This Year is A Great Year for Memphis. Our Frommer's Guide Writer Explains
Posted on 06/07/2019, 1:00 PM
When we come out with a new guidebook at Frommer’s, we tap the best local journalists to write it. One such pro is Ashley Brantley, a native of Nashville who grew up in Memphis (and still has family there), making her the ideal person to write the newly released Frommer’s EasyGuide to Nashville and Memphis. I interviewed her on our national radio show about why 2019 is the ideal year to visit Memph...
Here Are the Major Cruise Lines' Policies on Cuba Cancellations
Posted on 06/05/2019, 6:00 PM
Tens of thousands of people are holding tickets for cruises to Cuba that, in a snap of a finger, the Trump Administration has said they now can't use. Here are the cruise companies' current policies—verbatim—on what to do if you have booked a Cuba-bound cruise with them. Norwegian Cruise Line As you know, yesterday the United States government announced new and immediate travel restric...
You Can Now Stay at a French Castle That Hosted Mozart and Voltaire
Posted on 06/04/2019, 12:00 PM
Some of the biggest stars in 18th-century European culture—including Mozart as well as Age of Enlightenment thinkers Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Denis Diderot—spent time at the estate of Baron Jacques Pineau de Viennay in the castle-packed Loire Valley southwest of Paris. Now you can stay there, too. Following a meticulous renovation, the baron's summer residence has been reopened as ...
A Website Called Fairbnb Has Flung an "Ethical" Challenge to Airbnb
Posted on 06/04/2019, 8:00 AM
Although it has successfully helped millions of travelers to find overnight accommodations in an apartment or home, Airbnb is still mired in controversy and fending off attacks. It has been challenged by (and remains embattled against) numerous city governments which claim that Airbnb has worsened the housing situation in their jurisdictions and reduced the available accommodations for p...
A Bizarre Guitar-Shaped Hotel Rises in South Florida
Posted on 05/30/2019, 12:30 PM
Music lovers can soon live out any rock-and-roll accommodation fantasies they may have as the world’s first Guitar Hotel—a 450-foot-tall guitar-shaped building with luxury guest rooms—nears completion. The massive Guitar Hotel is part of a $1.5-billion expansion plan at the 15-year-old Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, which was previously most famous as the pla...
A Movie Studio’s Former Headquarters Is the Coolest New Hotel in Town
Posted on 05/06/2019, 6:45 PM
A historic, copper-topped building that once housed the Australian headquarters of Paramount Pictures has been turned into a boutique hotel in one of the hippest parts of Sydney. The 29-room Paramount House Hotel, which opened this spring, occupies space that was used for the studio's offices and film storage. Incorporating the building's original features with new touches, the interior has expos...
Talking with Frances Mayes About Her Latest Book, 'See You in the Piazza'
Posted on 05/01/2019, 2:00 PM
Frances Mayes, author of the memoir Under the Tuscan Sun, is to Tuscan travel what ketchup is to Russian dressing. For tens of thousands of vacationers, her tale—both the book that sat on the New York Times bestseller list for two years, and the Diane Lane film that fictionalized it—was the reason they chose to go this bucolic and beautiful corner of "The Boot." Now Mayes has a new book called...
Muslim History Tour Tells Untold Chapter of New York City's Past—and Present
Posted on 04/25/2019, 12:00 PM
The gym where I work out (when I’m feeling up to it and can’t find anything good on Netflix) is housed in a building that stands where there used to be a mosque founded by Yemeni immigrants and frequented by jazz musicians. The Apollo Theater is just about a block east on 125th St. in Harlem, where I live. Back in the 1940s and ‘50s, performers at that legendary Upper Manhattan venue are said t...
This Website Gets You Free Room and Board in Many Countries, Says Arthur Frommer
Posted on 04/22/2019, 10:00 AM
When I first learned that a granddaughter of mine was planning to spend three months in Japan earning her room and board through work performed as a volunteer, I was concerned and suspicious. It was only after we had heard from previous volunteers of this sort that I grew calm about this partial use of her “gap year” from college. The organization that plans such volunteer work in countrie...
Tipping in Costa Rica: A Gratuities Guide for Hotels, Restaurants, and Tours
Some tips on tipping to follow while checking out Costa Rica's cities, beaches, and jungles
Amsterdam Bans Tours of Red-Light District
Posted on 03/26/2019, 4:15 PM
As much as it's known for picturesque canals and paintings by Dutch masters on display at the Rijksmuseum and elsewhere, Amsterdam has also gained a reputation as a haven for legal marijuana and prostitution. Neither of those is leaving the city anytime soon, but authorities are cracking down on tourist lookie-loos checking out the famous red-light district, where sex shops and sex workers do th...
Amish Sotheby's: What to Expect at a Mud Sale in Pennsylvania Dutch Country
Each spring, Amish and other residents of rural Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, gather for festive fundraisers with farm auctions, baked goods, and a chance to meet the locals. Here's what to know before you go.
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Tipping in Portugal: A Gratuities Guide for Hotels, Restaurants, and Taxis
What to tip waiters, taxi drivers, tour guides, and hotel staff in Lisbon, Porto, and other locations in Portugal
