I have been teasing it all week on Instagram and finally, I’m really excited that you can now see the redesign.

 It all started with the inspiration moodboard which evokes the feeling that I want you to have when you come here: peace, relaxation, tranquillity, beauty and happiness!

I have been blogging for three years now and was tempted to change the look of the blog many times.  When you see so many gorgeous sites out there, you can’t help but think you could do better with yours.

But I’m glad that I waited until I found Myriam from the Stylish blog and Miria Studio.  She truly understood what I wanted to achieve: a clean, minimal but appealing look which above all provides clear direction and help for the reader.  I love her work and I hope you do too!

What’s New for you!

My goal with the redesign was really to make it easier and quicker for you to find your dream accommodation.  Now, you can do the following:

• Search and find your dream destination more quickly – a new advanced search tool let you search all accommodations by selecting your country, budget, type of accommodations and criteria such as pool, next to a beach, city stay etc.. The advanced search is available on the home page and on the “start here” page.

• Find lists easily – “collections” : your most frequent requests are now arranged in collections such as “beach boutique hotels”, or “ski hotels”, etc… Again accessible via the Start Here page
• Read personal reviews – “visited by”=  hotels or villas where we or my readers have stayed are now clearly identified via a “visited by From the Poolside” stamp on the first photo.  The other places are hotels or villas where we would like to stay. While we haven’t been there yet, they certainly have my stamp of approval!

• See all photos in one go:  a new gallery format allows you to click on any image in the row of thumbnails and open a gallery with all photos for a place.
• Browse by country in Destinations – you can see them via a list of countries or as before, zoom in on the map.
• Be inspired – all the latest finds and my own musings are now under “Blog”. If you want to go straight to all the hotels, remember you can use the advanced search.

I would love to know what you think of the redesign.  If you also have suggestions for new features or find bugs, do let me know in the comments or email me.