This week we've decided to spice up our weekly collection of travel links with a bit of healthy competition. As well as the usual generous helping of interesting and amusing blog posts, images, hotels, people and videos, we also bring you the first ever winner of guardian.co.uk Travel's Blog of the Month. To find out who won, read on, and if you know of a contender for the title, or want to tell us about any travel gems you've stumbled across online, find out how at the bottom of the page.

• We are big fans of pictures that make you go "ooh..." Which, by default, makes us big fans of the Big Picture series at Boston.com The recent post on China's lantern festival made us go "ooooh" 21 times, and then "Oh dear" six times. Be warned though, there are some disturbing reportage pictures on this site.

• And lo, the comparison revolution sweeps into the valley of the budgeteer. A little while back we covered the various travel comparison sites that help travellers find the best value flights, hotels and packages ... and recently we stumbled upon TFTHostels.com, a hostel comparison site to add to the list. Thanks to the Indie Travel Podcast for the tip-off.

• More hot news from our Twitter-isn't-just-a-global-guff-festival department. A few months ago we demonstrated the awe-inspiring capability of Twitter to deliver live tips, and BrilliantTrips have riffed on the theme with their Travel Tweets service ... offering live travel tips to anyone, anywhere.

• Ok. We're really not sure what to make of this one, and had quite a heated debate on the desk about it, we really did. The Girl's Guide to the World is an, um, interesting offering indeed, packed with lady-aimed spas, bars and snazzy hotels. What do you reckon?

• By reading this, you are taking part in a carnival. A blog carnival, which is when lots of links come together for a massive party. The Tux in a Backpack is the James Bond of the flashpacking world, who, like us, is obsessed with up-market hostels. Here's the blog carnival he held last week, featuring a splurge of boutique hostel-related offerings.

• This week's travel porn comes courtesy of a tangent on a tangent. We found ourselves browsing through the Spanish Paradors - the collection of state-owned castles, monasteries and historic buildings that have been converted into hotels - and then thought it would be rude if we didn't browse through the Portugese versions, the Pousadas. Then we discovered that one of Portugal's pousadas manages to be in Brazil, which is very impressive indeed.

Guardian.co.uk Travel Blog of the Month: Unearthing Asia

The more astute among you might have noticed that Asia is a pretty big place. Ergo, any blog that claims to span the entire continent has got a pretty big brief to maintain. But Unearthing Asia spreads itself well, with eight bloggers scattered across Asia, from Kolkata to Singapore to Shanghai, and coverage that ranges from Oceania to Turkey. But this blog caught our attention, not because of its breadth, but because of its ability to reach the part other blogs don't - as recent posts on Tashkent, Redang Island and Xinjiang demonstrate.