There are already several lists of travel blogs on the web that rank websites based on different criteria, but none used the one I was interested in: the number of unique visitors a site receives per month. I decided to created this top travel blogs list partly because I wanted to know how the travel blogosphere is doing in terms of traffic, and also because I wanted to play around with some meaningless statistics.
Most websites don’t share this kind of information and therefore I had to rely on traffic estimation services. The most popular traffic estimator is probably Alexa but I discarded that one as it is notoriously inaccurate. Instead I went for Google Ad Planner. It’s statistic are comprehensive and more accurate than Alexa, though they still have a pretty large error margin. Google Ad Planner combines information from a variety of sources including Google Toolbar data, Google Analytics data and other third-party market research.
Unfortunately, Google Ad Planner only keeps track of websites with a certain amount of visitors. Not all the travel blogs in this list have those traffic numbers and I had to resort to another tool. For these blogs I’ve used Compete to estimate the number of unique visitors. Compete uses data from ISPs, their own toolbar and other data sources to estimate traffic. It is limited to US visitors only and it isn’t as accurate as Google Ad Planner but it gives a descent indication nonetheless. For all but one blog the estimates of Compete were lower than of Ad Planner.
The 100 top travel blogs:
Based on real traffic stats that was available from several sites the estimates appeared to be a little bit too conservative. I therefore applied two different constants (one for Adplanner and one for Compete) to adjust for this somewhat.
Only independent travel blogs were considered for this list. Commercial blogs such as National Geographic’s Intelligent Travel and Lonely Planet’s Blog are therefore excluded. I’ve tried to rank as many travel blogs I could find and plan to update this list regularly. If you think a blog is missing just let me know; perhaps it has the traffic numbers to be included in the next update.
Linda Aksomitis says
Great list. I love checking out what other travel sites are doing and the areas they’re covering. It’s always fun to read different perspectives on the same places I’ve visited and hear about their experiences.
Nick - Goats On The Road says
Wow great post! Thank-you for putting this together! It really gives an aspiring travel blogger something to… well … aspire to. Some of these sites are pulling in great traffic and I know a lot of them that are on here and they are doing well for a reason! Would love to see a 2012 update of this list and would one day like to see Goats On The Road appear on it!
Cheers and Thanks Again.
Ken says
Great information given. I am newbie in travel blog so need time to learn from all the top ranking blogger.
Lash says
Hi Mike,
Great to find this list of travel blogs based on unique monthly visitors. Really cool to see how much traffic everyone is getting. Wonderful to know so many people are out there reading travel blogs!
I’d love to be considered for your next update. My current unique monthly visitors stands at >4300. And this is growing rapidly, due to finally learning how to apply SEO -keywords and meta to my posts and site in general. Sadly, I’ve gone 1 1/2 years without any of that on my site! Yikes. Better late than never, I guess. 🙁
Thanks for the new list.
cheers, Lash
Bohemian Trails says
Great list of really talented bloggers 🙂
Chad Claeyssen says
Nice post. Even if it’s not 100% accurate, as a new blogger, it’s still cool to see what kind of numbers the top travel blogs are getting. Thanks.
Deborah says
Hey so nice to take a peak at other peoples stats so be good to share ours in your next update 🙂 Thanks
Kenny and Karen says
Awesome list! I have been looking a great travel blog list and you have one.
Matt Gibson says
Hi There, I’d love to be included int he list in the future as well. I had around 3200 Uniques last month, which isn’t incredible, but might get me on the list.
lara dunston says
I have to agree with Adam above. These stats are way off for Grantourismo. We measure our stats using Google Analytics, and a few other different means and they all compare fairly well – at the moment, as we’re not posting as often, we’re getting between 10-12,000 unique visitors a month, but have had months with twice as many visitors (not page views). It obviously varies depending on how often we’re posting, as we’re full-time travel writers not full-time bloggers at the moment. But we had 3,000 visitors on just one day last week, so the stats above don’t make sense. Nice idea to do this though.
Tim says
TravelFreeFaster.com is a good one too for frequent flyer bonuses, hotel promotions and credit card promotions
Jennifer says
Nice list, it’s nice to see one that took some effort to compute/compile. I’d love to put The Vacation Gals on your radar; we’re doing pretty well. 🙂
Alex says
Nice list, but I feel like some of those aren’t really considered blogs… Also if the list included my blog ilikegoingplaces.com it would be a lot cooler!!
Taavi says
pretty nice list, good to compare 🙂
Hotels in Travel Blog says
Good list of travel blogs 🙂
Ken Kaminesky says
Nice list, I’m looking forward to spending some time browsing through the blogs I was not aware of. Hope you’ll consider mine in the next update to the list. Cheers.
Dina says
Wow, it’s really nice to see our travel blog is on the top 100 list! Thank you so much for creating this and for having our blog there 🙂
Jackie says
Thank you for doing this! It’s so motivating to see how much success other travel blogs have achieved. I’m looking forward to moving up in the pack!
ANthony says
Great selection of blogs on this list! Good to compare them.
Cam @ Traveling Canucks says
Hey – thanks for putting this together.
Some of these sites are pulling in some fantastic traffic, interesting to get a visual comparison.
Cheers!
Cam
Andi of My Beautiful Adventures says
Great list of people! Would love for you to consider mine, which I know has quite a high # of unique visitors. 🙂
Adam says
Hi there! My name is Adam and I run World Travel for Couples. According to my google analytics, I had about 9300 visits in February. Not sure where you are getting all your information, but I just wanted to throw my hat in the ring. Thanks!