By Lakshmi: 

Who?  Who knew that some late afternoon browsing and twittering would lead to the discovery of a website that brings together artists who visually illustrate all their favorite places to live, visit and eat.

What?  http://www.theydrawandtravel.com/ is a website that was created by Nate Padavick and Salli Swindell, a brother and sister design and illustration team who have been working together for over 10 years.

How?  If you are visiting a city and want a quick visual map of all the major attractions to cover or simply want to explore the highlights of one or more cities, this site presents the information as total eye candy.

Why? I have been a big fan of visual data depiction and am in love with several of the infographic maps that have been featured in Fast Company, Time and other magazines lately.  And discovering a site that has elevated these maps to an art form made for a very joyous Saturday afternoon.

Since we had recently discovered the DUMBO area of New York City, we started our site exploration with a search for an illustrated map of DUMBO.  We were excited to not only be met with a beautiful visual illustration, but were happy to find that all of the things that delighted us were on this map.  We went on to search for Istanbul and found not one but several illustrations, each by a different artist.  From a map of where to find the best vegetarian dishes in Berlin to what to eat in Tuscany, from understanding typical Austrian foods to finding flea markets in Bangkok, the site has an eclectic collection of maps.

Please do visit this site and let us know your reactions.  We hope as fellow travel enthusiasts you are just as excited as us about this discovery.