The March Budget Travel arrived in my mailbox yesterday. My favorite American travel magazine is paying lip service to the economic climate but could do a much better job capturing the Zeitgeist—at a time when it is better situated to do so than any other travel magazine around.
What am I talking about? The article by David Kaufman on Panama's Los Santos, for one. It's actually a great piece, but the focus on a guesthouse with rooms starting at $250 makes me itchy. $250?!? Really? Right now? (Actually, the cheapest rooms at said property come in at $375 in high season once taxes and service charges are considered. Your low season non-bargain: $281 per night.) Outrageous.
And then there's the Icehotel "dream trip" feature, written by Juliet Eilperin. The Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi (near Kiruna) starts at $400 per night. (According to my research, a double room can actually be had, at current exchange rates, for $300. This fact doesn't dilute my grievance.) True, there's a mention of the nearby Hotell Kebne ($100 per night as of publication date; thanks to a better exchange rate, down to $88 as of today) as a budget option, but I can't help but think that this might have not been the best time to include this article, even in a "dream trip" feature.
I should also acknowledge how happy the "Scale a Volcano in Ecuador" dream trip feature made me. Scott Hutchins writes about hiking up El Altar with his brother. The images are breathtaking, and, most pleasing to me at this budget-obsessed moment are the lodging recommendations, which top out at $15 per person per night.
I love the idea of a "dream trips" series. I just want more budget-friendliness. Some ideas: island-hopping through the Bahamas by mail boat; touring monasteries in the Balkans; finding perfect and deserted beaches in the Philippines, Brazil, or Peru, to name but three places with vast expanses of undeveloped coastline and many cheap places to stay. What about a road trip across Australia, a place currently very affordable for Americans?
This economic moment, which may be with us for a while, should provide an occasion for Budget Travel and other budget-oriented publications, travel and otherwise, to get really serious about helping their readers save money. A $100 credit at a $300/night resort, to give but one example, is useless to most Americans right now. BT should put together an issue or two dedicated to real budget travel: the best gîtes in France; an in-depth piece on couchsurfing; a review of good, simple guesthouses in places with low price indices, like the Caribbean coasts of Honduras and Costa Rica; rural tourism in Europe, and so on. This great article, which was updated last year, could serve as a departure point for at least a half-dozen features.
All the standard disclosures apply. I dig Budget Travel. It's an important publication. I just want to see articles that are able to convince the financially-stressed that travel right now is both doable and utterly and completely worth it. That a hotel room for $375 per night is antithetical to this goal shouldn't have to be articulated.
