“I’ve found that nothing is duller than staying in a deluxe hotel,” pronounced Arthur Frommer when The Post caught up with him last week. “I like going to a pension, having breakfast in the kitchen, talking to a resident of a country.”
Indeed, the 84-year king of budget travel is still on the road more nearly 60 years after bursting onto the scene with his genre exploding, “Europe on $5 a Day.” He’s as direct as ever. Ask him his favorite airline: “I don’t think there’s a dime’s worth of difference.” Preferred luggage? “I don’t even know the brands.” And he’s still publishing.
Last week, Frommer’s new series of EasyGuides — which he’s publishing with his daughter Pauline — hit stores with 30 different titles. The Post chatted with Frommer about how he started, where he’s been lately and typical travel mistakes.
My writing took off in the 1950s with “Europe on $5 a Day.” The accepted wisdom at the time was Europe was a war-torn continent, and you couldn’t risk staying anywhere other than in a four-star hotel. I knew that this was nonsense.
Guide books have since become too voluminous, a lot of them run 800 pages in length…drowning the reader in too much information while not performing as a guide book should.
The first budget hotel I loved was Paris’ Claude Bernard — it’s on the Left Bank, and consisted of rooms without private baths. It was $5 for a double — or a single room for $4 a night. Today, it’s a three-star hotel (hotelclaudebernardparis.com).
When I made my first trip to Venice’s Piazza San Marco I was virtually the only person there. I just fed the pigeons and had it to myself. Today, it’s like Times Square on New Years Eve. It’s more necessary than ever to visit in the off-season.
Travelers pack too much. As I grow older, I take less — a small suitcase with a few changes of clothing. If I need to, I wash my underwear in the sink. Everybody becomes a prisoner of porters and taxis. And they spend too much. I’ve found the less you spend, the more you enjoy. If there’s any slogan for our guide book, that would be it.
I’ve been to countries with coup d’etats and military takeovers. I visited the Hill Tribes in the Golden Triangle of Thailand and the border of Cambodia and Laos. We had to go down the Mekong River, go on an elephant and walk up a mountain. They were living exactly as they did in the Stone Age. At dinner our host seemed to be measuring out a white powder. I said to my wife, “He’s not offering us any.” We realized it was opium.
My favorite monument is the gravesite of Evita Peron in Buenos Aires, it’s a mausoleum, and they bring flowers to it every morning. Even though she squirreled away millions, she’s still adored by the people.
There’s a restaurant called Petit Zinc on Paris’ Left Bank, it’s moderately priced, with wonderful French food (petit-zinc.com).
I generally like the street foods of a lot of countries — Thailand, for example. Or the fresh herring in Holland.
I bring a Chromebook on every trip. It doesn’t have a hard drive, it doesn’t have any moving parts, everything is saved to the Cloud. I think it’s the future of personal computing.