An App That (Almost) Guarantees the Lowest Hotel Rates
Posted on 05/31/2019, 7:00 AM
It’s said there are no guarantees in life. But does that apply to travel? For hotels, a relatively new app may offer the closest thing to a guaranteed low price that I’ve seen. It’s called Pruvo, and it promises that if you tell it your hotel price, you won’t be undercut. Here’s how it works. The consumer goes hotel shopping, using any online travel agency they like—Booking.com, Expedi...
Do Travelers Lose Their Moral Compasses on the Road? A Surprising Study
Posted on 05/29/2019, 7:00 AM
My friend Deborah "borrowed" her favorite wool blanket from a hotel when she went on a business trip. Shannon, another pal, put her able-bodied daughter in an airport wheelchair to jump to the front of a Southwest Airlines boarding line so they could snag seats together. And Dave, a charming guy I know from college, owns a cane for the sole purpose of limping into airports so he can plausibly c...
Arthur Frommer: Travel in Europe is Getting Harder, Yet Still We Must
Posted on 05/06/2019, 9:00 AM
Let’s be frank: Traveling to Europe this summer will be more difficult than in recent years. Which is all the more reason to consider, and then overcome, a number of obstacles. What has resulted in these problems? First, the initial cost of flying to various European capitals will undoubtedly be higher than before. That major champion of low-cost transatlantic air travel, WOW Ai...
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...
When Should You Book Airfare and Hotels? A Huge Study Reveals the Current Answers
Posted on 04/03/2019, 1:00 PM
The Airlines Reporting Corporation’s annual Travel Pricing Outlook study (conducted in partnership with Expedia) arrived with very little fanfare this year. Which is odd—and not so odd. Odd because it is, by a factor of a gazillion, the largest study of the year, for the size of the numbers being crunched. And not so odd because this 2019 study, the fifth annual one, doesn’t really break much n...
Books, Games, Apps, and Activities to Get Kids Excited About Travel
Prepare your children for upcoming vacations by harnessing their innate curiosity and instilling a spirit of exploration that will last a lifetime.
Rare Civil War Artifacts Debut at Philly’s Constitution Museum
Posted on 02/08/2019, 2:00 AM
Philadelphia's National Constitution Center—chartered by Congress to "disseminate information about the U.S. Constitution on a nonpartisan basis"—is adding a new permanent exhibit recounting a crucial chapter in that document's history. Opening May 9, "Civil War and Reconstruction: The Battle for Freedom and Equality" will use interactive multimedia and scores of historical artifacts to illustra...
Better Visit D.C.'s Newseum Soon: It Closes in 2020
Posted on 02/07/2019, 2:00 PM
Just a little more than 10 years after unveiling a splashy new steel-and-glass building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., the journalism-focused Newseum has announced it will close to the public in January 2020. The site opened in 2008 with much fanfare and much high-flown talk of preserving the Fourth Estate as print news organizations struggled to adjust to the digital age. The New...
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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....
A New Women's Travel Magazine Hits the Newsstands (and the Internet)
Posted on 09/14/2018, 9:15 AM
A new travel magazine debuted this month, called Unearth Women. I spoke with Nikki Vargas, its Editor-In-Chief and co-founder, about what the first issue holds, and what this new publication promises to female travelers down the line. Pauline Frommer: Why do women need their own magazine? Why can’t they just read Afar, or Condé Nast Traveler, or one of the other travel magazines out there?...
Arthur Frommer: I Love This Canadian Program of Literary Discussions and Tours
Posted on 08/16/2018, 2:00 PM
Every year, thousands of English-speaking adults gather at a number of famous universities to engage for a July week or two in discussion of the great books or great issues. Led by a faculty member of these schools, participants pursue a “learning vacation” at places like Oxford and Cambridge in England, Cornell in upstate New York, or St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. These one-w...
A Temporary Museum of the 1980s Opens in Seattle
Posted on 08/09/2018, 9:45 PM
There's nothing like seeing cultural artifacts from your childhood in a historical exhibit to make you feel like an ancient relic. Those of us with memories of the 1980s can have that disconcerting experience at Seattle's Living Computers: Museum + Labs, where a temporary exhibit called "Total 80s Rewind" transports visitors to the world of a teenager in the Reagan years. Gather 'round, kiddies...
