Lonely Planet Competition Winners!

We've decided on the winners for our Lonely Planet competition. It was a hard choice as we had many great entries, but we gave the prizes to two crime-on-a-train themed stories, with the winner being the one who suffered the most!

Here's the runner up entry, which comes from Sasha who wins a Lonely Planet France guidebook:

Travelling on a train from Tangiers to Fez in Morocco with an American companion, we had a well dressed, well spoken local join our carriage. He charmed us with his warm welcome and stories about his Aussie and American friends. He showed us photos of his lovely wife and kids. He then made a tempting offer "Why don't you join my family for my cousin's wedding today. You will be our guests of honour! We need to get off at a stop between here and Fez and you will get to experience real Morocco". My friend was almost frothing at this proposal, but my sixth sense warned me and I declined with a bogus excuse we were meeting friends.  After declining (he tried really hard) he abruptly left our carriage. My friend was shattered until I opened my trusted Lonely Planet and read aloud a highlighted section of "Warning for train travellers...a well-dressed, well spoken man..." It didn't say what would've actually happened if we had gotten out of the train with our "local friend", but thank goodness it was in black and white as my friend was about to find this man to say he was interested in coming!!!

A lucky miss for Sasha there! And here's the winning entry courtesy of Holly who wins a Deluxe Travel Book, courtesy of Lonely Planet:

I went on exchange to Paris when I was fifteen with my best friend. I'd just gotten this new SLR camera for my birthday from my mum before I had left. By my third day in Paris I'd taken over a thousand photos at various galleries and monuments only to be mugged on the RER on the way home, still being jet-lagged, quite young and upset because I had already lost some memories and my birthday present. I was distraught and had to go into my spending money for the whole trip to buy a new camera :( 

Congratulations to our winners, your prizes will be heading your way courtesy of Lonely Planet!

Check out the new-look Lonely Planet guides here!