National Geographic Traveler - USA (2019-12 & 2020-01)

NATGEOTRAVEL.COM

EDITOR’S NOTE

BY GEORGE!

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W

e’ve been around the world for 35 years,

and along the way we’ve collected stories.

Lots of stories. Geographical explorations,

cultural expositions, historical quests, adventurous

yarns, voyages of discovery, sound journeys, road trips,

revelatory romps, secret missions, daring escapes,

postcards from the edge. You name it, we ran it. And

we loved every word, every picture, every tale.

Stories are what we bring to the campfire. But the

spark comes when a story finds an audience and when

that audience carries the story onward. Once an idea

takes root in a curious mind who knows where it will

end up? While our greatest stories have no end, this

magazine does. With the publication of this issue,

Traveler will retire. But we won’t be on vacation: we

The Story of

Our Lives

Travel tales define us and

grow through sharing

The festival of

Galungan, in Bali,

honors ancestral

spirits, kindness,

and harmony.

will channel our energies into storytelling online at

nationalgeographic.com, into our weekly newsletter,

on Instagram, on Facebook, in our 17 international

editions, and in the pages of National Geographic

magazine, where we will publish thrilling tales of

adventure and discovery through travel.

As editors, writers, photographers, designers,

and magazine professionals, we have been honored

to share our stories with you; and we love it when you

share your stories with us. One of my favorite letters

came from Louise Cox, a retired teacher in LaFayette,

Alabama. Cox has visited all 50 states, most of Canada,

80 countries, and all seven “new” wonders of the world.

She sent me a note with a picture of herself holding

Traveler, posing above a waterfall. “I celebrated my