Customer Reviews

Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

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.

This magazine used to be very thorough, and it used to be very good at providing me with TONS of deals and tips that I never would have found on my own. It was great, and very opinionated. But last year sometime, they changed the look of it and now there's a lot less text. It's much more a style magazine now, and that's not what I want in a travel magazine that I have bought to tell me about money saving! Worse, except for the 40 Best Vacation Bargains, which are still okay, most of the articles forget to incluce a lot of money-saving tips and instead they too often suggest I do expensive things. Since when is a $225 a night hotel considered budget?? The headlines and captions are expecially smart-aalecky. It's not as good with the expert advice as it used to be! I noticed that Arthur Frommer isn't editing it anymore which maybe is why--bring him back! My search for a true money-saving travel magazine has unfortunately resumed again.

I am amazed that people still read Travel and Leisure and Conde Nast traveler. This magazine puts them all to shame. Why? Well, the information in it is actually useful. Instead of reviews of the best [X] a night hotels, the magazine covers vacations that people can actually afford. Since getting the magazine I've been able to double the amount of travel I do every year--and my salary has not increased in the past two years. But I've found out about so many money-saving ways to travel and so many great travel deals, that I'm able to travel more than I ever thought I could.
But it's not only that. The writing is really thoughtful, dynamic and instead of being as consumerist as the other travel magazines, it concentrates on the love of travel: the great sights, how to meet people who actually live in the places you're traveling, how to actually interact with the culture you're visiting.
A truly wonderful magazine--I cancelled my subscriptions to Travel and Life and Conde Nast!

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.

'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.

I just renewed my subscription to Budget Travel for two years.I have discovered a whole new world of affordable destinations.The articles give you the information you really need like the names of all the restaurants,hotels and transportation companies and the prices of everything.I also have appreciated the articles about places that most tourists aren't familiar with such as Flagler Beach FL.If you love to travel this magazine is a must!

Arthur Frommer is a giant among vacationing and traveling professionals and his magazine, Budget Travel, is a great place to look for bargain deals and general advice on the subject of travel. This publication is owned by the same people who bring Newsweek to the world and it is one of my favorite travel- related periodicals.

I have been reading this magazine for more than a year now. My favorite sections are "True Stories" (actual mishaps and funny occurrences that took place while traveling, sent in by readers), "Road Trip" (a 3 or 4 day automotive journey in some area of the U.S., complete with road map), and "40 Best" (a listing of 40 great travel deals from around the world, complete with pricing, phone numbers, and web sites for more information). Besides these regular departments, Budget Travel includes some good general articles (about 3 or 4 every month) that vary each month, about the subject of travel. These articles can cover anything from local culture to cost- cutting tips. And the places covered are varied from month to month. Sometimes, they are well- knonw destination. Other times, they are out of the way places that have something unique to offer.

One thing that is a little different with Budget Travel is the fact that it really does try to stress ways to save money on vacation. Unlike certain other travel magazines, this one doesn't waste the reader's time with pure fantasy by covering destinations that are incredibly costly and out of the reach of most people. It sticks to its mission and strives to bring you great deals and tips on travel.

One section of this magazine that I'm not too fond of is the "20 Tips"- a monthly department that provides miscellaneous bits of advice on travel, sent in by readers. There is no organization to this section and the tips include a mixture of both helpful and impractical advice. The problem with some of it is that it is so specific that the chances of anyone ever having the described situation actually occur is slim to none. Better organization (there is no order to this section at all- you have to skim for something useful) and more editing would improve this feature.

This magazine publication comes out ten times per year (the December/January and July/August issues are combined into one) and it carries a low subscription price. It's the type of magazine that easily pays for itself many times over with its timely advice and tips on stretching your vacation dollar.

I love this magazine, I'm so excited every month it arrives! (10 issues a year) I was disapointed at how long it took for the subscription to kick in, but once it did I can't complain about anything! Once I realized an issue hadn't come; I called customer service and the issue was delivered in 3 days.

I first saw this magazine at my cousins while house sitting. I asked them about it and they said that it is why they travel so much. They have a "just for travel" savings account and when they get some money saved... they look through the "40 Best" Trips and pick one! I want to "pick one" too!

I'm on a budget and take lots of in-country trips to visit friends and family. I just started my own "travel savings account" because I'm going to Uganda next year!

I also added 2 years to my subscription :-)

We have a fairly large family by today's standards- six of us total. This magazine is great for budget travel tips if you are still trying to travel but need to watch your spending. It gives tips on the best time to buy tickets, when to visit certain destinations etc... We love it! You shouldn't have to stop travelling just because you have a lot of kids-this mag shows you how to do it!

...this is the magazine for you. I currently subscribe to Budget Travel and several other magazines, and it is the only one I hold on to. It's an extremely valuable magazine and if you truly intend on traveling, the tips and information provided could truly save you hundreds upon hundreds of dollars. Each issue has a "20 Tips" (self explanatory) section and the famous "40 Best Vacation Packages for the next 3 months" section--both phenomenal! I LOVE to travel, but working in corp america with 2 weeks off a year makes it very hard to do so. However, Budget made me realize that traveling is indeed affordable when you have information and as of June (my official resignation date), I will be traveling like crazy using Budget Travel as my companion!!