Young Traveler Goild Winner: Batumi: A first glimpse of the New Georgia
by Stephen Robert Morse In late January, I arrived in Batumi, the Republic of Georgia's major city on the Black Sea. Georgia's pro-Western President, Mikheil Saakashvili, who was thrust into power in...
View ArticleYoung Traveler Silver Winner: Crashing Weddings and Beehives in Turkey’s Wild...
by Catherine Jaffee We open the hive and at least 100 bees hit my face like bullets. Around me, I hear sounds like hail pounding a rooftop. But it’s just the noise of bees attacking my suit. I look at...
View ArticleYouing Traveler Bronze Winner: If I Hear One More ‘Ciao Bella,’ I’m Going to...
by Tracy O'Neil "If I Hear One More 'Ciao Bella' I'm going to Scream" is a humorous story about my month abroad in Florence, Italy. I write about my encounters with the Italian men, and how they were...
View ArticleTravel and healing Bronze Winner: Letting Go on the Ganges
by Kristin Zibell A newly divorced women transitions from one life to another in Varanasi, India. Our boat dropped anchor in the middle of the Ganges, and a slight breeze brought relief from the...
View ArticleDelay in Solas Award winners announcement
The judges are a little behind schedule this year because of circumstances beyond their control, so the announcement of the winners of this year's Solas Awards will be delayed one week. Look for the...
View ArticleGrand Prize Gold Winner: Into the Hills
by Matthew Crompton “The ball that we hurled into infinite space, doesn’t it fill our hand differently with its return: heavier by the weight of where it has been?” —Rilke [1] Calcutta The impression...
View ArticleSeventh Annual Solas Awards Winners Announced
Check out the Awards page on BestTravelWriting.com for all of the results of the Seventh Annual Solas Awards.
View ArticleGrand Prize Silver Winner: Barren in the Andes
by Laura Resau Breathless, I hurry along narrow trails between Quichua family farms, past barking dogs, squawking chickens, curly-tailed piglets. My destination is a shaman who lives in this village...
View ArticleGrand Prize Bronze Winner (tie): Story Keepers
by Erin Byrne "I haven't been a saint my whole life, but I have done just this one thing." —René Psarolis N'oublions pas: Do not forget. As we crossed the Champs d'Elysees, I looked past Rogier's blond...
View ArticleGrand Prize Bronze Winner (tie): Moving West, Writing East
By Tom Miller I moved west to escape the East. I stayed west to inform the East. This took place in the late 1960s, when the anti-war movement and its cultural twin were both flowering. There's that...
View ArticleGold Award in Adventure Travel: Of Desert Nomads and Whales
By James Dorsey From the back of a camel the Sahara seemed endless; an infinite sea of low rolling dunes baked by a swirling sun that would be at home in a Van Gogh painting. For one month I had been...
View ArticleSilver Award in Adventure Travel: Walking the Roof of Africa
By Laura Lee Huttenbach An unprepared trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro turns into an adventure of a lifetime. “If you ever make it home from Africa alive, I’m going to kill you myself,” said my mom. She wasn’t...
View ArticleBronze Award in Adventure Travel: On the Trail of a Man Called Snake
By Taylor Jennings Crossing ethnic lines to find a notorious guerrilla leader. It was early March 1999 when Ilir, my young interpreter, and I set out from Pristina in a battered Lada cast off by some...
View ArticleGold Award in Animal Encounter: Before the Rain
By Bunny McBride . . . before the rain begins I always waken, listening to the world hold its breath. ~Lianne Spidel It was late, and I lay in my bed in a small round hut nestled against the Great Rift...
View ArticleSilver Award in Animal Encounter: Wind Horses of Mustang
By Molly Beer “Having a horse here is like having a motorbike in the city,” Bhupendra Sherchan explained the first day we rode out together on the flanks of snow-capped Nilgiri. The day was still...
View ArticleBronze Award in Animal Encounter: Trumpets of Warning
by Lisa Alpine Waking early our first full day at Little Governors' Camp in the Maasai Mara Reserve in Kenya, we were startled to see elephant, hippo, and warthog tracks circling close to the edges of...
View ArticleGold Award in Bad Trip: Like Their Own
by Saya Des Marais Dedicated to Humpeng and family of Sabai Sabai Massage & Restaurant in Nong Khiaw, Laos. May your compassionate laughter never change. I was in Nong Khiaw, a dry, quiet village...
View ArticleSilver Award in Bad Trip: Brazzaville Blues
By Marie Javins I awoke and peeked out of my room at Hotel Gabriella, which I'd crawled into late last night, after the 14.5 hour, 140-mile truck journey from the Congo-Gabon border to here in Dolisie....
View ArticleBronze Award in Bad Trip: Infectious Laughter
By Bruce Berger During the early Nineties I became aware that a new word was circulating in La Paz, borrowed from the English. The word was privacy and so fresh was the loan that speakers weren’t sure...
View ArticleGold Award in Cruise Story: Flying Dutchman
By Catherine Watson I’m startled, now that I am writing this, at seeing the many links to the sea in my life. And to exile. When I was eight, my heart’s desire was to run away to sea and be a cabin boy...
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