Past Contests

Read entries from our past contests below. Select the contest and you will be taken to the archive of each contest.

2017 Fall Gratitude Travel Writing Award

There will be no Fall Travel Award this year. In 2018 and 2019, we had Travel Photo Awards!

2017 Summer Independence Travel Writing Award (#13)

What do you want freedom from? How does travel show you how you do need others? We all rely on the kindness of strangers in a new place and on those we love every day no matter where we are in the world.

In Something Like Happy, Eva Wood’s characters remind us that our time is limited and we can choose our attitudes. The two main characters, Annie and Polly, become unlikely friends and share some crazy adventures.

When Polly says, “Life isn’t about avoiding the storm, it’s about learning to dance in the rain. Where’s your sense of adventure?” It reminded me that you can explore anywhere in the world. The only person holding you back is YOU! What do you want to discover? Where can you travel with or without leaving home?

For our Independence Travel Writing Award, share about your sense of freedom. Where do you feel free? When do you feel free? What makes your heart sing and dance? 

Winners: Click here for the Winners

2017 Winter Inspiration Travel Writing Award  (#12)

Finding Inspiration: Are you willing to GROW? Anything is Possible. Ani Pema Chödrön writes: “No one ever knows what is going to happen next. Anything is possible.” Sometimes things do not go your way. Chödrön says: “In your life you fail. It’s just part of life that things will happen that you don’t want to happen. It is part of everyone’s life experience.” Are you willing to feel your fear and keep going? Are you willing got take a risk and have it turn out fabulous or will you let fear persuade you to give up or never begin?

Theme: “How travel has changed your life” Tell us about a place in your life or a place you visited where you took a risk and fought against fear and were willing to grow forward.

WinnersClick here for the Winners! 

2016 Fall Gratitude Travel Writing Award #11

Theme: Gratitude: Where did you find the spark to follow your dreams?

Seth Godin says “The self starter creates a spark, turning nothing, or what certainly appears to everyone else as nothing, into something. The self starter doesn’t see it that way. That ‘nothingness’ was actually an opportunity, a chance to make a connection, to do something a little better than the status quo, to get things moving.”

When you look at a blank page which you turn into magic with your words, where did that begin for you? What place began your love of travel? Or your love of writing? What place are you most grateful for? Is there one location that changed your life?

Winners: Click here to read the winners

2016 Summer Independence Travel Writing Award #10

Theme: Independence: WHERE DO YOU FIND FREEDOM?
Books have always inspired me and I would not travel without them. I can even stay home and feel that I have traveled while reading certain novels. In Rowan Coleman’s “We Are All Made of Stars:” the characters are brave, bold and inspiring. I highly recommend this book and I hope you will choose to share a story with us about a place where you struggled and found your freedom.

The We Said Go Travel community is waiting to hear your tale that inspires us like the characters of Hope and Stella! Thank you for your participation! Lisa Niver We Said Go Travel.

Finalists: Click here to read our finalists.

Winners: Click here to read out winners

 

2015 Fall Gratitude Travel Writing Contest #9

Theme: Gratitude: Where do you feel Thankful

We are looking for an article about Gratitude. Where do you feel thankful? Please share your story of travel, grace, gratitude and brightening someone’s day.Oprah Winfrey tells the story of how Dr. Maya Angelou told her to “Be a Rainbow in Someone Else’s Cloud.” She said be a blessing to someone. “The rainbow is coming even if can not see it yet.” When have you needed someone and they have been your rainbow? Have you been someone else’s? Often we need the kindness of strangers while traveling through our lives. I learned about this story from Oprah & Deepak’s 21-Day Meditation Experience, Manifesting Grace through Gratitude. I highly recommend their series. I look forward to receiving your entries about how grace can become a verb in your life.

Finalists:Click here to read the finalists entries
Winners: Click here to read the Winners entries

2015 Winter Inspiration Writing Contest #8

Theme:  Inspiration: A place that inspires you to be brave [Lisa’s article on the theme of Bravery]

We are looking for an article about a place that inspires you to be brave and save the day. In Chris Brogan‘s, It’s Not About the Tights: An Owners Manual on Bravery, he shares his definition of bravery as “not being afraid of yourself.” He says: “You’ve got to use whatever past you came from as part of the origin story that shapes the hero you will become. Welcome to day one. You are the superhero you’ve been waiting for.”

Entries:Click here to read the entries
Winners:Click here to read the Winners entries

 

2015 Summer Independence Writing Contest #7

Theme:: Independence: A Place that Makes You Feel Free to be Yourself

We are looking for an article about your independence. Where do you feel free and the most true version of your self?The movie, The Book of Life, asks us to have the courage to really live and to live life as if it is a song.“It is all right if it goes wrong, just keep calm and carry on.”Will you write your own story? Will you follow your heart? Will you sing your song? Or will you play along to the script you think your parents and ancestors predetermined for you?Maria Posada, the star-crossed lover from The Book of Life,  says, “I belong to no one.” Please share a story about where you belong and if your family and country want you to play along or find your own path. Are you independent? interdependent? Where do you find freedom and joy?

In her book, I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t): Making the Journey from “What Will People Think?” to “I Am Enough” Brene Brown says: “When we tell our stories, we change the world.” Be Brave! Be Bold! Tell us your Tale.

Finalists:Click here to read the Finalists entries
Winners:Click here to read the Winners entries

 

2014 Fall Gratitude Writing Contest #6

Theme:  Gratitude: A Place that Allows You to Feel Strong, Hopeful and Free.

WeSaidGoTravel.com invites you to enter its Travel Writing Contest with cash prizes and no fee for entry. The theme for the Fall 2014 contest is “Gratitude: A Place That Inspires You to Feel Strong and Hopeful.” We hope your article will inspire others to travel more and find their inner hero!We are looking for an article about your act of gratitude–a place you chose or that allows you to stand up for yourself. Be inspired by Idina Menzel‘s character, Elizabeth, in the Broadway sensation, If/Then, with her song, No More Wasted Time,No more wasted timeNo more time for doubtYou say you’re not sure you’re a hero?

It’s time you should find out

So say you’ve made a few mistakes

Heroes know that’s what it takes

To find their way

No more wasted time

Not one more day
Where are you most able to be your true self? Your place of freedom might be far across the globe or in your own backyard.

Entries:Click here to read the entries
Finalists:Click here to read the Finalists entries
Winners:Click here to read the Winners entries

 

2014 Summer Independence Writing Contest #5

Theme:  Independence: A Place that Allows You to Feel Free.

WeSaidGoTravel.com invites you to enter its Travel Writing Contest with cash prizes and no fee for entry. The theme for the Summer 2014 contest is “Independence: A Place That Allows You to Feel Free.” We hope your article will inspire others to travel more and find freedom! Enter from May 27, 2014 to July 4, 2014We are looking for an article about your act of freedom–a place you chose or that allows you to feel free. Be inspired by Sara Barielles’ song, Brave, and share “What you want to say.” We want to “See you Be Brave…and start speaking up!” Where are you most able to be your true self? In Nellie Bennett’s Only in Spain, she watches a flamenco dancer and shares wanting “to attack my life with that passion, to live with her joy and her devotion to her art… I’d wanted to feel and smell and taste life, and live like that dancer on the stage in Seville, risking that triple turn, never sure she wouldn’t spin right off the stage.” Your place of freedom might be far across the globe or in your own backyard.

Winners:Click here to read the Winners entries

 

2014 Winter Inspiration Writing Contest #4

Theme:  Inspiration: A place that inspires you to spend your time wisely with no regrets.

We are looking for an article about a place that inspires you to spend your time with no regrets. In Arnold Bennett’s book, How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, he writes about how time is the ideal democracy. “No one can take [time] from you. It is unstealable. And no one receives either more or less than you receive.” Every morning we have a new day, as he says, “The supply of time is truly a daily miracle.” Where and how do you wish to spend your time?

Finalists:Click here to read the Finalists entries
Winners:Click here to read the Winners entries

 

2013 Fall Gratitude Writing Contest #3

Theme:  Gratitude: A Place that inspires Awe

We are looking for an article about a place you are grateful for or a memorable holiday that you shared with a special loved one or a place that is awe inspiring. In Jonah Berger’s book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On he wrote about awe: Awe is the sense of wonder and amazement that occurs when someone is inspired by great knowledge, beauty, sublimity, or might. It’s the experience of confronting something greater than yourself. Awe encompasses admiration and inspiration and can be evoked by everything from great works of art or music to religious transformations, from breathtaking natural landscapes to human feats of daring and discovery.
Sometimes the place that makes you feel gratitude is in your own backyard, share your special location.

Winners:Click here to read the Winners entries

 

2013 Summer Independence Travel Writing Contest #2

Theme:  Independence: A Place that Makes You Feel Free

WeSaidGoTravel.com invites you to enter its Travel Writing Contest with $1,000usd in cash prizes and no fee for entry. The theme for the Summer 2013 contest is “Independence: A Place Where You Feel Free.” We hope your article will inspire others to travel more and find freedom! Enter from May 11, 2013 to July 4, 2013.
We are looking for an article about your act of freedom–a place you chose or that makes you feel free. In Michael Shapiro’s book, A Sense of Place: Great Travel Writers Talk About Their Craft, Lives, and Inspiration (Travelers’ Tales), he interviewed travel writer, Frances Mayes, who said, “If you are lucky enough to spend some time in a foreign country, it will change you. Travel is part of that great sense of continuing education. You get to learn, you get to go there, you get to read the poetry, you get to learn the history. It is an act of freedom when you make your own choice of place according to what you need, want, love, crave.” Sometimes the place that makes you feel free is in your own backyard, share your special location.

Winners:Click here to read the Winners entries

 

2013 Winter Inspiration Travel Writing Contest #1

Theme: Inspiration: A place you love

WeSaidGoTravel.com invites you to enter its 2013 Travel Writing Contest with a $200 first-place prize and no fee for entry. The theme for the Winter 2013 contest is “Inspiration: A Place you Love.” We hope your article will encourage others to consider going to the place you love and travel more! Please see below for the full rules of our competition. Thank you for your participation in creating a growing global community of engaged travelers and concerned citizens. Writers of all ages and from all countries are encouraged to enter and share stories from any part of our planet.We are looking for an article that “speaks to readers, transforms them and transports them either to a place they’d like to live or like to travel.”Use “creative evocative writing that brings a destination to life” by combining “the tools of a novelist, the eyes of a journalist, and the general knowledge that comes from a never-ending education and a natural curiosity about the world around you—and its history.”When you are “capturing the essence of a place and engaging the senses,” you share your passion for the place you are writing about and everyone will want to read your writing. (Quotes from TRAVEL WRITING 2.0: Earning Money from your Travels in the New Media Landscape
by Tim Leffel)

Winners:Click here to read the Winners entries

We Said Go Travel