A Return to Northern Michigan With No Repeat Experiences
Posted on 06/14/2018, 12:30 PM
I’ve always taken the stance that when you return again and again to the same place for vacation, you’re only setting yourself up for ennui. I figured there were a few exceptions to this rule—namely, cities like Paris and Tokyo that are so huge and varied that you'll never exhaust the possibilities. But for the most part, I believed that vacations should be about the stimulating, the new, the un...
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newly rechristened Museum at the Gateway Arch replaces the similar but more limited previous facility, which had become outdated both in its simplistic, Gu...
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...
Tips on Getting the Most Out of Your 2018 Summer Vacation
Posted on 05/30/2018, 4:00 PM
Remember when summer really meant vacation? I’m talking, of course, of the time before you were able to vote, when summer meant freedom from school and adventures at camp, a fun summer job, or long lazy days doing very little. However you did it, summer was a break from the daily routine—and a welcome one. But for most of us, summer now means the same commute, the same job, the same responsibiliti...
Seattle's Space Needle Gets a Glassy Makeover
Posted on 05/26/2018, 12:00 AM
A $100 million update to Seattle's skyline-defining Space Needle is just about finished. But don't worry, purists: The 605-foot retro-futuristic tower still looks like something dreamed up by the animators for The Jetsons—or, as the Frommer's guide puts it, "like a flying saucer on a tripod." Some sprucing up here and there aside, the most dramatic changes can be found on the observation deck,...
Hello Kitty Bullet Train to Make Japan Even More Adorable
Posted on 05/22/2018, 12:00 AM
We're just going to leave this right here. On June 30, 2018, a brand-new bullet shinkansen service will make its debut in Japan: a Hello Kitty train. The Hello Kitty Express, as we're calling it, will link Osaka and Fukuoka, two cities that are about 400km (250 miles) apart, but as of today, are at the center of our hearts. Everything will be pinker than a debutante, washed in the blush tones o...
Free Admission at Wisconsin State Parks on the First Weekend of June
Posted on 05/12/2018, 12:00 AM
Wisconsin is giving locals and visitors alike a good reason to experience the state's considerable outdoor charms on June 2-3. That weekend, admission will be free at all Wisconsin state parks, encompassing forests, hiking trails, lakes, bluffs, and beaches. You can hit the trails to see picturesque cascades at Copper Falls (pictured above) in the northern part of the state, survey the mighty M...
What Will Be New at America's Theme Parks This Year?
Posted on 05/01/2018, 3:30 PM
Amusement park season is around the bend—and that bend could be a loop-de-loop of a high tech ride. For our weekly Frommer's Travel Show on WABC Radio, Jason Cochran and I interviewed Susie Storey, the Director of Communications for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions to learn what new thrills, chills, and services would be available to theme park visitors in 2018. Pa...
Coming in May: UFO Fests in Oregon and New York State
Posted on 04/17/2018, 12:00 AM
The search for signs of intelligent life in the universe hasn't turned up much so far. Even here on earth intelligent life can seem awfully hard to come by. But judging from the many UFO festivals held across the country each year, there are evidently still plenty of those who believe the truth is out there. Among this spring's crop of events dedicated to alien abductions, government cover-ups...
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...
Arthur Frommer: A Journalist Produces the Definitive Report on Disney Cruises
Posted on 03/26/2018, 12:15 PM
Most parents are aware of the ever-expanding Disney cruise line, which enables them to join their young children on a sailing designed to fascinate. Disney currently operates four big cruise ships, and two more are reaching completion in European shipyards. Impartial descriptions of those cruises are hard to come by. Persons who write for the newspapers are loathe to criticize the powerful Disn...
Disney World Now Charges for Parking at Hotels, Decreasing Their Value
Posted on 03/14/2018, 4:00 PM
It used to be one of the great courtesies of staying in a Walt Disney World resort hotel: You got free parking, and then you could take Disney transportation for free. It was touted as one of the perks and a big incentive to choose a Disney hotel over a room located outside the resort property's gates. Since Disney hotels are two or three times as much as a room of comparable quality a mile away, ...
New Club Med Openings: Sicily, the Great Wall, and More
Posted on 03/13/2018, 2:30 PM
Club Med has embarked on an ambitious expansion project. The pioneer in all-inclusive resorts plans to add 15 new properties to its worldwide roster by the end of 2020, opening five resorts per year between now and then. Though you might associate Club Med with sunny spots in the Caribbean, major focuses of the company's latest efforts are Asia and the mountains of Europe. Openings scheduled fo...
Most Visited U.S. National Parks and Monuments in 2017
Posted on 03/05/2018, 10:45 PM
The National Park Service (NPS) has released its visitor numbers for 2017. A total of 330,882,751 people spent time at American national parks, monuments, and other sites deemed worthy of federal protection. As the NPS points out, that figure is only a smidge lower than the record-setting 330,971,689 visits the agency logged in 2016—the year of its highly touted 100th birthday. The Blue Ridge ...
Why Don't More People Think of Renting an RV from a Private RV Owner?
Posted on 03/02/2018, 9:00 PM
Probably the most misunderstood, most underused travel facility is the recreational vehicle capable of both housing and driving a family. All over America, persons own such RVs, but a good percentage of them make only a sporadic use of the vehicles they own. For much of the year, their RV remains parked in their garage or outside their home. This is such an underuse of valuable fa...
Huge New Atlantis Resort Opens in China
Posted on 02/26/2018, 10:30 PM
The world now has three Atlantis resorts to overwhelm visitors with an ocean's worth of watery amenities and maximalist architecture. Joining sister properties in the Bahamas and Dubai (another is in the works in Hawaii), the just-opened Atlantis Sanya occupies more than 130 coastal acres on China's Hainan island, a tropical spot southwest of Hong Kong in the South China Sea that's becoming incre...
This New Budget-Priced Transatlantic Airline Is Probably News to You
Posted on 02/22/2018, 5:45 AM
Most everyone by now has heard of Norwegian Air Shuttle, which flies the Atlantic at rock-bottom prices. Although Norwegian suffered a loss in 2017, it has struck fear into the hearts of the so-called “legacy carriers,” like British Airways, Iberia Airlines, and others. Result: A consortium of established airlines—British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and others—have recently created a brand-new ...
