Let's Talk Travel Magazines

Last year, as part of Joe's birthday present, I purchased a subscription to Condé Nast Traveler.  Every month both of us would look forward to a new magazine showing up in the postbox and it was great inspiration as we planned our travel throughout the year.  At the end of the summer, I started receiving renewal notices and after humming and hawing over it, I decided to give other magazines a try, not because we didn't enjoy CNT, but just to see what else was out there.  So I purchased AFAR for Joe and National Geographic Traveler for myself hoping we'd get our first edition somewhere around the holidays.  Well, apparently they were well ahead of their 8-12 week estimate for the first delivery and now we find ourselves getting all 3 magazines each month.  It's a bit of travel overload on our coffee table right now.

Condé Nast Traveler is the mecca of wanderlust.  Every year it curates a Gold List - that is, the most fabulous hotels in all the lands.  This is both a blessing and a curse for someone like me who really, really loves nice hotels.  The properties they feature are the crème de la crème, many of which are out of reach for the average traveler.  But, it's nice to dream.  Each edition features several locations and I find the articles to be interesting and well written.  Joe and I also really enjoy the Where Are You? feature which is a sort of puzzle where you must find out the location with the photo and clues given.  When you figure it out, you can enter to win a trip... and it's a really nice trip because it's Condé Nast.

AFAR is like the coffee table book of the three.  Visually, it's beautiful.  The layouts, the photos, and the collections it puts together read like a work of art.  There are always a few substantial (in terms of length) articles but there are quite a few one-page curations which are great for those who prefer to take their magazines in small portions.  There's a great mix of different travel styles and if there was such a thing as a 'hipster' magazine, this might be it.  It just feels cool.

While the former might be hip, National Geographic Traveler is your classic travel magazine.  You get everything you would expect in a travel magazine; beautiful photographs, interesting destinations, and great stories.  The Nat Geo Traveler excels at tips whether it be where to get a great meal in a particular city to how to get a great sleep in an airport.  This magazine feels a little more straight to the point - less babble, more practical.  You know with each issue what you're going to get and the average traveler will feel like all of the features are within reach.

We've been holding on to every issue, stacking them up and going back to reference articles as we're travel planning and they certainly help to put some destinations on our radar.

{PS. If you're looking for gifts for the upcoming holidays, I'm sure any traveler would be happy to see any of these show up on their doorstep.}

What do you think, which one suits you?