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...
Hotel on Skis Debuts in Finland for Northern Lights Viewing
Posted on 03/21/2018, 9:15 PM
A novel way of experiencing the Northern Lights has come to Finland. The new Aurora Wilderness Camp, located near the village of Kilpisjärvi, is comprised of three mobile cabins that have been mounted on skis so that they can be dragged into the remote reaches of the country's Lapland region. And because each unit has a glass roof, guests have a good chance of spotting the Northern Lights from t...
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 ...
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...
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...
What to Expect When You Stay Overnight at the Quebec Ice Hotel
Every winter, North America's only ice hotel is rebuilt in Quebec. Here's what you need to know before checking in.
Arthur Frommer: My Choices for the 10 Most Memorable Destinations
Posted on 02/05/2018, 3:30 PM
As a professional travel writer, I was required to travel to far more destinations than the average American does. In my youthful years, I literally lived on an airplane, in constant motion, often traveling to several countries each week. And I loved every bit of that life—especially these 10 particular destinations. Here, based on that experience, are my choices of the world’s 10 most mem...
Now Flying: A Zip Line Over the Grand Canyon
Posted on 01/18/2018, 9:00 AM
A brand-new zip line has opened on a spur of the Grand Canyon, sending harnessed thrill seekers flying 1,000 feet over the earth. The Zip Line at Grand Canyon West near Peach Springs, Arizona, actually comprises two zip lines—one that's 1,100 feet long, another that's 2,100 feet long—to churn up adrenaline as passengers hurtle up to 45 miles an hour past Quartermaster Canyon. It's the perfect add...
