HotelChatter

Now anyone with web access can check out the mag’s features (which will still appear in print first) as well as special hotel offers and original online content on a monthly basis. (Wow, they’re really taking advantage of the Internet’s immediacy, huh? Monthly.)

According to Four Seasons PR folks, both the print and online editions of the magazine “speak to the type of person who looks to travel as a way to connect with other cultures, discover new passions, appreciate the past and gain a better understanding of the richness our planet has to offer.”

In the current edition of the online magazine, that richness includes surfing in Hawaii, an Argentine polo player’s picks in Buenos Aires, Gurkha cigars, photos by the Neiman Marcus founder, and—of course—lots of Four Seasons coverage, such as “The Signature Holes of Four Seasons Golf Courses” and elephant rides at Thailand’s Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle.

The Restaurants & Cuisine section is anchored by a piece that asks: “Is Haute Cuisine Dead?” (what do you think?), while over in Style & Shopping, there’s a video of a Couture & Cocktails event with designer Max Mara (at the Four Seasons New York, natch).

There’s a fairly interesting article that asks Four Seasons snappers for their top travel photography tips, however the profile of photographer Arnaldo Anaya-Lucca begins with this sentence: “Don’t be taken in by the fact that photographer Arnaldo Anaya-Lucca is one-quarter of two sets of twins”—so you'll have to forgive us for not getting beyond that first line.

The site is well designed, and houses plenty of content, but the saturation of the Four Seasons brand in almost every piece makes it read more like marketing than editorial. (Even though you know this going in, it's still off-putting and makes us wonder why you'd seek out the site just for something to read.)

We’ll bookmark the site and check back in to see if anything catches our eye—but we have a feeling that the appeal of the magazine is all in its glossy stock and its coveted location: a room at the Four Seasons. And we need way more than a browser to access that.