Some of the glossy mags’ more interesting stories (and some of the less interesting):

The Atlantic Monthly (May): Clive Crook has a piece about the inhospitable but eerily beautiful Skeleton Coast of Namibia. It’s unfortunate that the essay itself feels a little passive and bland, speckled with words like “breathtaking” and “awe-inspiring,” but when Crook sticks to the details, the geography of the sand dunes themselves succeed in making me want to see it for myself.

Conde Nast Traveler (May, US Edition): This month’s issues has depressing, “see-it-before-it’s-gone” coverage of 20 of the world’s most alluring places at risk due to over-development, deforestation, oil drilling, and other issues — including Baku, Borneo, and the Everglades. To balance it out is a report on the impact for good that some hotels around the world are making on social issues — a long overdue look at the not-so-small impact of tourism on communities and the planet.

Lawrence Osborne travels The Decan Odyssey, one of India’s old-world glamour trains, from Mumbai to Boa. And there’s a pretty bizarre fashion photo spread shot on location in the pristine, undeveloped parts of Brazil 100 miles (160km) southwest of Rio.

Budget Travel (May): The best section in this advertisement-heavy issue is a very funky photo essay by Sara Hart on the bridges that the wild and innovative edges of architecture has brought us this century. It’s worth looking at just for the photos.

Tiffany Sharples’s Rocky Mountain cycling trip unfortunately fails to get beyond her admitted New Englander’s “romanticized view of the Rockies,” but the tour itself is a nice itinerary. And Erik Torkells is surprised to find that Bermuda’s beaches are actually pretty nice, once he gave them a fair chance.

Town & Country Travel (Summer): Dorothy Kalins seeks out the best of Basque’s revolution in local cuisine. A piece about Sydney’s Byron Bay (how overwritten that place is!) escapes cliche only because the author admits in the first line, “I’m not the first person to wax poetical about Byron Bay.”

Kate Sekules has a very good piece about the effect of “a new generation homesick for a mythical former life” is having on her beloved Norfolk. And there’s a compilation section that creates a sweet, nostalgic look at San Francisco. I wish I could say it gives the insider’s view the article promised, but the piece’s strength is unfortunately in the nostalgia and memoir aspects rather than the — hem — perceptive travel.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 22nd, 2007 at 4:26 pm and is filed under Africa travel, Antonia projects, Asia travel, Australia & NZ travel, Europe travel, Latin America travel, US travel, travel stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.