Once you landed on Karan’s Guesthouse and after skimming through the blog’s posts, you’ll feel like an old history book had just opened its yellow pages and you’re about to find out all this fascinating legends that hide behind the foundation of a temple, the unsuspected bustle that brings about the hosting of an art gallery or simply interesting things an eager-to-know traveler should be aware of when setting his foot on the unique Indian district of Rajasthan.

To be more precise, when it comes to his articles, the blog’s author puts into practice this magic receipt that smites you right on the spot: he covers the interesting, useful information about a particular sight with a story aura. Not only will you be captivated by the post, but you’ll want more and more. And luckily, the blog comprises a big roster of destinations a traveler shouldn’t miss when in the district of Rajasthan with their corresponding tale. Absorbing, amusing or simple events from the every-day life in the Indian society find their particular place in Karan’s Guesthouse, as well as an album with beautiful pictures of Indian sights, published for you to satisfy your curiosity.

And provided you’re starved after all this reading, the blogger posted all this mouth-watering, traditional and personal receipts that you can turn into a home-cooked meal. Check out this yummy post for example.

After leaving Karan’s lively guesthouse, you’ll be perfectly in tune with the journeys presented in her articles. And I guess that’s the true goal of every travelling site, isn’t it?

When I start getting attached to a themed, niche blog (in my case the niche is usually traveling) I always like it when the authors bring out those small personal elements into play, making you feel part of their adventures. In this regard, travel writers have a very similar mission to that of actors who have to play their role to the best of their abilities, sucking you into the character and stirring up positive or negative emotions from their viewers.

It’s one of the reasons I love blogs that combine travel experiences with personal insights, a combination that lets you connect better with the person you’re reading about and it’s this same reason that got me hooked on www.bapworld.com, the work of Kat Calvin.

Kat develops her blog on both travel and personal subjects, often tying them into a single knot, which makes the author-reader bond a lot stronger and it’s this type of bond that can make each of her travel stories read so nicely. True, if you’re just looking for travel posts with dozens of exotic pictures and ongoing adventures around the World, bapworld might not be an exact match for what you’re looking for. But if you’re like me and enjoy reading about and knowing the people behind the blogs as well, then Kat’s bapworld is truly an interesting read.

I wouldn’t dare preach about how to become a great travel blogger, but it seems to me that most of the guys and gals that reached the stars in this field have an unquestionably unique identity and personal branding that helps them stand out of the crowd. Sure, great content, updated frequently and some community building effort might give you a boost, but without the unique element, there’s a chance people will forget about you quickly. I remember the first time I stumbled upon lifecruiser.com I immediately got that “hey, that’s new!” feeling and following the authoring Swedish couple throughout their posts definitely strengthened that feeling.

First off, let’s start with the fact that you don’t get as many Swedish travel blogs out there, written in English, so this is a novelty in itself and you’ll soon see why I’m considering this as one of lifecruiser’s unique strong points. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but if you follow an experienced travel blogger for long enough, there’s a chance some of his or her posts will seem mechanic, almost defeating the natural purpose of the theme he’s covering and that is, to me, a bit annoying since it’s sucking the adventure element out of whatever exotic trip they’re pulling.

Well with lifecruiser, not once have I had that feeling; I don’t know if it’s the genuinely passionate writing style of Mr. and Mrs. Lifecruiser, or their photo talent, but the important thing is that the feeling of uniqueness and passion is still there after over 3 years of travel writing and that’s no small feat. The few, sporadic non-native English errors in their writing also do the articles a lot of good, giving them a natural coating and distinguishing the couple from the rest of the Europe cruisin’ flock.

Last but not least, one of the first things that made me remember lifecruiser’s blog was its colorful design. The sunset theme of the blog seems so fitting to the theme of their articles, as they’re sailing away for yet another great adventure around the World.

Oh and check out their articles archive…if that’s not passion for travel writing, I don’t know what is.

Working in the travel world you meet, talk to and read about dozens of people sharing the same interest for adventure and, I’m pretty sure you’ve seen this happen to someone you know, in a lot of cases their adventuring dreams end up in shambles, overshadowed by daily life issues and budget problems. It’s no small feat leaving everything behind and going round the World and few have the courage to take on this challenge but Jill and Danny of ishouldlogoff.com seem to be the perfect example for the type.

Still, despite their statement of being “just an average 20 something couple looking to explore the World”, Jill and Danny are quite a distinctive spot on the traveling radar, as they’re not simple camera-wielding vacationers, but people that get involved in the communities they visit, helping out, teaching and learning at the same time.

The last e-mail Danny sent me was from his trip in Guatemala and after reading their last post, about visiting two volcanoes in 24 hours, I got this picturesque image of the type of adventure they must be experiencing down there, an imaged fed by the awesome pictures the couple took on location. Tell me Danny, if you guys are the average 20 something travelers, how come you’re a few yards away from a stream of hot lava in one of the pictures? That doesn’t seem like something the average traveler would have the guts to do.

In any case, I highly encourage you guys to follow Danny and Jill’s adventure, I’m sure they’ll end up on your must-read list pretty soon as they offer a unique traveler’s point of view and I’m positive they’ll have some surprises for us in their future exotic trips.

One of the things I loved ever since joining the Travelgrove team last year is that, despite the fact that we’re a service provider that’s caught in the responsibility chain of handling customers, advertisers and partners at the same time, the guys never forget about the human side of things. During this time I’ve had the opportunity to get in contact with a lot of top travel bloggers and one of them that I truly enjoyed talking to is one of the three pioneers of 3 Troopin’ Travelers: Suzanne Conlon, aka Lil’ Boozie.

Now, here’s the thing about 3 Troopin’ Travelers: they’ve bumped their numbers from the initial three girls doing traveling reviews, reports and how’tos to 5. It’s still an all-girls ensemble and you know what that means: each article is well researched, informative and neatly structured. Girl power!

Anyway, one of the things I really enjoyed in my read-throughs on their blog is their natural, down-to-Earth style that I think a lot of travelers can relate to and it’s most likely one of the reasons for their success so far.

One other thing that sort’of relates Troopin’ Travelers to Travelgrove is that their articles focus mainly on budget travel, although the balance is more towards the “how to plan a budget trip” area, whereas Travelgrove is giving the actual means to cut down travelling budgets. I’d say our sites are complementary in this.

Before I forget, make sure you check out last month’s American guide to speaking British, even if you’re not necessarily going to London anytime soon; you’ll still have a lot of fun reading it.