Ask Arthur Frommer: And Travel Better, Cheaper, Smarter by Arthur Frommer

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Ask Arthur Frommer: And Travel Better, Cheaper, Smarter by Arthur Frommer
Price: $14.99

Features

Paperback: 512 pages

Publisher: Frommers March 30, 2009

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0470418494

ISBN-13: 978-0470418499

Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 1.2 inches

Shipping Weight: 1 pounds

Amazon.com Review

Organized by travel topic
More than 500 entries
Each entry is a short, digestible take--no longer than a page.
250 b&w photos
Arthur's style is personable and engaged--his personality shines through

Amazon Exclusive: Q&A with Author Arthur Frommer

Q: How has technology changed the travel landscape in the last 50 years?

A: It has given us the tools to be our own travel agents. By devoting a small effort to ferret out the best airfare and hotel search engines, we can snare bargains and discounts in travel that used to go unused. We can lower the cost of travel—and thus travel more frequently.

Q: What is your favorite travel destination and how many times have you been there?

A: Paris leads the list; I can’t get enough of it (have vacationed there dozens of times). I find it occupies the frontiers of art and culture, history and cuisine, political discourse and literary events. The Parisians have become excellent, courteous hosts (contrary to a popular misconception), and the city itself is, to me, a place of enchantment that never grows stale. A runner-up: the island of Bali.

Q: You seem to be unhappy with many aspects of the American travel industry. What bothers you most, and why?

A: The shortness of the vacation time enjoyed by average Americans; we urgently need legislation mandating a minimum of three weeks per year of paid leave; the failure of our newspapers, magazines and television outlets to provide Americans with useful facts about affordable travel, in place of their fascination with deluxe facilities that only the wealthy can enjoy; the mindless quality of so many vacation resorts and tours that treat their guests as ignoramuses. I’ve devoted much of my travel career to disclosing the reverse of what most of the commercial travel industry recommends.

Q: What are the top destinations for travel within the United States? Where do you recommend that we go for our vacations?

A: First and foremost, the U.S. National Parks, especially Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon and Great Smokey Mountains. Second, I recommend the non-tourist neighborhoods of New York, especially its world of provocative, mind-enlarging, off-Broadway theaters. Third, Boston, New Orleans and San Francisco, the Oregon coast, the southwest coast of Florida (especially Sanibel Island and its “Ding” Darling Nature Preserve). There are many more.

Q: How has the current economic climate changed the way we travel?

A: It has forced us to consider the use of “alternative” lodgings in place of standard (and far more expensive) hotels: guesthouses and B&Bs, hostels, student residences, convents and monasteries, vacation homes and apartments in resort areas, vacation “exchanges” (you live in their apartment or home while they live in yours), the extra rooms and beds offered by “hospitality clubs”. By using such facilities, you not only save money but enjoy a far more authentic travel experience among actual residents. And I am proud that the Frommer guides have always devoted more attention to these excellent alternative accommodations than any other travel book series.

Reader Reviews
Actually, contrary to another review I have read on this site, this book is one of the most plain-talking, no-holds-barred travel books I've ever laid my hands on. This guy isn't afraid to say stuff that could get him in trouble with the rest of the travel industry. Like this, on page 410: TripAdvisor.com is "virtually useless" and its rankings "have no value at all." On page 76, he says modern cruise ships look like they were "gigantic, metallic, orgone boxes of the sort envisioned in the 1920s by hallucinating psychologists." (That description is pretty hilarious. But then he goes on to tell you how to get a discount on one.) On p. 450, he calls for a wholesale change of guard at the Department of Homeland Security for the sake of the country's future! It's very fast-moving, with fact after fact coming right at you in between those opinions, and lots of websites worth bookmarking, so if you can't find something to use on one page, the next page is likely to help, and what's more, you get the feeling he really has tried all the things he's writing about. The book is chatty and dishy at times, and always opinionated, but no one can argue that this guy doesn't know his stuff. I don't know any other book that has all these details in one place. For example, Frommer's book mentions an airfare booking website called Yapta twice and it takes three pages to explain the ins and outs. I also have Peter Greenberg's recent book, and he gives Yapta just five lines. There's simply more meat here. There's also an index in this book, which makes finding what I need really easy.

Ask Arthur Frommer: And Travel Better, Cheaper, Smarter
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Price: $14.99
Updated on 1-16-2010.