Touting Time: Brooklyn Nomad

What we've learned from the world of blogging: Text is fine, but words can never quite satisfy like a vivid image can. Most of our days are spent staring at black print on white backgrounds, and except for the occasional image of a potbelly shrinking into a glistening six-pack in 30 days, we've become even more starved for something to jog our corneas.

Enter the Brooklyn Nomad. Not only does the Nomad rid us of that eye-rotting black on white background, but he litters his site with some of the most visually appealing photos I've seen in the travelsphere. His most recent entry is a fine example of such pleasing accompaniment: In four frames, we get to see a flat circle in the ground morph into a sci-fi-style port-a-potty. Some posts exist for the sole reason of pleasing our weary eyes with one gorgeous photograph, such as this entry on the Portland Head Lighthouse in Maine. If you missed the fireworks on the Fourth of July, his montage of stills from the top displays in the U.S. stands as a pretty fantastic document.

But the Nomad site isn't just some excuse for a pretty photo album. Andrew, the site's editor, has been writing about travel for years for media outlets from MSN to the New York Times and all in between, so you can trust his voice has credence. Some musings err on the side of informative, humorous or plain bizarre travel news--for example, the story of a man taking off all of his clothes mid-flight stands right above big news that Southwest Airlines has debuted in New York City.

Other posts take extensive looks at the Nomads' most recent destinations, which are picked apart and documented to an almost ridiculous extent of completeness. Each photograph is captioned with insightful info, such as in his massive log of the Wieliczka Salt Mine in Poland or the mountain resort Zakopane. And the Nomad is a thrifty traveler, but he's not greedy about his eye for good deals. He scooped us on a new jetBlue Airlines promotion on Twitter, jetBlueCheeps, which scopes out airfares as low as $9 before taxes. You can expect updates in that realm often, as he seems pretty in tune to the travelsphere.

The Brooklyn Nomad's approach to travel blogging isn't anything revolutionary--catching news, uploading pictures, providing commentary--but a trustworthy voice and a visually appealing site will always be welcome to fellow travelers. And for that, Where I've Been salutes the Brooklyn Nomad. (pic above courtesy the Brooklyn Nomad)