Chris Leadbeater

Chris Leadbeater is no stranger to the Travel Writer category of the Press Awards. He has been nominated twice in recent years, and is the current holder of the award.

A travel journalist of over two decades’ experience, and one of the most highly regarded travel writers in Britain, Chris has been The Telegraph’s Travel Correspondent since 2018. The role has taken him to most corners of the world – his tally of countries visited has risen by three this year, to an impressive 97.

While America – a key destination for the Telegraph reader – has become his specialism, Chris produces features covering a diverse range of countries and regions, on a wide variety of topics. The last 12 months have taken him to areas as varied as the Balkans and the Baltic States, Scandinavia, the Greek islands, North Africa and the Caribbean, as well as to the USA. These trips have featured prominently in the Telegraph’s digital and print output, driving reader engagement in subscriptions and below-the-line discussion points.

Chris is a compelling writer, whose command of language is allied to an excellent grasp of historical detail, and an ability to deliver the story without swamping the reader with a surfeit of facts or purple prose. His copy is insightful, and often witty without losing authority.

So much is clear in the pieces submitted here.

Chris’s first assignment to the USA in 2024 was for the maiden voyage of Icon Of The Seas – the world’s largest cruise ship; a super-sized vessel capable of holding almost 10,000 people. Chris’s article captured the significance of the launch, while also tapping into the surreality of setting sail on something so enormous. Several hundred reader comments on the story demonstrate the depth of interest his story aroused.

His second American assignment of the year brought the past and present together. The restoration of the cathedral-like Michigan Central Station in Detroit – over a century after it opened, and almost 40 years after it fell into dereliction – was an important moment for the city. Chris’s piece took in the festival nature of the reopening, while assessing what the news meant for one of the USA’s most maligned places – and for tourists considering it as a destination.

A more distant chapter of history was the focus of the third feature submitted here – albeit, again, entwined with the present. April saw Chris travel to the Greek Peloponnese to witness the lighting of the Olympic Flame at the archaeological site of Olympia. This was a rare opportunity, and Chris was the only British travel writer present. His copy absorbed the ceremony’s rites and rituals, but also noted its somewhat madcap nature, while illustrating why interested parties should visit one of Greece’s loveliest regions themselves.