Huge congratulations to the winners of our travel vlogging contest, derricwong, gschirm and GardenGorilla. Three Flip MinoHD camcorders are winging their way over to you!

We'll be speaking to the winners about what inspires them and their vlogging tips and techniques soon, so stay tuned for that.

In the meantime, here's a taste of the winning travel vlogs. This is "Racing at Hong Kong's Happy Valley" by GardenGorilla:

Happy Monday Travel Lovers!

We're excited to tell you about our new on-site promotion and the fantastic travel prizes we're offering.

If you read the weekly iloho newsletter, which rounds-up the best content from the site, you'll be familiar with the "Top Travel News Stories", "Travel Videos of the Week" and "Hot Shot" spots. If not, these sections show off the top voted content of the week from our travel news, travel videos and photos sections of the site. Well... From today, if your posts get picked to go in the newsletter you'll bag yourself a 1GB USB stick as a thank-you for sharing such a cracking piece of travel content.

Got a birthday coming up? We're going to start celebrating in your honour. Make sure you fill out your details – including your birthday – on your profile page and you'll have a treat from us on the big day.

Got something to share on the site? If you submit a description of 200+ unique words with your travel post (news, itinerary, photo, video, group discussion, airline review) you'll automatically be entered into a weekly draw to win an iloho iPod speaker, perfect for taking with you on your travels.

So what are you waiting for? Visit iloho now to cash in!

There are just two days left in our fab competition to WIN one of three hot new Flip MinoHD camcorders.

All you have to do is share a unique travel video with iloho and this nifty gadget could be all yours. They're big enough to record full 1280x720 HD video and small enough to fit in your back pocket. What a perfect travelling companion!

Don't miss out. Enter here.

Great news for all you iloho members, we've officially launched the new travel video sharing function (www.iloho.com/travel_videos).

As of today, you can view, upload and share travel videos from destinations across the world. All videos can be rated and you can leave comments too.

So far we have 35+ videos - from pristine Thai beaches to hot air ballooning in China - and we hope that you'll visit the site to share footage you've taken on your travels!

Videos can be emailed to friends and family in all corners of the globe, which makes this new function a great way to keep people updated on your adventures.

Click here to go to the new videos section now.

Keep your network up-to-date using Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail, Live and AOL

We've been asked for ways to expand social networking capabilities and we're pleased to announce the ability to find and invite friends via Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN, AOL and Live.

To find out which of your friends are already using iloho, and to invite new users, either visit the homepage and click into the "Find your friends on iloho" box or visit your new-look profile page (you will need to be signed in).

Express yourself... Unveiling a brand new "My Profile" section

We've updated the look, feel and functionality of your profile section. To explore the changes, log-in and then click on "My Profile".

You can upload a bigger profile picture of yourself (click "edit profile" and then "change my photo") as well as keeping tabs on your recent posts, added friends and groups. You can also see who's online, who's new to iloho and which users are in the same places as you – perfect for networking online as well as offline!

Keep other users up-to-date with where you are and how you're feeling via the new mood status bar. Your mood status appears just below your profile picture in the "My Profile" section. Click on the orange "What is your mood now?" text to update your status.

We hope you like these updates to the site. If you have any questions or feedback for us please leave us a comment at the end of this post or email us at info@iloho.com. It'd be great to hear from you!

Visit the site now: www.iloho.com.

Visit iloho now and check out our fantastic new web game, "Race for the Sky". Top scorers can win a business class round-the-world ticket, plus a host of other prizes such as Canon digital cameras, iPod speakers and USB sticks.

To win this dream prize, and jet around the world in serious style, all you have to do is secure the top position on our leaderboard. The first two runners-up will receive a brand new Canon digital camera. All players in the top 20 will receive a fantastic iloho travel pack, which includes an iPod speaker, 1GB USB stick, t-shirt, cap and travel pillow.

To get into the leaderboard, players must successfully help the game's character, Marco, race to the airport to catch his flight. Watch out for slippery banana skins, pesky spikes and damaging drain covers. The more points and hearts you collect along the way the more points they will score. Extra points can be secured by grabbing keys and Superman icons as you race Marco to his destination.

The competition runs until 31 January 2009. Terms and conditions apply.

For further instructions, and to play "Race for the Sky", click here.

You can check out the game on Travolution's homepage too - thanks Travolution!

Good luck!!

We've been exhibiting at the Hong Kong International Travel Expo this week. It's the first time we've had a stand at the show and we've been overwhelmed by the number of visitors and interest we've had!

Thank you to everyone who came by and to all those who entered our competitions and registered for iloho.

Here are some pictures of the event:

Visitors to the iloho booth

Jessica is interviewed for TV

And they queued and queued!

iloho is exhibiting at the Hong Kong International Travel Expo from 12 - 15 June at the HK Convention & Exhibition Centre. Come and visit us at booth 1B228!

650 exhibitors from Asia, Europe, America, Africa and the Middle East will be there representing over 50 countries and regions.

If you're in Hong Kong, it's a great chance to plan your 2009 travels. Last year I met the Ski Japan team at their booth and ended up using them to plan a trip to Niseko in March of this year.

We'd also love to meet you so please do come down. We'll be running daily prize draws to win iPod speakers, 1GB USB sticks, t-shirts and travel pillows too.

We've got tickets to give away, so if you're interested please leave a comment here and we'll get back to you.

Happy travels!

We're very excited to announce the launch of our new flight search and comparison function today.

If you've ever wanted to know who has the flattest beds in business, longed for an in-flight massage or wondered whether a first class goody bag is worth the premiere price tag it's time to put your mind at rest.

We aim to offer the best possible information about what airlines are really offering and to provide you with up-to-date data and users' insights to help you make the best travel decisions possible.

You can check out airlines' in-flight services, what food and drink they offer, luggage allowances, frequent flier services and check-in options. You can also see how other travellers rate carriers' customer service, comfort, food and drink, in-flight entertainment, cabin atmosphere and value for money. All the information is class specific.

Have a look in the "recent reviews" section here to see what people are saying about some of the flights they've taken.

You can search for direct and non-direct flights in any class of travel. Once your search results appear you just tick the boxes next to the flights you're interested in to see how they match up side-by-side.

If you've taken flights that you'd like to rant, rave or ramble about, please visit http://www.iloho.com/flight-search and share your experiences.

If you have any questions or comments please email us at info@iloho.com; we'd love to hear what you think of these new improvements!

We're delighted to announce that some exciting new functions go live on the site today, which we hope will make a really positive difference to your iloho experience. We're launching a new messaging function, we've redesigned the homepage and first time users will enter iloho via a nifty landing page that explains all ways our members can use the site.

You can now use our swanky new messaging function to network with your contacts on the site, and with friends outside the community; forward on interesting stories, ask for travel advice or just whisper sweet nothings to each other. You can access your brand new mailbox from the "mail" icon at the top of every page.

You'll notice our redesigned sidebar, which has clever expandable "drawers". The drawers open to reveal what's hot across the different areas of the site, your site history, plus recommendations for great travel books from Amazon and the latest deals from travel experiences specialist, isango!.

We've also made the searchable world map a bigger feature of the homepage, which should make searching for destination-specific content easier.

You can now add images to the travel articles you share so they make a big visual impact. When you submit a travel story, we'll search its source for images and display those available. You can then choose one and it will be displayed next to the story's synopsis. If you're linking to your own website or blog you get to show off your writing and photography skills at the same time!

We really hope these changes will make using iloho quicker, easier and better. We'd love to hear what you think, so please get in touch with comments and questions. You can leave them here or email them to us at info@iloho.com. Happy travels!

I'm afraid that after two very recent posts about BA I'm not going to go into their crash yesterday at Heathrow. I'm just very, very glad that no-one was seriously injured.

Instead I want to think about amazing travel photography. Where better to start on this subject than the fantastic blog Stuck in Customs. Trey Ratcliff is winning awards all over the place for the great work he's producing and blogging about online. His shots are proving popular with iloho users too and, thanks to the fact that Trey backs Creative Commons, are springing up in our own image gallery on a pretty regular basis.

We rate great travel photography so much that we've just set up a Flickr group for iloho users to share shots there too. We're always looking for brilliant images to use here on the blog and also in our weekly newsletter (you can subscribe for this on the iloho homepage). So, if you've got inspiring travel photography up your sleeve that you’re happy for us to use please share it on Flickr and in our Landmarks gallery.

One Night in Bangkok by Trey Ratcliff

And who are we to disagree?

Times Online – The Times of London's digital arm – has released their top picks of travel sites "that have shown real innovation during 2007 and which have launched or improved their offerings to become truly worthy of being added to a favourites list". Iloho has been chosen as one of the best travel networking sites of 2007.

We think they're pretty great too!

We’ve just set up two fabulous new Facebook groups, please come and join us there! One is focused on travel tips for Hong Kong and the other on what’s hot in Shanghai.

We’ll be talking about the best places to eat, drink and dance the night away. Plus, great places to stay, hot new openings and the events to be seen at.

The groups are perfect both for people living in Hong Kong and Shanghai and for travellers planning trips there. Let iloho be your concierge, city guide and travel buddy all in one.

Put us to the test and fire over questions about what to do, where to go, what not to miss and how to fit it all into the time you’ve got.

Everyone’s invited to join, so please pass along invitations to friends you think will be interested. The more the merrier.

Thanks,

The iloho team.

We're happy to announce that we've launched iloho beta 0.4 that is introducing a ton of great new features. This launch is really starting to bring the site together. Here are the highlights:

• You'll notice that we've added a map to our homepage that allows you to browse through the regions of the world to get the best travel content geographically
• You can now email articles that you find interesting to your friends
• You can add friends within the iloho network making it even easier to share stories and find fellow travelers
• We've completely overhauled the profile section to make it easy to see all of your site contributions and all activity related to your account

We hope you enjoy the new release and please get back to us with any suggestions.

Thanks from the iloho team!!!

In honor of this year's blog action day, iloho would like to contribute with a blog post about environmentally friendly travel.

So many of our travels allow us to bear witness to the natural beauty of the world around us. As travelers, we need to find ways to preserve the natural beauty of our planet so that future generations can follow our treks through the most spectacular vistas that the world has to offer.

So What Can We Do?

1) Try to use public transportation if you're going on vacation, but if you're going to rent, choose a mileage efficient vehicle. Try to find a company with a good reputation for providing environmentally friendly options. According to press releases, it seems Enterprise is making great strides in this area.

2) Save resources wherever possible, try to bring your own water bottle, bags, etc. Don't use a lot of disposable items. Here's a great post on water bottles and the impact of plastic bottles on the environment: Reusable water bottles you'll actually want to use

3) Look for environmentally friendly tours and hotels. Here's a great resource for that: Green Travel Resources

4) Choose a reputable charity to give to. There are a couple organizations that are dedicated to preserving natural landmarks that we'd like to mention here:

• The Nature Conservancy - one of the top rated organizations directed ant preserving nature. They have an excellent website, beautiful pictures, and a monthly publication. They have gift packages that you can give out for several programs such as "Rescue the Reef".
• The Conservation Fund - received an A+ rating from www.charitywatch.org. The Conservation fund focuses on land conservation in America.

Finally, as always, be courteous, respect those around you and their culture, and you'll find your travels much more rewarding.

On Monday, we launched a Landmark Photo Giveaway where everyone can win iPod speakers or a 1gig USB key just by posting 10 photos. So far it's been a great success. We've gotten 214 new landmark photos in the past week. We hope to keep building up the amount of landmark photography in the weeks to come.

Hello everyone and welcome to the new blog. We previously had a blog over on blogspot, which worked out very nicely. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone as a great low maintenance service. We just wanted a little bit more control so we moved over to simplelog.