Gadling and AOL Travel Announce Cross-country Travel Blog

AOL Travel today announces "Traveling the American Road,” from Gadling, an AOL Travel Blog, launching June 1, 2011, from Chicago. Chronicled at TravelingTheAmericanRoad.com, the summer-long journey of blogger Eva Holland illustrates resurgent towns and cities across the country through real-time updates, video, geo-tagged photos, and interviews. The trans-America travel blog also highlights classic Americana and big American road-trip scenery, as well as showcases the people behind American tourism attractions.

"From new interests and new norms to old favorites and remembered pastimes, travel and travel-like experiences have changed dramatically in the last two years,” said Grant Martin, editor of Gadling, Huffington Post Media Group. "AOL Travel guides already cover many domestic and international destinations, so we wanted this series to delve much deeper into the successes and failures brought on by the country’s socio-economic challenges.”

Holland discovers the country in a fuel-efficient, 2011 Ford Explorer, engaging followers by allowing them to vote on points-of-interest within her itinerary such as restaurants and activities, provide recommendations, and share their opinions on the trip. Followers of the journey will be able to enter to win giveaways, meet the blogger along the way and get engaged in several other ways, including:

• The Visa Memory Mapper: Watch as Eva chronicles her latest adventures with Visa’s new Memory Mapper Facebook application. Using photos, videos, captions, music and geo-location technology, the Visa Memory Mapper creates a visual story of her travels.
• Gowalla: Find the latest stops from Holland’s Gowalla passport
• Twitter: Get up to speed with live Tweets from Hollands stops along the way, and suggestions from followers using hashtag #americanroad
• TweetUps: Connect with other followers by following AOL Travel and Gadling to learn when and where tweetups are happening
• Giveaways: Qualify for exclusive giveaways throughout the entire trip
• MapQuest Map Builder: Discover where Holland is heading next with the interactive map

Holland was chosen to tour the country for "Traveling the American Road” given her background as a lifelong road-trip enthusiast and acclaimed writer.

"‘Traveling the American Road’ inspires on so many levels,” said Holland. "Travel preferences and purpose are so individual, so personal, yet we see where communities grow and connect with visitors around the hospitality arena. I’m eager to help tell that story and perhaps inspire new travel by those who have had their dreams on the shelf for some time.”

Holland’s itinerary includes a variety of towns and attractions that offer a unique glimpse of Americana, including:

• Asheville, N.C.
• Baltimore
• Boston
• Cleveland
• Detroit
• New York
• Newport, R.I.
• Orlando
• Philadelphia
• St. Louis
• Washington D.C.

"Traveling the American Road” also showcases a variety of new travel essentials courtesy of its exclusive partners.

• Visa Memory Mapper: Available at www.facebook.com/visa, the Memory Mapper application allows users to upload photos and videos, input the locations in which each image originated, write captions, and add music to create a virtual keepsake of their adventures to share with family and friends via Facebook, email and Twitter.
• 2011 Ford Explorer: Holland will be driving the all-new 2011 Ford Explorer, featuring best-in-class highway fuel economy of 25 mpg and SYNC^® with MyFord Touch technology. As Holland travels across the country, she will use the features and technology in the Explorer to help her find her destinations.

Additionally, a number of AOL properties are providing access for their audiences and helpful tools on the site itself.

"AOL Travel and Gadling worked with a variety of Huffington Post Media Group sites to bring this story to life,” said Jared Smith, general manager, AOL Travel and Gadling. "This cross-platform program illustrates the seamless integration we work hard to provide our partners, advertisers and sister properties.”

About AOL

AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is a premier global media company with a suite of brands and products serving consumers, advertisers and publishers worldwide. The AOL Huffington Post Media Group is a leading source of news, opinion, entertainment, community and digital information comprised of a wide range of destination websites, including AOL.com, The Huffington Post, TechCrunch, Moviefone, Engadget, Patch, AOL Music, StyleList and MapQuest. The AOL Advertising.com Group includes Advertising.com, ADTECH, Pictela, Video, inclusive of goviral and 5min Media, Content Solutions and Sponsored Listings and serves a combined content and advertising market at scale through video, brand advertising, content and ad serving. AOL is focused on engaging consumers and providing online advertising services and solutions on both AOL Huffington Post Media Group destination websites and third party websites, in addition to serving consumer platforms including AOL Mail, AIM, about.me, and mobile experiences. AOL also operates one of the largest Internet subscription access services that serves as another distribution channel for its consumer offerings.