Bob and Pam Gudas’ Best of Europe in 21 Days scrapbook
One of my favorite spring chores is looking over the top entries in our annual tour alumni scrapbook contest. Each year we invite our tour members to share their experiences with a digital scrapbook. Our grand prize is a free tour. And the competition is so spirited that we’ve just finished poring over 60 entries from our 2014 season.
As the final “sorter” of the four finalists chosen by a jury of my staffers, having so many top-notch entries created a dilemma for me. One first prize was not enough. So, in addition to the first- through fourth-place winners chosen by the jury, this year we created an extra first-place winner — Rick’s Pick!
Without further ado, here are our five winners. I hope you can browse through each of these. They really capture the joy of travel and the camaraderie of sharing that experience with a great group of travel partners:
FIRST PRIZE: Gord and Julie Braun — Best of Europe in 21 Days wins a free Rick Steves tour (1 seat on an 8-21 day tour, or 2 seats on a 7-day city tour)
RICK’S PICK: Bob and Pam Gudas — Best of Europe in 21 Days also wins a free Rick Steves tour (1 seat on an 8-21 day tour, or 2 seats on a 7-day city tour)
SECOND PRIZE: Nancy Wickstrom and Julie Wynn — Best of Turkey in 13 Days wins a $500 Rick Steves gift card
THIRD PRIZE: Michael and Nicole Goodman — Best of Eastern Europe in 16 Days wins a $250 Rick Steves gift card
FOURTH PRIZE: Mandy Fonk and Tom Boyd — My Way Italy in 13 Days wins a $100 Rick Steves gift card
Beyond the prizes, there’s a bigger reward here: The two dozen people who went along on each of these tours now have a special record of the wonderful experience they shared.
I certainly feel that way about Bob and Pam’s scrapbook, since that’s the very tour that Trish and I traveled on last summer. For all of us who went on that tour, I’m sure this feels like “our” scrapbook. The Gudas’ great tour insights, fun photos and video clips, Pam’s original sketches — and a fascinating Fitbit tally showing how much exercise each day entailed — all combine to create a vivid review of the amazing amount of fun you can pack into three weeks on a well-designed tour with a fun group of travel partners.
Thanks so much to all of you who have shared your scrapbooks with all us. They make me eager to sign up for another tour!
The guidebook that Pam and Bob put together was spectacular. Thank you for sharing.