I’m a firm believer in supporting your friends, and, by extension, supporting your fellow bloggers. That’s why I decided to compile a list of some of my favourite unique travel bloggers.
After asking around for a little while, I came up with this list of travel bloggers who write about a specific kind of travel or one specific aspect of travelling around the world. I asked all of them to share what they write about on their blogs and why they chose to write about that particular thing.
Note: this list of unique travel bloggers is in no particular order.
So, here it is. If you were still looking for some unique travel blogs to follow in 2019, look no further. Because these are …
“On my blog, I talk about travel, but also about how I am able to travel long term and work remotely. I started as a freelance writer making $2.50 an article and now make over $100/hour (still mainly with writing). I also travel outside of the US for at least a third of the year; this year I’ll be abroad for the entire year!
On my blog I share different ways to make money remotely and tips for thriving in the digital nomad lifestyle. My goal is to show how possible it is to have a solid income and still travel all the time! It’s a lifestyle that it seems many people would be drawn to, if only they knew how to succeed at it.”
– Renee from Renee the Wanderess
“Rolling Along With Kids is all about sharing tips on travelling to Bali with kids. Our family regularly travels to Bali and we share our experiences both good and bad. We explore topics on the best places to stay and how to go about choosing the best accommodation for readers’ families. There is a huge range of resorts and villas in Bali, choosing is simply overwhelming at times!
We also share tips on the best things to do with kids, how to hire a driver with car seats, using a nanny to help out with kids and lots more! We aim to inspire families to travel with their kids and to often venture from their home country for the first time. Discovering the beautiful culture of Bali with their kids is a wonderful way to make memories.”
– Kate from Rolling Along With Kids
“Travel is awesome and, without a doubt, one of the greatest things you can do with your time and money. Living on plain noodles and water after your vacation because you’ve spent too much money is less fun.
The couple behind DeeGees Life go into great depth talking about how to manage your budget while traveling. You can find useful tips on how to set up your budget goals, how to track your expenses and what sort of changes to consider if you need to reduce your spending. Besides the easy to read cost tables with every travel story they share, the guys also publish detailed country budget reports. So far Southeast Asia only, but stay tuned for more!”
– Darja from DeeGees Life
“I launched ManTripping after doing SEO and Marketing consulting for a few “women’s travel” blogs about a decade ago. At the time, there was nothing dedicated to promoting men’s travel in a positive way. There’s more to a guys’ trip than “The Hangover”. As the blog grew, I was able to leave my corporate job running influencer programs for large retailers and have been doing ManTripping full time for the past five years. We even organised “Blogger Mancations” through #MenWhoBlog which are fam trips where the itinerary is specifically designed to suit men’s interests.
Some of my unique blogger adventures in 2018 included: judging a “Rocky Mountain Oyster Festival” in Nevada, off-road racing across Baja California, taco tours in Puerto Vallarta, cruising in Alaska and Hawaii, attending performance driving schools, and behind the scenes exploring on the WWII Battleship IOWA in Los Angeles.”
– James from ManTripping
“Scotland is a popular travel destination. That means there are lots of blog posts written about places to visit in the country. As a local, I found it frustrating that most of these articles only featured the well known attractions. I decided to start my own travel blog, not only dedicated solely to Scotland, but also offering a unique local perspective.
I try to avoid the popular tourist places and write about the hidden gems instead. My website offers ideas for tourists looking to get off the beaten track or inspiration for visitors who have been to Scotland before and want to see somewhere different on their next trip.
I have travelled around most of the country and only write about places I have personally visited so I can offer first hand advice.”
– Susanne from Adventures Around Scotland
“Did you know that Enid Blyton’s Famous Five Kirrin Castle is based on a real-life castle ruin, but it’s not actually on an island? Or that the real-life Green Gables is actually the house of the author’s cousins? As a librarian, and life-long bookworm, I love making real-world connections to and learning the history behind my favorite novels.
My travels often center around literary inspired destinations, which include historic author houses, places that inspired book settings, and places and statues created later that were inspired by books. I hope by sharing my travel experiences, book reviews, and other literary related thoughts through my niche blog I’ll inspire readers to look at books as more than just printed pages. I also hope to create a space for like-minded bookworms to find and discuss ideas that will help them share their love of books with friends and family.”
– Elizabeth from A Suitcase Full of Books
“I stumbled upon Nepal while backpacking through Asia as a travel blogger. I planned to spend two months there, but when it was time to go, I felt like the time had come too soon. I’m extremely lucky because I was introduced to a group of locals as soon as I arrived. They showed me secret spots and told me about the culture in a way I hadn’t read about online. I learned that there were over 125 different cultures and languages in the country. It was impossible to get bored. Each person I met was so unique.
On top of all of that, locals welcomed me into their homes like I was family. It was something I’d never experienced before, and when it came time to choose my next country to visit, Nepal reappeared on the top of my list. When it was time to choose somewhere to go after Nepal, I couldn’t think of a place I’d rather be.
One day, it sort of hit me that my blog was about Nepal. I never really had to choose a niche. I like to joke that it chose me. It was a place I was so passionate about, and I wanted other foreigners to have the same local experience I was having. There’s so much more than the tourist areas everyone flocks to, but there’s very little information online. That’s where I come in. I want to show people how to get off-the-beaten-path and how to experience pure Nepal.”
– Michelle from Full Time Explorer
“Fuelled by my inquisitive whims, I always believed travel was more than the top 10 tourist attractions bloggers and guidebooks boasted about. My undying sense of curiosity persuaded me to look at travel differently and I soon found myself immersed in a different type of travel — one that is neglected and rarely talked about on the blogosphere. I experienced locals opening their homes to me and teaching me about their cultural heritage through their own words. I saw the world around me through their eyes, so I began writing about it.
The locals soon became a pinnacle source of information for me. They knew the best locales to enjoy nature, where to indulge in local foods, and the best roads to lose track of time. On my trips, I often miss the glorified attractions, but I felt part of a culture, which is so often overlooked.
The more I learned, the more apparent feminism became in my travels. I wrote about inequalities I witnessed and experienced around the world. I tried to advocate for change and challenge current mindsets with my words. It’s been a journey, but that’s what Quirky Globetrotter strives to uncover.”
– Martha from Quirky Globetrotter
“The Ninja Gypsy is a travel safety blog that incorporates travel safety, martial arts, and my personal stories from abroad. The posts I write are not the standard cookie cutter travel safety posts. Instead of the “10 tips to stay safe” that you see frequently on travel blogs, I go in depth into the topic of safety and what one should do. Beyond that, the blog also has a community for women on Facebook called Safe Travel for Women with over 1100 members. Here women communicate with one another and trade ideas on how to stay safe anywhere in the world.”
– Chelsey from The Ninja Gypsy
“Throughout my World For a Girl blog, I write about destinations that I’ve been to with my young kids (about 25+ countries and counting) and highlight important or inspirational women from those places. I also write detailed posts about global women’s spaces such as The Vietnamese Women’s Museum in Hanoi and the incredibly powerful War and Women’s Human Rights Museum in Seoul. My overall goal is to encourage parents to travel with their daughters – I’m currently working on a mini e-book in this area.”
– Kirsty from World For A Girl
“Our goal is to circumnavigate the world on our sailboat. We started our adventure by boat shopping and outfitting. Now, we’ve made it over 30,000 nautical miles and to 29 countries/territories over four years. We still have a year and a half to go; crossing the Indian Ocean to South Africa and then up to the Caribbean.
Some of the best things about our travel style are that we get to visit remote locations that aren’t easily accessible otherwise. We experience slow travel, moving our entire home with us everywhere we go. The downsides are that we are self-contained; it’s very possible we will have to rely on ourselves for survival if something were to go wrong.”
– David and Amy from Out Chasing Stars
“A decade ago bicycle touring was almost unheard of, and now that has completely changed. Inspired by how cycle travels and hiking can change the way you learn about people, landscapes and your own limits, The Gone Goat attempts use bicycle touring and hiking to explore new places and remote regions of the world.
Stories like cycling from Vienna to Budapest and the highest motorable road in the world allowed me to meet interesting people who put their bicycles and forked out meagre savings to put together a decent bike and use it as a vehicle to travel the world cheaply. As more people discover the love of bicycling and hiking in their own country, it is a natural progression to want to explore other places on a two-wheeler or on foot.”
– Pashmina from The Gone Goat
“Kosovo Girl Travel is a blog that I, Lavdi, use to share my travel experiences which are mostly conditioned by my passport or the bilateral relations or lack thereof between Kosovo and the country I travel to. I started Kosovo Girl Travels in March 2017, initially to share more information about Kosovo online, as not much can be found nowadays. Travellers seem to avoid Kosovo, either because they don’t know its worth or because sometimes they are misled.
Many times, Western bloggers promote the idea that traveling is easy and all you have to do is to pack and go; however, this is, in fact, a privilege they enjoy and not the absolute. For a Kosovo citizen like me, it takes time and lots of research and money expenditures prior to being able to hop on that flight and see the world.”
– Lavdi from Kosovo Girl Travels
“Wandering Crystal is a double niche blog. One half is light-hearted and inspirational, concentrating on moving abroad — specifically to the United Kingdom. Although the content focuses on the UK, my experiences can help anyone moving anywhere in the world. I love discussing my time living abroad and encourage people to move abroad themselves because living in another part of the world is such a great experience.
The second half is more lurid and focuses on dark tourism. I love history — especially humanity’s morbid, grim and grisly side. Anytime I discover some dark history, I’m lured in and can’t absorb the details quickly enough. I’m always craving more and feel completely consumed by the terrible events that occurred throughout human history. There’s an entire community of people out there who share my love of the macabre and I want to fulfil their dark desires with my dark tourism posts.”
– Crystal from Wandering Crystal
Related: Why I want to move abroad
“My two favourite things in life are Scuba diving and writing! When I started my blog last year, I knew that I had to focus on diving, as that is my day time job. So many people nowadays learn to dive or even become professionals, so I figured a blog would be a great way to share some of my knowledge. I love it when people email me to tell me they enjoyed my blog, or ask me for recommendations for going professional.
There is a wealth of information for divers out there from the different worldwide organisations, but I think people like to read it from a more human perspective too. I love to write about specific diving destinations so people know what to expect when they arrive. I also enjoy writing “what to expect” type articles for different diving courses, so people can get themselves ready and organised!”
– Demi from Around The World With Her
Related: I went Scuba diving in Malta!
“I run the family travel blog Healthy Travel Mom.
Healthy Travel Mom is dedicated to sharing the best destinations and experiences for active, healthy families. This blog is unique because every story I write includes healthy tips to help people find great ways to enjoy even the most decadent of destinations. It is not your typical family travel blog!”
– Gwen from Healthy Travel Mom
“Earth’s Attractions is a 5 year old travel blog that focuses on comprehensive travel guides written by locals or people who’ve stayed in a city for a long period of time. The aim is to help those who want to visit a given city or country to get the best information so that they have a memorable trip. This information includes safety tips, things to do, what to expect, unusual attractions, and more. So, by having guides written by locals, our visitors get inside tips and tricks and useful recommendations.
The guides include famous attractions as well as off the beaten path things to do in that specific city/area, where to eat and stay, and useful travel tips for each city. The blog belongs to Loredana Pascal from Romania and often receives useful contributions of her mother. Earth’s Attractions also has numerous itineraries, stories, insiders’ travel tips, accommodation recommendations, and more.”
– Loredana from Earth’s Attractions
“One thing I have learned over the years is that ordinary travel is not my thing. Cultural travel is all about becoming part of the everyday life of the place in which I’m in. The reason I set up Layer Culture was I wanted to learn how to live outside my comfort zone and connect myself with a new culture.
Everything about my trip has to be carefully chosen. My destination for 2018 was Colombia and I have stayed with local families. I speak their language and learn the local customs. Unlike a backpacker who is closed to experiences of everyday life in a foreign place, I have found with cultural travel the challenges are different.”
– Daniel from Layer Culture
“I am an India based family travel blogger. I started my blog with the intention to inspire people to save money and travel the world with family and friends. On my blog, I share family holiday itineraries and offbeat things to do with family & friends in a holiday destination. I believe holidays don’t need to be expensive by staying at a luxury resort or hotel and spending a lot of money.
My travel blog Budget Family Trips encourages people to save enough money to travel the world as per their budget. If your pocket doesn’t allow you an international holiday, no matter. You can just go to a nearby city in your home country – that’s absolutely fine. Budget Family Trips gives family holiday ideas as going on holidays is the ultimate way to spend quality time with your parents, family, kids & friends. We are not born to just pay bills and die, so explore the best family holiday ideas at Budget Family Trips.”
– Riya from Budget Family Trips
“As a Dutch, born and raised, local I noticed that many foreign tourists do not explore The Netherlands beyond Amsterdam. Instead, they tend to just follow the crowds. And this is something that I decided needed to change. I’m not planning on changing names so that tourists are visiting a different place, such as making the Muiderslot into Amsterdam Castle just to attract tourists while it’s a completely different city.
What I am doing is helping foreigners to explore The Netherlands beyond the crowds. I do this through the stories on my travel blog about The Netherlands, as told by a local. As a local, I’m aware of the beauty that my country holds. And I’m happy to help other people explore The Netherlands beyond the crowds.”
– Manon from Visiting The Dutch Countryside
“The Wandermust family love traveling with their toddler to unusual places. In 2018 they completed a round the world trip with their daughter. 2019 is the year of their Middle East family travel as they explore the UAE (from the best luxury hotels in Dubai to some of the more cultural attractions in Abu Dhabi), the desert of Qatar to the mountains of Oman and more! If you want to know what luxury and adventure travel with a family in the Middle East is all about, then this is the blog you should be following in 2019!”
– Leona from Wandermust Family
“Hi! I’m Karen from Cruise Ship Karen. My site is part blog, part resource site about travel by cruise ship aimed at crew and cruisers. I’ve worked in cruise entertainment since 2005 and started my site because there is precious little independent, cruise-tailored info for crew and guests on what to do in port available onboard or online. I show cruising can be an enriching way to travel by sharing my first-hand knowledge and tips learned from adventures and tours in 101 countries so far.
Get insider info from my detailed Port Guides (the resource part), blog on interesting experiences and food, vlog port guides (just voted in Top 40 Cruise Channels), articles on what life is really like working on a ship, and my Published Pieces section showcasing some of my freelance work. My goal is to become the trusted place for port and #Shiplife info. Happy cruising!”
– Karen from Cruise Ship Karen
“Perhaps the thought of hitchhiking scares you, or you think hitchhikers don’t exist anymore… But there are a few corners of the web where hitchhikers blog about their adventures and share information. One of those corners is my blog, where I’ve been writing down my stories in English since 2014. Along with more generic travel articles, I write about hitchhiking all moving things, mostly as a woman alone. I’ve put up my thumb and gotten into the car with thousands of strangers in more than 50 countries. It’s what makes me happiest.
Yes, there’s the occasional troll and concerned parent, but no matter your niche, your blog will have people opposed to what you do. Mostly, I’ve received positive reactions from other hitchhikers, solo travelers, female travelers, and other curious souls. Engaging with my audience has been a mutually inspiring and encouraging endeavour.”
– Iris from Mind of a Hitchhiker
Related: Why solo travel can change your life
Along with accessible travel, I focus on dispelling myths and misconceptions about the different countries I visit. I do this by interviewing locals so that my readers have the opportunity to learn about a place from a local’s perspective. I also founded a non-profit organisation, The Global Dreamers Foundation, to sponsor passport application costs for first time travellers.”
– Kay from The Awkward Traveller
“Everything Zany is a dual citizen travel blog where East meets West with the aim to show the best of both worlds. The blog covers various travel styles and interest like cruises, luxury and sustainable travel, city and romantic breaks, photography tours, nature, cultural and gastronomy trip, backpacking, flashpacking and adventure travels.
Moreover, Everything Zany has also been featured in various big publications and media like Lonely Planet, Huffington Post, CNBC. It was also one of the finalists of the UK Blog Awards 2018 Travel and Photography categories.”
– Ryazan from Everything Zany
“What to look at travel from a unique perspective? Take a look at the Travel for Life Now blog. Sue Davies and Regina Ang hail from the United States and Singapore. They have visited more than 60 countries on 6 continents, including Antarctica. Through their travels and writing, they bring together eastern and western perspectives.
On their blog, you will see reflections on near and far away places with a humanistic worldview, scattered with little-known tidbits, out-of-the-way places, and historical background. Whether you want to read about penguins in Antarctica, the Buddhist and Hindu Temples in Indonesia, Lesbian and Gay travel in Cuba or Street Art around the world, Travel for Life Now will give you a new way of seeing our planet.”
– Sue from Travel For Life Now
“Although I was born and raised in Canada, I am of Caribbean decent. Because of this, I have a desire to spread the impact the Caribbean has on the world we know it today. I spend my time traveling to re-discover the Caribbean and how unique each island is. From travel guides, to Caribbean fashion, to travel stories, legends and folklore of the Caribbean: you will find it all on Never See Come Sea. Growing up in Canada, I have a great appreciation for my heritage and want to share the Caribbean’s legacy with the world.”
– Reanna from Never See Come Sea
“Viktoria started travelling in her Dirndl – the traditional Austrian dress – long before she started her travel and dive blog called Chronic Wanderlust. Over time the dress and her traditional hat became her signature look. It’s always the dark blue dress with the bright green apron that you’ll spot on her many photos abroad. Be it the Taj Mahal, Bali’s rice terraces, hidden spots in Mexico or back in good old Austria – in Hallstatt, Salzburg or the gorgeous countryside of Styria – her dress has seen it all.
She shared that one of the most challenging places to wear it was a recent trip to Ethiopia. There, she went to the world’s hottest place: Danakil Depression. ‘More than 40°C and no shades anywhere. But the photos and the experience were worth the sweat!'”
– Viktoria from Chronic Wanderlust
“My travel blog is dedicated to the type 1 diabetics of the world. We aim to inspire and motivate them to take on their dreams, regardless of whether that means travelling the world or undertaking a different personal challenge. Being type 1 diabetic myself, I know the challenges and difficulties it can bring to travelling.
I wanted to create a space where people with type 1 diabetes, and other chronic illnesses, could go and find advice and inspiration from someone who does this full time. Before I started my blog, I couldn’t find anyone else travelling the world with diabetes and talking about it. That’s why my partner and I thought it was time that changed and Dream Big, Travel Far was born!”
– Cazzy (and Bradley) from Dream Big, Travel Far
“My name is Nicola and I run the successful travel blog All about RosaLilla. Looking back to two years ago and I couldn’t even imagine the trek to the bathroom, let alone travelling the world.
You see, way back in 2001, as a student exploring Montauk, New York, I got bitten by a tick. I didn’t realise then the significance of that bite and how it would change my world. When I came home I became very ill and ended up in heart failure 9 months later. At that stage nobody could put two and two together with the bite and I was left bewildered by what had happened to me.
I gradually recovered from my heart failure but never felt the same. My energy levels were certainly affected and I was having very strange symptoms. Still I struggled on in my career as a medical scientist in a busy hospital laboratory completely unaware that I had Lyme disease.
Flash forward to 8 years ago and my jaw had become so badly deteriorated by the bacteria that I needed surgery to break and realign it. I woke up from that surgery a completely different person. However I could function before, now even simple tasks like going to the bathroom or brushing my teeth became a struggle. I became paralyzed and suffered intense pain daily. I could no longer do my dream job and the one I had studied so hard for.
My only real connection to the world at this time became social media and Instagram in particular. I always loved travel and, to keep myself sane during that extremely difficult time, I would browse the Instagram pages of travel bloggers making a mental bucket list for when I got better, not knowing if I ever would.
Refusing to be defeated by my Lyme disease, I researched and researched new treatments. I eventually found a treatment in Germany that had a good success rate. And in 2016, I travelled to Frankfurt to have stem cells. It was also the time that I decided to start my own blog.
Five months later my blog had grown and I was selected to be a participant of the Kerala Blog Express exploring India. The girl that had been completely bed-bound was now exploring India! I also managed to travel to many of those places that I had on my bucket list all those years ago. My blog grew out of a chronic illness and my message is simple. Never give up! I will continue to travel the world through the eyes of a child seeing things for the first time. I appreciate every single place I get to visit and I love sharing it with my readers. Many of them have chronic illness themselves and are simply looking for hope. It means the world to me that I have come full circle and that I am now considered an inspiration for travel related content.”
– Nicola from All About RosaLilla
There. These were some of my favourite unique travel bloggers of 2018, and I’m looking forward to the content these people come up with in 2019. (And you should be, too)
Do you know of any unique travel bloggers you would recommend? Let me know in a comment!
Thanks for reading!
-S
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