Guardian Best Travel Website award!

This weekend, we were in beautiful Wales for the Guardian & Observer Travel awards.

At a magnificent gala dinner in Cardiff castle, it turned out Spotted by Locals is the winner of the Best Travel Website award. We are very proud of this recognition by one of the best newspapers in the world!

Pictured left: Andy Pietrasik, travel editor of Guardian Unlimited. Pictured right:  the night’s host BBC newsreader Huw Edwards.

Getting the Welsh stone award, weighing 12 pounds, back home was not very easy.  “You could kill somebody with that”, the not-so-friendly customs employee told me at London Stansted, before walking away shouting “this is ridiculous”.  I thanked her very much for her kind congratulations, told her I would be very careful not to kill anybody, and quickly made my way over to the airplane.

Besides the British customs, I would like to thank two great organizations:

First of all The Guardian & Observer, and especially Benji Lanyado, Gemma Bowes and Andy Pietrasik: thank you for believing in Spotted by Locals! And Visit Wales, thank you for the organisation of a fabulous weekend. Visiting beautiful Wales is definitely recommended. We’ll be back!