More than a few times on this blog, I’ve pointed to a SmarterTravel column from one of my favorite travel advisers, Ed Perkins. He contributed a section to my last book, Make Your Travel Dollars Worth a Fortune , so call me biased, but again and again he nails the absurdities most people miss when it comes to the travel industry.
Take this article on Info for real world travelers .
Do you sometimes feel that most of the travel information you see is aimed at someone who has three times as much free time as you and five times the money? Certainly today’s slick travel magazines aim primarily at travelers at or near the very top of the income scale, and little of what you see there is useful to you and other real-world travelers.
Those slick travel magazines also tend to zero in on remote, exotic, and (especially) photogenic destinations. Elephant rides in Sri Lanka. Dream vacations on a private island somewhere in the Indian Ocean. No matter that real world travelers flock to Las Vegas, Orlando, New York, London, and Paris, those offbeat spots take great photos. It seems to me that at least one big magazine features hot-air ballooning in New Mexico every year—not because many of us are actually interested, but because pictures of colorful balloons make a great cover.
He then runs down the travel media you should be reading if you’re not in the income bracket putting you in the top 2% of all earners. Most of them are on this travel magazines resource page of mine and you can find some useful advice for people of normal budgets at these travel websites . As Ed says, “In sum, look at the slick magazines for pretty pictures, but if you’re into budget travel, go elsewhere for information you can really use.”
