Five hot travel sites: Hejorama, We Heart, Beach Tomato, Pinterest, Sunset Travel

These five travel sites are hot; all five are worth some serious browsing time. And while most are newish kids on the block, sustaining buzz left and right, the final of this batch is a tried-and-true evergreen, offering a sustained focus on a very popular region of the world.

Some are good for general contemplation, while others are good for thinking through potential destinations and ways of organizing future travels. These five include a community site, a lifestyle guide, a bespoke travel agency, an image creation site, and the online component of a print magazine.

1. Hejorama. A group travel community site, Hejorama is cute and spunky, though what sets it apart from others in its class is the high-quality quirk of its content. There are in-flight meal reviews, a journey to Ramallah, and an encounter with a taxi driver in Almaty (see above). Hejorama advances a philosophy of travel that is immediately compelling, quite untidy, and truly social.

2. We Heart. An all-purpose lifestyle guide, We Heart has strong coverage of innovative boutique hotels and other travel-related subjects. As far as travel inspiration is concerned, however, the site’s explicit travel content is just the tip of the iceberg. We Heart’s coverage of designers, branding projects, photographers, and design studios is a broad exercise in lifestyle inspiration that extends effortlessly to travel.

3. Beach Tomato. Those crafty folks behind the gorgeous bespoke travel company Black Tomato and the edgy expedition-led adventure outfit Epic Tomato recently launched Beach Tomato, a site that marries beach style to destination inspiration. Beach reviews, trend alerts, fashion recommendations, and even a post-beach hair care guide give the site a vibe that is distinctly girly.

4. Pinterest. Not a travel site, granted, but a gorgeous place to see beautiful images and find travel inspiration. Currently invitation-only, this image curation site is a seriously pretty procrastination aide. Pinterest’s travel category is great for daydreaming, though it’s by no means the only category of interest for travel obsessives. Browse through Pinterest and find “boards” organized around many subjects that refer to cultural exchange and any number of destinations: architecture, graphic design, even interior design.

5. Sunset Travel. We have enthused about Sunset in the past. One could reasonably spend the bulk of one’s traveling life in the western states of the US and Mexico and western provinces of Canada and never get bored. Sunset’s Travel microsite provides an awesome reminder of the dynamic nature of this exciting mega-region with its archive of very good service articles. With a beat that extends southwest to Hawaii, northeast to Alberta, and due south to Guanajuato, Sunset is a comprehensive Western travel bible.

[Image: Romain from Team Hejorama]