~ Early Web Links ~

Juha Liikala is a Finnish software engineer and nomadic traveler who documents his wanderings across Italy, Bali, the Caribbean, and beyond through blog posts and microblog updates. The site blends personal reflections on travel, technology, and social media culture with a warm, conversational tone and a growing archive of longform and short-form writing.

Created by Kaaryn Hendrickson and praised by the Washington Post and Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, BackpackEurope.com is a comprehensive guide for budget travelers planning a backpacking trip across Europe. Visitors will find first-hand travel tips, hostel and hotel info, packing advice, transportation guides, and an active community forum.

Paul Kilfoil's sprawling personal site documents travelogues from 50+ countries since 1987, complete with photos, trip reports to destinations like Machu Picchu, the Great Wall of China, and the Trans-Siberian Railway. Beyond travel, Paul also shares blogs on science, politics, railways, and sports, plus a free downloadable software tool he built to track statistics for rugby, soccer, cricket, tennis, and Formula 1.

Thomas Andersen, a Danish cyclist, documents his remarkable 58,000 km solo bicycle expedition through 58 countries spanning six years from 2010 to 2016. The site includes a detailed diary, country-by-country photo galleries, route maps, videos, equipment notes, and even a published book about the adventure.

Sacred Destinations is a comprehensive online travel guide covering sacred sites, religious buildings, pilgrimages, and holy places across every continent, organized by both region and religious tradition. Visitors can explore destinations ranging from Buddhist temples in Cambodia to standing stones in Ireland, with photos, historical context, and practical travel information for spiritual journeys worldwide.

Dave's Travel Corner hosts what it claims to be the ultimate travel blog directory on the web, with over 4,000 travel blogs listed and organized across 197 categories. Created by Dave after a life-changing 1996 trip, the site curates domain-based English-language travel blogs with editor priorities, view counts, and personal notes about connections Dave has made with fellow travelers.

Run by Alan A. Lew (The Travel Geographer), this blog catalogs and reviews Web 2.0 websites and online tools related to travel and tourism, covering services like destination finders, staycation sites, and trip planners. Posts evaluate whether early travel startups lived up to their promises, making it a useful snapshot of the travel tech landscape from the mid-to-late 2000s.

A firsthand visit guide to the Desert Bar (also known as the Nellie E Saloon) near Parker, Arizona, a quirky solar-powered off-grid bar built into a desert hillside. The page features 17 photos capturing the bar's eccentric horseshoe sculptures, a decorative church facade, and multi-level outdoor structures, along with practical tips on hours, cash-only policy, and seasonal closures.

Terry Taylor chronicles life on the road in a motorhome from the passenger seat, sharing travel dispatches, golf outings, desert adventures, and recipes gathered along the way. With archives stretching back to 2008, this long-running blog offers a genuine slice of the full-time RV lifestyle across years of wandering.

Spud's Travels chronicles the globe-trotting adventures of a Mr. Potato Head toy over 25 years of worldwide journeys, documented with photos and stories. The site gained enough notoriety to be featured in National Geographic Traveler, United Airlines' Hemispheres magazine, NPR, and CBC Radio, making it a beloved quirky corner of the old web.