In the Magazines: September 2011

by Kathleen M. O'Donnell

This month, per reader request, we add Budget Travel and Afar to our magazine rundown. Happy reading and armchair traveling.

TRAVEL + LEISURE 
On the cover: The annual Style and Culture issue whisks us to The Next Best Places. Guy Trebay reports on hideouts of the Caribbean, Maria Shollenbarger on emerging nightlife in Florence, design updates from Aimee Lee Ball on West Virginia and Lynn Yaeger on Seoul, and Kate Betts on beach life in Malibu.

Highlights:
-A-List: World's Top Travel Agents, all 137 of them, and World's Coolest Rental Homes.

-Made in Sweden: Adam Sachs spotlights chef Marcus Samuelsson's favorite Swedish destinations and his awesome new Harlem restaurant, Red Rooster.

-Ode to the Never-Ending Packing List: The always-excellent Peter Jon Lindberg extols the virtues of traveling heavy.

-It's always great to see your name in lights, and we curtsy to T+L for featuring FATHOM founder and CEO Pavia Rosati as a Travel Innovator

-The magazine is taking its act offline with its first-ever Global Bazaar, an extravaganza of places, music, food, and stuff  in NYC September 17-18. Tickets are on sale.

CONDE NAST TRAVELER  
On the cover: The Visionaries issue highlights the destinations that will benefit most from do-good travelers. Cover girl Drew Barrymore receives top billing as a World Food Programme Ambassador fighting to save children in Kenya.

Highlights:
-Hats off for those who Travel for the Good: Trailblazers, Philanthropists, and World Savers.

-Nicaragua's New Day: Andrew Cockburn reports on its "pleasures and paradoxes."

-A Palace for the People: Mark Connolly and Wendy Perrin visit Hyderabad's Taj Falaknuma Palace.

-Paradise Without the Perrier: Bob Payne (one of our favorites on Twitter) checks into the Soneva Fushi in the Maldives.

-Iconic Itineraries: Seven Perfect Days in Argentina's Wine Country: Brook Wilkinson, that was one plum assignment.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER
On the cover: Novelist Elizabeth Berg discovers her long lost brother among the lush hidden landscapes in Hawaii Lost and Found.

Highlights:
-Miriam Murphy visits The Towns Italy Forgot, Steve Chapple gets lost in Hanoi Last Minute, and Carl Hoffman explores Egypt's New Day (see photos).

-Love That Lingua Franca: Daisann McLane on the third language that travelers use to get around foreign destinations. Who knew Spanish could get you through Japan?

-Radio host Boyd Matson spends A Day with the Pygmies in the Congo Basin, putting off photographing animals to play with locals.

-The Giver's Conondrum: Costa Christ on the challenges of voluntourism.

WALLPAPER
You'll have to buy the newsstand version to actually read the features, but the website provides a nice array of supplementary slideshows and videos.

On the cover: For its 150th issue, the magazine celebrates "150 agenda-setting, era-defining issues" that have made the world a good-looking place. Heavy emphasis on fashion, darling. It is September.

Highlights:
-History in the Making, by Glenn Waldron, is about fashion brand Valentino creating a virtual museum in cyber space.

-Renaissance City, by JJ Martin, accompanies Silvia Venturini Fendi on a tour of Rome's new creative design spaces including the Saddlers Union leather workshop, Delfina Delettrez jewelry atelier, a photography studio in Pastificio Cerere (a former pasta factory), and a young carpenter's studio amidst 90 year-old falegname (wood masters).

-Best Cellar, by Rupert Eden, gives an overview of boutique country retreat L'And Vineyards in the cork forests and plains of Alentejo in Portugal.

-In Subculture, Marie Le Fort explores Silencio, an underground Parisian member's club designed by David Lynch.

-The iconic Greenbrier resort in West Virginia sets the stage for fashion photo story Lost Weekend. 

BUDGET TRAVEL 
Not all the articles are online. Or if they are, we can't find them. You'll have to head to an actual — yowza! — newsstand to read all about it.

On the cover: The Best Places You've Never Heard Of might be in your backyard (Wyoming) or in another hemisphere (South Africa). We're especially interested in Lord Howe Island in Australia.

Highlights:
-The Annual Coolest Small Towns in America is Lewisburg, West Virginia. Other top contenders: Astoria, Oregon; Clayton, New York; Eureka Springs, Arkansas; and La Pointe, Wisconsin. Confetti and cupcakes all around.

-Europe's Best Values include Ireland, United Kingdom, Greece, Austria, Spain. (The United Kingdom: That was a surprise.)

AFAR
We can't find their articles online either. If they're there, we apologize. Clearly, we need a Surfing 101 class this month.

On the cover: Get Local inspires travelers to consider the global destinations closest to the homestead. (If only Amsterdam was a short train ride away.)

Highlights:
-Stokholm, Toronto, Sarajevo, and Western Uganda, where local highlights include a converted jail hotel, mad scientist bartenders, nomadic villages, and Ugandan Akaboozi (Lugandan for "gossip").

-Snack on chaat in Mumbai's street markets and get a recipe for pao bhaji.

-Spanish Steps explores the gypsy roots of Andalusian dance company Taller Flamenco

-Palermo Viejo: Javier Gover is working, fathering, and eating in the Buenos Aires neighborhood.

We make every effort to ensure the information in our articles is accurate at the time of publication. But the world moves fast, and even we double-check important details before hitting the road.