2009 Year in Review and 2010 Resolutions

2009, despite all of its economic turmoil, was a good year for us, both in our travels and for Travellious. We wrote some fantastic articles, got lots of good press, traveled even more than we hoped, and met lots of great people while doing it. To top it all off, we finally got started on a long-awaited project, now known as the Wondermap. Bear with us, this post is gonna be a long one.

This past year allowed us to start some great series and began to address some of the fundamentals of traveling. Despite our best efforts, we found that blogging about travel AND traveling wasn't always the easiest task. But, all-in-all, we learned a lot and are happy with the articles, stories, and photos we've shared. Despite not reaching our admittedly high publishing expectations, we hit our stride this year and found our voice. We hope that 2010 will be the year for us to consistently keep you inspired and ready to travel, as well as sharing our own personal travel experiences.

One of the most pleasantly surprising parts of the past year was the amount of press and recognition we received this year. Early in the year, we were blown away as we became one of the top five finalists in the 2009 Bloggies Awards. (Which, by the way, are currently accepting nominations, head over and nominate your favorite blogs!) We were also featured in the Guardian and US Airways Magazine this year (see our press page) and were selected by PC Magazine as one of the 50 Best Blogs of 2009. We're still blushing.

But, by and far, the best part of the year was meeting so many great people throughout our travels both near and far. For one, we discovered that Seattle is a hotbed of travel bloggers. We knew we moved here for more than the coffee and good views. Some great local bloggers we met this year include Pam Mandel of Nerd's Eye View, Peter Carey of The Carey Adventures, Warren and Betsy Talbot of Married With Luggage, Mary Jo Manzanares of Traveling with MJ, Michelle Duffy of Wandermom, Beth Whitman of Wanderlust and Lipstick, and Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby. And as I write this I'm excited to be attending the second annual SCOOT (Seattle Consortium of Online Travel) meeting next week, a project where local technology folks and bloggers come together to discuss travel. We can't wait to meet more great local bloggers to add to the list.

Prompted by our Bloggies nomination, we also went to SXSW last March and fell in love with Austin, Texas (yes, there was even talk about moving here in the future.) Sure, we met loads of great travel folks like Elliot Ng (formerly of Uptake), Sheila Scarborough, Wendy Perrin, the guys from World Hum and schooled Pam Mandel in our public transit badassness (we came prepared with weekly bus passes.) But, what we really fell in love with was food trucks, 70 degree weather in March and Salt Lick Barbecue (Thanks Katie and Jeff!)

We headed back to Italy in May, had some of the best gelato ever, visited Slovenia and Croatia in ONE weekend, and spent time with old friends and made some new ones in Rome. Our tweetup in Rome brought together expats and Italy lovers from Twitter, where we hung out with Christine Canterra of Miss Expatria, Jessica Spiegel of Italylogue, Jessica Stewart of RomePhotoBlog, Katie Parla of Parla Food, Robin Locker of My Melange, Hande and Theo of Vino Roma and Erica of Moscerina. Our friends Francesco and Fabiola shared some great pasta, wine, and spicy Calabrian condiments with us.

Then the summer rolled around and some crazy guy named Peter Carey contemplated driving from Seattle to Chicago for the TBEX (or Travel Blog Exchange) conference. Kelly and Pam joined in and they spent a few weeks criss-crossing the US in search of good photos, friendly locals, and more than their fair share of bacon. Thanks to Twitter, we got loads of roadside North Dakota history from Minnemom, found cheese curds with some help from Chris Clark and met up with fellow bloggers Thomas Ritchie, Kathleen Perry and Leif Pettersen. Oh, and there were all those great travel bloggers who got together in Chicago. Besides being a stupendous trip, the TBEX Road Trip was a great chance for us to start working on a project that we've been contemplating for a long time. The Wondermap started as a simple way to share a trip, but over the next year it going to grow into a travel planning AND sharing tool. Don't be surprised if you see it popping up on Travellious as we add more features.

November afforded Kelly another opportunity to head back to Italy and she spent the month there with an unforgettable trip to Umbria and San Marino and loads of ideas for offbeat things to do around the Veneto.

What else do we have in store for 2010? For Travellious, one of our biggest goals is to make it easier to have a dialogue with you. We want to hear your travel problems, ideas, and questions, anything that's on your mind. So, In the near future, we'll be adding an easy way for you to do just that. We're also going to work hard to keep up regular posting, when we're at home AND on the road. No more slacking. Last, but not least, we're going to be reaching out to all the new, and non-travelers of the world. We're going to work our butts off to help show folks how they can travel without going on tours, buy guidebooks, or spending a ton of money.

Speaking of travel, 2010 is shaping up to be another good year for our travels. We're planning on some good local trips, as there are still countless places in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia, that we haven't yet discovered. Surely there will be longer, more distant trips, but it's still early. We might have kicked our Italy bug (temporarily) and the lure of Asia is strong...perhaps 2010 will be the year. Stay tuned, for this and more, and have a great 2010!