Arthur Frommer: On an African Safari, Budget is Better
Posted on 12/04/2018, 12:00 AM
To a great many travelers, including myself, the African safari is one of the top travel experiences. There is something mystical, indeed mind-changing, about seeing the world inhabited by animals, as it was before the earth was populated by human beings. But not all African safaris are equal in bringing that vision to you. Upon looking for a safari to book, you are often inundated by marketi...
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Thinking of Taking an African Safari? Some Tips from an Expert
Posted on 11/16/2018, 1:30 AM
African safaris: They are, for many, at the tippy top of the bucket list. But the how-tos for finding the right one have shifted in the last few years, so old conventional wisdom may not necessarily apply. On our Frommer's national radio show, I spoke with Sunit Sanghrajka, president of Alluring Africa, a company that plans custom safaris for individual travelers, to get his advice. Here’s a bit of...
Oldest Building on D.C.'s National Mall Reopens After Restoration
Posted on 10/25/2018, 4:45 PM
You've probably never heard of the Lockkeeper's House in Washington, D.C. There's a good reason for that. It's been closed for decades. But this unassuming stone building at the corner of Constitution Ave. and 17th St. NW is actually the oldest structure on the National Mall. Built in 1835, the building is now open to the public after a restoration that took nearly two years. Using funds from ...
How Much of What You Spend Stays in Your Destination? G Adventures Knows
Posted on 10/19/2018, 11:15 PM
Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing Bruce Poon Tip (pictured) for our radio show. Bruce is the founder of G Adventures, one of the most important small-group adventure operators in the world. Currently the company has 10 distinct brands of tours as well as both expedition and river cruising branches. It’s considered by many to be one of the travel industry's most innovative tour companies....
Two New Non-Travel Books May Change The Way You See the USA
Posted on 09/09/2018, 8:30 PM
You drive into a new town. It is not a famous place and it certainly isn’t a tourist magnet. But it has a certain vibe, a personality. You start to explore, stopping by a local store, walking through a park, trying the coffee joint where townspeople are congregating. It’s an interesting exercise, but the takeaways are vague: seems like a nice place, you think. But you don’t think more than that, ...
Arthur Frommer: Remove Ryan Zinke as Secretary of the Interior
Posted on 08/20/2018, 6:00 AM
The Secretary of the Interior of the United States is supposed to preserve and protect our national parks, national monuments, and public lands from commercial exploitation. He is supposed to endorse the plea of President Theodore Roosevelt some hundred-or-so years ago that these cherished properties are to be preserved for generations to come. By his recent statements and actions, the cur...
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...
