National Geographic Traveler - There are few magazines that I refuse to let my subscription lapse on after a while, but one of my periodical gems is National Geographic Traveler.With the tagline "All travel, All the time", it always lives up to the quality of its parent mag - National Geographic Magazine. Beautifully laid out, it covers everything from budget trekking to lux travel, focusing on providing great imagery as well as high quality, descriptive written content. Each article is like a mini travel guide and more than any other magazine, I've found myself pulling out the old issues from the article index when planning a trip anywhere. Unlike other travel magazines, you're not bombarded with ads and info that quickly becomes obsolete. These magazine articles are built to provide lasting value.

National Geographic Adventure - National Geographic Adventure is Traveler's sister magazine with the same quality standards we've come to expect from the National Geographic brand. But while Traveler might focus on the cultural aspects of a locale - the food, the people, the events, Adventure focuses on what you can do there. Hiking, biking, kayaking, skydiving, trekking, scubadiving, you name it. It's Adventure where I go when I want to plan a safari with the man-eating lions of Tsavo for our honeymoon, or go great white shark diving of the southern coast of Africa, or roadtrip Baja. With it's in-depth coverage, its another magazine I return to again and again as a reference for trip-planning.

Other Magazines I Read On Occassion:
Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel - I like living well on vacation as much as the next person, but Shane and I really prefer to experience the locations we visit as opposed to being buffered considerably from them by some lux vacation package. Generally, we scorn vacation packages because we want flexibility. Amusingly, a lot of the "up close and personal" trips tend to be cheaper, thus Budget Travel is a great place to look for good travel deals, reviews and even triplets, which you can tack on to your itinerary.

Travelgirl - I first picked up this magazine when it was in it's first issue. Women's travel has become something of a hot topic, with more and more singles and such going off to see the world solo. The stories here are all over the board, from serious trekking to wine tasting weekends. What I like best is that I feel like I'm one of these travel crazy chicks.

Sunset - Technically, this is about western living, but just like the AAA Magazine Via that comes once a month, Sunset often has coverage of the greatest happenings on the West Coast. Travel is only one section of the magazine. Others include cooking, home crafts, and gardening.

Backpacker - I used to subscribe to Backpacker, and I reall enjoy when they highlight trails around the world, focusing primarily on the United States. Why did I stop subscribing? Too much gear info and reviews. I like gadgets as much as the next trail-head (heh, came up with that one myself)... but I want to read them when I'm actually looking for something - not every month when I want to read about hiking. I prefer the yearly gear issue, or the supplement on best boots, but having 80% of the magazine be a giant ad.

Outside - Again, I used to subscribe to this magazine. It focuses a lot more on adventurous souls who brave the wilderness, all over the world. Often these can be grueling tales involving lost limbs, frostbite, drownings, animal attacks, avalanches, and death. The narrative aspects of this magazine are great, but I found many of their stories very long, and then still broken up into monthly serials. I had trouble keeping track of what I was reading, etc. I would end up with huge piles of the magazine that I was afraid to throw out in case I missed something. Clutter! Everywhere! Still, this is one of my favorite mags to grab when hanging out in a bookstore.