The Best Wanderer Communities

People who want to get out of Dodge but still keep in touch with friends and family while they're on the go can benefit from the following sites. Here are a few of the best general-purpose traveler sites on the Net. Some provide a free hosting solution for bloggers on the go.

TravelBlog

http://www.travelblog.org/

A massive travel site where hundreds of trekkers keep the world informed of their progress. Free blog service includes a travel map showing the countries you've visited. When you update your blog, a mass mailing automatically is sent to everyone in your contact list, enabling everyone to keep tabs on your progress without filling up their inboxes with photos.

BootsnAll Travel Network

http://www.bootsnall.com/

Started by two travelers in Chicago in 1998, BootsnAll has become a massive community of independent travelers who stay with and keep tabs on everyone in the network. Read suggestions for traveling in specific areas of the world by world-weary travelers and post to the forum, where trekkers check in from around the world. Registration and approval are required. Includes a powerful round-the-world (RTW) airline ticket system for building multihop reservations.

Andy hobotraveler

http://www.hobotraveler.com/blogger.html

This blog deserves special consideration. Most journeys end, and the blog that chronicled it begins to gather dust. Not Andy's blog (see Figure 10.1). He's been traveling and blogging for eight years and continues to live the life of a worldwide hobo. This incredible site teaches you more about exotic places than any other.

Exhibit 10.1. Andy, the hobo traveler, is the real deal: a world traveler who somehow keeps his site going after all these years.

TravelPod

http://www.travelpod.com/

Billing itself as the first travelogue site on the Net (started in 1997), TravelPod provides a blog hosting solution for world students. TravelPod includes an active forum, free email, free blogs, and image upload. A slightly strange layout for the travelogues muddles the experience, unfortunately.

TrekEarth

http://www.trekearth.com/

More than 190,000 images are on this photo blog site. Click the map to see photos from that continent. A great way to keep friends and family up-to-date on your journey, or to show off your photographic skills while on the road.

Globe of Blogs

http://www.globeofblogs.com/?x=location

Find blogs worldwide using this simple directory. Choose a continent and drill down to blogs by country. Globe is a timely resource that strives to keep dead links off the site, but you may have to visit several before you find a "live" one (blogs that have been recently updated).