Articles

Jason Cochran

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

The Only Rules You Need to Know for Driving a Car in the United Kingdom and Europe

Over on our busy message boards, the Forums, an interesting conversation has popped up in which Frommer's readers are compiling a list of all the rules a foreign driver would…

Article / Passportable

Handy Discount App HotelTonight Now Offers Discounts from 9am Daily Instead of Noon

The same-day hotel discount app HotelTonight has grown by leaps and bounds since its debut in 2011, going from a coverage of just a few cities to now around 200 locations around the…

Article / Passportable

AppleCare+ Now Lets You Repair Your Apple Products Where You Travel

AppleCare+, and its similar product AppleCare Protection Plan, are like insurance policies for your Apple product—iPhone, iPad, iPod, laptop, and the like. If you crack your…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Introducing Wanderu, the Site that Streamlines the Search for the Cheap Shuttle Bus Services

It had to happen: Kayak for cheapie shuttle buses.New website Wanderu stops budget travelers from having to hunt through multiple sites for cheap bus fares. It grabs search…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

New Hotel Bidding Site Stayful.com Cuts Out the Chains and Slashes Rates on the Boutiques

Although the big Web hotel reservations booking engines are undoubtedly helpful and convenient, they also tend to favor the same old corporate chains. But a newly launched booker…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

An Oversupply of Luxury Hotel Rooms in Prague is Rewarding Tourists with Major Bargains

Prague seems to have gotten a little ahead of itself, at least where luxury hotels are concerned. In the summertime, its nicest four- and five-star properties are fairly full, but in…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Just Like Our Guides, Our Twitter Username is Now Easier to Use: @Frommers!

We've been making everything easier to use at Frommer's. Our guides are now more selective, which makes them light enough to carry on vacation. They're also priced lower—the cover…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Valet Padding: Another Trick Hotels Use to Suck More Cash Out of You

Fairmont Newport Beach: One of many hotels with mandatory valetPretty much everyone thinks resort fees are slimy. Yet the consumer uprising against them has merely simmered for…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Pay-As-You-Use Budget Hotels: Growing Worldwide, But Still Foreign to Americans

Tune Hotel Asoke, BangkokA few years ago in Europe, a new breed of budget hotel began to emerge, epitomized by Lindemann's hotels in Berlin. Although it was a generally…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

A New Website Sells Off Non-Refundable Hotel Reservations at Deep Discounts

Often, if you want the cheapest hotel room price, you have to consent to a non-refundable rate, and that makes it impossible to change plans without eating the cost. But a newly…

Article / Passportable

Virgin America Releases the Grooviest In-Flight Safety Video of All Time

A few weeks ago, Air New Zealand bent the rules of due diligence by bringing out an uproarious in-flight safety video featuring Betty White and Gavin McLeod and set at a retirement…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Soon You Can Use Electronic Devices During Most of the Flight, the FAA Declares

The FAA has decided it's safe to operate most electronics for the duration of a commercial flight.In a press release issued on Halloween, it said that although mobile phone use…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Low-Cost Carrier Norwegian To Tackle American Market with $584 Round-Trip New York to London

A new player for low-cost airfares from the United States to Europe is materializing.Norwegian Air, already the third-largest low-cost carrier in Europe, will launch 787…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

TSA Checkpoint in Dallas Outfitted with Couches, Music, Mood Lighting: Corporate Branding Brings Respect

People who use Terminal E in Dallas have experienced the change. Where the TSA checkpoint was once bleak and gunmetal grey, now there is music streaming from Pandora and lavender…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

At Westin, If You Decline Housekeeping, They'll Give You $5 to Spend

If you're cheap, you will now benefit from being a slob, too.Westin, an upscale-ish branch of the giant Starwood group of hotels, has a new idea. If you do something "great for…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Three Hot New Travel Inventions Coming to You Soon Through Crowdfunding

The entire Internet is now an episode of Shark Tank. Inventors with a good idea no longer have to go the traditional route and sell out to VCs and banks—they can take the product…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Three Hot New Travel Inventions Coming to You Soon Through Crowdfunding

The entire Internet is now an episode of Shark Tank. Inventors with a good idea no longer have to go the traditional route and sell out to VCs and banks—they can take the product…

Article / Passportable

The Trailer for 'Pompeii' Starring Kit Harrington Mistakes Tourist Attraction for History

The cheesy, pectoral-flexing Hollywood treatment of the destruction of Pompeii will arrive in cinemas in February, but the quick teaser trailer is already here.It starts as the…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

A Few Lucrative National Parks Are Reopened, But Most American Treasures Remain Forbidden

To help curb some of the damage cause to income and tourism by the Congressional-led government shutdown, state governments are now permitted to open National Park units they deem…

Article / Passportable

Watch Betty White's New In-Flight Safety Video for Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand, an airline known for its celeb-studded safety videos (which have featured Richard Simmons and, erm, some hobbits, managed to convince TV legend Betty White to do its…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Is the TSA Pulling Aside Travelers at Airport Security to Make Sales Pitches for TSA Pre Check?

Word comes to me today from a traveler who had a strange experience at the airport in Las Vegas today.The traveler, who did not wish to be named, told me that he and several other…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Forget the Phone. Now Twitter is the Place to Get the Fastest Customer Service

"Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain." —Lily TomlinAnd man invented Twitter to make sure everyone had to listen.It's pretty obvious that Twitter is a…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

If You Dance or Sing, Trade Your Talent for Travel Across Canada or the Atlantic Ocean

Canada's Globe and Mail broke the story open, and now everyone with a guitar may be begging to sign up: Via Rail, Canada's national railway, grants free train tickets and meals to…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

The Dalmatian Daytona: Croatia's Popularity with Young Travelers Surges

According to the national tourism board of Croatia, some 300,000 United Kingdom residents flocked to the sunny Mediterranean country between January and August, a 24% rise from the…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Government Shutdown: What Travelers Can Still Do, and What's Closed

There are lots of long, explaining articles about what's causing the shutdown, but they don't make it easy to figure out what's closed for travelers and what's open. We'll make this…