Meet the 2017 SAVEUR Blog Awards Finalists: 6 Essential Travel Blogs

These six travel bloggers are going to give you serious inspiration for your next big trip. Whether it's a food you've never heard of or a destination you've never seen, our intrepid travel blog finalists are covering it all.

The Blog: Strangertalk aims to tell the travel stories that aren't being told – the stories of locals passionately fostering their history and traditions, of recipes and crafts being passed down from generation to generation, and capturing the day-to-day moments that exist within any community. From learning about the power of the magical Thai Buddhist tattoos to meeting some of Japan's last remaining kombu shavers, shaving the paper-thin seaweed with the country's sharpest knives, this isn't a blog about their travels or a guide to a particular city—these are real experiences celebrating local culture and their everlasting, although sometimes dwindling, traditions.

The Bloggers: Giving up on the daily grind, food writer Eloise Basuki and photographer Leigh Griffiths left their life in Sydney to explore Asia's food and culture the best way they knew how—talking to locals. After slurping all the noodles and patting every street dog in China, they settled in Bangkok, where traditions are strong, street food is a way of life, and the rest of Asia was at their doorstep. With journalism assignments leading them to Hong Kong, Osaka and Seoul, Strangertalk began in 2017 to share more personal stories about the food, crafts and people they stumbled upon.

The Blog: The Foodie Miles is a sincere attempt to understand the world through its diverse cuisines. Whether it's breaking coconuts in the tiny kitchen in Colombo, having breakfast prepared by cowboys in the Texas countryside, or taking part in traditional Mexican tamalada, every experience teaches you more about the culture, the people and eventually yourself. Food is the universal language of the world that everyone can understand. The blog is one girl's journey of learning that language.

The Blogger: Yulia Dyukova is a Russian food and travel blogger who found home first in Sri Lanka, then in Brazil and most recently in Austin, Texas. She is the kind of person who starts a research of the new country by googling "what to eat in…" instead of "what to visit in…", who spends hours reading about origins of pecan pie before making one and who doesn't consider waiting in line of 50 people to get a cronut a waste of time.

The Blog: This is the Place I was telling you about likes to focus on the best places to stay, eat, drink coffee, and explore. It's more into finding the hidden gems of a city—you know, the places that you don't see a crowd of tourist flocking towards. The bloggers hope their photos, especially their film stories, take you on a journey that will leave you wanting to get out and explore.

The Blogger: R'el Dade and Marcus Lloyd are two Texans living in New York City. A few years ago they fell in love with taking photos and discovering new restaurants, and coffee shops around the city. For a while they would always have places to recommend but could never think of their favorites off the top of their head when it came down to suggestions. They started a list which eventually turned into the blog and vowed to explore more cities in search of charming places they would want to tell people about. They have a ton of fun doing this together and are always down for a great adventure, and if they can tell a story while doing so then, why the hell not?

The Blog: Matt The List is a photography-led website that focuses on food, drink, and travel in London and beyond. He has been sharing snaps and stories since 2013, but the website in its current form has only been live since the summer of 2016 after a much needed makeover. The travel section, Matt The Trips, covers Matt's adventures outside of London, including city guides, visits to remote breweries and distilleries, and his ongoing search for the most beautiful sunrise spots. It's all tied together by the Map The List maps that are free to use on the website.

The Blogger: Matt is a London-based photographer, writer and musician with a food, drink, and travel obsession. Over the last few years, since starting the blog, photography has become more than just a hobby, and Matt is rarely seen out and about without a camera in his hand. Photography is at the heart of the site, with a definitive style focus on lighting, color, and atmosphere. Matt hopes that readers are drawn in by his photos, stick around for the writing, and are inspired to go out and discover some new places themselves.

The Blog: Potato Chips Are Not Dinner was born out of necessity: 14-hour workdays as a flight attendant, days away from a home and a kitchen, and eating whatever packaged food happened to be rolling around the bottom of her flight bag for dinner. This is perhaps why blogger Paulina Farro became hyper aware of what people around the world were filling their bellies with as she travelled around the world. With not much other than her camera, sketchbook, and curious belly, she is always looking for off-the-beaten path and unique places to see and eat in every destination. Slices of wagyu beef from Japan and octopus tentacles from Greece dance around in her head until she is able to put pen to paper.

The Blogger: Paulina Farro has always loved cooking and bringing people together with food; she grew up watching her grandmother cook beloved Filipino recipes and annoying her with her eager-yet-lackluster lumpia-rolling skills. Potato Chips Are Not Dinner is the ultimate creative outlet and allows her to combine her passion for art, food, travel and photography.

The Blog: Azahar is a journal of stories about food, traditions, life, and travel. It's about sourcing and preparing food the traditional way, living a healthy Paleo lifestyle, exploring blogger Debra Dorn's home city of Seville, the rest of Andalusia and Spain, and joining her in exploring the world and enjoying all the delectable food along the way.

The Blogger: Debra Dorn inherited her wanderlust. She cannot fathom life without seeing everything the world has to offer. And one of the most appealing features of travelling is trying new flavours, experiencing new cuisines, learning to cook with different ingredients, and then trying to recreate the exotic dishes at home. Food and travel are her two greatest passions.