After 700 Years, Westminster Abbey Opens Secret Attic to Visitors
Posted on 06/11/2018, 12:00 AM
It took five years and $30.5 million (£22.9 million) to make it happen, but Westminster Abbey in London has just made a spectacular new addition to one of Europe's top tourist attractions. Which is to say it opened something more than 700 years old. The Triforium, a medieval attic balcony that runs around the top of the Abbey's nave from 52 feet high, has been converted into the Queen's Diamond ...
A Makeover and New Museum at Gateway Arch in St. Louis
Posted on 06/08/2018, 9:00 PM
A multiyear, multimillion-dollar project to gussy up the grounds of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis culminates this summer in the July 3 opening of an expanded museum that tells the tale of America's westward expansion. Located underground, the newly rechristened Museum at the Gateway Arch replaces the similar but more limited previous facility, which had become outdated both in its simplistic, Gu...
A New Book Makes a Compelling Case for Traveling Alone
Posted on 06/05/2018, 11:15 PM
Are you traveling with your spouse, your girlfriend, boyfriend, or best friend soon? What a shame. If you’d read Stephanie Rosenbloom’s new book Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude, you might have thought twice about inviting anyone along on your adventure. Rosenbloom, a travel columnist for The New York Times, makes a compelling case for vacationing alone. She...
Arthur Frommer: Experiential Travel Has Been Eclipsed by "Transformative Travel”
Posted on 06/01/2018, 2:00 PM
For several years now, conversations between travel professionals have been full of references to "experiential travel," a new variety of travel requested by more and more travelers. Unlike the standard, sightseeing-based programs, experiential travel stresses a more authentic contact with the life in various foreign locations, and it also immerses the travel passenger into those authentic experie...
Thanks (and No Thanks) for the Memories, Bob Hope
Posted on 05/21/2018, 12:00 AM
The National World War II Museum in New Orleans—truly one of the best, most thorough, and well-funded historic museums in the United States, and deeply underrated—is adding a special new exhibition through the end of 2018 and into early 2019. It's all about Bob Hope, the comic megastar whose association with the USO was a defining feature of both that war and his career. The exhibition, So Ready f...
Arthur Frommer: Some Little-Known Institutions Bring You a Better London
Posted on 04/18/2018, 9:00 PM
Why is it that we turn off our minds when we visit London as tourists? A city of profound intellectual pursuits, the British capital offers exciting mental rewards if we simply take the time to find them. Far removed from Changing the Guard and Piccadilly Circus are at least the following: Free public lectures: Next time you visit any major London museum, ask the attendants fo...
In New York City, Rapidly Shifting Hotel Prices, Shorter Dining Hours, and More
Posted on 04/12/2018, 5:30 PM
Every year at this time, I update the book Frommer’s EasyGuide to New York City. This involves spreadsheets of pricing, hours, and more, meaning that I’m easily able to graph the trends that shape visits to Gotham. Here’s what I’m seeing for 2018 and into 2019: Good news/bad news on hotel rates: To track hotel pricing, I use several hotel booking engines, and I test dates for the slowest travel da...
D.C.’s African American Museum Tests a Change to Its Admissions Policy
Posted on 04/04/2018, 4:00 AM
The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. is trying out a new admissions practice this month. Each Wednesday in April, visitors can simply walk up to to the building on Constitution Avenue, get in line, and gain entry to the museum on a first-come, first-served basis, starting at 10am, when it opens. That might sound like standard museum-going procedure, bu...
National Comedy Museum Opening This Summer in New York State
Posted on 03/28/2018, 12:15 AM
Baseball players have Cooperstown. Rock stars have their own hall of fame in Cleveland. Even androids, when they're not dreaming of electric sheep, can visualize themselves getting inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame in Pittsburgh. But what about the age-old, joy-bringing art of comedy? Why isn't there a national museum celebrating history's most important producers of yuks? Come August, you w...
