Google ID is required. If you do not have a Google account you can vote via Facebook
My Tan Feet
Suitcase Stories
Helen In Wanderlust
Nomadic Texan
Bemused Backpacker
Uncovering PA
Calculated Traveller
This Way To Paradise
My Wanderlist
Tieland To Thailand
Travel? Yes Please!
Besudesu Abroad*
* Now called Travels In Translation
One World One Year
Travelling Apples
Nomad Is Beautiful
They Get Around
Art Weekenders
42nd Class
Contented Traveller
Baskets Life Travel
Global Mouse Travels
Inside Other Places
Go Chase The Sun
Backpackingman
Wanderarti
Girl Vs Globe
Nomad Girl
Adventurous Miriam
Elena’s Travelgram
The Passport Lifestyle
The Drinking Traveller
In A Faraway Land
The Crowded Planet
Hippie In Heels
Watch Me Wander
VOTING CLOSED!
And the winner is…
Girl Vs Globe
There are some amazing travel blogs listed here! It’s so hard to choose just one! 😛 x
It is, isn’t it? I’ve been reading these blogs all year and I still have no idea which one I like best…but I have narrowed it down to three.
Want to know my three favorites? My Wanderlist, Inside Other Places and Girl Vs Globe (in no particular order)
How do I vote? Just write my choice in here?
To vote you can use the Google form embedded at the bottom of the post. Or if you don’t have a Google account you can leave a comment here or cast your vote on the HoliDaze Facebook page — whichever you prefer.
Great selection Derek (although a fair few I recognise from being around in 2013 so do they still qualify as new?).
Derek, you’ve done a great job all year featuring new travel blogs with your reviews. Seeing how some of them take off so well is a real endorsement to how well these guys and gals are doing.
Keep up the good work everyone. It was tough for me to choose my winner I must say.
Yes, you bring up a good point. Obviously the blogs picked in January were not started in 2014 but rather the last half of 2013. However all the blogs from the latter part of this year were started in 2014.
I thought about selectively excluding those blogs that were started in 2013, but then I felt like that would be unfair. So I decided to do like Playboy does with their monthly playmates — take all the winners from each month and put them in the running against each other to select one overall winner for the year. I hope this was the right decision, although you do make a valid point, and one that I was already worried about.
The other thing that makes this tricky is what about new blogs started in October, November or December 2014? They are so new they could not possibly have enough content to win Best of 2014 but neither would they be eligible for Best of 2015. So what is the correct way to do this?
I have yet to email all the monthly winners to advise them of this Best Of The Year vote but I suppose I had better decide quickly — and before any more votes come in — whether to include or exclude those blogs with roots in 2013.
What do you think?
You raise a good point Derek. We’ve got to give the guys a chance 🙂 I guess September would be a good starting point to get into the next year’s list.
For me it just feels like some of these guys have been around for a long time – maybe just a reflection of how well they are doing. Some of us, like me, struggle to gradually build things up whilst some of the above are just so good they almost hit the ground running.
So that is what Playboy does is it? I guess I’ll never know. I think the wife might kill me if I ever brought that mag home :-0
Tricky choice, but I finally came to one. Good job there was a second choice too, but I still could have easily had a third, fourth, and fifth 🙂
Yeah, it was a tough decision. I could have picked a top five easily too. But at the end of the day since I have to hand-tally these votes I don’t want to have to spend hours counting them.
Of course as The Guy pointed out above, some of these blogs (particularly those who won the monthly award early on in the year) were actually started in late 2013. However in the grand scheme of things, especially compared to others who have been blogging for four, five or even six or more years, a blog that is a year or even a year and a half old is still pretty darn new. Usually no one is reading those first six months anyway…it takes time to develop a loyal audience.
Anyway, thanks for voting and double-thanks for sharing 😀
Every time 🙂
Completely agree, Graham’s blog is nothing short of AMAZING! Why more people are not reading it is a mystery to me
Aww I didn’t make the list 🙁 Great selection though! Pretty much following all of the above!
Hey Ashlea, this is the first I’ve ever heard of your blog. Over the course of this year I have made a few posts in various Google+ communities and Facebook groups asking people to submit any cool new blogs they find (or even their own blog, as is the case a significant percentage of the time). All of the blogs above have been monthly winners over the course of this year. However I plan on continuing the awards into 2015 as well, given the outpouring of support that the series has received.
Anyway, I’ve bookmarked your blog and added you to my list of blogs to keep an eye on 😉
No worries Derek, I’m not actually offended (my Australian sarcastic sense of humour doesn’t seem to come through over the internet). It seems like a great series though, I’ll definitely be keeping updated on it throughout 2015!
Lol it’s all good, I can totally relate. I’m a sarcastic lil SOB as well and all too often when attempting to convey it via text other people just don’t get it.
Vote for me! Vote for me! Hehehehe. Seriously though some great choices of travel bloggers here. Cheers for including me.
Over the course of this year I have literally been reading a couple hundred new travel blogs in my attempt to weed out the ones that show the most promise. You deserve the recognition and now that you are out from behind China’s Great Firewall we all expect a flood of new awesomeness is true Backpackingman fashion — so you had damn well better not disappoint us!
I’ve already said this on Facebook but thanks again for the nomination Derek!
You’ve put us up against some pretty popular new bloggers so we’re feeling rather under prepared after only relaunching again late this year but its always nice to be nominated for something. You’ve made my day 😀
If we’re ever in the same place at the same time we will have to buy you a beer!
Good luck everyone 🙂
Beer? I like beer! I will definitely take you up on that offer. I’ll be through the Indonesia – Malaysia – India – Sri Lanka area for the next six months just slow traveling around searching for adventures. Let me know if you make it around this way or any of the neighboring countries (hence the use of the word “area” earlier). Meantime keep up the good work and keep in touch on Twitter, I’m always there rambling away @the_HoliDaze 😉
Great list! I’ve followed many of these blogs for a while and had no idea that some of them were this new. The success of these blogs in such a short period of time really is a testament to the writers.
Yeah, apparently travel blogging has become the hip thing to do. You should see the amount of nominations I receive — not to mention how many other new travel bloggers I randomly stumble upon on Twitter or other SM. The hard part now is not finding them….its finding the time to read them.