Leading family-travel website launches a travel-writing competition for adults and children

Take the Family

Leading family-travel website TaketheFamily.com launches a travel-writing competition for adults and children

Fancy yourself as a travel writer? Think one of your kids might be the next Bill Bryson? Been on a wonderful family holiday you’d like to share with like-minded parents and kids?

In celebration of its 7th birthday, leading family-travel website TaketheFamily.com is launching a travel-writing competition for adults and children, with three categories: Parents; Teens; and Under-13s.

Takethefamily.com is renowned for its independent editorial content, authored by an in-house team and around 40 freelance travel writers based around the world. From camper-vanning with grandchildren in Skegness to snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, from taking kids to muddy festivals to whitewater-rafting in Indonesia, our writers scour the globe with their families to bring you the experiences of which family holiday memories are made.

Competition details are on Takethefamily’s page on Facebook, (www.facebook.com/Takethefamily) including how to submit your piece. Submissions should be 250–500 words long for the Under-13s category and 500–1000 words long for Teens and Parents, and can be about any form of family travel anywhere in the world.

All winners and the two runners-up in each category will be published on the website, with the opportunity to submit work on a longer-term basis. In addition, the winners will receive the following fabulous prizes:

Parent Category: a place on one of prize-winning journalist Dea Birkett’s intensive Travel Writing Workshops (www.travelworkshops.co.uk), with the chance to pitch to the editor of a national travel publication.
Teen Category: A 2-hour private city tour by award-winning Context Travel (www.contexttravel.com), who run customizable walks around the world, some with a family bias, including a London walk focusing on English fashion ‘from Tudor Splendour to Westwood Punk’, a pizza-making workshop and walking seminar in Naples, a tour of Underground Rome, a City of Chocolate tour of Barcelona, a New York Architecture walking tour, and a Plague in Venice tour.
Kids’ Category: A free weekend stay for a family at a youth hostel of choice in England or Wales, plus a year’s family Youth Hostel Association membership.

In addition, one runner-up in each category will receive a year’s family membership to the Youth Hostel Association (www.yha.org.uk). Among the YHA’s most family-friendly properties are Hartington, a 17th-century Derbyshire mansion with an adventure playground and pets’ area, the eco-friendly National Forest, also in Derbyshire and handy for the family attractions of Conkers, Alton Towers, Drayton Manor, Tamworth Snowdome and WaterWorld, and Conwy, with 4-bed en-suite rooms close to the beach and Conwy Castle.

Judges:
Andy Cook, founder, takethefamily.com
Rhonda Carrier, commissioning editor, takethefamily.com
Deborah Stone, former Regional Editor of the Daily Express, now travel writer contributing to most of the national newspapers, specialising in cruises and holidays in the UK – particularly family holidays. Deborah is joint lead writer of Frommer’s England & Wales 2012 and was co-writer of Frommer’s Wales With Your Family, and has also edited Frommer’s travel books and Daily Telegraph Cruise Style and Travel Escorted supplements. She has also contributed travel features to these supplements, the Daily Express and Sunday Express, the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, The Times, Sunday Times and Times Travel Magazine.

Closing Date:
Midnight Friday September 16th, with winner announced mid October.
Entrants agree to having their work published on Takethefamily.com but retain all copyright.
The Travel Writing Workshop winner can attend on a date of their choice, subject to availability; travel is excluded.
The YHA weekend-stay winner can stay at a hostel of their choice, subject to availability; meals and travel are excluded.
The Context Travel tour winner can book a customizable walk in a city of their choice, subject to availability; travel is excluded.