As expected, TUI have re-launched Holidays Uncovered, which was purchased in 2007, for an undisclosed sum, and is expected to rival Trip Advisor. Considering that the site was so badly designed before, it’s new look is a massive improvement.

I suspect the challenge was to not make too many changes that it drove it’s regular users away, yet, making the site look updated. It’ll be interesting to see further developments, and if they open up advertising to other companies outside of the TUI group.

What do you think of the new design?

I am amazed how many talented people are involved in the travel industry. I am no web designer, but today I scoured the internet to find my ten favourite (best) travel website designs. Please leave a review for me on StumbleUpon.

Round the World Flights

Ocean Village holidays

TVtrip

Bales Worldwide

Travel Mail

Go Girlfriend

SilverJet

South Africa Tourist board

Extravigator

Readers Vote

This is your chance to vote. Leave your comment with the link to what you think is the best designed travel website. Please do not vote for your own website and spam will be removed. The site with the most comments in 4 days will be placed here.

This week I was lucky enough to interview Tom Hall, who works for Lonely Planet about the future, and challenges ahead for one of the biggest travel brands. If you have any questions for Tom please leave them in the comments box and I’ll try and get him to pop by and answer them.

What is your role at Lonely Planet?

I’m the product manager for Pick & Mix, which enables you to buy, download and print individual chapters from Lonely Planet guidebooks. Basically, it’s my job to make sure Pick & Mix meets the needs of travellers and is commercially viable. I analyse how Pick & Mix is performing and monitor feedback from travellers to help figure out the best way to expand it.

I also spend my day trying to keep up with the speedily-changing world of digital publishing, and working with our crack marketing team to get the word out to travellers. Currently, I’m focused on expanding Pick & Mix to new regions: North America in December, Africa this month, and the South Pacific next month.

What are the challenges for Lonely Planet in 2008?

Our biggest challenges are on the digital side. We have to find more ways to get travellers the information they want, when they want it, and how they want it. Our website wins awards, but it needs more content, and focus on usability. As an organisation, we need to be nimble enough to thrive in a constantly-evolving competitive landscape.

Another challenge is sustainability. The industry needs to take the lead in addressing environmental concerns so that travel has a positive impact on local communities, and the world. Because our guidebooks are taken into unusual and fragile environments, we’ve got a big part to play in this.

What’s the best travel tip you know?

My father gave me some exceedingly useful travel advice. He said ‘before you leave for the airport, always sight your ticket and passport.’ It’s not particularly inspirational, but I repeat it to myself before setting off anywhere, and it works. You can forget a lot of things, but leaving your ticket or passport behind really sucks.

Also, travel alone at least once in your life. Many people think they can’t, but trust me, you can. It’s a different, perhaps more intense experience than travelling with a group, and though I struggle to articulate exactly why, I think travelling alone is really beneficial.

Where would you most love to travel?

The impossible question. Not even counting the places I’ve been and want to go back to, like Argentina, Morocco, Bali, and Thailand, the list of places I haven’t been yet and am desperate to see is embarrassingly long: Ethiopia, Libya, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Turkey, for starters.

If you tie me down and force me to choose, and you’re paying my way, I’d follow Shackleton to the South Georgia Islands and Antarctica, or head to barely-known islands and atolls in Micronesia to explore relics from the WWII Pacific theatre. But this list could change tomorrow…

Is there a future for the traditional travel guide book?

Yes. The good old fashioned paper guidebook has been around a long time, and it isn’t going anywhere soon.

It seems the people behind the scenes at Cheapflights are keen to interact with the blogging community by using Technorati to find what we are saying about them and then asking for our opinions on user experience and suggestions for improvement.

I’m impressed.

I’d like to see more travel companies working with the travel blogging community and I for one would be happy to assist. Let’s hope 2008 is the year when the travel industry takes bloggers seriously and get more on board.

I’ve learnt a lot about the travel industry this year, and it kicked off in style when the Guardian mentioned Travel Rants as an ‘essential travel website’ in February, along with WikiTravel and Trip Advisor. It’s great to get a little bit of recognition for your hard work.

During the year I’ve been quoted in a number of newspapers, and the blog was mentioned in a Genesys World Travel Market presentation, along with Facebook, which I was pretty chuffed about. I’m also a published author [sort of hehe] with an article in the Tips from the T-List book which I received through the post this week.

I was interviewed by the BBC News 24 and Radio 4 on travel consumer issues, which was pretty scary but a great experience for me. Thankfully they didn’t want me to appear on television because that would simply be too frightening for viewers.

Whilst there have been ups, there’s also been downs. I made a public apology for publishing an article without getting the full facts – this is a big lesson for any blogger, and probably put me off blogging for all of ten minutes.

So what will next year bring, who knows, but it’ll be a rollercoaster ride.

I love travel blogs, and my RSS reader is full of them, some I read every day, some I will read every couple of weeks. I’m not just saying this because I am a blogger, but blogs are incredibly useful for those travelling, those thinking of travelling or even those studying travel.

So here are my top travel blogs of 2007.

Corporate Travel

Runner Up: STA Travel
Winner: We Try Harder

We Try Harder is an excellent example of a company not afraid to create a platform for disgruntled and happy consumers to meet and comment. Whilst the blog could do with more images, the people behind AVIS are not afraid to shy away from those controversial comments.

Travel B2B

Runner Up: Travel Weekly
Winner: Travolution

As someone who is interested in learning more about the travel industry, both of these blogs provide a very good insight into travel. I am unable to get to many travel conferences so it’s great to read about them and I have to congratulate Travel Weekly for their superb coverage of the World Travel Market.

Travel Experiences

Runner Up: Hobo Traveler
Winner: Brave New Traveler

What’s better than reading another travellers experiences before you travel. Both blogs include tons of useful content and cover issues from the environment to travel experiences on the road. I love the magazine format of BNT, and the interviews with the likes of Rolf Potts.

Travel Inspiration

Runner Up: Family Travel Blog
Winner: Lonely Planet

A tough one to decide because Sheila’s blog focuses on a specific niche in travel where as Lonely Planet just covers anything travel. I love both blogs, both inspire me to travel, and I think everyone interested in travelling should have these two blogs bookmarked.

Travellers Travel

Runner Up: Happy Hotelier
Winner: Blissful Travel

The internet has millions of blogs written by travellers and I have tons of blogs written by people who want to write about travel and their experiences as a hobby. Guido and Erica are two of my favourite bloggers at the moment and are obviously passionate about travel.

Travel Agency

Runner Up: Virtual Travel Cast
Winner: Select World Travel

There’s a lack of travel agency blogs, and I’d like to see more travel agencies being adventurous like these two agencies and write about their experiences being a travel agency. Both blogs use travel videos, photographs and content to inspire you to travel.

Yes, this blogger features blogs from the World – and isn’t just concentrating on my home country, and as usual let me know what you think about my list.

Obviously I love travel and I spend a lot of time online. Over the coming month I will be publishing my travel lists for 2007, but I want to be a little unique, so add me to your favourite social bookmarking site or subscribe to my RSS feed.

Here is my first list – 2007 travel favourites:

Travel community

Runner Up: TravBuddy
Winner: Travellerspoint

There are thousands of travel community sites providing travellers with a platform to ask questions and write about their own travel experiences. I chose Travellerspoint because of the obvious passion for travel and the very useful wikitravel guide and travel maps.

Travel in the Media

Runner Up: Guardian
Winner: The Times

I visit both of these sites daily, without fail, but the Times won it for me because of their excellent layout, and easy to use travel search. I could spend hours on this site; listening to the podcasts, reading the latest travel news and information on green travel.

Travel Inspiration

Runner Up: Wikitravel
Winner: Lonely Planet

Whenever I am looking for inspiration on my next travel destinations I take a visit to Lonely Planet. I spend way too much time on this site reading travel guides and articles. You can now download sections of the famous lonely planet travel guides and print them out for your travels.

Holiday/Hotel Reviews

Runner Up: Holiday Watchdog
Winner: Trip Advisor

Whenever I speak to someone about planning their travels I mention Trip Advisor. I feel confident that the reviews I am reading are from real travellers and are not fabricated from hotel owners. To be honest I use both of these sites when searching for hotels or apartments to get the ‘bigger picture’

Travel Search

Runner Up: Sidestep
Winner: Travel Supermarket

Whilst I’d like to see more travel operators / agencies adding their holidays to Travel Supermarket I love this site for it’s ease of use, and that I can search for the best deals on package holidays, hotels or flights. Like Trip advisor it has a useful travel community where you can ask travel related questions.

Travel Best on the Web

Runner Up: Sky Scanner
Winner: Trip Advisor

Trip Advisor is my travel bible, whenever I fancy going on holiday I visit this site for inspiration, to read reviews of hotels and then visit the forum to ask any question I may have about the destination or hotel and in return I receive responses from travellers who have first hand experience.

Please feel free to discuss on the comments section and let me know what you think of this list.

As promised here are my final five blog reviews, all great travel blogs in their own way. Please feel free to comment on any of the blogs, and if you have a blog and would like to have it reviewed, contact me and I will try and feature it next time.

I Spy Shangahi

Shanghai is a destination high up on my list of places to see before I am 40! I love this blog because of the photos and you can a great insight into Shanghai and life in China. Some of the photos are hysterical.

The blog gets a great number of comments, and has obviously built up a following which is great to see, and the only negative comment I can summon for this blog is ewww, hairy crabs, I think I’ll stay clear of this delicacy if I get to visit Shanghai.

The Travel Photographer

I’ve mentioned my love for photography on many occasions, and this blog features a large number of photographs, some comical, some controversial. The blog is well written and is updated regularly, but doesn’t seem to have the comments feature turned, well I couldn’t find the link to comment.

It’s a shame if comments have been turned off because one post caught my attraction titled “Is Travel photography Dead or Dying?” would I am sure generated a lot of comments from readers, especially from those passionate about travel.

Byahilo Travel Blog

Next is a nicely designed Philippines blog written by Erico Dee, who has a passion for travelling and like many travellers has a passion for photography. Manila looks wonderful, with a mixture of historic and modern buildings, and this blog is a must-read if you’re heading to the Philippines on holiday.

I’ve got to admit to dislike Google Adsense, and there’s probably too many blocks of ads but I can understand why bloggers use Adsense as like everyone else we have to find a way of making a living off our blogs.

Flower Girls Rural India

Ever since reading the book Young female, travelling alone I have wanted to visit India, and this blog provides a great insight into travel in India, information on religious festivals, and has tons of great photographs.

Unfortunately, the blog was a little slow to load which I am assuming is due to the number of widgets, videos and photographs, but be patient because you won’t b e disappointed if your looking for inspiration on travel around India.

The Boatwoman’s Diary

How cool is this – living on a canal boat, meandering through the UK water works, and sat on the boat taking in fresh air and watching the sun set. The Boat woman’s diary gives you an insider’s view of life on a canal boat.

I’d love to hear how the blogger deals with gaining access to the internet, because I would be lost not having the internet. The blog is updated regularly; plenty of photos, but like many other blogs could do with asking readers opinions to generate comments.