Cosmopolitan Blog Awards: Shortlisted for Best Travel Blog

If you follow me on any of my social media channels, you may have seen my exciting news: I’ve been shortlisted for the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards 2015. I’m nominated in the Best Travel Blog category, which is a huge honour and I am so thankful to everyone who cast their vote for my inclusion in this list.

The competition is tough, but as always the travel blogging community is proving to be incredible, and those of us who have been shortlisted are meeting for dinner and drinks the night before the ceremony to celebrate. So whether I win the award or not, I’ll have nine new blogging friends and a great nomination to my name – so I’m unbelievably happy.

Still. It would be nice to win, of course. If you enjoy reading A Bird in the Hand Travel, please head over to the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards page and keep clicking through the categories until you reach Best for Travel (it’s the ninth one). You don’t have to vote in each category, but you can if you like. I’m listed as ‘A Stylish Guide to London & Beyond’, which is a little confusing but rest assured, that is the correct one.

And in case you need a little convincing, here are the five posts from my last five years of travel blogging that I am most proud of. Enjoy, and thanks for your votes!

Dear camping…I’m breaking up with you.

I wrote this break-up letter on my way home from Blogstock 2014, during which I endured one of the most uncomfortable nights of my life. I’d never been a huge fan of camping, but after this experience I’d simply had enough, and this part-joking, part-serious letter was written when I was cold and the experience was fresh.

Some of my readers didn’t appreciate my sense of humour, but I loved writing it, and enjoyed the debate it resulted in.

Tourist is a four-letter word

Too many times I heard the traveller vs. tourist debate, and it was grating on my nerves. In this post, I talk about what it means to travel and why no one should judge another person’s travel style.

I’m a tourist, and I’m completely okay with it.

23 reasons why flying with Ryanair makes you lose faith in air travel completely

I thought I’d give Ryanair another try, after plenty of bad experiences in the past.

I instantly regretted it, and recorded all the reasons why in this sarcastic and scathing post.

Grounded: a short story

This was a total departure from my usual posts, but as I’m working on a novel I decided to publish a short story here. The inital plan was to write one a month, but that hasn’t been possible since then.

I loved writing this, and was extremely proud of how it turned out. I will definitely be publishing some more fiction on this blog as soon as I can.

Las Vegas…but not as you know it

Sin City was one of those destinations that I needed to give a second chance, after not really enjoying it the first time around.

My second time was a totally different experience, as I steered clear of the casinos I’d hated so much before and focused instead on the vintage side of the city as well as some lesser-known attractions.

I never thought I’d say this…but I love Las Vegas!

Thanks again, and please remember to vote for me here. I’ll let you know how I go.