Afar magazine, the Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle won top honors as the best travel publications in North America in the 2010 Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition.

Travel Journalist of the Year is Andrew McCarthy, actor, director and now travel writer, who won the gold for his portfolio of articles in some of North America’s best travel magazines.

The awards were announced today in Leipzig at the annual conference of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW). As president of the SATW Foundation, which oversees the contest, I have the priviledge of announcing the winners.

Among other winners:

Outside magazine took seven individual awards, Islands magazine, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times four, and New York Times, Afar and National Geographic Traveler three. BudgetTravel.com won gold for the best online travel journalism site.

Silver winner among travel journalists is Catharine Hamm, travel editor of the Los Angeles Times. Bronze winner is Gary Stoller, reporter at USA Today who also won gold for investigative journalism on airline maintenance failures.

Ben Mutzabaugh wins gold for the best travel blog, called Today in the Sky, at USAToday.com.

This is the 26th year of the annual Lowell Thomas competition. For the video of winners, and a list of judges' comments about the best of travel journalism, go to SATWFoundation.org. For information on SATW, go to the SATW website.