'The Next Great Storyteller' Competition closes soon...

National Geographic and Matador Network have teamed up in a competition to find 'The Next Great Storyteller.'

Think you have what it takes to a great travel storyteller?

Can you move, touch, surprise, and entertain with your stories?

Then this is the competition for you.

Here's what you have to do.

Submit a story in any of these four categories by March 31st...

Blog (300 words or less)Magazine Article (700 words or less)Video (No more than 3 minutes)Photo Essay (5 photos or less on a single subject)

The First Prize winner in each category will be...

"...invited to a “Storytellers’ Day” with the National Geographic Traveler editorial staff at National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, DC. Airfare from any location in the US and one night in a hotel will be paid for by NGS for each winner. Each winner will also receive a one-year subscription to National Geographic Traveler magazine."

There's not much time left.

To find out more and to enter, head over The Next Great Storyteller page.

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Go with Oh Travel Blogger competition...

Imagine free accommodation for a month in four European cities.

Sounds a lot like an impossible dream.

But the folks over at Go with Oh, a holiday accommodation site, is going to make this dream happen for some lucky blogger.

Interested?

All you have to do to enter is write a blog post about 5 things you'd most like to do in one of Go with Oh's accommodation destinations.

It shouldn't be to hard to do, given that their destinations are Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Vienna, Prague, Venice, Dublin, and Florence.

In fact, the only hard part would be decided which destination to write about.

Check out Go with Oh's Blogger Competition page for more information on how to enter this amazing competition.

Are you in?

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52 Perfect Days Food and Wine Travel Writing Contest...

52 Perfect Days fourth annual travel writing contest is now open for submissions.


The topic this year is Culinary or Wine Tourism.


Submission guidelines...

* article no more than 1,000 words on your perfect experience with Wine or Culinary tourism 

* detail how to spend a perfect day, evening, weekend, or week focusing on one of the following: wineries, tastings and tours, culinary explorations including culinary schools, foodie tours, B7Bs well known for their food or pairings, and food movements in particular cities. Or share a day of exploring the best restaurants, food carts, wine bars that a particular location has to offer.

* the travel story must be not only unique, engaging, and exciting to the reader and but also well-crafted and well edited.

* send the completed article and photographs to this email  

The four best entries as chosen by the 52 Perfect Days editors, will wine one of these prizes


- a trip to Calistoga in Napa Valley Wine Country


- a trip to Valle de Guadalupe in Baja Wine Country


- a WordPress website by ZDDesign


- a BottleWise Rollup wine travel case


Interested?


Then read the full submission guidelines and get writing.


Deadline for submissions is November 31, 2012

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Wanderlust Magazine's travel writing advice...

Travel magazine Wanderlust has published a few online articles focusing on travel writing...

Peter Moore, Wanderlust's associate web editor and author of six travel narratives, provides tips on How to convince a publisher to put out your travel book.

Peter Whitfield, author of Travel: A Literary History, offers 7 top tips to be a better travel writer

Book editor Jennifer Barclay gives the inside scoop on how to get your travel book published

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Photo Friday: Port-a-loos in the Gardens

Not exactly what you'd expect to see in when wandering through a city's botanic gardens. But in Christchurch, New Zealand, nothing is as you expect it these days.

To find out the story behind the photos, head over to Perceptive Travel Blog.

Part of the Delicious Baby photo friday network

image credit: Liz Lewis

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Wanderlust and Lipstick Travel Writing Contest...

Wanderlust and Lipstick are seeking entries for their fourth annual travel writing contest.

Amateur and professional female travel writers are encouraged to enter this travel writing contest which features a grand prize of an Unlimited-Luxury® 7-day stay for two at Secrets Huatulco Resort & Spa in Conejos Bay, Mexico.

The contest runs October 1, 2011 through December 31, 2011, and the winning writers will be announced in mid- February.

Entries may be submitted under one of the following categories: Adventure, Food & Drink, Off the Beaten Path or Spiritual.

Click on submission guidelines for more details about the travel writing contest and how to enter.

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Travel Writing Miscellanea....

Discover the 10 of the Most Beautiful Libraries and Bookshops to Visit on Your Travels with BootsnAll.com

Zoe Davis from The Quirky Traveler offers 10 questions & top tips before going on a Blog Trip

Three travel Editors Speak Their Mind over at Travel Writing 2.0

National Geographic listed the Top 10 Literary Cities

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52perfectdays.com hiring travel writers...

52perfectdays.com, a site that provides travel articles and ideas on what to do in various cities around the United States, are currently hiring travel writers.

In particular they are looking for 52 Perfect Days City Guides for Palm Springs (Coachella Valley) and Denver, as well as taking applications for guides for all their other locations on the 52perfectdays.com site.

According to the website, compensation will be $500 per month and increase to $750 per month after a trial period.

Interested?

Find out more on these travel writing jobs here

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Travel Writing Miscellanea....

thebookseller.com reports

AA Publishing expands into narrative travel

brainpickings.org reviews

The Geography of Bliss: The Secrets of the Happiest Places on Earth

The Telegraph reports on

Storymoja Hay Festival in Nairobi: Day one

The Guardian features

My favourite travel book, by the world's greatest travel writer

Wired.co.uk writes about

Africa's past landscapes revealed in historical travel accounts

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Editor Lavina Spalding looking for submissions for 'The Best Women's Travel Writing' anthology...

Writer and editor Lavina Spalding has put out a call for submissions for the 8th annual anthology of 'The Best Women's Travel Writing' to be published by Traveller's Tales.


The deadline is 1st October 2011. 


Guideline submissions can be found over at Lavina Spalding's website.


To submit, please send your story in a doc or docx file to laviniaspalding@yahoo.com AND submit via the Travelers' Tales website, here:  http://www.travelerstalesstories.com/author_info.cfm
It's important that you do both.

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Family travel writing competition for UK writers....

UK family travel site, Have a Lovely Time, is celebrating their new look with a single theme travel writing competition open for all UK residents over the age of 18.

Here's the what it's all about...

With a title of Beautiful Britain, our family travel writing competition aims to celebrate all that’s great about family adventures in our stunning land. That might include breathtaking adventures in the Lakes, laughing til your sides ache at a family-friendly Edinburgh festival, savouring the splendour of the West Wales coastline, a Devon cream tea or a knees up at a holiday park…or of course plenty more.

Wherever you love to find quality family time in Britain – we want to hear about it.

We’re looking for entries about family holidays, breaks, days out or adventures.

For more information, including submission guidelines and prizes, head over to the Beautiful Britain Travel Writing Competition webpage.

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California Snapshot: Old Town Temecula

Known as Southern California’s Napa Valley, Temecula has transformed in the past few decades from a sleepy commuter town into a must visit wine destination.

But there’s more to Temecula than just wine as I soon discovered.

Arriving tired and exhausted after the two hour ‘white knuckle’ drive through the maze of Los Angeles freeways, the welcoming Temecula Creek Inn beckoned like a home away from home. Within minutes, I’d booked in, unpacked, and was on the veranda outside my room, coffee in hand, breathing in the fresh air and enjoying the view of Temecula Creek’s sprawling 27 hole golf course.

Checking out the next morning, I programmed the GPS for Old Town Temecula. First on the agenda was breakfast. On the recommendation of the Temecula Creek Inn’s front desk staff, I headed for Swing Inn Café where, they promised, I’d find some real home cooking and they sure weren‘t kidding. A favorite with locals and visitors alike, the Swing Inn Café was busy with a constant stream of people coming in and out.

After filling up on pancakes and eggs, it was time to do some walking and Old Town, with plenty of history and shops, was just the place to do it.

Armed with a tour map from the Temecula Valley Museum, I wandered the streets of Old Town, learning about the various historic buildings, including the Hotel Palomar, the town’s first modern hotel with electricity and indoor restrooms.

Turns out that the Hotel Palomar and the Swing Inn Café, both built in 1927, are the only two historic buildings in Temecula that still run the same type of business that they were built for.

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A Misadventure Travel Writing Contest...

Book publishers Bantam Dell are running a travel writing contest in conjunction with the release of author Rachel Friedman travel memoir The Good Girl’s Guide to Getting Lost.

They are calling for entries of 500 words or less that describe your most memorable travel mishap.

The bigger the misadventure the better - double points if there’s a language barrier. Triple points if your life flashed before your eyes

Submit them to rachelfriedmanwriter@gmail.com with your contact information no later than May 6th, 2011, and by June 1st Rachel will choose one lucky winner to receive a year’s worth of travel reading* (not limited to travelogues, but fiction and nonfiction set in foreign destinations) with the option to choose 10 books from a list of up to 20, including:

One Fodor’s title of a destination of the winner’s choice
You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
Into the Wild by John Krakauer
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
Istanbul by Orham Pamuk
Blind Descent by James M. Tabor
Mad Dogs and an Englishwoman by Polly Evans
A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen
A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz

One entry per person, valid in the 50 United States and District of Columbia. Void where prohibited.

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Traveler's Tales have announces the 2011 Sola Awards Winners for Best Travel Writing...

Traveler's Tales have announced the 2011 Solas Awards winners:

Grand Prize for Best Travel Story of the Year

Gold ($1,000)
The Memory Bird by Carolyn Kraus

Silver ($750)
Masha by Marcia DeSanctis

Bronze ($500)
Beneath the Rim by Michael Shapiro

Travel writers also had the chance to enter and win in over 20 different travel writing categories. To find out who won what in which category, head over to the 2011 Solas Awards winners page.

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The 2010 NATJA Awards for Great Travel Writing...

February must be award season for travel writers.

Not only have the finalists for the Weblog Award for best travel blog been announced but so have the winners of this year's NATJA awards.

The NATJA awards honor the 'best of the best' with gold, silver, and bronze awards in 61 categories ranging from best independent blog to special focus travel articles (internet)such as these two published in Perceptive Travel - Two Wheels, Two Drinks: Biking Through America’s Heartland and Once Upon a Time in Vienna

Discover who won what for yourself at the NATJA 2010 awards webpage.

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Take a Travel Writing Course in Italy...

The Sydney Writers’ Centre, in partnership with Bookshop Travel, are running a unique writing retreat in Italy between Friday 16 September to Friday 30 September 2011.

Live like a local for two weeks in Florence during which time Sue White, one of Australia's busiest and most widely-published travel writers, will be presenting...

"...a series of eight morning travel writing classes...including practical workshops that simulate a press trip and a hands-on field trip so that your tutor can illustrate the practical aspects of note-taking and observation while travelling."

Class topics include

"...Knowing Your Market, Life on the Road, Walking the Streets, Hitting Your Target Audience, The Details You Need, How to Handle a Press Trip, Workshopping your Travel Writing, Selling Your Work and much more."

Afternoons will be left free for participants to explore the city of Florence and beyond.

You can find more information about Travel Writing in Italy 2011
 at the Sydney Writers' Centre website.

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Friday Photo: Port Said Policeman...

One of the stops on last year's Dawn Princess World Cruise was Port Said, one of the busiest ports in the world. Just before the Dawn Princess docked, the port was empty except for those guiding the ship in. But within minutes of arrival, out came the hackers, tables and tents were set up with items for sale and the whole dock took on a carnival atmosphere.

Overlooking this activity from a strategic place along the road above the dock, a lone policeman leaned casually against the railings.

(part of the Photo Friday network)

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Plenty of time left to Pure Travel's 2011 Travel Writing Competition...

Pure Travel, in association with Geographical magazine, is has launched their second annual travel writing competition.

Entries should be between 350 and 750 words with the focus on a memorable travel encounter. For inspiration, check out the 2010 winning article.

Deadline is 31 October 2011.

Prizes: The winner will receive £1,000 or US$1,500, with the winning article published in Geographical magazine, the official magazine of the Royal Geographical Society.

Full details available at the PureTravel website.

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Still time for New Zealand Travel Writers and Photographers to enter the annual Cathay Pacific Travel Media Awards...

Organized by Travcom, a not-for-profit association of New Zealand travel writers, photographers, broadcasters and travel-related communicators promoting New Zealand, the annual Cathay Pacific Travel Media Awards offers great prizes for both published and unpublished work.

The Cathay Pacific Travel Writer of the Year Award and Cathay Pacific Travel Photographer of the Year Award will each receive two return tickets to Nepal travelling with Cathay Pacific plus $500 towards travel expenses, and a six-day 'Taste of Nepal' tour with Adventure World.

Plus there's an array of other awards to compete for...

Writing awards:

• Auckland Airport Award for the Best Magazine Travel Story

• Navigate Oceania Award for the Best Newspaper Travel Article

• Heritage Hotels Award for the Best Travel Article Written About New Zealand
• Interislander Award for the Best Article About a Journey

• Visit Britain and Tourism Ireland Award for the Best Travel Article Written About Britain and/or Ireland

• AA Directions Magazine Award for Best New Travel Writer

Photographic awards:

• Kiwi Experience Award for the Best Travel Image taken in New Zealand and Pacific Islands

• Leica Award for the Best Travel Image Taken Outside New Zealand
• Air Vanuatu & Mangoes Resort Award for the Best Series of Travel Images

• AA Directions Magazine Award for the Best Travel Image with People

• Epson Award for the Best Unpublished Travel Image

For more information see, check out the Cathay Pacific Travel Media Awards 2011 page at Travcom

Deadline is 4th February 2011

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New Trazzler Travel Writing Contest...

Trazzler's latest travel writing contest is all about juxtapositions, which, according to the Trazzler newsletter, is

"just a fancy way of getting folks to write about places with interesting contrasts and thought-provoking diversity."

To enter this writing contest, you need to create a short (65 -120 word) post about...

any place where you discovered a surprising cultural or natural contrast--we're leaving it wide open to your interpretation.

Entries will be accepted until February 15, 2011

Prizes:
One Editors' Choice Grand Prize - 10 free hotel nights + $2,000 freelance contract to write 25 trips about Chicago neighborhoods.

Two Editors' Choice Runners Up - Prize: 5 free hotel nights + $1000 freelance contract to write 15 trips about Chicago neighborhoods

For more information, read the FAQ's, Trazzler's writing guide, and official rules.

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