Adventures are magic.
They push us past what we thought we could do.
They take us to places we never imagined we'd go.
And the best ones become stories we carry for the rest of our lives.
The Best Adventure is all about celebrating those stories.
Our mission and entire purpose is to encourage, support, and recognize adventure in all its forms - from the personal to the epic.
You've had an adventure worth celebrating.
Maybe it was a grueling summit. Maybe it was finally doing the thing you always said you would.
Whatever it was, it was yours.
Select your favorite Adventure and enter it in the next upcoming competition.
It can be any Adventure - as long as it is your Adventure.
The winner is selected by public voting.
Everyone can participate as a Voter, discover and vote for all of their favorite Adventures, and help select The Best Adventure.
And everyone is also invited to enter an Adventure.
No
Any Adventure — as long as it's your Adventure!
Yes
Yes, until the start of the competition.
The Best Adventure of the month wins $10,000 for the winner!
The Best Adventure of the month also funds an additional $10,000 in support of charity and grants awarded to qualified grant applicants!
The overall Best Adventure of the year wins $25,000!
The Best Adventure of the year also funds an additional $25,000 in support of charity and grants awarded to qualified grant applicants!
Monthly competitions are now much shorter!
To help make things more fun and accessible, the year will consist of short monthly competitions.
Each month, after just a few rounds of voting, with each round of voting being just four days, The Best Adventure of that month will win $10,000 for the winner AND also funds an additional $10,000 in support of charity and grants awarded to qualified grant applicants!
Everyone is welcome to enter an Adventure (the same one or different ones) in one or more of these monthly competitions.
Each monthly competition has its own Featured Gallery of Finalists presented on the Home Page and the Top 20 Finalists from each monthly competition are guaranteed to automatically advance to the overall annual Competition held at the end of December.
The Top 20 Finalists of the overall Annual Competition will be showcased and celebrated in the Overall Annual Featured Gallery - and the winner will be named The Best Adventure of the year, winning the overall annual prize of $25,000, and also funds an additional $25,000 in support of charity and grants awarded to qualified grant applicants!
Everyone is welcome to enter an Adventure in the July 2026 Competition.
March 4
Entries start → Enter your Adventure on or after this date!
March 24
Entry approvals begin.
Check your email
Approvals, and other important competition information will be sent by email. Be sure to verify your email address (from your account Dashboard) so you don't miss out!
July 1
Competition Pages and Vote Links for approved Adventures become available via your account Dashboard.
Start sharing your Vote Link
Share your Vote Link with friends and family so they'll be able to easily find and vote for your Adventure once voting begins.
July 4
Voting begins!
Double Vote Day
To help you get off to a great start, the first day of voting will be a Double Vote Day - all votes count as double!
The Gallery
All of the Adventures that make it to the Final Round of voting will be showcased and celebrated in the July 2026 Featured Gallery.
PLUS: The Best Adventure of July 2026 wins $10,000!
PLUS: The Best Adventure of July 2026 also funds an additional $10,000 in support of charity and grants awarded to qualified grant applicants!
PLUS: the Top 20 Favorite Adventures of July 2026 are guaranteed to automatically advance to the overall annual 2026 Competition - and The Best Adventure of 2026 wins $25,000!
PLUS: The Best Adventure of 2026 also funds an additional $25,000 in support of charity and grants awarded to qualified grant applicants!
Dates are subject to change
The overall goal of the competition is to give every entered Adventure an opportunity to be discovered and appreciated - and to make it easy for everyone to discover and appreciate those Adventures!
The winner is decided by public voting - and everyone is welcome to vote.
To start things off, Adventures are randomly assigned to Groups.
Voters can vote for free for their favorite Adventure in each and every Group each and every day.
A huge thank you to everyone who helps discover and select The Best Adventure!
For the July 2026 monthly competition, each Adventure is initially randomly assigned to a group of Adventures when voting starts on July 4, 2026.
The Top Favorite Adventures in each of these groups will then advance to the next round of voting in a new randomly assigned group of 20 Adventures that have also advanced to the next round.
An Adventure makes it to the Final Round after being one of the Top Favorite Adventures in four groups over four rounds of voting.
All 100 of the Adventures that make it to the Final Round will be showcased and celebrated in the July 2026 Featured Gallery.
PLUS: The Best Adventure of July 2026 wins $10,000!
PLUS: The Best Adventure of July 2026 also funds an additional $10,000 in support of charity and grants awarded to qualified grant applicants!
PLUS: the Top 20 Favorite Adventures of July 2026 are guaranteed to automatically advance to the overall annual 2026 Competition - and The Best Adventure of 2026 wins $25,000!
PLUS: The Best Adventure of 2026 also funds an additional $25,000 in support of charity and grants awarded to qualified grant applicants!
Each round of voting is four days.
The first two days of every round are Double Vote Days - all votes count as double!
Rounds Start
5 am Eastern / 2 am Pacific
Rounds End
10 pm Eastern / 7 pm Pacific
Round One
July 4th - 7th
Round Two
July 8th - 11th
Quarterfinal Round
July 12th - 15th
Semifinal Round
July 16th - 19th
Final Round
July 20th - 23rd
Since each advancing Adventure is competing against a different group of advancing Adventures in each round, vote totals are reset between rounds to keep everything fair for all Adventures.
Also, while votes in a round determine an Adventure's rank in its group for that round, it's only the rank in its group that matters as to whether it advances to the next round or not - so the rank of each Adventure in its group is always shown - but vote totals themselves are never shown.
This helps improve the overall experience for both competitors and voters.
If a voter could see that an Adventure has significantly more or less votes than another Adventure, that might completely discourage them from voting (thinking that their vote wouldn't make any difference) - and voters should never be discouraged from voting for their favorite Adventures - as the whole point of all this is for them to do so - and sometimes just a single vote will significantly change the rankings!
Groups not only make it easier for voters (as they can wander through different groups and vote for their favorite Adventure in each group instead of having to only pick just their one overall favorite Adventure from among all the Adventures in the whole competition) - but it also makes things much easier for competitors (as they are effectively only competing with the other Adventures in their group to be able to advance to the next round).
Of course, each round gets more competitive (as you are competing against other Adventures that have also advanced from the previous round) - but you don't have to worry about beating everyone in the entire competition - rather just the other Adventures in your group.
With that said, some groups will be tougher than others, and if your Adventure does not advance to the next round of voting, it could simply be that you were in an especially tough group - and you are then welcome to try again in the next competition.
It's always 100% free to enter, compete, and win - and everyone is welcome to enter an Adventure in each and every competition.
Thank you for participating in The Best Adventure as a competitor and as a voter!
The Best Adventure is proud to be associated with the Socialmark Giving Adventure Grant.
Every month, Socialmark Giving awards $1,000 grants in support of deserving adventurers whose stories inspire others to explore the world.
Grants are awarded every month. Apply for free at any time.
The Best Adventure is proud to be associated with the Socialmark Giving Canyon Grant.
Every month, Socialmark Giving awards $1,000 grants to help deserving people visit and experience one of the world's most awe-inspiring natural wonders.
Grants are awarded every month. Apply for free at any time.
