If you search Google for "travel planning blog", you'll get about 35,300,000 results. 😛 To what degree do they actually focus on travel-planning? Well, I took a look through the first couple pages worth and my answer is "not much". Here's my run-down of the results, in no particular order:

  • http://travelblogger.com/ - Updated regularly, which is good. But, the posts are about travel, in general, not specifically about travel-planning. Additionally, readers aren't given the opportunity to comment on the posts, which means you can't ask questions and there isn't any "community" here.
  • http://travel-plan-idea.com/ - Updated regularly and readers may (and do) comment on posts. But, most of those posts are suggested itineraries for various destinations, not about how to plan a trip.
  • http://www.thetravelplanningblog.com/ - Not updated very regularly and the few posts that are there are simply general travel commentary.
  • http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/ - Updated fairly regularly and readers may (and do) comment on posts. But, the topics are very broad and seem to be more for entertainment than practicality.
  • http://romow.com/travel-blog/category/travel-planning/ - This one isn't bad. It's updated fairly regularly and readers can comment. The posts stay focused on travel tips.
  • http://lets-plan-our-holiday.com/ - A series of short, seasonal destination suggestions that don't appear to be very useful. It seems to have gone dormant for the past several months.
  • http://thegettheregirls.com/ - Looks nice, with lots of "stuff", but not much content.
  • http://studenttravel.about.com/ - Updated regularly. But the content is student-focused, and not necessarily about travel-planning.
  • http://pattyhodapp.com/ - Updated regularly and readers can comment. Although there are some good planning tips here, the topics are broad and/or focused on the author's travel experiences.
  • http://getyourguide.com/travelblog/ - Updated fairly regularly. The recent content is composed of lots of recommended itineraries for various destinations. Older content focuses on specific destinations or activities.
  • http://triphub.com/ - Updated sporadically, although readers can comment. The content is focused on group travel, not travel-planning.

Y'know, looking through these sites has been valuable for me, because it really helps crystallize in my mind what I want to accomplish with this blog. I want to teach people how to fish, so to speak. More literally, I want to help people learn how to use the web to plan their own trips. The above-reviewed blogs do one or more the following:

  • Present recommended itineraries for specific destinations.
  • Entertain with travel-related news.
  • Recount travel experiences at various destinations.
  • Post random travel tips.

OK, that's great, but how is anyone supposed to get better at self-planning a trip by reading/following any of these blogs? They don't teach you how to plan a trip. And I think that's really the missing piece - the subject that nobody ever really seems to cover with any authority or ability. I really would like to publish posts that empower regular people and give them the confidence to do their own travel-planning. Because the tools are out there, you just need to know where they are and how to leverage them.

So, consider this my mission statement: To teach people how to confidently do their own travel-planning using resources available on the web.

And, like I said before, I may not be the most qualified person to be doing this, but the best way to get better at something is to teach it.

So, anyone think I'm off-base? Any travel-planning blogs out there that I'm missing? Let me know in the comments.