A Deadly End for the Yellowstone Daredevils
Posted on 07/09/2018, 12:00 AM
Two years ago, in the spring of 2016, a few young Canadians created an international scandal by treading into forbidden, protected areas of Yellowstone National Park and recording it for their social media followers in the name of living life to the fullest. The men were famous for shooting videos of themselves doing extremely dangerous things in beautiful places. We wrote at the time: "Hundreds...
Route 66 and Puerto Rico Among USA's Most Endangered Historic Sites
Posted on 06/28/2018, 3:30 AM
Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Route 66 all appear on 2018's "Most Endangered Places" list, the National Trust for Historic Preservation's annual roundup of important architectural and cultural sites in peril. The purpose of the list, the group says, is to raise awareness and spur action to protect landmarks—and in some cases landmasses—"facing a range of challenges and threats, from d...
Current Volcanic Eruptions Bring Memories of Vesuvius, Says Arthur Frommer
Posted on 06/27/2018, 12:00 AM
I have found it odd that in all the media coverage of the eruption of Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawaii, no journalist has drawn a comparison to the eruption of Vesuvius outside Naples in 79 A.D. That may be because Kilauea is a “baby” by comparison with Vesuvius, the latter (pictured above) having become one of the greatest tourist attractions in all of Italy. The cataclysmic eruption of ...
Arthur Frommer: National Parks Devotees Can Utter a (Brief) Sigh of Relief
Posted on 06/25/2018, 12:00 AM
In the early months of the Trump administration, it was widely rumored that the new head of the Department of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, would propose a doubling of the entrance fees to some 100 national parks that charge admission. The reaction to that drastic proposal was so negative, and from both sides of the aisle in Congress, that it was since assumed that a far milder increase would be ...
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...
U.S. National Park Fees Leap Higher Overnight
Posted on 06/01/2018, 1:00 PM
When Americans woke up this morning (June 1), they discovered it would cost them a lot more to enter their national parks. Nearly all the major parks hiked their entry rates by a hefty $5. Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands (pictured), Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Mount Rainier, Olympic, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Zion—all of them, and many more, saw their prices jump $5, regardless of whether it's for a vehicl...
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...
Bad News for the Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
Posted on 05/28/2018, 8:45 AM
Pearl Harbor's world-famous memorial (pictured above) that straddles the submerged wreck of the USS Arizona has been closed indefinitely. The trouble began May 6, when cracks were discovered in its structure at a point where it meets the loading ramp from its boat dock. Repairs were carried out, but hours after the platform reopened on May 23, the fissures were seen again, which indicated a more s...
Is it Safe to Travel to Hawaii in the Coming Months? What Travelers Need to Know
Posted on 05/16/2018, 6:00 PM
Updated May 26 It has been a year of dramatic news stories, but few can top the volcanic eruptions that continue to devastate portions of Hawaii’s Big Island. In just the last few weeks, entire communities have been forced to evacuate due to fissures belching lava, a flow that has destroyed some 40 structures at last count. Needless to say, now is not the time to head to the affected areas in th...
Famous Hawaiian Mule Ride Closed Indefinitely
Posted on 04/30/2018, 9:45 PM
One of the most popular tourism experiences in Hawaii has shut down, possibly for good. Travel Weekly reports that the operators of the long-running mule rides down the cliffs of Molokai have been evicted from the location where they stable their animals and organize riders for the daylong descent to Kalaupapa National Historical Park some 2,000 feet below. That idyllic seaside spot was once a...
Arthur Frommer: An Enemy of Our U.S. National Parks is Now in Charge of Them
Posted on 03/26/2018, 1:15 PM
Of all the members of the Trump cabinet, the one with the most direct control of travel developments is the Secretary of the Interior, one Ryan Zinke. His agency is in direct charge of our U.S. national parks and can affect their development. Rather, however, than cherish and protect those parks, Zinke is obviously hell-bent on starving and diminishing them. He is a rather unusua...
Arthur Frommer: Recent Tax Cuts Will Force Reductions in Travel Services
Posted on 03/23/2018, 5:15 PM
Some commentators have rejoiced over the recent reduction in federal taxes enjoyed by American corporations and the wealthy. Fewer of those pundits have pointed out that those reductions have been achieved in part by reducing our government’s expenditures for programs that improve our quality of life. The U.S. travel world—and especially our trains and passenger aviation—has suffered in parti...
For Tourists, This Is the Last Straw!
Posted on 03/09/2018, 12:00 AM
Last call! More and more, you're going to have to go without drinking straws. Single-use plastic straws are distinctly unkind to wildlife. Fresh straws choke animals. Then each straw is said to take longer than 200 years to break down, and all the while, it disintegrates into ever-smaller and smaller bits that are eaten by small animals, fish, and even plankton. The plastic bits eventually make it...
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 ...
How Not to Do Yosemite in Winter
Posted on 02/20/2018, 9:00 AM
I sometimes think my real job as a travel writer is to be an idiot. It's my job to make mistakes and then report on them so that my readers can have fun, safe, and error-free vacations. This week, I really succeeded: I almost died twice. I just left Yosemite National Park in California. I had thought this column would be about the wonders of Yosemite in winter. And while it is wondrous, the famo...
