If there’s one thing travel blogs should do, it’s inspire.

Inspire people to make a trip, sure, but there’s much more to it than that. The stories we share on our blogs should inspire people to discover more about the world, to get to know themselves better, to help those in need, or to realise a goal that’s been held for so long.

We write travel stories because we want to show our readers what is possible, not what is impossible. We want to show that there is good in the world, and when there is bad there are good people there to offer kindness. We want to show that if you have a dream then the only thing standing in the way is a decision to try to make it happen.

There are hundreds of inspirational travel stories from 2011. I wanted to share just a few of them, hopefully to plant the seed of inspiration in your head as well…

Drawing them out of themselves

Phil In The Blank likes to teach people to draw camels. To be honest, I’m not quite sure why. There’s probably a good reason, but I’ve never seen it. Ultimately, though, it doesn’t matter. As you’ll see in this post from Mali, he uses the situation to give us a fascinating insight into the culture and the people of where he is. The drawing connects Phil and his students and he then weaves us into that connection through his wonderful writing and photos.

You can follow Phil on twitter here.

Taking a ride on the dark side

Diana from The Adventures of D set off from home for the same reasons a lot of us do – no partner, no children, no house, no job satisfaction and no good justification not to give it a go. It seems that she’s now found another honourable reason, though, and that’s to help educate people about some of the injustices in the world. In this post from Thailand, Diana looks at the treatment of elephants in the tourism industry.

You can follow Diana on twitter here.

Putting your money where your mouth is

It’s all too easy for travellers to pay lip service to the charities and causes they encounter along the way. The world we travel in is often much less-privileged than the one we know, but what can we do about it, right? Wrong. Bret and Mary from Green Global Travel have started a campaign called ‘Travel Bloggers Give Back’ to encourage the promotion of worthy causes. And in this post about one particular charity, you’ll see how little we actually need to do to make a big difference.

You can follow Green Global Travel on twitter here.

Teaming up with some fans

Finding inspiration comes in many forms and, in some ways, there is nothing more inspiring that someone who realises their dream. For Jeremy at Budget Travel Adventures, it’s been a huge effort to get his College Football Travel Tour off the ground, but now he’s really scored the touchdown (sorry, couldn’t resist). In this post about the tour’s genesis, you’ll see what motivated the project and what you can get out of it.

You can follow Jeremy on twitter here.

Sending something special home

This is one of the coolest ideas I’ve heard about in a long time – mainly because there’s something very antiquated and romantic about hand-written, hand-delivered mail. I don’t want to give the whole story away, because this post describes it beautifully, so let’s just say that we’re going to learn a lot about people as well as places from Captain and Clark on this journey.

You can follow Captain and Clark on twitter here.

Riding to the ends of the earth

All I can think about are the poor legs of the Vogel family. They must’ve ached after this epic bike journey from the north to the south of our planet. This story is inspiring for so many reasons – the dedication, the physical endurance, the fact two young kids were part of it! In this post from the final day of the trip, you’ll get to share in the emotions of completing one of the biggest and hardest expeditions any family could do.

You can follow the Vogel family on twitter here.

Wow, if you got through all of those stories, you probably feel like you’ve been halfway around the world yourself. As you can see, there are some great stories out there from travellers on the road. That’s because there are some great travellers. So, here’s to another great year in 2012 with lots more exciting adventures and lots more inspiration!

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