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The Reason Why Guidebooks to Some Countries or Cities Sell Better Than Guidebooks to Others, Is An Enduring Mystery of Travel

By Arthur Frommer

Posted on 04/20/2015, 4:30 PM

As a co-publisher of travel guidebooks, I have to participate in choosing, each year, the destinations--the countries, the cities--about which we will be researching and writing. And in doing so, I must constantly remind myself that the mere fact that a destination is heavily visited by Americans, does not mean that a large number of Americans buy a guidebook to that location when t...

On the Eve of What Will Undoubtedly be a Record-Breaking Summer Travel Season, Here Are Some Europe-Related Observations

By Arthur Frommer

Posted on 04/18/2015, 11:30 AM

We are on the brink of the summer travel season, best known as the Summer of the Strong Dollar. For the first time in many years, American vacationers are enjoying an edge--a definite edge--in the costs they encounter in locations ranging from Europe to Japan to South America. To Europe especially, and despite sporadic reports that the European economy is improving, the European ...

A Recent "Symbolic" Vote in the U.S. Senate, Transferring Our Public Lands to States (And Thus Eventually to Private Interests), Should Raise the Ire of Every Citizen

By Arthur Frommer

Posted on 04/17/2015, 5:00 PM

To be handed over to private business: America's National Forests (credit: Kaibab National Forest) If you are a normal, sensitive American in love with your country's natural wonders and determined to preserve them for generations to come, then you will be devastated by the subject matter of this blog. The awesome news to which I refer is a budgetary amendment adopted last month...

A Recent "Symbolic" Vote by the U.S. Senate, Selling Off Our Public Lands to Private Interests, Should Raise the Ire of Every American

By Arthur Frommer

Posted on 04/17/2015, 1:00 PM

If you are a normal, sensitive individual in love with your country's natural wonders and determined to preserve them for generations to come, then you will be devastated by the subject matter of this blog. The awesome news to which I refer is a budgetary amendment adopted last month by the U.S. Senate, by a close vote of 51 to 49, that would transfer ownership of ...

Linger Longer in Madurai, India: This Often-Overlooked (By Americans, At Least) Tamil Nadu City Has Much to Offer

By Pauline Frommer

Posted on 04/09/2015, 3:30 PM

Visitors often complain that India is too chaotic. But is it chaos they’re experiencing or simply a far more complex way of life than they’re used to at home? India is, after all, about a third the size of the United States yet it has five times as many people. The flow of every day life therefore has to have far more layers, because there are exponentially more interactions between human be...

How Exactly Do You Make a Trip to Cuba? Here's An Attempt to Explain a Several-Step Process

By Arthur Frommer

Posted on 04/09/2015, 12:45 PM

The recent loosening of restrictions on the right to travel to Cuba has permitted almost any American to go there. You no longer have to apply to the Treasury Department--or to anyone else, for that matter--for a "license" to do so. If you honestly and validly feel that you are going there for any of 12 non-touristic reasons--religious, educational, professional, humanitarian, an...

Now That the Cost of Travel Within Europe Has Been Lowered Through the Decline In the Value of the Euro, Why Not Consider a Longer Trip There?

By Arthur Frommer

Posted on 04/08/2015, 3:30 PM

The sharp, recent decline in the value of the European currency, the Euro, has convinced a large number of Americans that they can now consider not simply a short, inexpensive, one-city trip to a single European city, but a longer trip of three or more weeks to a number of European nations. I couldn’t be happier over that realization, so highly do I value the benefits of widesprea...

Hey Yank, Want to Go to Cuba? You Can Now Get Travel Insurance and a Bed More Easily If You Go

By Pauline Frommer

Posted on 04/02/2015, 3:00 PM

And another piece—no, make that two—has fallen into place for Americans with a yen to visit the long-forbidden Cuba. Today, massive online lodging company AirBnB (it serves as a marketplace for apartment and room rentals around the globe) announced that it would be repping more than 1000 beds in Cuba, just as online insurance marketplace InsureMyTrip.com sent out a press release that the number...

Fee Hikes May Be Coming to a National Park Near You

By Pauline Frommer

Posted on 04/02/2015, 1:15 PM

(Photo by NPCA Photos/Flickr) It's no secret that America's greatest treasures, its National Parks, are woefully underfunded. So it should come as no surprise that after a moratorium of nine years, fees will be going up at some of the most popular parks and recreation areas. These include entra...

Portrait of a Family Volunteer Vacation in Chennai, India

By Pauline Frommer

Posted on 04/02/2015, 6:30 AM

When Vani (not her real name) was five years old, her mother dropped her off to live at the SEAM Children’s Home in Chennai, India. Vani’s mother had remarried, and her new husband didn’t like the little girl. He had beaten her severely a few times. SEAM, a home for orphaned and semi-orphaned children, offered safety and the promise that the child would be educated. Vani barely spoke when sh...

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