Articles

Blogs

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

JetBlue Announces It Will Offer Free Wi-Fi

It's no secret that the major airlines act like lemmings. One adds a baggage fee and the next follows. One throws a sale, and soon the whole pack is in.But for once that may be…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

An Order of Nuns in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, is Using Travel to Further the Aims of Pope Francis

The recent, repeated emphasis by Pope Francis on concern for the poor has brought renewed attention to the outstanding travel program operated for that purpose.  It is…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Will Foreign Travel to the U.S., or Even American Travel Within the U.S, Be Lessened by the Apparent Increase in Gun Violence?

Are parts of the United States unsafe for vacation tourism?  A number of Australian activists have answered Yes to that question, advising their fellow…

Article / Passportable

The Way of Wanderlust: A Delightful New Book of Travel Essays

By their very definition, travel memoirs introduce readers to corners of the planet they may never get to themselves. But The Way of Wanderlust, a collection of travel essays by…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

In an Unusual Move, Princess Cruises Develops New Musicals with the Writer of "Wicked" and "Godspell"

There's a Broadway arms race raging in cruise ship entertainment. It started nearly a decade ago when Norwegian mounted a chopped-down version of the lesser-known musical Smokey…

Article / Passportable

New App Deletes Photobombers From Snapshots

Software giant Adobe recently unveiled a new smartphone application that should appeal to amateur photographers on vacation. Called Monument Mode, it eliminates photobombers and…

Article / Passportable

Everglades Airboats To Be Eliminated

For most of the twentieth century, airboats have been a staple of touring the Florida Everglades. New rules, though, are about the silence them once and for all.When the National…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Norwegian Airlines is Fast Emerging as an Acceptable Option for Flying at Low Cost to Europe

If you have recently sought to buy tickets for a transatlantic flight—let's say, to London or Paris or Rome—you are probably still reeling from the impact of the news you…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Several Well-Financed Firms Have Now Gone into Competition with Airbnb, Supplying You with Alternatives for Renting Low-Cost Apartments

By now, Airbnb.com has become a "household word" in travel. Most Americans are aware that the bearer of that name is today valued at billions of dollars, and that its…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Hotel Bait and Switch: Throttled Internet is Unethical, So Why Aren't People Angrier?

d

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

The One-Percenting of Disney: Who Loses, Who Wins

Every few months, American news outlets erupt with a new round of rueful Disney coverage. Every spring, admission ticket prices shoot skyward, and this week, it hiked its annual…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Gifts You Should Give Yourself This Holiday Travel Season

In the next couple of months, most of us will be spending a lot of time in stores, and online, shopping for gifts for our loved ones. If you’re going to be traveling to give those…

Article / Passportable

Foreign SIM Cards Come with Censorship

Bringing an unlocked, out-of-contract smartphone on vacation and buying a temporary local phone number remains far and away the cheapest way to use a mobile phone in Europe. Just be…

Article / Passportable

Et tu, Amtrak? Baggage Fees Coming to Rail

Amtrak is taking a page from the airlines.No, make that two pages. Starting today it will start charging for bags. And it's telling us this is for our own good.According to the…

Article / Passportable

The Vatican Gets More Liberal...With Visitor Hours

I'm assuming we can thank Pope Francis, though this wasn't one of his bigger announcements. But quite quiety, several months ago, the Vatican extended its hours for half the year, on…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Have Airlines Deliberately Made Flying Uncomfortable in Order to Collect Extra Fees?

Fees for "priority boarding" of the planes. Fees for extra legroom. Fees for wider seats. Fees for choosing seats. Fees for snacks served aboard. Fees for checking luggage.  Fees for…

Article / Passportable

HopStop Stops for Good

One of the greats is gone. I feel like I've lost a friend.No, I have lost a friend.Because unlike college buddies and work colleagues, Hopstop—the superb public transportation…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

A Sharp Reduction in the Number of Important, Independently Owned Travel Websites is Threatening to Harm the Quality of Their Advice

Based on the ground-breaking research and analysis of travel expert Reid Bramblett, I recently wrote in these blogs about the shocking consolidation of what used to be three large…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Though Not the Equivalent of Maho Bay Camps, Concordia Eco Resort is an Adequate Substitute for Ecologically Minded Vacationers

For some 30 years, the world's most ecologically sensitive vacation resort has been Maho Bay Camps on the exquisite but lightly developed island of St.…

Article / Passportable

Paris Extends Shopping Hours in 12 Major Neighborhoods

Thanks to a recently passed bill, Parisian stores in such popular neighborhoods as the Marais, the Champs Elysees, and Montmartre will have the option to stay open on Sundays and up…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Death By Selfie: The Dangers of Taking Too Many Selfies While Traveling

With every technological advance, there’s also a step backward…and sometimes that step can be a fatal one, in the case of selfies. The modern smartphone, with its ability to not…

Article / Passportable

Kids Stay and Eat Free in San Diego

Once again, as it has done annually for a while, the city of San Diego, California, has worked with some of its biggest hotels, restaurants, and attractions to offer a slew of deals…

Article / Passportable

A Camera that Won't Work at Tourist Sights

Instagram is bigger than you thought. This morning, Facebook (which owns it) announced there are now 400 million active users—that's up 100 million since the start of 2015. Soon,…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Two Little-Known Upstarts—WOW Airlines of Iceland and Norwegian Air of Scandinavia—Are Currently Offering Bargain Rates for Off-Season Crossings of the Atlantic

We are about to reach the slowest days of the European off-season, which starts as we approach the month of November and continues until mid-March.  It is then that European…

Article / Arthur Frommer Online

Meteorologists Predict Changing Weather Will Make This Year's Fall Foliage Different

First the bad news: leaf-peeping along North America’s eastern seaboard, and in the inland areas of New England, may not be quite as vivid an event as it usually is in 2015.…