Florida Books Win North American Travel Journalists Association Awards

"Highway A1A: Florida At the Edge" by Herbert L. Hiller has won the North American Travel Journalists Association Grand Prize. NATJA is the premier professional association of writers, photographers, and editors dedicated to redefining professional development for the travel industry.

"Highway A1A" covers the thirteen Atlantic coast counties in Florida, providing maps, historical and present-day photographs, and recommendations for places to visit, lodge, eat, and shop that are truly local in character. The book is more than an insightful guide to famous sites and sights; it is also the dramatic story of two powerhouse forces, tourism and development, and the crucial role that this coastal corridor has played in the historic settlement of the state and its adaptation to the twentieth-first century.

Hiller, a visionary travel writer and tourism expert, offers a fuller, more balanced story about Florida’s Atlantic coast than any other guidebook, as he explores the transformations taking place in the way Floridians live and how the world vacations in the Sunshine State.

Arthur Frommer, founder of the Arthur Frommer Travel guide series, says, “Path-breaking work… . Herb Hiller’s knowledge of Florida is exhaustive and unique. Highway A1A is an indispensable read for anyone having a commercial, professional, or even purely curious interest in the future of this skyrocketing state.”

Another University Press of Florida book, "Waters Less Traveled: Exploring Florida’s Big Bend Coast" by Doug Alderson, also won an Honorable Mention from NATJA. "Waters Less Traveled" is the first comprehensive armchair guide to Florida’s Big Bend Coast, one of America’s longest and wildest continuous wetlands. Naturalist and explorer Doug Alderson introduces readers to Florida’s frontier past and evolving future. Interweaving history, folkways, and observations from life in the great outdoors, Alderson tells tales of his travels by sea kayak along the Big Bend Saltwater Paddling Trail.

More information about Highway A1A and Waters Less Traveled is available at www.upf.com.