There are a plethora of travel sites on the web (we know, we're one of them!). How do you dig through the masses to find the coolest ones? Well, you can ask your friends, or search. We're also always looking, both for ourselves and for our Wandering Educators - and I have to say, we've found one of the coolest travel sites around. Want to stay in a hobbit hotel in New Zealand? Learn from an Italian about Italian food? Interested in ways to save money while traveling? Want some interesting accommodations in Europe (capsule hotel in the Netherlands, camping huts in France)? Interested in great travel resources? Well, I've found a site that combines all of these, with a great sense of humor, excellent photography, and that nebulous uniqueness factor that keeps me coming back for more.  That site? Travellious.com - and I was lucky enough to sit down with Austin Hill, one of the founders of the site, to learn more about them.  Here's what he had to say...

WE:  Please tell us about your travel blog, travellious.com...

AH: Travellious is a blog for the independent traveler: offering advice, inspiration, and resources for planning your own travel adventure. Too often we've seen and experienced what we call "passive travel," where the urge to run through a checklist of landmarks overshadows a real travel experience. Rather than providing you with a travel guide, we're setting out to educate and empower others to create their own unique travel experience.

WE:   How did the site come about? What is your site and travel history?

AH: We've both been avid travelers for the past 10 years or so. The more we've traveled, the less we found ourselves relying on travel guides and more on our friends' advice, our intuition, and the virtual advice available from the Internet. Kelly's background in art history has dragged us across Europe frequently and allowed her to experience la dolce vita while studying and living in Italy. Our recent move to the West Coast has opened up a whole new world of travel experiences and Austin's interest in Asian culture has started to drive our travel goals towards the Orient. The impetus to start a website came from our want to share our approach to travel: traveling simply, smartly, and actively. The site reflects those goals and provides a forum for our advice, inspiration, and education with the intent to instill our readers with the confidence to travel on their own.

WE:   Where do you come up with such great blog post ideas?

AH: We've always got travel on the brain, so it's not difficult for us to find inspiration and run with it. We write about places we want to go, things we want to do, or food we want to eat. Most of the time, all we need to start writing is a bit of inspiration and the urge to learn more. Our personal experiences, especially those things we've done wrong and learned from, often enter into our blog. In the past, friends have remarked on our unique approach and what some might think of as strange travel advice. Rather than giving them a laundry list of restaurants we've liked, we encourage them to find their own favorites by giving them pointers on how to choose a restaurant. It's tips like these that have found their way onto our blog.

WE:    You have some really unusual categories, filled with enticing entries. What do you look for, in a travel story?

AH: Anything that inspires us and makes us want to travel. We believe that everyone has the natural inclination to want to travel; we tap into that within ourselves and run with with it. We try to make things come alive and have you not just thinking "that looks cool," but "I want to do that." The bottom line is that it has to be useful and inspiring. If it's something that would get us to go somewhere or do something, it's worth sharing.

WE: Your site has such great travel tips, and they are organized so creatively. You must be a fantastic traveler, packing light and hardly spending any money! What do you love most about travel?

AH: We haven't always been so frugal or resourceful, all of our tips definitely come from us making mistakes. It's our desire to travel more often, which encourages us to dream and find more economical ways to do so. In return, we've learned that spending less money provides a more rewarding travel experience. Staying with a family of Italians didn't just save us money; we ended up with lifelong friends and an exposure to Italian culture that no tourist could ever pay for. When we're on the road, we both love being out of our element and overwhelmed by the new sights, sounds, and smells of a foreign place. Our judgment of a day well spent is that we're dead tired and we can't wait to get up the next morning and do it all again. It's the way we'd want to spend every day of our lives.

WE: Thanks so much, Austin! I visit your site almost daily for great reads and unique tips.  For more information (and to find that hobbit hotel), please see: http://www.travellious.com