Wanderlust Best of Travel Photo of the Year winners have been announced Wanderlust Best of Travel Photo of the Year winners have been announced

Our Travel Photo of the Year competition never ceases to inspire, and it has been doing so since 1997.

So, to celebrate Wanderlust’s 30th anniversary, we curated a ‘Best of the Best’ collection from the past ten editions to find your overall picks. More than 10,000 of you voted, and we’re delighted to announce the winner of each category.

In Wildlife, Patrick O’Brien wins for ‘Bee Envy’, previously Highly Commended in the 2023 competition. The action-shot was taken in Hortobágy National Park in Hungary.

The Travel Icons winner is 2018 finalist Donald Yip for ‘The Magnificent Mont’, captured at Mont Saint-Michel in France at low tide. The photographer said he felt lucky to have this sunrise moment all to himself.

The winner of the Landscape category is Danny Beath for ‘Storm Over Blackstone’, taken in Bewdley, England. Danny was capturing the trains passing this striking poppy field when a storm started brooding, and shortly after this image was snapped, he had to return to his car for safety. Danny sadly passed away in 2013, days before it was revealed he had won.

Finally, the winner of the People category and the overall prize of a photo commission to Australia’s Northern Territory is Ben McRae for ‘Ndebele Smile’. The photograph originally won the same category when he entered it into the 2012 competition. Regarding the photograph in question, Ben said: “I saw this Ndebele woman sitting outside a shop in Pilgrim’s Rest and thought this was too good a chance to pass up. Once she saw my softbox, she burst out in laughter and I was able to capture the image.”