Expat Top List Writing Contest March 2013 Winners

The overall quality of the entries was phenomenal, making the judging particularly challenging. After much deliberation, the team finally settled on:

Overall winner:

Joanna Munro’s “The Ten Commandments for Visiting the Languedoc, France”

The team was bowled over by this entry’s originality, entertainment value and usefulness - the perfect mix for a winning entry. We’re convinced that we won’t be only ones eager to obey Joanna’s ten commandments!

Runner-up:

Annie Onursan’s “Bodrum’s top 8 famous residents help you plan your visit”

The team loved the extremely original tour that Annie took us on via her famous residents. It was both highly informative on the place and its history and a genuinely riveting read.

Other prizes

Top Tweets: Molly Sears-Piccavey's “7 foodie treats to try in Gorgeous Granada”

During the contest it came to our attention that the ShareThis FaceBook Share counter isn't accurate! As a result we still going to honour our original prize for the shares+likes (as viewed on the contest entry page) and also award an additional prize for just FB likes!

Top FB shares+likes: Claire Bolden's “Nine Random Things I Didn't Know About Living In America...”

Top FB likes: Rick Zullo's “Five Italian Food Rules that Foreigners Need to Know”

Top Comment: Posted on Greg Goodmacher's “The Seven Best and the Worst Experiences of a Hot Spring Addict in Japan”

“A lot of travel guides lack the personal touch that this account has in abundance. It is very insightful and offers a unique glimpse into an aspect of Japanese culture. Unique because it is an environment where people's guards are down and where, as the author comments, communal nakedness promotes a sense of human equality and therefore is an ideal milieu for a real 'united nations'! A fun read!”

Randomly chosen: Laura Besley's “Hong Kong: 10 Things NOT to do!”

Contest Summary:

Right on the tail of our two winners were Sine Thieme’s incredibly persuasive “Top Ten Reasons You Should Move to Johannesburg Despite the Crime Rate” and Richard Corrigan’s witty and stylish “The Seven Deadly Sins of new Expats in France”. Actually, we had it all in a wonderful array of writing styles:

- great travel and expat tips – from the don’t miss to don’t do.
- fantastic humour - from laugh-out-loud to quirky and subtle.
- a wealth of personal experience and lively anecdotes – giving us the best insider knowledge and flavour of so many different places.
- practical and up-to-date advice – for all ages and situations.
- remarkable detail on social customs, local dishes, history and landscapes.
- hugely imaginative content and creative presentation.

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of both our readers and the ExpatsBlog team, to thank every blogger who contributed to our March 2013 Expat Top List Writing Contest! We hope you've enjoyed this writing contest as much as we have!