A few weeks ago, we created the FlipKey Travel Blog Challenge as a step towards opening up the travel blogosphere to the FlipKey community.

For a quick recap of the contest: we asked our readers to reach out to us with their favorite blogs of the travel industry. The winners would be highlighted in a future post (today!).

I’m happy to report that we received numerous superb entries into the contest. Thank you to everybody who took the time to write about your favorites!

Choosing the winners was difficult, but we have come up with four distinct blogs that did a great job of capturing their respective angles via frequent posts, eloquent writings, and great insights.

Consumer Advocacy

Elliott.org - Elliott.org is the blog of Christopher Elliott, a renowned travel writer and consumer enthusiast. Christopher has been published in just about every major media outlet that you can think of.

Why we love Elliott.org? His consumer advocacy beliefs fall in line with FlipKey, and he holds a clear understanding of the Internet. His frequent postings on hot button topics affecting consumers leads to interesting commentary - both from himself and his insightful users.

Creativity

nerdseyeview.com/blog - Pam runs nerdseyeview.com, authors travel writings, and blogs for the BlogHer network.

Why we love the Nerd’s Eye View blog? Pam’s blog captured our interest due to its more artful take on the travel industry. It’s easy to get absorbed in the inner workings of the market, but sometimes it is worth the time to read enjoyable stories about the places people go and the things they do while traveling. Pam gets bonus points for “Fish Wednesday”, her weekly post dedicated to the fine art of cooking and eating fish.

Wealth of Information

travel-babel.blogspot.com - travel-babel is the personal blog of Claire Walter. Claire is an author, writer, and general travel industry advocate.

Why we love travel-babel? The blog is a great assortment of travel-industry related topics. Beyond just interesting tidbits about travel, a read through Claire’s blog is a rich learning experience, covering everything from the recent change in many country names to the “seven wonders of Colorado”. Read her blog and I guarantee you will walk away with a new piece of knowledge.

Vacation Home Purchase Market

2ndhomeblog.net - This blog is run by Ellen, Tim, and Florence - a trio of long-time second home owners who are happy to share their vast knowledge of the industry on their blog. The blog is actually a sub-service of 2ndhome.net (a service promoting 2nd home purchases, listings, and realtors).

Why we love 2ndhomeblog? Their writings are about as good of an “insider” view of the 2nd home sales market as you are going to find online. They talk about hot locations and what you can get in varying areas for your money. Use them as a resource for purchasing your second home - then use FlipKey as a resource for renting it.

We welcome all four of our winners into our blogroll in the right-hand column.

Honorable Mentions

We received a number of other great blogs - many of which we will continue to read on a daily basis. Here is the list of honorable mentions - these are the blogs that met our guidelines of being travel-related, frequently updated, and full of original content:

• http://activerain.com/blogs/mountainliving
• http://blog.joshuaberman.net/
• http://idealvacationrentalsblog.blogspot.com/
• http://intelligenttravel.typepad.com/
• http://jaslivingspace.blogspot.com/
• http://ontheroadtravel.blogs.com/
• http://travel.booklocker.com/
• http://vacationhomeinsider.blogspot.com/
• http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/
• http://www.budgetglobetrotting.com/
• http://www.eyeflare.com/
• http://www.gadling.com/
• http://www.gobudgettravel.com/
• http://www.gridskipper.com/
• http://www.jaunted.com/
• http://www.maxablog.com/
• http://www.me-go.net/rtw/blog/
• http://www.skaneatelessuites.com/category/skaneateles-reviews-news/
• http://www.thelostglobe.com/
• http://www.transitionsabroad.com/blog/index.php
• http://www.travel-junkie.com/
• http://www.travelhappy.info/
• http://www.travelminx.com/
• http://www.travmonkey.com/
• http://www.ubertramp.com/
• http://www.vacationrental.org/aboutus.htm
• http://www.worldhum.com/weblog/

I am sure there are many more of you out there - if you know of any good travel-related blogs that didn’t make the list, please continue to submit them to blogcontest@flipkey.com.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 27th, 2007 at 11:05 am and is filed under Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.