Articles

Pauline Frommer

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

United Airlines Slashes Compensation Consumers Fought for in 2017

Two weeks ago, the airlines gratefully arranged to accept a boatload of our tax dollars. And what have those companies done last week and this week? They enacted rule changes so they…

Article / Passportable

Maine Might Be Closed to Out-Of-State Visitors This Summer

On Tuesday, Maine's governor, Janet Mills, announced a phased reopening plan that has many in the tourist industry up in arms. While some businesses will reopen in May, and hotels and…

Article / Passportable

In Acapulco and Worldwide, Bioluminescent Waters Are Back

One of the fascinating lessons from this odd era is how quickly nature can regenerate when humans get out of the way. So when the bay in the Mexican resort city of Acapulco started…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Airfares Could Spike in the Near Future. Buy Now!

I've spent much of my career trying to predict where airfares are going. Like a fortune-teller consulting tea leaves, I've used the same tools over and over in that effort. For…

Article / Passportable

Argentina Suspends Commercial Flights Until September

While a number of countries have banned international flights for the near future, Argentina has imposed what may be the most severe ban on the planet. Until September 1, not only will…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Immunity Passports for Travelers: Quick Solution or False Hope?

Every day, it seems, we’re learning more and more about Covid-19. Over the last few weeks—and they feel like years, don’t they?—we’ve learned that loss of taste and smell might be…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Saving California's Restaurants Means Saving Its Tourism Industry

Food is central to travel. Each year I write a roundup of travel trends for Frommer's, and every time, culinary vacations play a huge role. Over the last decade, tours devoted to…

Article / Passportable

Flight Attendants Call for Halting Leisure Travel

There's a headline I never thought I'd write. But because these frontline workers feel that their lives are being put in danger, the Association of Flight Attendants, a union…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Sicily Creates Fund to Pay 50% of Vacationers' Costs

Sicily is giving vacationers an offer they can't refuse. The government of this storied Italian island has put aside €500 million (about $595 million) to pay for 50% of the cost of…

Article / Passportable

Cunard Releases The Recipe for Its Famous Scones (To Make Up for Their Absence)

We love scones. There's something undeniably comforting about eating a warm one with tea and jam. So after we drop the bad news (that's coming) we'll gift you with a terrific…

Article / Passportable

Florida Beachgoers Share the Sand with the Grim Reaper

Florida-based attorney Daniel Uhlfelder recently tweeted that he planned to start traveling around his state's beaches dressed as Death to send a message. And no, that message is not…

Article / Passportable

Venice's Gondoliers Deliver Food to Isolated Locals Now

It can be difficult, as a visitor, to step off the tourist treadmill in Venice. Until recently, it was a city besieged by tourism, with 60,000 outsiders a day filling streets and…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

It’s the Pits! The Cancellation of the National Cherry Festival Is Personally Saddening

About four years ago I learned that I was a failure. At cherry spitting, that is. No matter how much I tried—and I lined up four times to show off my non-skills to a judge—I couldn’t…

Article / Passportable

Air Canada Suspends USA Flights Until May 22

Today Air Canada announced it will suspend all flights to and from the United States until May 22. The change came on the heels of the Canadian government's 30-day extension of its ban…

Article / Passportable

A Facebook Page for Sharing Window Views from Around the World

"If you want the people to understand you, invite them to your life and let them see the world from your window!" So wrote Turkish novelist and playwright Mehmet Murat ildan. And while…

Article / Passportable

Samantha Brown Just Made Some Terrific New Study Guides

Travel television star and all-around lovely person Samantha Brown is schooling her kids at home right now, like so many of us. So she gets it. She knows that 23 minutes off-duty time…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Stranded in Peru: A Remarkable Journey Home

In March 2020, the world shut down with surprising speed. Americans who were abroad then either got home just in time, got stuck where they were, or undertook journeys that would have…

Article / Passportable

Emirates Airlines' Boarding Procedure Now Includes a Coronavirus Test

Though testing is not widespread in the United Arab Emirates yet, the country's flagship airline rolled out testing for passengers at its Dubai hub yesterday. Before boarding a flight…

Article / Passportable

Team Claims to Have Set a New "Cannonball Run" Record

Earning a title that will surely go down in the annals of idiocy, a team of drivers has apparently set a new record for the so-called "Cannonball Run." The feat, based on the 1970s…

Article / Passportable

CDC Extends No-Sail Order for Cruise Ships Using American Ports

Late last night the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) extended by 100 days its prohibition on cruises using American ports. The original order was supposed to end in…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

New York City Will Bounce Back

By the end of this week, many of New York's largest indoor and outdoor spaces will be transformed. Officials may need to start using city parks as temporary burial grounds, and already…

Article / Passportable

Governor of South Carolina Bans Hotel Guests from NY, CT, and NJ

On Friday, Henry McMaster, the Governor of South Carolina, updated an executive order to include a new prohibition. As of April 3, the state's hotels, motels, campgrounds, and rental…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Airline Passenger Data Collection: An Essential Pandemic Tool

In the annals of "woulda, coulda, shoulda," a longtime battle between the airlines and the U.S. government has come to the fore, far too late. For the past 15 years, the U.S.…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

In Memoriam: Walking Guide Writer William Helmreich

In my 20-plus years as a radio talk show host, I've interviewed thousands of people. I'll be honest: I don't remember most of those conversations. But although I interviewed William…

Article / Passportable

Theft of a van Gogh Devastates Two Dutch Museums

March 30, 2020, marks Vincent van Gogh's 167th birthday. Coincidentally, in the early hours of March 30, thieves broke into the Singer Laren Museum in the Amsterdam suburbs to steal…