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TravelAwaits

Our mission is to serve the 50+ traveler who's ready to cross a few items off their bucket list.

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Best Of Travel Awards

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TravelAwaits readers highlight their favorite travel destinations, businesses, and experiences during our annual Best Of Travel Awards. Readers nominate their favorite small towns, big cities, national parks, resorts, restaurants, and much more, in hopes that they will earn the Best Of Travel crown. Nominations are reviewed by a panel of travel industry experts and writers for accuracy, and then readers vote for the remaining finalists to determine the winners in each category.

Each year, our team is excited to see which towns and businesses make the list: Often, we are introduced to spectacular hidden gems that we were previously unaware of. We look forward to learning your favorites! Nominations open in mid-February, with voting commencing around the first of April.

Voting has concluded; you can find all of the most recent winners here!

Meet Our Panel

TravelAwaits partners with a panel of travel industry experts and travel writers from around the globe for the Best Of Travel Awards. The panel is tasked with sifting through the thousands of nominations that come in from readers and whittling them down to the finalists that move along to the voting round. The panel works collaboratively and with integrity to ensure that only the readers’ favorite businesses and destinations earn the title “Best Of Travel.”

Industry Panelists

Julie Roller Weeks
Julie Roller Weeks
Visit Abilene, Kansas: Director, Convention & Visitors Bureau

Julie Roller Weeks is a proud ruby sneaker-wearing tourism professional with more than 15 years in the Kansas tourism industry. She currently serves as the Past President of the Travel Industry Association of Kansas. In her free time, she enjoys exploring the Midwest and pursuing her quest of finding mini-Statues of Liberty.

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Erica Backus
Erica Backus
Visit Savannah: Director Of Public Relations & Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion

Erica has been with Visit Savannah since 1999 where she currently serves as the Director of Public Relations and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategy.

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Janice Waugh
Janice Waugh
Founder, Solo Traveler

Janice Waugh is founder, publisher, and contributor to Solo Traveler, an online publication founded in 2009. Solo Traveler’s mission is to inspire, inform, and advocate for those who travel alone. With over a quarter million active members of the Solo Travel Society on Facebook, Solo Traveler serves a large, diverse, and engaged community. Weekly newsletters provide over 57,000 subscribers with additional content, including 100+ solo travel tours and cruises with no or low single supplements from a wide array of travel operators.

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Kevin Murphy
Kevin Murphy
Professor, Rosen College of Hospitality Management (UCF)

Kevin Murphy is a professor at the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. He has been a chef, traveler, and educator since his early twenties. He has a passion for international destinations, having visited over 30 countries across six continents. He has also traveled to all but six U.S. states and counting.

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Phil Selleck
Phil Selleck
Retired National Park Ranger

Phil Selleck divides his time between the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania and Falls Church, Virginia. He began his 30-year career with the National Park Service patrolling the parks as a law enforcement
park ranger. He rose through the ranks, leaving his position as Chief Ranger at Delaware Water Gap to work at NPS headquarters, Washington D.C. He finished his career as an associate regional director supporting park operations in the National Capital Region. Phil also held positions with the US Forest Service and US Bureau of Land Management as a wildland firefighter.

Phil’s been working for National Park Trust since leaving the NPS in 2016, supporting the acquisition of land critical for transfer to and protection of national parks.

Phil has been a national park visitor for almost 50 years, camping and hiking in units of the National Park System from coast to coast including Hawaii and the Caribbean.

He graduated from Michigan State University with a B.S. in zoology in 1973. He grew up playing and vacationing in the woods, fields and lakes of Michigan, which led him to his study of and dedication to conservation in the national parks. He is a life member of the Association of National Park Rangers.

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Christy Karsten
Christy Karsten
Airline Pilot

Christy Karsten is an airline pilot who loves to travel and explore the globe. When she’s not exploring the world on a jet, she’s adventuring the road less traveled, shopping, and enjoying local foods. She has been to five continents; with each trip, her bucket list continues to overflow while her list of destinations continues to expand. At her home in Southern California, she spends her time working out, hiking, and researching her next global journey. Depending on the day, this wife and mother is either an international airline pilot or a travel-hungry globetrotter.

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TravelAwaits’ Writer Panel: United States

Stan Thomas
Stan Thomas
West Coast (California)
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Peggy Cleveland
Peggy Cleveland
Pacific Northwest (Washington)
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Cindy Barks
Cindy Barks
Southwest (Arizona)
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Sara Broers
Sara Broers
Co-Founder, Midwest Travel Network
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Tim Trudell
Tim Trudell
Midwest (Nebraska)
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Fred Mays
Fred Mays
Southeast (Florida)
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Sandi Barrett
Sandi Barrett
New England (Massachusetts)
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Nancy Schretter
Nancy Schretter
Cruise Expert (Virginia)
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Tim Johnson
Tim Johnson
Cruise Expert
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TravelAwaits’ Writer Panel: International

Alison Browne
Alison Browne
North America: Canada
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Jill Browne
Jill Browne
North America: Canada
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Louisa Rogers
Louisa Rogers
North America: Mexico
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Sheryl Nance-Nash
Sheryl Nance-Nash
Caribbean: Jamaica
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Sue Reddel and Diana Laskaris
Sue Reddel and Diana Laskaris
Europe: Portugal
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Rebecca Hall
Rebecca Hall
Europe: Greece
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Jackie Parsons
Jackie Parsons
Europe: Italy
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Ulrike Lemmin-Woolfrey
Ulrike Lemmin-Woolfrey
Middle East: Qatar
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Sarah Kingdom
Sarah Kingdom
Africa: Zambia
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Sue Davies and Regina Ang
Sue Davies and Regina Ang
Asia: Singapore
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Nadine Cresswell-Myatt
Nadine Cresswell-Myatt
Oceania: Australia
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Past Winners

BEST OF TRAVEL AWARD WINNERS: 2022
BEST OF TRAVEL AWARD WINNERS: 2021
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Our mission is to serve the 50+ traveler
We want to inspire you to explore new destinations, discover new experiences and savor the journey. Our goal, to share the world’s unique, hidden and once in a lifetime locations with you to create unforgettable memories.
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