Lee Atkinson, freelance travel writer and photographer is the author of 15 travel books and two smartphone apps about travelling in and around Australia and two-time winner of the prestigious Australian Society of Travel Writers Best Adventure Story Award. Her latest book, Ultimate Coastal Road Trips Australia, hits bookshop shelves in November 2023. Her other most recent books include the bestselling Ultimate Road Trips Australia, Australia’s Best Nature Escapes, Explore Australia by Camper Trailer and The Definitive Bucket List: travel experiences in Australia and New Zealand, and are all available wherever good books are sold.
Lee has been writing about her adventures on and off the road since 1991, and her travel stories regularly appear in the travel sections of various lifestyle and motoring magazines and newspapers, including The Robb Report, The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald & The Age, Sun Herald and YourLifeChoices – you can read some her features in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Sun Herald at traveller.com.au.
Former editor of the country’s highest circulating motoring and travel magazine, The Open Road and a Life Member (and past president) of the Australian Society of Travel Writers, there’s not much of Australia that she hasn’t seen and not many roads she hasn’t driven, and she freely admits to being a road trip junky. “Any excuse to hit the road is a good one,” she says. “And if it’s a road less travelled, well, that’s even better.”
In 2011 Lee developed the best-selling Australian Road Trips app (no longer available), which was awarded Best Travel App at the Australian Society of Travel Writers Travel Journalism Awards for Excellence in 2012.
A contributor to several guide books, including Frommers, Fodors, Explore Australia and The Good Food Guide, Lee was also co-editor of two anthologies of Australian travel writing, Best Foot Forward and Red Dust & Wanderlust.
You can follow Lee on social media at @ozyroadtripper.