WELCOME to the results of our first Green Spaces awards. After hundreds of nominations and months of judging, we whittled down the places and projects on the shortlist from 24 to six.

These awards have taken us close to home and deep into the Amazon, and have been the source of debates that almost had us arm-wrestling to decide the winners. But nothing could stop the judges once they were on their way, be it a pregnancy or falling foul of a tropical illness (those Peruvian spiders have a lot to answer for).

We wanted the awards to be about possibilities - not preaching. This is your list - places that caught your imagination, made you dream, and perhaps showed you how you could live a little differently. Green with a small “g”, but a big dose of passion.

How rewarding that you responded in your hundreds, and wrote about places as varied as Inkaterra Reserva in Peru and Caerfai Farm in Wales. Our part of the bargain is that we sent people to test every single place on the shortlist. We wanted to weed out any possibility of “greenwashing”.

Multimedia

• The Times Green Spaces travel Awards, 2008 awards night

The Green Spaces Travel Awards, 2008 - the winners

You nominated 200 inspiring places, we drew up a shortlist - and then there were 24 finalists...

Multimedia

• The Times Green Spaces travel Awards, 2008 awards night

As Toby Sawday, one of our judges, said: “The best thing was being taken to places we would never otherwise come across.” Discover the winners yourselves in the next few pages.

First, that arm-wrestle. Our worldwide Best Places to Stay section had some fearsome contenders, each of which had striking qualities tied to history, politics and geography.

How to choose between a wilderness reclaimed after years of war in Africa (one that supports local communities and has made way for a wildlife corridor between Mozambique and Tanzania) and Great Bear Lodge in Canada, where every detail speaks of respect for its grizzly stars?

Vying with them were a forward-thinking safari in the Masai Mara; a reserve in the Amazon that ploughs money into local botanical research; and villages resurrected amid the forested glades of the Himalayas.

Little and large crossed swords in the British Isles Best Places to Stay section, and may give us more categories next year, but this time we looked for inspiration and perspiration, whether it was a private passion or an established property with financial backing.

The Europe section took us from the remote and the rural in the hills of France and Spain to a cosmopolitan hotel with a grass roof.

For the Best Open Spaces section, we had to set aside natural beauty and choose according to a human factor: a transforming idea that brought the land to life, and in some cases kept it alive. The nominations took us from inner-city London to the shores of Lake Bled in Slovenia.

Our last section was another tough one: Best Project in Britain - remember, the geography of the shortlist evolved from your nominations. We chose based on ideas and education. Did people leave altered and informed by their experiences? Could green practices really be passed on without boring people senseless?

You know what we think, and we hope that this year's winners seduce you as much as they seduced us.

The awards were held at One Aldwych Hotel in London on December 2, 2008.

A prize draw was also made on the night - all readers who nominated a green space went in the hat and Sheila Rumsby of Devon wins a trip for two with Railbookers.com to Venice.

Thanks to both One Alwych and Railbookers for their support.

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