Travel magazines have never catered to the common man, instead preferring the rarified air found around those living in million dollar homes and driving Porsches with model numbers we've never heard of before. "Travel + Leisure" is no exception to this rule.
One would think that the editors would have toned down the chic and trendy during the economic downturn, but instead they seem to have ratcheted up the lust level another notch. A quick scan of the price tags attached to the luxuries described within "T+L's" pages will find most of the recommendations to be out of reach of mortal men. And don't get me going on the ads, either.
This is not to say that "T+L" is a bad magazine. If your idea of a family vacation is Monte Carlo, then it works beautifully. It does a wonderful job making people's mouths water over what is offered out there in the big, beautiful world. But if your idea of a getaway is Gatlinburg, you'll get nothing but a case of envy reading this magazine.
As for the actual content of the magazine, it suffers from "USA Today" syndrome: limited, perfunctory articles. The content resembles nothing more than a hodgepodge of tidbits. Many magazines today have this problem, though. Blame it on short attention spans. Or possibly that the world is a big place and too much specificity on one location would make the mag less useful for a broad audience. But with the demographic of "T+L", I think the target audience would appreciate knowing more.
"T+L" certainly has some plusses, with the best being the photography. This is a handsome magazine. But it is a "B-level" handsome and not an "A". There are more elite magazines that look even better.
In the long run, though, the negatives outweigh the positives. One of my biggest beefs with "T+L" is the sheer onslaught of ads. A random flip through its pages will almost always land you on an ad rather than actual useful content. Given that ad revenue at magazines is down, I guess a plethora of ads is a sign of the magazine's health, but still. Don't we buy magazines to read articles that are useful?
As far as competition, Conde Nast's "Traveler" comes to mind. Having read the two, I think I might lean toward "Traveler" as the superior magazine. My admittedly faulty memory has me remembering that it has a tad more depth in its articles and a higher "signal to noise ratio" of content to ads than "T+L".
If you are a daydreamer, get "T+L" simply for the "what-if" possibilities. But if you are like me, save the money you would have spent on "T+L" and use it to get away for a couple days with the Mrs. to a nice, local B&B once in a while.
T&L is a visually appealing travel mag, but they seem to be slipping on the editorial side lately. I'm always enticed at the newstand to pick it up and flip through, but I find myself buying less and less these days, because there isn't as much substance behind it as there used to be.
The rare times that I do buy is when there's an article about an area that I'm about to go to, or want to go to. Even in these cases, I find that some research online, augmented by CN Traveler, does the job much more efficiently. Don't get me wrong; I still *like* T&L; it's just that most of the value I get from it can be much more effectively accessed on their Web site, under 'destinations.'
If you want a useful travel magazine, try CN Traveler. If you want eye candy for travel, I'd suggest something like Wallpaper (alas, they've somewhat fallen off the pedestal as well, but that's a different review...).
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Several years ago I had a job where I traveled a lot for work. This experience made me choosy about where I stayed, and what I did with myself when I was away from home on weekends. It was at this time that I began reading Travel and Leisure; I've read it ever since.
Travel and Leisure is unapologetic about writing for people who want to be pampered when they are on vacation. It inspires readers with pretty pictures, and promises paradise to those with money to spend and time to plan. This is not a magazine for those who prefer youth hostels. It is not for people whose goal is "adventure travel." Travel and Leisure is for people who want to relax, to be pampered, and to be charmed when they are on vacation from their otherwise hectic lives. What if you don't have time to take that vacation? Well then Travel and Leisure is precisely the magazine you should read to help you imagine what that trip would have been like.
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I think Travel & Leisure is a great "aspirational travel" magazine. Travel is so much about the dream, the experience, the memory, and the storytelling.... I think T&L does a great job of helping travelers IMAGINE the possibilities.
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A lot of reviewers share similar views, as seen in the recurrence of similar criticism of today's magazines. What these complaints also have in common is that they can tend to be fairly uninformed in regard to certain issues. First off, we all know that T+L is for "affluent travelers." Read the publisher's description, and it will tell you just that. So if you're not an affluent traveler, then don't waste your money on T+L and stick to Budget Travel. T+L occassionally has "affordable" stories, especially in their affordable issue in March. But don't expect the hotels to be to be under $200 a night. You know why? Because nowadays under $200 a night means you're a step above a youth hostal, especially in Europe where you pay an extra 20% on top of every dollar with today's exchange rate. The point is that T+L never positioned itself as an affordable travel mag, so to criticize its shortcomings in that respect is an invalid complaint.
Anyone who claims the photography is blown out and out of focus hasn't picked up a copy of the magazine since 1999. Furthermore, if all you saw were straightforward photographs of hotel rooms, you'd go out of your mind with boredom. There's nothing wrong with adding a little art to your photography, after all photography is in fact art, and T+L does a pretty good job of that. And so what if there's a beautiful woman in the photo. No one's saying you have to look like her or promising that she'll be strewn across the bed in your hotel room. Use your imagination this is travel photography in Travel + Leisure magazine it ain't Newsweek. And with all of the other offensive problems with media today, only in America do people complain about too much skin.
Lastly, readers need to understand that magazines don't put in more ads for giggles. A magazine is a business, and ad revenue is THE way a magazine earns money. So the more ads they have, the more profit they have, the more money they have to pay better photographers and writers and hire more staff and do more research, etc, etc, etc. No magazine is going to choose to throw away money in order to not offend its readers with fewer ad pages. In fact, high ad content is an indication of a high circulation, which is an indication of reader satisfaction. The more people a magazine reaches, the more companies want to advertise there.
The fact of the matter is that there is no perfect travel magazine in existence. They are either too service heavy, or editorial fluff, or too scientific and adventure-y, or just a b-level publication. T+L has its shortcomings, it has its top whatever lists and there's a lot of high-end service in there. But it's stunning and has its share of well written and interesting articles.
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As of December 29, 2010 you can receive a one year subscription to Artforum for $39.00, and that comes with a free year's worth of Bookforum (like Artforum except about books). I signed up for 2 years for $75.00 ($37.50/year). They also said they would "rush" out the November 2010 issue of Artforum for free to all new subscribers.
