TRAVELREIBER WINS GOLD FOR TRAVEL BLOGGING

To say I was shocked to hear I won GOLD at the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) convention last month in North Carolina is an understatement. The Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition, a project of the SATW Foundation, is fierce and open to all journalists worldwide whose work is published in North America or in English on their own websites. This year saw 1,568 entries competing for 30 awards. Some of the winners were unsurprisingly big names like Travel + Leisure and The New York Times, as well as many wonderful journalists competing in categories ranging from Cultural Tourism to Culinary-Related Travel. TRAVELREIBER won gold for Travel Blog. Two years ago, it won honorable mention from both SATW and NATJA (North American Travel Journalists Association). I think I’ll stop entering TRAVELREIBER in competitions now. It can only go down from here.

Judge’s comment about TRAVELREIBER

This is the judge’s comment about TRAVELREIBER from this year’s competition:

“A blend of deep expertise and seamless user experience, Beth Reiber’s specialized travel writing shows unparalleled knowledge of destinations, especially Japan and historical domestic road trips like Route 66. Rather than reading like a standard guidebook, the audience connects with her distinctive, warm personality that frames world exploration through an experienced lens. Visually, the platform is organized, balancing imagery with an elegant layout that makes navigation effortless. Visitors can explore content by region or category without encountering digital clutter. The thoughtfully structured articles actively invite interaction, ending with options for the reader to explore more on their own. The combination of knowledge and welcoming digital design that makes this blog standout.”

Why I write TRAVELREIBER (it ain’t about the money)

I started this blog 15 years ago following the horrific triple whammy of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown in Japan, because I needed to express my sorrow and didn’t want to spend time peddling a story for money. After that, it served mostly as my online resume, but in recent years it has become the focus of my writing endeavors. Although I occasionally write for others, concentrating on TRAVELREIBER as my swan song allows me to dive deeply into any subject I choose without worrying where I can sell it. Some of my articles run more than 4,000 words. Kudos to readers who suffer through all of them!

In any case, travel writing never made me much money, and I always say I live frugally to support my work habit. I feel extremely lucky to have been able to combine two loves–traveling and writing–in one career. I’ve had many downs, mainly when I didn’t know where or when I’d get my next paycheck; I think sane people would have given up.

One of the recent developments of my website is that my blogs are being picked up and syndicated in other websites, which means more exposure for the destinations I write and care about (and nope, I still don’t make any money). Thus, writing about the Heart Mountain Japanese American internment camp in Wyoming may not get many eyes on TRAVELREIBER, but it sure does when it’s republished on MediaFeed, Newsbreak, msn.com, and aol.com (I know; I didn’t know aol still existed, either), which combined have well over 2 billion monthly readers.

Writing is my passion

But I simply have to write. It’s what keeps me grounded, lets me escape everything around me, and explore the world and my brain. Writing centers me, maybe like painting does for an artist or composing does for a musician. Writing about travel also lets me relive my experiences, learn more about what I saw, and try to make sense of it all. I hardly ever know what I’m going to write when I sit down. I just get carried away. By the time I’ve finished writing an article, it’s like I’ve been to the destination twice.

To be honest, if I had to choose between writing and traveling, I’d chose writing. So I guess I’ll keep at it for a while, maybe until some kind soul lets me know that I make sense only to myself.

Lawrence Journal-World article

My local newspaper, the Lawrence Journal-World, published this article about my award, written by Kim Callahan. I didn’t expect it to run on the first page (as one friend pointed out, “Must have been a slow news day”):

‘For me, it was like winning the Pulitzer’: Lawrence travel writer earns prestigious award

Nov 9, 2026 – 5:08pm

Kim Callahan

Lawrence resident Beth Reiber knows how lucky she has been to combine her two great passions — writing and traveling — into a long and satisfying career.

Recently, though, she had the added satisfaction of her work being honored as the best travel blog by the Society of American Travel Writers. The competition for the prize is stiff — any writer in North America can enter — and Reiber said she was in shock when her name was actually called.

“For me, it was like winning the Pulitzer,” she told the Journal-World.

The announcer at the society’s North Carolina convention in October — which she mainly attended because one of her sons lives there, not because she expected to win anything — listed the honorable mentions, and she was “like, oh dang,” she didn’t get named this time. She had made that list a couple of years ago.

Then came the bronze winner’s name, then the silver’s. And then hers: “the gold!”

She couldn’t believe it. “It was hugely satisfying,” she said, especially “in this age of AI writing so many guidebooks and articles.”

Reiber, who graduated from the University of Kansas in 1975, has spent four decades writing guides for Frommer’s, mostly about Japan, and has published widely in numerous magazines, books and websites. Her blog, though, is a more personal endeavor — one she does mostly for herself, not for a paycheck or advertising revenue.

Titled “TravelReiber: The World as I see It,” the blog features long-form, first-person narratives on travel experiences in Asia, Europe and elsewhere, including plenty of destinations not too far from Lawrence.

Reiber started the blog in 2011 after the Japanese city of Fukushima was struck by an earthquake-induced tsunami that led to a nuclear power plant meltdown.

“It was just so devastating for me that I had to express myself somehow,” she said. The blog is now in its 15th year.

One of the contest judges described Reiber’s blog as “a blend of deep expertise and seamless user experience … with unparalleled knowledge of destinations, especially Japan and historical domestic road trips like Route 66. Rather than reading like a standard guidebook, the audience connects with her distinctive, warm personality that frames world exploration through an experienced lens.”

Reiber estimates that she’s been to about 60 countries. Her world-curiosity was first sparked by having an Austrian grandmother and relatives who spoke German. At 16, as a Girl Scout, she visited her first foreign country, Sweden, where she was delighted to find that scouting was co-ed.

On returning home, her first thought was, “I’ve got to get back to Europe.”

A few years later she studied abroad in Germany, where she met a love interest who would be the reason for her staying in Europe for years and embarking on a freelancer career.

Like many with wanderlust, she had more desire than dough, but she found budget-friendly ways to get around, including backpacking and driving a “beat-up old Datsun” from Canada to Mexico, writing about every place she went. She pitched travel articles to newspapers and tourist offices “all over” and eventually made a name for herself, especially through her travels to Japan, for which she was eventually asked to live in the country and write entire guidebooks.

Her most recent trip to Japan, just a few weeks ago, was for the purpose of writing an article on free things to do in Tokyo. Her next project also concerns Japan, but with a Texas twist: sumo wrestling in Austin, where she’ll be writing about a championship bout of the ancient martial art.

“It’s hard to wrap my head around that, sumo in Texas,” she admits, but she’s clearly eager to try.

Reiber is keenly aware that the world of travel has changed pretty dramatically since she was first kicking around Europe on a few dollars a day. There are cellphones now. The internet. Selfie sticks. Language-translation apps. TripAdvisor. Euros instead of a dozen different currencies. Chain hotels. Cheaper airfares.

Many more people travel now, to the extent that some places — Venice and Barcelona are the oft-mentioned examples — are simply overwhelmed with tourists.

Reiber is sensitive to this phenomenon. She has seen “magical” places like Boracay in the Philippines turn from a “pristine island with just huts on stilts and no electricity” to a vacation resort boasting high rises and a Ritz Carlton. She doesn’t know if she could bear to return, though she acknowledges that tourist dollars are welcomed in such places.

Another example is Kyoto, with its ancient temples and cherry trees. It’s her favorite city in Japan, and she doesn’t begrudge anyone the desire to see it, but she is mindful of not adding herself to the tourist hordes.

“The locals can’t get on their local buses because they are so packed with foreigners,” she said, “and so I just kind of feel like if I’ve been to a place I should let the people go who have never been there.”

Telling people they shouldn’t visit somewhere because a lot of other people want to go there too isn’t something she could comfortably do. Paris, for example. People should see it. “Especially for young people,” she says, “it’s not their fault they weren’t around 40 years ago.”

A couple of places that Reiber hasn’t been to yet but hopes to soon are Costa Rica and Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. She recently crossed off her to-do list the Sandhills of Nebraska, where she satisfied a long-held desire to see a majestic sandhill crane fly.

When asked what her favorite place of all time is, she doesn’t even stop to think: “I always say it’s the place I haven’t been to yet.”