In the Magazines: August 2011

And now for a new feature: In the Magazines, wherein your helpful friends at FATHOM give the rundown of the best in this month's travel glossies: Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, National Geographic Traveler, and Wallpaper.

TRAVEL + LEISURE
On the cover: Annual "World's Best" Awards covers the best of the world's cities, islands, cruise lines, transportation, and hotels. Bangkok, Florence, Rome, New York City, and Istanbul round out the top five cities. Santorini, Bali, Cape Breton, Boracay, and Great Barrier Reef take the coveted top island spots. (We'll take it.)

African safari lodges were the big winners, nabbing six of the top ten spots in the World's Overall Best Hotels category. Trophies are on the way to #1 Singita Grumeti Reserves' Saskwa Lodge, Sabora Tented Camp, and Faru Faru Lodge in Tanzania. A nice surprise for Fathom was the #9 Europen Resorts, Capri's Grand Hotel Quisisana, recently featured in Holiday in a Handbag. Extra mints on the pillows to all the winners, and we hope to see you very soon.

Highlights:
- Big features: Adam Sachs drinks up the Provençal terroir in La Vie en Rosé, Dominique Browning tours Rhode Island's Hidden Coast, and Reggie Nadelson tours Trieste on The Edge of Italy.

- Next Stop: Catskills by FATHOM contributor Adam H. Graham explains why the mountains are giving the Hamptons a run for their money.

- Italy on a Small Scale: a sunny tour of affordable inns.

- Cambodia on the Rise:a guide to Phnom Penh-Long, once a weigh station en route to Angkor, now a destination unto itself.

CONDE NAST TRAVELER
On the cover: It's all cruises, all the time. From outrageous cocktails to squished staterooms, they take a look at eight ships debuting this summer. Other features include Ten Rules for Smooth Sailing, unique cruise itineraries, and beautiful ports of call.

Highlights:
- The Vanishing: What the Anasazi left behind in the Southwest. (The website has a great companion guide to the Four Corners.)

- David Ebershoff tours the former capital of Laos in Loving Luang Praband.

- Back on the water, Susan Hack tours Paris via its Seine and Sensibility.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER
On the cover: Milan's Big Heart: Italy's Design Capital Reveals Its Soul, by Tom Mueller. "I've been so busy looking for what is 'Italian' in Milan that I've missed the living, breathing city." See the photos.

Highlights:
Last Stand in the Serengeti, by Costas Christ, is a call to arms to save the Serengeti from planned construction of a 30-mile highway through the park. "Why would Tanzania, long known for its commitment to conservation, decide to build a highway across the world's most famous wildlife park, which last year was the larges contributor to the country's $1.28 billion tourism industry?" Good question. Visit www.savetheserengeti.org for info. 

Leapfrogging the Internet, by Keith Bellows, reports on FrontlineSMS, a mobile text messaging system that delivers mass updates and alerts to remote communities without internet access 

The Great American Summer Vacation spotlights three road trips (Grand Traverse Bay in Michigan, Yellowstone, and Florida's Gulf Coast), excellently bad roadside attractions (Cabazon Dinosaurs in California; Carhenge in Nebraska), the latest in Philly, and river tubing from New Jersey to Arizona.

In addition to Milan, big features include a father-son journey through Chiang Mai and an after-hours hike along the John Muir Trail in California.

WALLPAPER
For their second annual handmade issue, Wallpaper recruited designers, artists, and interesting people to create custom pieces for the magazine. Our favorites include a caped suit reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes designed by Konstatin Grcic and crafted by Brioni tailors in Italy, adjustable flag suitcases by Big-Game and Globe Trotter, and in-flight meal carts by Arabeschi di Latte and Bordbar. Zahascape is a small tapestry created by Tapisserie of London embroidered with Zaha Hadid Architects' most famous designs in neon thread. Hermes and ECAL University of Art and Design Lausanne collaborated on Moving Wallpaper, which can be animated and illuminated via iPad.