Recommendations for easy-to-use blog/journal website for my trip.

I'd suggest blogspot.com - it's free, and no coding necessary.

I have used travelpod for the last three trips and really love it!

I heard Wix was easy but I was an utter failure at trying to use it. My daughter then set up a Wordpress for me and I was able to add pictures to it and text to it no problem!

I use blogger (blogspot), also. It is easy to write, edit, add photos and videos. They also have an offline phone app that I use to write throughout the day, then "publish" when I get to wifi at night. My family follows my blogs while I am traveling, and can add comments. There are lots of background and format options, too.

I've been using Blogger (Blogspot) for 5 years to blog my trips. I'm fairly tech challenged, and I find it easy to use. I like to blog each night before bed while things are still fresh in my mind. If I don't have wifi or have a chance to finish my entry, I can save it as a draft and finish it later. It's easy to add pictures too.

Hi PhantomRose:

I agree with Kim - travelpod is easy to use and is free. My only problem with this, and it might be my misunderstanding the mechanics of the blog, is that if you have many photographs and/or videos for a blog entry, some of them will be imbedded in the text and some will be end up at the bottom of the page. I have to either write a caption for each photograph or use an index number so that folks reading the blog can figure out to which photo I am referring. I am not sure if this is a problem with other travel blog sites.

Have a good trip.

Geor(ge)

Phantom,

I would also recommend TravelPod as it's very user friendly and easy to learn. It's free and allows not only text but also photos and video.

To expand on the point that Geor mentioned about the photos, some may end up at the bottom of the page, depending on how much text is entered in each entry. The application inserts photos at regular points in the text entry, but if there are more photos than text, the "overflow" will be placed at the bottom. From what I've been able to determine, there's really no other way this can be done (unless I've missed something in the settings). I normally provide a short caption on each photo, so this tends to explain the details of the photo. Having the extra photos (or videos) at the bottom isn't really a big deal (IMO).

One great thing about Travelpod - if you have an iGadget (maybe android as well) is you can use it offline and then post your updates when you have wifi. I find I am too tired at the end of a day of sightseeing to do an hour of typing, so I will make quick notes about what we did, ate, funny/notable things and then after the holiday, I do all the filling in on my time using the desktop and a 'real' keyboard.

Hey, thanks for all of the recommendations. of the sites recommended which is the most accessible for visually impaired/blind users since several of my friends are visually impaired or blind? How does software like text-to-speech software interact with these sites & will pictures/videos/maps or other features pose a problem since I want to make my trip as accessible to my friends who are visually impaired/blind. Also if there is another site that may work better for this purpose I would love to hear any recommendations.

To elaborate on the point that Nicole mentioned, TravelPod also has a mobile app which can be used for posting entries, but doing that from a smartphone would likely be a bit awkward. I prefer to use a Netbook or Laptop as that's much easier.

In terms of being accessible for the visually impaired, I suspect all Blog sites will be about equal in that regard. I don't know what resources are available for text-to-speech conversion but I'm sure your friends will know more about that. If your friends are able to view photos online, they should be able to view Blog photos.

WordPress is really easy to use and free. Lots of templates to choose from, so all you need to do is pick a style, write and add photos. I did a blog during our last trip, using only the Wordpress iPhone/iPad app to post both words and photos.

Not sure about the accessibility features in WordPress. But it appears they have a community page that might provide you with more info.