Do you want to trade links? If you're a travel blogger, leave your URL in a comment at the end of this post, but, unless you just want to say hello and talk travel (then I'd love to hear from you) but please don't email me your URL to link to as it may get lost. I've had a lot of links trickling in recently but unfortunately when I'm on deadline (as I am now) I have to ignore emails that aren't coming from editors (and sadly I also have to ignore my little blog a bit), so emails sometimes slip through the cracks. If you leave your URL here then I've got them all in one place and I'll check this from time to time and I'll upload them in one hit. I have no hard and fast rules. If you've got a travel blog that you write yourself, the content is original, it's good quality stuff, and I like it, then I'll link to you. If it's a commercial travel site, then that's different, you'd better email me. Because I'm a professional travel writer, my credibility is everything, so I don't automatically link to commercial sites. I need to use the site first, try your product and like it before I link to it or write about it. There are very good reasons you don't see me linking to Expedia or Asia Rooms for instance.

What makes a travel blog cool for you? And why? I'm often baffled by the winners of travel blog awards and why they're there. The results of a recent contest got me thinking about what makes a travel blog cool for me. Here goes:
1) Personal vision: the blog has to reveal an individual way of seeing the world that's the writer's own, expressed in a focused, compelling and unique way. It must communicate the thoughts, ideas, interests and passions of the author in a creative, well thought-out and highly personal way.
2) Sense of purpose: it must have motivation, direction, a reason to exist, and original stories to tell. It's got to exist for reasons other than to relieve boredom or generate income for the blogger. If it does that on the side, fine, but I'm not interested in blogs where that's the main goal.
3) It must be well-written: I want to read posts that are well-written, have shape, form and focus, and read well. I don't care if they're short or long. I don't go in for this 'optimum blog-post length' debate - they can be 100 words or 1000 words for all I care. Because if the narrative is structured, engaging and holds my attention it doesn't matter.
4) It must be written from experience: I want to read travel blogs written by bloggers who are travelling and experiencing what they're writing about, not simply regurgitating content they've read elsewhere, press releases they've been sent, or compiling posts from other blogs on the web. I want to read posts that provide a new insight into travelling the world, its places and people. I want to learn from what the blogger is learning from their travels.
5) It must 'connect' with its content: if the blogger is writing about other blogs, sites or media content, I want to see a connection. I'm not interested in reading about the same topic on ten different blogs. I want to read about it in a new and revealing way that makes me think about the subject differently or see it through the blogger's way of seeing the world.
6) It should be easy on the eye: if the blog is designed beautifully then that's a bonus, but at the very least I want something that's cool, clean-looking, and with inspiring images I can enjoy.
So what criteria do you use? Or is what makes a travel blog cool for you something that's not so easily definable?

As you can guess from the title, Travel Blogs: Hand-Picked Tales from the Road is a site featuring the best travel blogs produced by travellers and travel writers. There are regular featured blogs that enjoy the spotlight for a week, along with the Life of a Travel Writer series where professional travel writers are interviewed, the latest being this author. I've been asked by readers of this blog to write more about travel writing and research and share tips from the road, and I'll try to do that where I can. Aspiring writers should also check out Write to Travel, which offers writing advice, lists blogs and resources, runs an Interview with a Travel Writer series, and features a Travel Blog of the Week. This week one of my favorites, Pret a Voyager, is showcased. (Cool Travel Guide was featured back in December.) World Hum is another good resource for aspiring travel writers: read the recent interview with guidebook author Robert Reid. Rolf Pott's has a long-running travel writer profile series on Vagabonding, along with a fascinating series of podcasts, video and radio interviews.Then there's Gadling, which in February featured the post My First Stint at Guidebook Writing dispelling some of the myths surrounding the life of a travel writer. While I agree that our working lives aren't always as glam as people perceive them to be, as Catherine Bodry points out we can spend all day working in our pyjamas if we so desire! We could also sip a glass of wine (or two) while we work (hey, I'm looking out at the Mediterranean as I write, can you blame me?) or simply decide not to work at all if we choose (with no leave forms to fill out!). But the real beauty of being a travel writer is we get to just pack up and go, when, where and however we fancy, because that's what we do. Here's a toast to all the travel writers out there! I don't know about you, but I have a thing or two to celebrate.

So just what inspires you to travel? I must admit I was surprised by the results of my recent poll where I asked what motivated your travels. Almost half of you (46%) said 'your own trips and travel memories' inspired you to travel, while 23% said 'the very idea of travel' motivated you to move; 15% said travel photography books inspired you, while only 7% said your family and friends' travel tales motivated you to pack your bags. Surprisingly, nobody said movies about places, TV travel shows, travel literature, or guide books inspired you, yet 7% said travel blogs motivated them. I've been excited about two recent travel blog discoveries (thanks Anne!), including primitive culture, an ethnographer's take on Thailand, South Africa and other places, and placesihaveneverbeen, a beautiful design blog inspired by 'imaginary vacations to far off places'. Both have got me thinking about travel in different ways: how we can think about travel from an ethnographers perspective (or is that already how those addicted to travel think?); what travel inspires (rather than what inspires us to travel); and virtual travel. I'm going to sleep on it. Let's see where my dreams take me. Where do your dreams take you?

I seem to be more inspired to travel, and to think about travel, by the travel blogs I'm reading than by anything else these days. Anne at prêtàvoyager is a lover of maps like myself. On a recent post called You are Here she writes about a festival of mapping and a blog that collects maps among other things: "...maps that make you want to travel to a time and place that was well designed." The power of words to inspire! It struck me that in my quest to explore what inspires us to travel, I'd completely forgotten about maps. And yet maps are inspirational, aren't they? They're so much more than just a travel tool. I was surprised at how many intriguing blogs there are out there by people beguiled by maps, such as The Map Room, maphead and strange maps. As Anne suggests, the very design of a map inspires us to draw pictures of places we're yet to visit in our heads and evokes images of places we've been to in our memories. I recently spent a couple of hours with a map of Amsterdam for a guide I was working on. I was putting dots on the map to indicate points of interest and as I was doing so I was seeing the city's lovely leafy squares, cobblestone streets and tranquil canals in my mind. When I finished the task I felt as if I'd been to Amsterdam and that time spent with the map made me want to go again. As a child, during the five years we travelled around Australia in a caravan, I spent hours with my Jacaranda Junior World Atlas plotting out our journeys by torchlight from my top bunk. Maps inspired me to travel and to become a travel writer, yet I'd forgotten about the inspirational power of maps. Do maps inspire you to move?

For those of you inspired to travel by well-crafted words and alluring images, there are some truly inspirational travel blogs on the web worth checking out: The Lost Girls is a sassy blog by three New York gals who gave up their desirable jobs to see the world (read 20 Reasons We Took Off and you'll soon be writing a resignation letter! Unfortunately two of the girls recently stopped traveling but one is still on the road. And besides, there's still lots of great back-reading for you to do!); on Girl Solo in Arabia Carolyn McIntyre ruminates on the fascinating destinations she visits as she traces the footsteps of the great Arab traveller Ibn Battuta; part 'what's on' guide to Baltimore and part musings on travel and design, Prêt à Voyager will have you tossing a coin, heads=Baltimore or tails=the world; the fabulous Franki Durbin posts on style, design and travel on Life in a Venti Cup (her motto says it all: "Life is too short to think small. So live large. Live with style. Live with adventure. Live venti." Franki recently interviewed me on her blog.); Beijing Notebook collects the everyday observations of a German-born expat artist as she adjusts to life in the smoggy city (expect anything from a rundown on the all-knowing Beijing drivers to insider suggestions on how to spend your time); and the same blogger has a wonderful blog called Palazzo Pizzo about the charming Calabrian town of Pizzo where she and her Italian husband have bought a grand house they're renovating; you'll find everything from musings on Mediterranean ceramic titles to things to do in Pizzo - eating icecream and swordfish (not together) tops the list! Are there any great travel blogs out there that I've missed? And who can guess where I took this photo?