What is the best use of Travel Magazines?
How do we make a plan for a holiday trip?
- We watch TV shows and make note of the places that interest us.
- Then, there is always the dependable Internet to curate the data related to local or foreign travel.
- We hear the travel experiences from friends and relatives.
- Then We get invitations from relatives and friends who are living in other cities or countries.
- We read in-depth travelogues in  exclusive travel magazines
Travel magazines in print form are great sources for planning a vacation. I would say they are the best resources for compelling travelers because:
- The facts and stats are very detailed
- The Travel magazine’s images are so good that they entice us to make a wish to see the places
- They are always available with us for quick reference
- They publish plenty of deals offered by travel agencies, flight operators, and hotels.
- The travel places to see are sometimes conveniently categorized such as National Parks, Theme Parks, Adventure Travel, Islands, Golf Resorts, Cruises, Road Trips, Beaches, and Hill Stations and so on.
Here are some of the 3 best travel magazines that have caught my fancy over the years. I have not subscribed to them yet but read them in the waiting rooms of dentists, auditor and of course the saloons.
The Travel magazines: National Parks
As the name suggests, it covers the U.S. National Parks. You can read about every park in depth. Every national park covered starts with its origin and subsequent history. This Travel magazines issues are filled with beautiful pictures. You must be happy to note that, apart from helping you to plan your trip to the national park of your interest; some of the profit the magazine generates from subscription is donated to protecting and preserving these National Treasures. I read that this  Travel magazine is sold to nearly 1 million people in the U.S. alone.
National Geographic Traveler.
The National Geography channel in the television is one of the best sources for us to plan a trip. The channel takes us deep into the place of its coverage thus making us yearn to visit those places in the world.
Every issue is packed full with stunning photos, just like we see them in their TV channel. Each place that is featured in the Travel magazine also contains the following information:
- Culture
- Landmarks
- People
- Street scenes and day-to-day life.
As you read an article with the above mentioned extra details, you get a real feeling of the location. In fact, you will start visualizing the place helped by the details and images.
The magazine’s articles are written as a blog post; I mean it is written with a personal view point than bare facts and stats.
This magazine is very good for both the frequent travelers and travel bloggers who are also called armchair travelers as they rarely travel but still entice you to visit the places they blog about.
Travel Magazines: LonelyPlanet
Ah, I love this exclusive travel magazine, not only for info packed feature but for the fact they use 100% eco-friendly paper called Ancient Forest Friendly paper. About 3 decades ago, the Indians were poor travelers due to various reasons.
The story is different now. As more and more International travel even to remote mountains and distant islands, the Lonely Planet saw it as an excellent opportunity to publish travel guides that contain information that every Indian traveler seeks.
The feedback from World wide travelers is encouraging. They say that the magazine is filled with breathtaking pictures, clear guides to hotels and food etc.
The Travel magazines should be impartial in their guides and publish only authentic, first hand information instead curating them from other sources and publish. The above three travel magazines fulfill this criterion.
