Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel

Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel
If you love to travel, watch out. This magazine is so glorious, you may not want to subscribe to it. There is a section in each listing the 40 best deals in vacations. This section is so cruel, so mouthwatering… For example, back in March they listed a company offering a [very low] rate [...] toIreland. That’s including RT airfare from JFK, rental car for 5 days, and 5 vouchers for B&B’s around Ireland! How is that possible?! See what I mean? You may find it difficult to subscribe to this magazine without some money set aside for traveling.

The rest of the magazine is great, too. It typically highlights one place in each issue that is one of the “cheapest places on Earth.” In one issue I remember they chose Grenada, Spain. Ghana is forthcoming. I think they also did a city in Texas not too long ago (sorry I can’t remember exactly, but they do list US cities as well).

It also has a lot of articles on US travel. In the last issue, they had “Super Affordable Road Trips,” “20 Secret Bargains of San Francisco” and “40 Low-Cost Family Summer Camps.” That was just for starters.

As you can tell, the magazine’s focus is “real vacations for real people.” It is packed with affordable travel ideas. If you have a travel fund and plenty of vacation time, get this magazine immediately. Otherwise, you may want to think twice before torturing yourself.
Rating: 5 / 5
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Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel
A great magazine. The best part is the section where it lists 40 of the best deals it’s found. For example, in the most recent issue there’s a trip for $499 to Buenos Aires that includes air, 6 nights hotel with breakfast, airport transfers, and a tour of the city. There’s also a trip to Russia for $599 roundtrip airfare, 3 nights in Moscow, 3 nights in St. Petersburg, and an overnight train between the two, plus breakfast and tours of the city in each. You’ll be salivating at the end of each issue, wanting to fly away to all the great locales in this mag. Just don’t do anything illegal to get the money to do so, regardless of how tempted you may be.
Rating: 5 / 5
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Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel
‘Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel’ is a good magazine, with one absolute standout feature: the ’40 Best’ bargain vacations area. Every issue has great tips for the 40 best values for different vacations in different regions. Although I have never actually taken any of these vacations exactly as listed, I have on several occasions found them useful as a starting point for planning a trip.

The remainder of the magazine is fairly standard, and I think a bit repetitive. Occasionally I find useful tips in the ’20 Tips’ section, but more often than not the tips are so specific as to be fairly useless, along the lines of ‘Did you know that on alternating Saturdays of months beginning with the letter “M” between the hours of 2:10 PM and 2:48 PM, the London Zoo gives out three free bamboo shoots to feed the pandas to the first seven people who ask?.’ That is an obvious exaggeration, but not by much. I find the travel articles in general well written, but a bit repetitive (how many times can we hear about Paris or London?) and not terribly informative.

My biggest objection is to the editorial tone in the magazine: I am all in favor of a bargain, but some of the wheedling and whining makes me want to say “Enough. This guy has to earn a living, too.” For instance, the editors regularly complain about high airfares, but a few months ago ran an editorial piece that wanted to boycott airlines that ran ads at the beginning of the inflight entertainment videos. I guess that they would rather the airlines not accept that money from corporate accounts, and instead have higher ticket prices? My point is this: you can’t have it both ways, so stop trying. When you get a great deal on airfare, hotels, or rental cars, great, but know when to stop. Otherwise you start to look greedy.

Four stars overall: the ’40 Best’ is one of the best features in any travel magazine, period. One point reduction for somewhat repetitive features and editorial tone. Great job overall: go to some new places and you will be up to five stars.
Rating: 4 / 5
http://www.amazon.com/Arthur-Frommers-Budget-Travel/dp/B00005QJDZ%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAIDIOIL34UMPOYWMQ%26tag%3Dgapadventure-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB00005QJDZ