Oct 19, 2007
English-language newspapers in non-English-speaking cities are often a goldmine of travel information
You haven't really exhausted all the available information for a trip to a particular foreign city until you've checked out the websites containing the articles appearing in their local, English-language newspapers.From the Bangkok Post (www.bangkokpost.net) to the Prague Post (www.praguepost.com), from The Buenos Aires Herald (www.buenosairesherald.com) to the Daily News Egypt (www.dailystaregypt.com), these papers are locally produced by the English-speaking community of each city or country. There are even ex-pat magazines such as Paris Voice www.parisvoice.com), and easyMilano (www.easymilano.it). And though the writing can sometimes be uneven and amateurish (given the limited pool of talent available), they can be a treasure trove of travel information.
There is usually a wide compilation of reviews on local restaurants (often far more than can fit in a guidebook, as up-to-date as yesterday, and many times appended with commentary by other ex-pats) and "weekend escape"-type features that detail an assortment of daytrips, often ones well off the beaten tourist track.
And that is the true worth of these resources: the insight they can offer and leads they can provide to having a richer, more interesting vacation. There will be the latest local news reports, editorials on local and regional politics, and classified listings of events being held in English around town, from book clubs to AA meetings to church services to language classes to one-act plays -- each one a top opportunity to get an inside glimpse at life in a foreign city from an American (or Canadian, or British, or Australian...), and perhaps make some new friends who actually live in town and can offer advice.
You can find ex-pat papers in the "Reading Room" of the Internet Public Library (www.ipl.org), at World-newspapers.com (a country-by-country hodgpodge selection of papers that thoughtfully includes a brief description of each), Onlinenewspapers.com (a mix of many papers, though it specifies which are in English), Newspapers.com (which doesn't have the most elegant of interfaces but does provide a brief description on some papers), and Newsdirectory.com.
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There is usually a wide compilation of reviews on local restaurants (often far more than can fit in a guidebook, as up-to-date as yesterday, and many times appended with commentary by other ex-pats) and "weekend escape"-type features that detail an assortment of daytrips, often ones well off the beaten tourist track.
And that is the true worth of these resources: the insight they can offer and leads they can provide to having a richer, more interesting vacation. There will be the latest local news reports, editorials on local and regional politics, and classified listings of events being held in English around town, from book clubs to AA meetings to church services to language classes to one-act plays -- each one a top opportunity to get an inside glimpse at life in a foreign city from an American (or Canadian, or British, or Australian...), and perhaps make some new friends who actually live in town and can offer advice.
You can find ex-pat papers in the "Reading Room" of the Internet Public Library (www.ipl.org), at World-newspapers.com (a country-by-country hodgpodge selection of papers that thoughtfully includes a brief description of each), Onlinenewspapers.com (a mix of many papers, though it specifies which are in English), Newspapers.com (which doesn't have the most elegant of interfaces but does provide a brief description on some papers), and Newsdirectory.com.
Write and read comments about this post.
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Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
