NomadMania Travel Awards 2022 winners!

Amazing and daring traveller, she was the first known woman to travel independently to Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover. She is always pushing the limits of herself and the travel community, notably often travelling overland by public transport as a solo female. She has called Sudan home for the last eight years where she has been witness to two coups and the Sudanese revolution and frequently travels through the Kordofan and Darfur regions of the country.

facebook.com/jacqkunz / instagram.com/petchpacker / nomadmania.travel/profile/36007

Luisa breaks the stereotypes and shows us that it’s never too late to enjoy life and live to your fullest potential. She leaves no one the same as they were before they met her.

facebook.com/luisa.yu.3 / nomadmania.travel/profile/29651

Since Afghanistan fell to the Taliban Katelyn has been fundraising for a girl’s school and organizing running events in her hometown and has managed to raise enough to fund the school. She has really stepped up with taking her travel experience and giving back to the communities she visits. She is also doing some inspiring fundraiser work in Ukraine, Afghanistan, and leading her nonprofit organization Peace Stamps.

facebook.com/peacestamps / instagram.com/journeywithjarv / nomadmania.travel/profile/17775

She seemingly appeared from nowhere and she conquered the internet – at least in the travel world. Anna travels intensively and creates great content that is engaging and popular. Her massive followership is there to prove that she is doing a wonderful job.

instagram.com/annaroundtheworld_ / nomadmania.travel/profile/35916

Pong is the jack of all trades and a master of some, too, when it comes to extreme travelling. Last year we saw him in our ‘Most intrepid’ category with all of his crazy adventures. There is definitely additional layer of all that if you consider the power of his passport, too.

facebook.com/pongt89 / instagram.com/globetrott1ng / nomadmania.travel/profile/12322

As an explorer and modern day adventurer, Thor is already the first in history to visit 197 countries in an unbroken journey completely without flying, aiming to become the first to reach them all by land and sea only. He ventures the world full time and has not been home to Denmark since 2013. Thor enlightens his audience as a social media influencer, travel blogger and Red Cross Ambassador. Thor was born in Denmark of Scandinavian parents and soon after found himself growing up in North America before returning to Denmark years later. In Denmark he finished his school and military service before finding his feet within shipping and logistics in the private sector. By the end of 2009 he became an independent businessman and after years of working internationally as a logistics professional he embarked on a multi-year journey to make history and set several records by visiting every country without flying.

facebook.com/onceuponasaga / instagram.com/onceuponasaga / nomadmania.travel/profile/12489 / onceuponasaga.dk

Daniel carved his ‘proper’ way through one of Warsaw’s top business schools at the time and then three out of BIG four consultant firms – Delloite, E&Y and PWC. After spending enough time working with taxes and building software solutions for corporate clients he decided to start doing things for himself. Soon after quitting the corporate world, he met the founder of NM by chance and started working for him – first only on the maps project and later on taking over the whole thing, developing and patching up each and every corner of NM that you see now. This included a big overhaul and total redesign of 2019/2020 and development of unique maps platform that helped NM to strive. He considers this project his most meaningful creation so far as he doesn’t really enjoy taxes as much as maps. Time and over again, he’d put wellbeing of NomadMania ahead of his own needs and financials even, so he can truly be considered as one of the makers of today’s platform.

nomadmania.com/profile/8948

Ben is the founder of Osprey Expeditions that specialises in providing quality tours in his native Venezuela and also Colombia. Ben got a degree in Tourism in 1996 and started guiding Nature Tours in Venezuela. He lived in Isla Margarita for a few years and worked for reputable companies, one of them from Denmark (he speaks Danish) and he considers himself to be very lucky for getting a chance to guide some of the most interesting tours all over his country. In 2002 he decided to launch his own company Osprey Expeditions without a dime in his pocket. Osprey started in a cheap hostel for backpackers where he sold tours using a photo album of his days as a Tour guide and he says that it has been quite a thrill to get his company to this level. In the times of crisis, Ben was one of the rare ones still welcoming visitors to Venezuela and all of his clients gladly recommend him further. He is also a web designer with his startup Ben7K that specialized in website concepts for travel companies, hotels and tour operators.

nomadmania.travel/profile/26877 / nomadmania.travel/interviews/138

We don’t know that much about Renee as she is somewhat of a challenge to ‘catch’. She just seems to be constantly on the go. Here is what she says about herself on her blog, which we recommend as a good read of travel materials! My name is Renee. I am a former Fortune 500 executive recently turned vagabond. I’m currently on a professional career sabbatical and am out to experience the world. My goal is to visit every UN member country – a lifelong dream finally coming true. Oh, and I use a wheelchair! I see the world from a different perspective and I’m here to share those stories with you. It hasn’t been easy to navigate a world designed for people who use two legs, but I’m conquering it and am embracing the beautiful people and opportunities this life has given me. I hope you’ll join me as I follow my dream and I hope I can provide some inspiration for you to follow your dreams. After all, life is meant to be lived!

facebook.com/renee.bruns / instagram.com/wheelstravels / nomadmania.com/profile/41971 / wheelstravelstheworld.com

Slaven is an adventurer, travel writer, travel blogger, and humanitarian. Despite his disability (quadriplegia), he had decided to live life to the fullest and travel the world. He writes about his travels and the problems he faces on his blog and he tries to educate people about his injury and life with a disability. The goal is to educate, encourage, motivate and inspire people to dare to follow and live their dreams. He travels to exotic destinations outside the routes provided for people with disabilities breaking down all barriers and stereotypes. Some of his achievements so far: – The first person in the world in a wheelchair who climbed up to the Monastery in Petra; – The first person in the world in a wheelchair who climbed Mount Sinai in Egypt; – Handcycled 3,500 km from Savudrija (HR) to Istanbul (TR) to gather money for four adaptive bikes; – Traveler of the year for 2022 in Croatia; – The best travel project for 2022 in Croatia; – The first person in the world in a wheelchair to climb Pidurangal in Sri Lanka; – Visited the most remote Croatian islands, Palagruža and Jabuka.

facebook.com/slavenskrobot / instagram.com/slavenskrobot / nomadmania.travel/profile/31198 / slavenskrobot.com / nomadmania.travel/interviews/155

Orest Zub is a traveller, blogger and online entrepreneur from Ukraine. He has visited over 120 countries including many conflict zones but never though the real war will come to his own country. These days Orest chooses to stay in his native town of Lviv and runs a full sized media operations there in order to report from Ukraine. He had to adapt and to change his lifestyle, business and goals, choosing to serve his country in this moment of need, often giving up what he loves to do most – travel. You will not find him stationary, however. He still manages to move internationally though, raising funds and aid for his country, often speaking on events in countries around Europe. He has also travelled to the east of his country, visiting areas that have been hit by war the most and helping and reporting along the way. Despite his priorities shifting and his life being seriously impacted by everything happening, Orest didn’t stop his support to NomadMania. For years now he’s had a place in his heart for this travel community and he’s done so many things that it’s even difficult to recall them all. Most importantly, he is the one operating our Awards from behind the scenes, being the single producer and operator of our two Awards show by now. Thank you Orest, you truly deserved this Award and more. We invite you all to check out his website and, most importantly, check how you can help. You can always contact him directly and become his client, as he is profficient in digital media and runs a consultancy firm (as much as possible in this situation).

facebook.com/orest.zub / instagram.com/orestzub / nomadmania.travel/profile/17122 / openmind.com.ua/support

Every Passport Stamp is a Facebook group ‘For serious travelers chasing every country in world’ founded by Stefan Krasowski. They enable space for discussions to make this goal possible for so many people. This year, as any other, they have provided the whole community of travellers with most valuable information and support. For NomadMania they have been support since the very beginning, always putting in a good word and ensuring fair exchange of information. We award this as a token of our gratitude to their founder and all of their moderators whose hard work has made the travel world a better place.

instagram.com/everypassportstamp / facebook.com/groups/everypassportstamp

Heinz Stücke (born 11 January 1940) is a long-distance itinerate cyclist from Hövelhof, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany — noted for setting the world record for bicycle touring in 1995. “In a global journey spanning more than 50 years, Stücke has travelled over six hundred thousand kilometres by bicycleIn search of adventure and with the desire to see something of the world, I started my tour around the globe in August 1960, from my home town of Hövelhof – Germany. I was 20. 17,000 km and 20 countries later I was back home but not for long. From November, 1962, up to the present day I have been cycling and travelling non stop. If this century is called the century of progress, the century of the atom and of space exploration, one has also to say that it is the century of tourism. Because of the modern forms of transportation, countries get closer to one another every day and millions of people travel. To travel is to learn something about one another, to meet people, to respect them and better still to make friends so that in the future we may live together in peace.”

nomadmania.travel/profile/8998