Art Frommer-- Budget Travel

Arthur Frommer was born in 1929 and became world famous as a travel writer-- Europe on $5 a Day.  He is still around though is no longer regularly contributing to his blog.  The last post I find is following the George Floyd killing:  A Statement from Arthur Frommer on #BlackLivesMatter and Racial Discrimination | Frommer's  The blog is in good hands with his daughter Pauline.

There are two approaches to travel.  We can spend lavishly on rooms, have people deliver drinks to us and relax on the beach.  We can hit the museums, natural wonders and coffee shops and eat and drink with the locals.  Though some combination of approach a and approach b does not offend me, and down time should be planned as part of our vacations, I consistently choose Art Frommer's approach.  My primary goal of traveling is to learn.

In 2005, I decided to sell my house and see the world, starting with a three month visit to Asia.  Art Frommer's blog was my tour guide.  I went to a Berkeley travel agent and bought a three month Cathay Pacific All-Asia air pass.  I could travel by air on a highly rated airline as much as I wanted during this time.  The only catch was that all flights were through Hong Kong and visas were extra.  I weighed whether to go to Pakistan deciding a $200 visa was not justifiable given that I didn't have a good plan for what to do in Pakistan.  This air package still exists.  Today, you can only buy it in Japan, however.

I blogged about this trip.  Here is the entry about the World Fair I stumbled across- https://davetravels.blogspot.com/2005/05/expo-2005.html

I spent money on our honeymoon trip, Fall 2006, to Florence, Cortona, and Paris. because I didn't want the mundane day to day of budget travel to distract.  Call it insecurity.  After that, we followed the Frommer playbook and typically used their recommended deals to visit Australia, Russia, Paris, Iceland, Ireland, China, Shanghai, Hawaii and Alaska as well as our own continent.

If you read the June, 2020 blog post by Art Frommer, you will find it is political.  How a person travels is indeed a political choice.  One either views the world as a purchase or as a place you can more broadly join.