A travel-writing award still matters to me in 2026 because

A travel-writing award still matters to me in 2026 because somebody actually had to slow down, notice a place properly, and turn that experience into a piece another human remembered after reading. Seeing Peter Fish win Lowell Thomas gold this week made me think about how rare that kind of attention feels now — not polished content, just reporting with weather, texture, wrong turns, overheard conversations, all of it still intact.