When you submit a travel story to our site, two things happen:

1. Your story gets reviewed, and if accepted, gets approved/posted on the site. This process usually happens within 24 hours.
2. Travel stories which get posted on the site are entered into our travel writing contest, subject to our contest rules.

What we look for when approving entries into the writing contest:

Any reasonable entry describing a travel experience will be posted on our website and eligible to partake in the contest. We reject entries that are poorly written, or those that only describe places but not experiences. It is our intention to provide a high-value experience for all users who come to our site, and we take this into consideration when approving content to be posted.

Travel story attributes we look for in selecting contest winners:

1. Story should have good overall appeal and be engaging to read.
2. Story should evoke some sort of interest, emotion, or thought about a particular experience or set of experiences.
3. Story should be well structured and have a good flow.
4. Story should best capture the essense of a unique travel experience in a well articulated way.
5. Everyone has their own unique writing style, we encourage you to embrace yours and let it flow.

These are overall factors we take into consideration when determining writing contest winners.