“Extraordinary stories about travel and the human spirit have been the cornerstones of our books since 1993. With the Solas Awards we honor writers whose work inspires others to explore. We’re looking for the best stories about travel and the world funny, illuminating, adventurous, uplifting, scary, inspiring, poignant stories that reflect the unique alchemy that occurs when you enter unfamiliar territory and begin to see the world differently as a result. We hope these awards will be a catalyst for those who love to leave home and tell others about it.”

Stories must be a minimum of 750 words or a maximum of 5,500 words. We recommend, however, shorter pieces in the 1000-3000 word range. To be eligible for the award, all entries and payments must be received by the deadline and must be submitted through this web site. This paragraph represents just a partial description of the rules. Be sure to read the Official Rules before entering the competition.

Entry fees: $25 for the first two optional categories, $5 for each additional category for the same story.

Destination Story
The best story about a place that captures its essence and reveals its attractions, making the reader want to go there

Adventure Travel
The best story of high adventure, danger, or physical challenge

Funny Travel
The funniest account of a misadventure or an essay about how the world can make us laugh at ourselves and those around us

Women’s Travel
The best account by a woman of an encounter or experience on the road

Bad Trip
The best account of when things go wrong, or the shadow side of a culture or individual

Travel and Transformation
The best story about the inner journey or pilgrimage, whether religious, mystical, psychological, or emotional

Travel and Food
The best story where food or drink plays a role in introducing the traveler to a foreign culture or new friends

Doing Good or the Kindness of Strangers
The most inspiring tale of aid, comfort, philanthropy, or caring for others in faraway places, or of being the recipient of a stranger’s largesse

Culture and Ideas
The best story or essay about how art, history, currents events, fashion, or music affected a traveler or a trip

Family Travel
The best story about traveling with family of all generations grandparents, parents, children, cousins, siblings or journeying to discover roots

Love Story: The best account of love or romance on the road

Cruise Story: The best account of a trip on the water in any vessel, from the smallest kayak to the largest ship

Most Unforgettable Character: The story that best captures how one individual or group of people affected a traveler in a meaningful way

Travel and Sports: The best account of a sports activity while traveling, such as climbing, rafting, sailing, trekking, swimming, kayaking, canoeing, fishing, skiing, baseball, Frisbee, polo, basketball

Travel and Shopping: The best account of a shopping, bargaining, or haggling experience in a market, bazaar, outlet, or mall, anywhere in the world

Travel and Healing: The best story about visits with shamans, healers, holy men and women, or holy sites in search of a cure for illness or psychological malady

Travel Memoir: The best story that draws heavily on the writer’s past to make a point or reveal the lessons of a lifetime

Elder Travel: The best story from a traveler 65 years of age or older

Animal Encounter: The best account of meeting snakes, elephants, rhinos, gorillas, birds, or other creatures

Men’s Travel: The best account by a man of a testosterone-fueled encounter or experience on the road

Grand Prize for Best Travel Story of the Year:

$1,000 Gold
$750 Silver
$500 Bronze

Bragging rights for Gold, Silver, and Bronze (no cash awards in categories).

Enter one or more categories and you’re automatically entered for the Grand Prize.

13th Annual Expatriate and Work Abroad Writing Contest 2020

Professionals and freelancers are encouraged to write non-fiction inspirational and practical articles that describe their experience living, moving, and working abroad. Often your experience is extended and transformed by activities in the host country, so living, working, studying, and traveling abroad are often inextricable — and we are interested in exploring all such organic interconnections.

We are seeking practical and inspiring mini-guides that also provide in-depth descriptions of your experience moving, living, and working abroad (including any form of work such as teaching English, internships, volunteering, short-term jobs, etc.).

Please contact expatriatewritingcontest@transitionsabroad.com should you have any questions. We except one entry per participant.

Cash prizes are as follows:

• $500 cash prize for the first place winner
• $150 for the second place winner
• $100 for the third place winner
• $50 for all finalists

Submit an original and unpublished essay or mini-guide of between 1,200 and 5,000 words relating to your experience living, moving, or working abroad.

• January 15, 2020, to February 29, 2020: The Nowhere Emerging Travel Writers’ Prize [NOW OPEN] – We are looking for never-been-published, long-form fiction, short story, narrative nonfiction, essay or poetry—that possess a powerful sense of place.
• March 1, 2020, to July 15, 2020: The Nowhere Spring Travel Writing Prize
• July 16, 2020, to September 30, 2020: Open Call: Words
• October 1, 2020, to November 20, 2020: The Nowhere Fall Travel Writing Prize
• Year-round: Open Call: Photography

The piece must be a true story, based on the writer’s personal experience and written as a first-hand account, in the first person and in English.

• Only accepts articles from published print book authors or anthology editors.
• Narrative features.
• This web magazine is published monthly, with four feature articles per issue, plus travel-related book reviews.
• 1,200 to 2,000 words
• Supply a range of six or more good and varied digital photos (after the story is accepted)

What is the perfect story for Perceptive Travel? For a start, something that is a square peg for all the round holes out there. Think Travelers’ Tales, not Travel & Leisure. The long-form, gripping articles in Outside or on NPR’s This American Life, not the surface-level fluff in a AAA magazine. We’re not interested in guidebook-type destination rundowns or stories that are very wide in scope. Think small and focused. Tell us a good story or immerse us in a place we haven’t already read about a hundred times. Have a point, a clear angle, and make us want to care enough to keep reading to the end. Be yourself, follow your instincts, tell us the real deal. There’s no set tone you have to follow: write like Hemingway or write like Rushdie—as long as it’s really you that’s talking and you have something unique to say.

• 1250+ words
• We are always looking for experienced published writers to become regular columnists or contributing editors.
• Freelancers beginning their travel writing career are welcome to send submissions “on spec” after carefully reading some of our featured articles to understand our editorial preferences and ensure you are not writing an article on content previously covered.
• Practical information and inspiration relating to educational and cultural immersion travel abroad.

They have a very extensive set of guidelines and suggested travel niches they’re looking for relevant content for. So spend time getting to know what they’re looking for, and find a niche that is a good fit for your travel brand and platform, which includes off the beaten path travel, as well as volunteering, working, living, or studying abroad. If you travel, for whatever reason, and have a story to tell, this is an excellent publication to pitch.

At World Nomads, they like to tell stories that go deeper than the location itself – they’re all about unique local experiences, culture, or people.

• 500+ words (up to 2500 words
• ITKT uses 52 featured articles a year
• They publish 1st person narratives that includes something about culture or positive tourism (sustainable, eco, what makes a destination unique)

The 2019 Contest begins October 15, 2018, and all entries must be received by September 1, 2019. Transitions Abroad Publishing, Inc. will require first-time North American rights for all submissions which are accepted as contest winners and for publication. In addition, Transitions Abroad Publishing, Inc. will reserve the right to reprint the story in a future publication.

Details are at the bottom of the Transitions Abroad page … after all of the entries from previous years.

Do you know the best time of day or year to visit? Maybe you know the back way in? Whatever it is, we want to know all of your advice for having a quiet and unique experiences at one of the classic locations above.

Send them your tips in approximately 100–150 words for your chance to win!

We’re on the hunt for stories about the kindness of strangers. Has a taxi driver ever stopped to offer you directions? Did someone go out of their way to return your lost wallet? Maybe a fellow traveller helped you to complete a tricky trek. Whatever your tale, we want to know it.

Share your anecdote with us for the chance to win a travel goody bag.

(500-800 words) that may include one or all of the following ingredients: it might elicit the essence of a particular Naturetrek tour or region, present a flavour (amusing or otherwise) of travelling as part of a wildlife tour group, and/or incorporate your tour’s wildlife highlight(s). It must be written in clear, concise prose and convey a vivid sense of place, as well as the excitement and joy of experiencing the natural world.

The winner will receive one place on a European Naturetrek holiday up to the value of £1,500 OR a £1,000 voucher towards any Naturetrek holiday of her/his choice. There will be a second prize of a £500 Naturetrek Voucher, and a third prize of a £250 Naturetrek Voucher.

Entries should ideally be sent by email (to sara@naturetrek.co.uk) though handwritten entries submitted by post will also be considered

https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel/2019/03/national-geographic-traveller-uk-travel-writing-competition-2019

General submissions for written pieces are closed during our fall and spring writing contests. STATUS: OPEN for narrative; OPEN for photo essays. Click the More Information link to submit a general piece between competitions.

The Irish Times, in association with Travel Department, is inviting aspiring writers to compose a travel story for consideration for publication in The Irish Times Magazine. The author of the best entry, as selected by our judges, will have their article published in The Irish Times Magazine, and will win a holiday in Tenerife next Easter.

This year I Must Be Off are considering any form—non-fiction, fiction, or poetry—as long as the subject is travel or has a strong sense of place. The entry fee for the competition is $3. The Grand Prize is $300. The competition will be judged by world traveler, writer and editor Michelle Elvy.

To enter the competition, you should write a piece of 600–800 words relating to the theme ‘Out of the Blue‘. The piece must be original, written in the first person and based on personal experience relating to the theme.

Entries should be no more than 750 words in length and should be written in English. We expect most entries will be factual travel writing, however we are happy to accept entertaining fictional articles which fit with the competition theme. Tick the box when submitting to indicate a fictional entry.

This Travel Writing Competition is Free To Enter and offers £200 in prizes. The author of the best entry will receive a cash prize of £100. Ten runners-up will each receive £10 Amazon UK Vouchers.

Bradt Travel Guides is on the hunt for entertaining, out-of-the-ordinary true stories of family travel for inclusion in a new book – provisionally titled Travelling with Kids – due for publication in autumn 2019. The book will be the latest in Bradt’s series of travel anthologies (To Oldly Go, Roam Alone and Beastly Journeys). If you have a story that’s inspiring, amusing, quirky, thrilling or even downright frightening (albeit with a happy ending) this is your chance to see it immortalised in print.

As before, entries must be 500-1000 words and entrants are limited to one entry per monthly competition (March, April, May, June and July). Each monthly winner will win $50/£40.

The overall winner’s prizes:

1. $300/£240
2. $200/£160
3. $100/£80.

These overall winners will be chosen by an independent panel of judges and announced early in September. 

Length: Stories should be between 1,000 and 2,000 words long, and written in the first person.

If you think you’ve got what it takes to write for us, enter our annual Travel Writing Competition. Your work could appear in National Geographic Traveller (UK) and you could win a place on a two-week hiking, biking and kayaking trip to Thailand with G Adventures.

There will be five monthly prizes of $50 (£40) for the best stories entered in February/March, April, May, June and July.

In addition there will be overall prizes awarded to the Top 3 stories as decided by a panel of independent judges. Prizes will be: 1st – $150 (£120), 2nd – $100 (£80) and 3rd – $50 (£40).

If selected, your story will also appear in the 2018 Edition of Travel Stories and Highlights.

** $20 entry fee **

(They also host a Spring competition each year)

@NowhereMag

Spring Competition: May 31, 2018

Stories can be fiction, nonfiction or essay, but please indicate which genre at the top of your manuscript. Entries should be between eight hundred and five thousand words.

** $20 entry fee **