kld718's Full Review: Conde Nast Traveler Magazine
Considering that I refuse to buy magazines, I always end up with a lot of them to read. One of my co-workers subscribes to at least fifteen magazines and is always bringing them to work when she is done with them. Not reading them at work, mind you, if she had that much time she would be getting more work given to her from her mean old boss, as she likes to call me.
One of the more recent magazines that she has been bringing me is the Conde Nast Traveler. She always says, “Here, you need this one.” Do you think I should take that as a hint? I guess she wants me to go on a vacation or something? Whatever it is, I’m sorry to tell her that I will not be doing any traveling until I leave Florida in a few months for my home state of Pennsylvania. But then she will be really disappointed when I don’t come back, and leave her stuck with another meaner, less lenient, and older boss.
~March through December 2002 Issues~
Looking through Conde Nast, I have found that there are usually from 5-7 feature articles in this magazine all together. We then have a few sections that are in every issue of this magazine.
Departments Word of Mouth Stop Press Places & Prices
These sections in turn usually include several other sub articles within each section that relate to the heading.
Within the Departments section, you have your typical magazine Editorials, a section for contributors to the magazine to tell you their stories about their travel. This I find to be the best part of the magazine because the contributors are always pretty good travel writers and always include detailed information in a short paragraph, along with a small photo of the actual person.
The Airmail section with letters sent from readers pertaining to past articles featured in Conde Nast, and a Q&A (Question and Answer) section that readers can send their pressing questions to. Some examples here would be like someone had a bad cruise and wanted to know if they should suggest a partial refund. Or Northwest Airlines, who no longer supplies artificial sweetener on their flights, because of the past Anthrax scares.
The Word of Mouth section is basically new places or places that are fast becoming the “place to be.” Those include: the newest restaurants, hot spots, and hotels. In popular cities such as New York, South Beach, and Las Vegas, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, and San Francisco you can find the hottest restaurants, nightlife, hotels, spas, and shopping. There is a feature in the March 2002 issue about San Francisco – the hot spots, theatre, exercise options, watering holes, and the best restaurants available to you while you are visiting.
Also located with this section is the Deals of The Month article. This section provides you with the best prices at the hottest places. Deals of The Month provides you with everything you would want to know about a certain hot destination. The place to travel to, where it is located, why it is the best place to go at that point, how to get there and how to get around why you are there, rooming options and prices, best place to eat while you are there, what to wear, what the weather is like there, and how to prepare for your trip. This section includes a lot of useful information, especially if the traveler has never been to that certain destination and has no idea what to do or where to stay.
And for you beauty folk...Beauty On Board...the best beauty buys from all over the world: lip gloss from Europe and Hong Kong, Mascara from Japan, Styling Spray from Europe, Powdery Foundation from Japan, and Corrective Gel from Asia. So when traveling to different parts of the world, don’t forget to bring back the best beauty products only available in select countries! :-)
What they also include, and is often a downfall for other magazines, is the numerous product advertisements. We also have here a wide variety of products in a wide variety of price ranges: Louis Vuitton luggage, BMW Cars, Prada bags, Rolex watches, Infiniti vehicles, Ritz-Carlton Lodge, Lexus, Cole Haan (shoes, handbags, and coats), Caroline Herrera clothing, tons of Cruise Line advertising, New Balance, Nissan, and Cadillac to name a few. Most of the advertisements to cater to expensive tasting but you will find some average priced products mixed in also.
Even more useful is the ads for travel merchandise, such as luggage, cars, ear plugs for the airplane ride. Located at the end of the magazine, you get your typical conglomerated advertisements for numerous ways to travel and places to travel to, in Conde Nast Travelers MarketPlace.
Included in every issue of Conde Nast Traveler is a contest: Where Are You? A location is photographed and placed within the pages of the magazine every month for the contest. Each month, one winner is picked out of all the entries to win $1,000 if they name the correct location from the picture...that winner is also entered into the magazine’s grand prize drawing for a $10,000 trip to one of the places pictured throughout the year. You can play the contest by mailing in your entry or online at the Website (listed below). Unless you are a very well-seasoned traveler, good luck with guessing the location in the picture!
Stop The Press includes your latest updates on travel related new stories. What I found most interesting in this section was in one of the earlier year editions was the articles featuring things that have since changed in travel since the September 11th attacks: airport security, hotel security, and the new flight attendant training.
Also an issue, there is a great article on how vacations have been more centered towards family orientated activities after September 11th attacks, rather than just couples traveling on their own. The activities that parents now do on vacations, center around both their children and themselves, instead of just making it fun for the kiddies. And how the more sophisticated destinations are making themselves more accommodating for children. I thought is was a great idea that some of the Sheratons and Four Points Hotels are now providing cribs in the rooms for babies, instead of having to lug a portable one with you when traveling to these hotels.
In a few of the issues that I have, Conde Nast usually includes a “special advertising section” in the Places and Prices section, where they feature only states and what you can do there. They go through some of the most popular cities in the state and their annual traditions and history. One state is picked in each issue and give you everything you need to know: car rental, airline accommodations, a map of the state, a full itinerary of what to do day by day when you get there.
And the last section, Ombudsman, is probably the funniest sections in the magazine with the magazines travelers sending in their “horror” stories about their experience someplace, expecting the magazine to investigate their issue and demand recourse for the wrong doing. This section will give you a good laugh and make you realize how often mistakes happen when traveling.
I read one story about hotel employees in Barbados going into a guest’s room and looking through their stuff, taking their valuables to put away, and even counting the money left in a guy’s wallet! They say that it is a safety issue to keep valuables in a guest room and I can understand this. But why do the employees go through guest’s bags when they are not there? The guest should be told upon arrival that valuables need to be checked in or the hotel will not be responsible for anything stolen.
~MY THOUGHTS~
Have I planned my vacation using this magazine yet? Nope, and probably not do so until the summer months because of my impending move in the Spring. But I have found the magazine to be really useful in helping me pick a destination that I might want to visit this Summer or Fall.
Not only have I been introduced to places that I never thought of going, I have also learned a lot about how to get there and what to do when I get there. Conde Nast Traveler is not just for your big, popular cities travel either. Sure, they do feature a lot on cities like New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas, but that is not all. I have found numerous smaller articles on little quaint towns that no one would ever think to visit. And after living in a big city all of my life, until now, I love to look at the small town life.
Conde Nast Traveler includes a lot of advertisements for travel destinations, but that is obviously something that I was expecting and did not really mind since that was the reason that I was looking at the magazine to begin with.
You definitely get a wide variety of travel destinations offered to you here. Some out of the country destinations include: Bermuda, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Canada, Italy, and Brazil. And for your U.S. traveling: Washington, Texas, Oregon, Mexico, Mississippi, and Florida’s most fashionable vacation available. Though, if you are looking for the “cheapest” travel available, do not even waste your time with Conde Nast Traveler.
One bad thing about this magazine is the interspersion of articles and advertisements. They seem to have no organization at all. Starting a story on page 10 doesn’t mean that you will finish the story on page 11...but maybe end up flipping to page 23 instead to finish the article in question. This just causes me to loose interest in the story when I start it and then have to flip through a hundred pages of articles before coming back to the story again.
One thing about Conde Nast that I just have to mention is that the featured photography is awesome. You can get some of the most wonderful pictures of different sights all over the world. Here you see the tourist attractions, the animals and rich vegetation, restaurants, hotels, beaches, people...and basically Mother Nature at her best.
So if you do not have the time to travel for real, try checking out Conde Nast Traveler so that you can travel for $4.50 (US)/$5.50 (CAN) an issue. Which I do think is a little high, but not all that bad considering that the magazine usually has between 150 and 200 pages per issue. Or if you do have the time, check out this magazine anyway for some great travel tips on destinations and activities. And for some wonderful pictures of people and places around the world!
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