The World’s Top Travel Blogs 2018

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This list ranks the world’s top travel blogs on the basis of algorithmic authority. It attempts to measure the authority of the website based on several popular SEO metrics.

As with all such lists, this is imperfect and only represents one way to look at the authority of a blog. Scroll down below the list to get a complete explanation of the metrics used, along with their strengths and weaknesses.

If you have a blog and would like it listed, please leave a comment with the URL of your travel blog.

If you don’t have a travel blog yet, read this guide for how to start a travel blog.

Color Coding: 1-10 | 11-25 | 26-50 | 51-100 | 101-250 | 251-500 | 500+

Overview of the Ranking Methodology

Figuring out the “top” travel blogs is an inherently flawed process. 20 people can look at it 20 different ways. I do not claim that this list is the be all and end all when it comes to this subject.

This list attempts to be an objective look at website algorithmic authority. To do this, I take three publically available metrics which are all on a 100 point scale and take the average of the three to determine a site’s rank on the list. There is no subjectivity in the data or the results.

Why Authority? Other lists use traffic to rank sites. There is nothing wrong with that, but there are lots of ways to get traffic. Just publishing a lot of low-quality posts can build up overall traffic. Likewise, you could have an online forum which could inflate number, or you could just get a post that goes viral. Also, the only way to truly know traffic is to have voluntary participation with every single person on the list. Authority doesn’t tend to jump around a lot. Traffic can go up and down, but these metrics only have small fluctuations and take time to raise or lower.

Why These Three Metrics? To create a list like this, I needed metrics which were publically available and used a similar scale. I felt that these three metrics while having some overlap, were all different yet measured important aspects of website authority. Also, I am aware of the weaknesses of all the metrics, but they are weak in different ways, and I think they mostly cancel each other out when taken together.

Why Trust Flow? Trust Flow is a metric from Majestic.com. It is probably the least well known of the three metrics I use, but it is also the most enlightening. It is a measure of the quality of links to a website. You will notice that the majority of websites only have a Trust Flow number in the teens or twenties, even though they have a Domain Authority much higher. This is because they don’t have many links beyond the blogosphere. A high Trust Flow number represents links from mainstream media outlets and other large websites, which is exactly the sort of authority which this list is trying to capture. (Note: I am using DOMAIN Trust Flow, not URL Trust Flow. They are different numbers.)

Why Domain Authority? Moz’s Domain Authority has become a staple metric for the industry, so using it made sense. It is on a 100 point scale like the other metrics. Sites which have been around longer, with more links tend to score higher. While it is possible to game it, you can only game it so far as it is on a logarithmic scale. It captures both link quantity and quality.

Why Domain Rating? The third metric is Domain Rating from ahrefs.com. Like the other metrics, they use their proprietary database of links and website to calculate an overall profile for each domain based on the quantity and quality of backlinks.

Why isn’t my site listed? Ask. Just leave a comment below and if it meets the rules I will add it.

Rules

  1. Your site must have travel as its main focus. If you primarily write about food, fashion, or something else, with a small travel section, it will not be listed.
  2. Your site must be hosted under its own domain. For example, Blogspot, Blogger, or WordPress.com sites can’t be listed.
  3. Sites must be owned by the content creator(s). Corporate own sites are not included.

What are the weaknesses of this list? Each of the individual metrics has weaknesses which are well known. This list also only captures algorithmic authority of the website and no other real-world authority. If you appear on TV, have a popular YouTube channel, podcast or Instagram account, that will not be reflected on this list.

Does the list have a bias? Yes. It tends to be biased towards sites which have been around a while. I have no problem with this bias as time and experience are important parts of what constitutes authority. The longer you’ve been around, the more likely to get high-quality links and build a social media following. I have recently added domain age to the list. This is taken from the date the domain was first registered. For non .com domains for which this information isn’t available, I took the first day it appeared in Internet Wayback Machine at archive.org. In the rare event, it is a brand new site which isn’t listed in the Internet Wayback Machine AND it isn’t a .com domain, I set 30-days before it was added to the list as the creation date.

What are the strengths of this list? It is hard to game all three of these metrics. The sites near the top of the list have been around for the better part of a decade. I don’t see how someone could jump into the top 10 after blogging for a year unless they were a celebrity when they started. The youngest sites near the top of the list have been around for at least 5-years.

How often will this list be updated? Periodically. A least once a quarter, but possibly more. All three of these companies have gotten better at updating their database and their metrics. That being said, you usually don’t see large swings in any of these numbers, so there is little need to constantly be updating.

What is SATW/BGTW? A checkbox indicates that the blogger is a member of SATW or the British Guild of Travel Writers.

333 Replies to “The World’s Top Travel Blogs 2018”

  19. Hey Gary! You explained the methodology used for this list (Trust flow, DA, Domain Rating, Domain age…), and that’s very clear. But you didn’t explain how you measured/found/calculated the SEO score?

    Reply

  28. Hi! We are a tour and activities directory website, but we recently launch our blog to help traveller to know more about destinations, experiences and interesting in regards to travelling. It would be nice to be listed here.

    Thanks a lot.

    Reply

  32. Great list with useful details about fellow bloggers and their blogs. Certainly keeps newbies like me motivated to keep up the, hopefully, good work.

    It would be awesome if my travel blog Iva Says https://www.ivasays.com/ is featured in the list in the future. I’d be really happy to see it here.

    All the best,
    Iva

    Reply

  40. Hi Gary. Very interesting! I am a very new blog and haven’t done a lot to promote our site yet. Still learning a lot as we go along. Since we are very new, its up to you whether you include us or not. Thanks for the work you are doing! George

    Reply

  54. Hi there,

    I was just reading your site – what a useful article, thanks. Great to see so many good travel sites too. I wondered if it would be possible to include us in your list please? If of course you think we’re an appropriate fit.
    Best wishes,
    Chrystal

    Reply

  64. Hi Gary,
    I am Kyle from MyFamilyTravels.com a.k.a FamilyTravelForum.com. Thanks so much for including us! Very exciting to be among such notable company and if you know ways to improve the metrics you list (like SEO score) then I would gladly heed your advice.
    Also, only comment — while I would never take on JohnnyJet directly — in terms of longevity, we launched our first website (pre-blogs) in December of 1996 so that makes us a bit older than his and the other blogs mentioned here.
    Again, many thanks for including us and safe travels!

    Reply

  71. Hi Gary, could I get my two travel blogs added into your list?

    livingthedreamrtw.com
    discovertheburgh.com

    Would be interested in seeing how our two sites line up considering their traffic / metrics are quite different. (Discover the Burgh is 7 years newer, significantly smaller DA, but receives significantly higher organic traffic).

    Reply

  82. I thought I had done this already but I guess not after scrolling through all the names. jetsetandforget.com please. Thank you for the add! What an interesting list.

    Reply

  83. Hi Gary, I’d love to be looked at. Whiskynsunshine.com. We’re a travel and lifestyle site. Our DA and PA were much higher before we rebranded from MerlotMommy.com in February but we’re getting back up there. Thanks for your consideration. It was great chatting with you at TBEX last year.

    Reply

  115. Evening Gary I have been following your new MOZ discovery in the group when I came across this link request from Lesli. Were do you find the time to collect all this data. Ooofta. Thanks for all the hardwork, and would love to submit my travel blog ~ aowanders.com ~ PA20/DA17/Klout10 ~I just started so its not to compete, but set a benchmark to see where I end up this time next year against all you wonderful peers. Happy travel y’all. Looking forward to reading all your stuff.

    Reply

  124. Hi Gary,

    Local traveler and explorer based here in Jamaica. I think it would be a great previlige to be added to your list. DR 36. Site jamaicahotelreview.com

    Reply

  135. Hi Gary. Since it seems to be ok to ask for consideration, I will as well.
    IrelandFamilyVacations.com

    Majestic Trust Flow- 35
    Klout – 62
    MozDA – 33

    Total- 130

    Thanks for considering!

    Reply

  147. Hi Gary – Would love to have you include my blog in your list. Traveling with Sweeney has been around since 2010 and I have to admit I was disappointed that I wasn’t on your radar. My rankings have actually been quite a bit higher, but are still respectable and I’m working to get those back up. Thanks very much!

    DA = 39
    Klout = 60
    Trust Flow = 24

    Reply

  148. Hi Gary,
    When do you find the time to do these statistics?
    Anyway, it sounds like a good way to put some order in all these rankings that everybody chases. Next time you work on the list please add my blog too hiclassmag.com.

    Meanwhile keep on tweeting. You have great images

    Reply

  149. I just came across this listing — very unique algorithm (although I’m not a fan of MOZ as it never pulls in my non-domain backlinks, oh well). I like this list overall, unique angle. I hadn’t heard of Majestic before, so that was a bonus.
    Please feel free to add my Luxury Disney Travel Blog to the list.
    MikeBelobradic.com
    TrustFlow=24
    Moz DA=15
    Klout=54

    Reply

  152. Hi Gary. Quite a numerical way to establish influence of bloggers and their social audience. I am quite new to all of these sites, but its helped me get some perspective, as I have been pretty new on this (18 months)

    Could you please add me to the list

    My scores are as follows for my url (www.katchutravels.com)

    Majestic- 22
    Klout- 40
    MOZ DA-17
    Total -79

    Reply

  153. Great list! It’s such a tricky area to what out what metrics are relevant and I’m not a big fan of Rise rankings (that are heavily Twitter based), so appreciate your list.

    Would love it if you could add my blog: Travelnuity.com (currently 14 + 31 + 55 = 100). Thanks!

    Reply

  154. Hi Gary,

    I’d love to submit our site, Roamancing.com, for the next time you update this list. Currently the score we are sitting at is: trust flow 10 + domain authority 32 + klout 60 = 102.

    Thanks so much!

    Erica

    Reply

  156. Hey, Gary, a lot of efforts putting all that info in one piece but the result is great. Would you consider adding LittleBigTraveler.com as well (DA: 22, K61, TF:4).
    Thanks!

    Reply

  157. Gary, this is a great resource. I am a new blogger and this is all new info for me. Do you have any other articles that dig deeper into using these scoring sites? Either that you have written or that you could recommend. Also, is there any way to search your list by site name rather than just ranking?
    Thank you for all the work you put into this

    Reply

  158. Interesting list, though a few inclusions made me laugh. Yes, laugh. But I guess objective analysis does behave strangely sometimes. Do read some the travel articles on my blog sometime please.

    Reply

  165. Gary, my site Breathedreamgo is often left off top travel blog lists, which has always been a puzzle to me because I have high DA, good traffic, 8+ years, strong social media following, awards … and it’s very strong in terms of niche authority (for travel in India). On your list, I’m in the top 50. That is cool. Thanks.

    Reply

  169. Very cool! I didn’t even know about a couple of these metrics, so it was a pleasant surprise to find our website, GetawayMavens.com, totaling 111. Please consider including us when you run your next update.

    Reply

  170. Thanks for including me, Gary. I like that you are transparent and share the weight and metrics of how you ranked the bloggers. Is it perfect? No, but it gives us an indication and allows us to compare apple to apples.

    Now I guess I’ll head over to Klout and try to reconnect some of my accounts, ha ;-)

    Reply

  173. Thanks for sharing, Gary! I’m bookmarking this so I can explore these sites. There are many I wasn’t familiar with. I’m also excited to see TheLocalTourist would be up there in the top 20! (TrustFlow 42, DA 43, Klout 59).

    Reply

  178. Thanks for putting this together Gary and for being so transparent with how it is calculated. I live being able to see and work out where I would rank in the list ;-)

    Reply

  179. Gary, you’re kidding yourself if you think Klout or Domain Authority matter…. Twitter is dead and pretty much no one, but those with a Twitter following are even considering it these days. That’s the highest impact on “Klout.” Unless you’re living under a rock you know Youtube, Instagram, and a little bit of Facebook carry the weight these days. And as far as Domain Authority it’s pretty easy to manipulate and just a third party number.

    Reply

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