Cheap Outside [with $5 Bonus] (Magazine) Price

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Customer Reviews of Outside [with $5 Bonus]

best travel and adventure magazine
I am mostly a low energy, armchair traveller but enjoy photography and reading about exciting new places and activities. This magazine has fit all these criterias. Outside focuses on exploring different locales that are extremely exciting as opposed to standard vacation hotspots such as Florida, the Carribbean, or Hawaii. The articles transport you to rafting Victoria Falls, deep water dives in South Africa, Alaskan fishing and hiking, plus lots of remote places such as Dominica or the Seychilles. I love how vibrant and rich the photography is and how well covered the articles are. Mind you there is something wondeful about reading magazines that highlight typical vacation spots, but for the adventuresome who like off the cuff travels, reclusive lodges, eco-villages, and remote islands this would be more your speed.

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Outside USED to be good - now its pulp
(I sent the following letter to their customer service last week) <
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>After about 15 years of getting your magazine, I have decided not to renew my subscription. It is a shame that your once great publication has become such a joke. <
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>After receiving your November issue, and spending 10 minutes removing all the inserts and gimmick ads so I could actually read it, I found no substance. Instead there is a fashion section (yikes), a `hot list' with young barely dressed men and women (hey I'm not against a little sex and skin, but I'll subscribe to Vogue or Maxim for that), an article about Larry David's wife that might as well have come from People magazine, an Aussie travelogue that I am convinced their tourist board paid for, all sandwiched in between so many ads for monster SUVs and other crap that you need a compass and a map just to keep up with where the articles worth reading continue from one page to the next. <
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>What happened to the great writers like Krakauer? What happened to having any environmental conscience? Where are the stories of adventure that are real and make you want to go there? Maybe I am just getting older than your current demographic. I haven't lost my sense of adventure, which is why I live in Durango CO and spend a lot of time outdoors. I used to look to your magazine for inspiration. Now I half expect the cover to tout stories on `killer abs'. You've become the Clear Channel of the outdoor magazine world. <
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>Get real again and I may come back.

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Inconsistent
Outside Magazine and I have had an up and down relationship for many years. At times, Outside seduces me with great journalism, awesome photos, and fun facts. I've loved its fearless tackling of environmental issues and its ability to transport me to truly exotic places. At other times, i question its journalistic integrity, emphasis on the latest and greatest gear, and shameless trumpeting of past successes. At times the advice it gives also seems more aimed at insecurities (you need this gear to be successful, you need to live HERE to live a fulfilling life) than I think a magazine focusing on fun in the outdoors should. <
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>Cases in point: <
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>- I'm not sure what criteria it uses for recommending gear but at times I question whether the recommendations come because a certain company is an advertiser or because the editors truly believe that a certain bike, watch, pair of sunglasses are really all that. I don't get the sense that recommendations come as the result of rigorous field testing a la Backpacker Magazine, etc. Also the gear tends to be super expensive. Whatever happened to just enjoying the outdoors via the John Muir approach: just taking off with the clothes on your back and the nearest snack at hand? Because I live in a mountain town I see this ridiculous emphasis on having Just The Right Gear/Clothing for every occasion all the time. It's a little silly. <
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>- Recycling or contradictory fitness advice. Outside did an outstanding series back in 1999 about achieving total fitness but then in subsequent issues redirected its fitness programs under the same type of heading (Achieve your best fitness now!) that made me wonder if they're just running with current fads. I know a magazine has to really work at staying fresh but I think consistency is the best approach here. <
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>- Dudes---John Krakauer wrote a great series and subsequent book about the tragedy on Everest in 1996. But that ship has sailed. If that's the only hook you can hang your hat on the magazine's got problems. We get that your magazine took the lead on that story. Stop reminding us of it.