Tipping in Japan? Not So Much a Thing
Why Japan doesn't go for gratuities—but why you still might have to pay extra fees for meals and accommodations
Tipping in Germany: A Gratuities Guide for Restaurants, Hotels, and Taxis
How to tip restaurant servers, cab drivers, and hotel staff in Germany—without overdoing it
What to Tip Waiters, Hotel Staff, and Taxi Drivers in France
Some pointers on how to pay gratuities—without overdoing it—in hotels, restaurants, and taxis in France
Smoke on a Carnival Cruise and You Could Get Kicked Off the Ship
Posted on 11/27/2018, 12:00 AM
Carnival Cruise Line is getting stricter with passengers who light up at sea. The company has updated its tobacco and marijuana smoking policy to include the possibility of removal from the ship for guests caught smoking in staterooms, suites, or on cabin balconies. Any other passengers staying in the offender's room will have to leave, too, and nobody will get refunds for unused cruise fare. ...
Arthur Frommer: Charging $300 Round-Trip to Europe, Level is the World’s Budget Champion
Posted on 11/08/2018, 12:00 AM
If you were to ask even a well-informed travel professional to name the cheapest airline flying the Atlantic, they would undoubtedly answer: Norwegian Air. And they’d be dead wrong. The cheapest such airline is the oddly named Level, a joint enterprise of British Airways and Iberia Airlines. It flies mainly from Paris and Barcelona to Newark, Boston and San Francisco, for a basic fare—hold your b...
Boost Your Overseas Vacation with a Free Stopover in Switzerland or Belgium
Posted on 09/21/2018, 8:00 AM
If you've ever longed to take a vacation from your vacation, maybe you should opt for an airline stopover. That's when a plane makes a days-long pit stop on the way to its final destination, giving passengers a chance to squeeze in an extra mini vacation in the connecting city. Best of all, some airlines don't charge customers additional fees for the interlude—instead, they treat the journey as ...
Is This the King of Airfare Search Sites? The Aggregator of Aggregators
Posted on 09/13/2018, 1:30 PM
For years, we've been telling you that the best places to find cheap airfare are often the "aggregators," which are search engines that scan prices from dozens of different airfare-selling websites to pick out the lowest prices and tell you which site to visit to find them. But even though these aggregators do their best to level the shopping playing field, or at least to make the shopping game l...
Your African Dream Trip Is Now Cheaper Than Ever
Posted on 09/10/2018, 8:15 PM
In the past six months, the value of the South African rand has tumbled some 40% against the U.S. dollar. In March, one greenback would get you a bit more than 11 rand. Today, you get over 15. South Africa has been a terrific bargain for years. As long as you can swing the airfare there, which regularly costs around $1,000, you'll find it incredible how cheap things are on the ground. With ...
Eat on Florence's Streets and You Could Be Fined $580
Posted on 09/06/2018, 4:00 PM
Lots of people choose to visit Italy because they respect the cuisine, but now, eating it with dignity is the law. On September 4, Florence instituted a new penalty for tourists who are caught loitering as they eat. On the narrow lanes of central Florence, local shopkeepers are fed up with visitors who linger in doorways and on stairwells to have a snack. The biggest complaint, it seems,...
Drive to Florida in a Rental Car for Only $7.99 a Day
Posted on 09/06/2018, 12:00 AM
Winter is coming, and in Florida, so are the tourists. Each year, the major car rental companies shift their inventory to where the business is, and now that summer is ending, Hertz needs to shift its cars to Florida for the winter season. That's where you come in. Hertz wants you to do the driving. The company will let you have a car for just $7.99 a day if you agree to drive it one-way from t...
Arthur Frommer: The Biggest News is the Dominance of Tourism by the Chinese
Posted on 09/05/2018, 12:00 AM
Suddenly, the press that deals with travel is full of articles about the sudden rise of Chinese tourism. All over the world, Chinese citizens have become the largest source of tourism, edging out the American, German, British and French. This doesn’t happen by accident. In recent years, the Chinese government has encouraged the movement towards international travel as a means of accomp...
JetBlue Increases Baggage Fee, Leading Way for Copycats
Posted on 08/28/2018, 6:00 PM
It's like a cautionary fairy tale. There once was a fun-loving, egalitarian airline that wanted to revolutionize the industry. All seats were given personal TVs, there was only one type of aircraft and one class of service to keep maintenance costs and fares low, and, best of all, there were no checked bag fees. "No, no, no," promised the little airline. "We will not charge to check bags like a...
$999 for a Week in Vietnam, Including Air! Outstanding, Writes Arthur Frommer
Posted on 08/24/2018, 9:00 AM
To enjoy a travel miracle—a memorable tour to an exotic nation, for less than the cost of airfare alone—is to lend excitement to life. Several months ago, we described an awesome Chinese-American named Wilson Wu who operates two-week tours of Vietnam for as little as $1,599 per person, including round-trip air from the U.S. West Coast. Now, the same Mr. Wu, through his company called World Sp...
This Fall, See Rome, Venice, and Florence by Rail for Less Than $25
Posted on 08/24/2018, 12:00 AM
Traveling by train among Italy's three most popular tourist destinations can be extremely affordable this fall, provided you buy your tickets right now. European travel booking site GoEuro has joined forces with Italo Treno, an Italian rail service operator, to offer a fare from Rome to Venice to Florence or vice versa for just €19.80 (US$23) one way. That's an incredible bargain for seeing Ro...
Another New Fee, Courtesy of United Airlines
Posted on 08/21/2018, 4:00 PM
About five years ago, Saturday Night Live scored some laughs with a skit that parodied "priority boarding" announcements at the airport gate. A uniformed Tina Fey and Taran Killam stood behind a podium and called upward of 20 different categories of flyers before they got to "Group 2" as their SNL castmates grew comically agitated waiting to board. Back then, it seemed like the madness at the gate...
Turkey Is Insanely Cheap for Travelers Right Now
Posted on 08/20/2018, 12:00 AM
Turkey's ongoing currency crisis, during which the Turkish lira has lost more than 40% of its value, is making a vacation in that country extremely affordable at the moment for travelers from places with stronger economies. As of this writing, one U.S. dollar equals 6.04 lira. According to USA Today, $1 got you 3.54 lira just one year ago. That means that American travelers can get a lot of bang...
In Late Autumn, Fly to Iceland for $99 Each Way
Posted on 08/17/2018, 12:00 PM
The following is in the nature of a “believe-it-or-not” category of travel. A scrappy budget airline of Iceland (the aptly named WOW Air) has just announced that for scattered flights to Reykjavik in August, September, and October, it will charge only $99 each way! Specifically, you’ll be able to fly to Iceland’s capital from 10 U.S. cities at that remarkable price. And these take-off...
My Hotel Is Overbooked! What Did I Do Wrong?
It happens all the time. Guests with reservations are sent somewhere else because there are no more rooms. Here's how you can avoid getting bumped when a hotel is full.
