National Geographic Traveler Magazine Selects Its 2013 Travelers of the Year

The 2013 Travelers of the Year are:

• Muyambi Muyambi and Molly Burke, whose Bicycles Against Poverty organization distributes bikes to low-income entrepreneurs in rural Uganda;
• The Carroll Family (mother Kira, father Peter, and sons Xaver and Felix), who packed their lives into a truck for a yearlong drive through southern and eastern Africa;
• Katherine Connor, who founded the nonprofit Boon Lott’s Elephant Sanctuary that is committed to the rescue, recovery and retirement of abused Asian elephants;
• John and Hilda Denham, who travel from London to Costa Rica to lobby for local support for sustainable policies and to engage local schools in educational missions;
• Tracey Friley, who launched Passport Party Project, a grassroots initiative to provide underserved girls the tools they need to obtain their first passports;
• Joan Halifax, who founded Nomads Clinic, an annual medical pilgrimage by volunteer clinicians to the Himalaya region;
• Benny Lewis, who is on a mission to prove languages can be learned quickly, and has turned his discoveries into lessons, travel tips and a $97 online language crash course;
• Shannon O’Donnell, who launched Grassroots Volunteering to provide reliable information on free and low-cost volunteering opportunities and sustainable tourism enterprises;
• John Ellis and Laura Preston, who are crowdsourcing their American road-trip itinerary, voted on by the followers of their website, Democratic Travelers;
• Seth McBride and Kelly Schwan, who are on a 10,000-mile handcycle/bicycle transcontinental tour to prove travel can be a transformative experience for everyone, regardless of physical ability. McBride plans to be the first person with quadriplegia to complete a Pan-American cycle tour;
• Alison Wright, a photographer who, after surviving a deadly bus accident in Laos thanks to caring strangers, founded the Faces of Hope Fund to give back to the communities she photographs.

National Geographic Traveler editors and guest advisers — including Russell Mittermeier, president, Conservation International; Angélique Kidjo, Grammy-winning singer, Batonga Foundation founder, UNICEF goodwill ambassador, and Kumi Naidoo, international executive director, Greenpeace — selected these gung-ho globe-trotters who turned trips into opportunities to assist with conservation efforts, connect with local cultures, volunteer in surprising ways, challenge themselves, deepen familial and community bonds and engage meaningfully with the world.

To learn more about each Traveler of the Year through photos and interviews and to vote daily for the People’s Choice Traveler of the Year, go tohttp://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/travelers-of-the-year/ or check out the November 2013 issue of National Geographic Traveler magazine, on newsstands now.