Europe has dozens of wonderful, history-rich locations that deserve a traveler’s time, resources and attention, but some of them have a certain something to them that makes them stand out, either due to their cultural advantages, or their incredible entertainment venues.

1. Rome

Rome’s strong point is definitely the overwhelming resource of architectural wonders. Most of them let you grasp at the glory of a larger than life empire and browse through the world’s main artistic periods just by walking down the street or driving around, using a cheap car rental, a common service in Rome (although most Romans nowadays will prefer the scooter or motorcycle to walk about town, as Rome is incredibly crowded during tourim periods - which account for most part of the year). Right at the heart of the city you’ll find The Vatican, a state-in-state that will absorb you in a perpetual sense of wonder, making the hours pass by like seconds. The wonderous Roman buildings of ages past, the incredibly beautiful and rich landmarks of the Renaissance era the look and feel of Rome’s streets form a superb combination that no traveller is ever bound to forget.

2. London

Recently, London was labeled the most linguistically diverse city of the world. This aspect reflects in the cultural life, cuisine, offering a wide range of solutions for any kind of tourist, from the African sculpture buff to the vegan punk scene adorer. Alongside the boom offered by the density of cultures and styles, London has to offer some of the finest classic museums, cathedrals or theatres. Add to that the stylish cafes, lots of comfy pubs with so many varieties of beer, Hyde Park, where you always can listen to impromptu concerts or poetry readings and you’ll just know what’s expecting you after you land.

3. Paris

It’s the highlight of the best romance stories. And you could fall in love…at least with the sites of this sophisticated metropolis, home of some of the musts for a beauty seeker - Notre Dame de Paris, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Arc de Triomphe or the Moulin Rouge. It’s a great city to visit in any time of the year, as every season gives a certain nuance to Paris’s great architecture and rich cultural life.

4. Amsterdam

Here’s one for the beat hunter in you. If you want to have fun in any way imaginable, this is the place to be. Some of the best clubs in Europe are here, like Café Meander, The Zebra or Escape. Virtually all cultural trends and stages have their own little universe in Amsterdam. The city is vivid 24/7 and you’ll meet people that are living it in bohemian style every day in a surrounding shouting diversity and creativity.

5. Lisbon

The capital of Portugal, Lisbon holds some of the greatest achievements in gothic, baroque or manueline architecture. Not quite sure what that means? Imagine a huge empire, that conquered the seas for hundreds of years and think how that is put into architecture serving the royalty. It’s breathtaking, solemn and gives you a taste on how the rulers of the world lived. Afterwards, check out the the Lisbon Oceanarium, the second largest in the world.

Well guys, the title pretty much says it all, but let me give you a bit of depth and background story to the subject at hands. We’ve actually been cooking this new design for quite a while and to be frank, we’re more excited then ever about our soon-to-be major change in TravelGrove’s look and feel. Why? Well, Travelgrove’s our home and we’re hoping some of you guys will feel at home here (or at least feel like you’re staying in a 5-star guest house) and when you spend so much time in one place, you want to make your habitat as pretty as possible. In our “real life” homes we decorate, hang pictures on the wall and sprinkle the place with plants to cheer up the mood. In our virtual home, we have a much harder time, because the setting needs to be decorated pixel by pixel.

Obviously, we’re trying to remain as objective as possible at all times here at Travelgrove and while we think our current design and site structure does fulfill some of the standards you guys would be expecting for us, we couldn’t help but notice that we were not on-par with some of our competition in terms of how we look. One might wonder why we’d be so focused on getting a new design out, when we already have a decent one out and why we focus on “looks”, when the nucleus of the site should be its “smarts”: the ticket price search engine.

Well, there are a couple of reasons:

Usability - Right now we feel like the content on our site is a bit crowded and from a usability perspective it’s an overkill for any human surfer that lands on one of Travelgrove’s pages. The new design will be much more user-friendly and it will make the stay here more pleasant.

Navigation - I guess this could easily fall under usability as well, but we wanted to emphasize that we’re taking an extra length in getting the navigation right with the new design and letting people know exactly what’s what and where to find it. We’re going to try some mild color coding for this purpose and although we were a bit unsure as to whether or not this is the right method to use on Travelgrove, after seeing the first mockups from our designers, we think they nailed it (see pictures below).

Business - We’re a business and as such, we have to take care of the small details that make or break a deal. Our design is our “face” in a virtual meeting with both the users of the site and our advertisers or business partners. We wouldn’t feel comfortable going to all of these business meetings with a bad hair day each time

Here are a couple of teaser pictures you can check out (click them to enlarge the photo):

Since we still have some work to do on this new design and its implementation, we’d be more than happy to hear any suggestions as to how you’d like Travelgrove to look when the new version is finished. After all, it’s going to be your guest house too, so if you want us to hang a picture on the wall, we might just do it

San Diego’s bold statement of being “America’s finest city” might seem like an exaggeration at first, but to some extent it’s quite possibly the simple truth. The city actually got this nickname due to mostly two things: the incredible hospitality of its people (and anyone that ever set foot in that area will know that it’s not a simple urban myth) and its equally incredible climate. Now, I’m thinking, if you’re ever going to visit San Diego, be it for business or pleasure, you’ll be aiming to get a bit of both of its advantages.

On their end, the guys from San Diego Hotels might not be able to guarantee the sunny weather, but they can certainly guarantee comfort and hospitality and during this time of the year, they can also guarantee a hefty cut on hotel deals in the area, deals that you can check out on their site. With rates as low as $49 per night that have you staying at dreamy hotels which offer a complete array of amenities, these guys are literally the best in town.

Obviously, the deals they offer range from cheaper value hotels, such as the Vagabond Inn Hotel Circle, to more luxurious places like the Capri by the Sea, but whatever your needs and possibilities are, I’m pretty sure you’ll find something adequate in our partner’s deals list. Happy deal hunting!

Howdy, fellow travelers!

In the past few months, you might recall we organized several contests where you could win some cool gadgetry, but this time we’re ready to take things up a notch. During the months of April and May, we’re going to hold a “most active Travelgrove member” type of contest and offer a sleek iPod Nano reward to he or she that proves to be an energetic contributor to our community.

So here’s what you need to do:

Pretty much every helpful action you take in our community will grant you a higher chance of success. For example, if you:

- Answer questions in the forums, you get 1 point.
- Ask questions in the forum, you get 1 point.
- Write city reviews, you get 3 points.
- Add travel tips, you get 3 points.
- Add a travel gallery to your account, you get 1 point for 5 photos, 2 points for 10 photos, 3 points for 15 photos or more.
- Add a travel article, you get 10 points.
- Add a travel journal, you get 50 points for each journal (provided that the journal fulfills a minimum of 30 points, for example by having 3 articles, or 10 galleries).
- Complete your community profile, you get 5 points (if your profile is at least 70% complete).
- Invite others to the site, you get 5 points per member that signs up.

Obviously, as with all contests, we’d like to issue a fair-play challenge to you guys. Please don’t spam just for the sake of winning the prize, or copying content that other members have worked for. Watch out for the rankings in a bit, we’re working on getting them fixed and should be posting them shortly. May the best travel-enthusiast win!

For more details and a breakdown of how you can earn points, check out our main contest page.