My wife and I enjoy travel magazines. We have four or five delivered most every month. One of those magazines is Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel. It's not a favorite yet I still look through it.

My wife and I use Frommer's Travel Guide books for most destinations we travel too. I have used them extensively for travel in the Caribbean and Mexico. I am using the Alaska Travel Guide right now as we plan a trip to that huge state. The guides are an excellent source of information. I believe it was our satisfaction with those books that lead to subscribe to the magazine.

The magazine is too "all over the place" to suit me as a true source for deals. That's because I know it contains many places I will never visit. At the same time it does pique interest of places I may have thought to visit and perhaps a few that I didn't.

I'm looking at one issue now and it has the Greek Isles for Less...Bermuda...Places Every Kid Must See, Paris Hotels, Stay in Style, A Road Trip To Colorado and "Confessions, A time share salesperson tells the truth." Ha, the scam artist probably made up a story just sell it to the magazine. Don't mind the last sentence too much. I sometimes get a bit negative when I think of time-share salespeople. I've met too many con men and woman who will say anything to get one to sign the bottom line. The article however is a good one and does "give permission" to those who do not know how to say no, to do so and how.

In taking a look at the March issue I see more articles that span the world. Dream Trips covers Easter island, Mardi Gras, Sahara desert, Mount Fugi and more. It has some helpful hints on how to keep expiring "Mile points" alive. 50 family camps are also explored. If you are looking to rent a lighthouse in Europe, you have a source in Frommer's Budget Travel. This is what I mean about being all over the place with its features.

Now don't get me wrong about the magazine, each of the articles did draw me in and were of interest. What isn't possible is using the pages of the magazine to do "Budget Travel". Perhaps I'm being too critical. The fact is, it does have feature articles that can save money, it's just that I can't really use the magazine as an easy to sort source for saving dollars.

The magazine title is expanded to say Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel...Vacations for Real People. This is the part I like. That's because, even though I may not use the magazine to help book a destination, it does open my eyes to many places that may not be mentions in a more specifically marketed magazine like Caribbean Life.

The prices make the magazine very affordable either through discounts in the magazine or on-line.


10 Issues (1 Year) for $12.00
20 Issues (2 Years) for $20.00
30 Issues (3 Years) for $25.00

A quick look will also help you realise that you can find most of the featured articles in the magazine online for free! Now there are those who like to sit back on a comfy chair or perhaps thumb through before going to sleep to bring pleasant dreams. It's those people that the magazine may be good for.

A huge problem I have with the magazine though is trying to find articles that are buried under pages upon pages of advertisements. There are simply too many that we get in the issues sent to Mid-Atlantic New York.

To add insult to injury, the adds don't have page numbers on them and and many of the feature pages that do have the numbers somewhere else besides the bottom corners of the pages. Yikes! I can't find the darn article I'm looking for!

To close up I'll mention that the magazine does try and save the reader dollars. It does feature places local to the USA where I live and throughout the world. The magazine has wonderful scene setting photographs that are a pleasure to view. The articles are well written and presented in easy to understand terms. Travel tips are always good. As an example the magazine suggests never to take a rental car with plates outside the state you are renting in because the police do tend to ticket "out of staters" more readily than those who live in state. That makes sense to me and the little bit of experience I have had with police stops on the road re-enforces that thought.

I do not like the flood of advertisements I have to work my way through to find a featured article. The same goes for trying to find page numbers. I actually get frustrated when I'm trying to relax and have to keep looking at ads rather than find the article that interests me.

Though the magazine does have many articles that can save money, it's not easy to keep a record of which magazine has what articles.

I read the Frommer's Budget Travel Magazine as a "Dream Machine". It's fun and informative most of the time.

Now what page was that article about...


A few Excellent Frommer's Guides reviewed by pops.

Frommer's 2007 Alaska
Frommer's Mexico 2007
Frommer's Caribbean 2006

Recommended: Yes