Travel Bloggers Best Dozen

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I’ve never been one of the popular kids. I was always picked last at kickball (worst memories from elementary school) and I always had a seat at the nerd kid table in high school (math-letes forever)! In a way this was good because it led to me becoming strongly independent and eventually, self-confidence and solo travel around the world.

Maybe I’m just in a bad mood and need some self-validation. I did just have the day from hell at work! You know those days when your boss assigns you a million conflicting, meaningless tasks to redo and then basically implies shit will hit the fan if you don’t have it on his desk by 4? Yeah it was one of those days. Dance, corporate monkey, dance!

A few blogs have been participating in a little project called the Travel Bloggers Best Dozen started by Lash World Tour based off of Tripbase’s 7 Links project last year which I saw on Adventurous Kate’s blog ages ago. Since no one has tagged me (yet), as usually my impatient self says why wait around? I’ll just tag myself and write up about my best blog posts in case you might have missed them when I initially published them. Or perhaps you tagged me and forgot to tweet me, tsk tsk.

Doing this is self-serving in two ways: firstly, I am depressed as hell from being verbally abused for 9 hours today and I’m already down half a bottle of red wine which means I’m not in any fit state to be writing a serious post and lastly because picking out what I consider to be some of my best posts and sharing them with you all is a total morale booster.

So forgive my narcissistic rant and sorry to disappoint if you were expecting a drunken adventure post (someday soon, I promise) and check out my best 12 travel blog posts.

Are you a blogger? What are some of your best posts?

1. Most Popular Post

10 Best Hate Comments I’ve Gotten on My Blog

Something all bloggers have to to deal and few publicly acknowledge, the mean, spiteful, crazypants and downright hateful comments that no matter how hard you try, you can’t make everyone happy. In an effort to shrug the negativity off my shoulders, I collected the best of the best of hate comments I’ve gotten over the years and shared them with you all along with my own sarcastic replies. I had absolutely no idea how people were going to react, but it turns out, everyone loved it!

2.  Most Helpful Post:

Budget Breakdown for 30+ Cities in Spain

This is actually a page not a post, which means I don’t know how to enable comments on it (help, anyone?!) and I spent over a month collecting data from everyone I knew in Spain and then some. My goal was to be able to give a cost guide for as many cities as possible in Spain to help you budget and plan your trip, vacation or move to Spain. All in all, I think it turned out pretty well. If you want to come to Spain, check out this page.

3. Surprisingly Successful Post

How to Swear like a Spaniard

Let’s be honest, what’s the first thing you want to learn when you start studying a language? The slang, the dirty words and how to say inappropriate things, or is that just me? I guess not because this post got me a lot of feedback when it first went live, I had no idea how interested people were in the dirty side of Spanish. Let me show you how to really fit in in Spain.

4. Most Controversial Post

Top 5 Reasons Why I Hate the Auxiliar Program

Before I even wrote this post, I knew people we’re going to go bananas. The Auxiliar program is a government sponsored program in Spain that brings in thousands of Americans to teach English around the country every year. Since I was an auxiliar for 2 years, I good chunk of my audience are past, present and future teachers of inglés, and I get so many questions about the program (which I am not a fan of) I finally just say down and laid it all out there. Live for less than 2 months, I’ve already gotten almost 150 comments (scroll through some of them, they are hilarious!) and more than enough feedback to last me a lifetime. Ultimately I think I did everyone a favor by pointing out the downsides, not to discourage people from coming to Spain, but to be prepared!

5. Most Underrated Post

Hot Air Balloons and Ancient Tombs

My favorite, favorite, favorite activity in Egypt was taking a hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings at dawn, I worked my ass off on this post, which I think nobody read. So go check out how my dreams came true in the misty skies above Luxor and show some love.

6. Most Amusing Post

Topless in San Sebastián

We all have embarrassing moments while traveling, am I right or am I right? One of mine was losing my bikini top in beautiful San Sebastián, Spain. You’ll have to read the full story to find out what happened.

7. Post I’m Most Proud of

The Long Farewell: Hasta Luego, Spain!

This was the hardest post I’ve ever written, my heart-wrenching goodbye from Spain. Sob. I still can’t talk about it, the breakup’s too fresh.

8.  Best Travel Story or Travel Perspective Post

Almost Dying in Dublin

This is another post I am proud of, the beginnings of my series of posts about traveling with a food allergy. Deathly allergic to peanuts, I almost croaked on the floor of a diner bathroom in Dublin. Not one of my finer moments.

9. Best Travel Adventure Post

Slovenia: Go Jump off a Bridge

This was a hard one to pick because I go on so many adventures, but spontaneously jumping off a 40 foot bridge in the middle of nowhere, Slovenia, was definitely high on my list of fun adventures.

Disclaimer: that guy in the photo is not me, I am a girl. Blonde.

10. Best Cultural Perspectives or Insights Post

The Importance of Being a Traveler: 5 Lessons I’ve Learned

I think it’s really important to reflect back on your travels and what you learn. This was a challenging post to write but ultimately an important one and very, very personal for me. This is something all travelers go through and something I wish more people would acknowledge  The lessons you learn while traveling and your personal growth are immensely rewarding, at least for me.

11. Most Beautiful Post

Get Inspired: Travel and Learning Langauges

This post was originally entered in a contest, which meant I spent three times as long on it as usual. Channeling my inner poet and storyteller, I worked really hard to express my beliefs that the best part of learning languages is the travel experiences you get.

12. Best Photo Post

5 Most Beautiful Places…So Far

I have been to a lot of beautiful places and ended up with some beautiful photographs, mostly by accident. I bunched the best of the best here in this post, just looking at it now makes me want to book a flight abroad asap!

Bloggers I nominate to take part:

Lauren Spanish Sabores

Flora from Flora the Explorer

Will Peach from The Gonzo Traveler

Alex from Ifs and Butts

Nicole from La Mia Vita

If you’d like to have your own travel blog, maybe my post on 10 Tips for Starting a Kickass Travel Blog will help get you started!