Arthur Frommer is putting some great info in his travel blog on the Frommer%26#39;s site. I thought these were worth passing on to this group since many are perfect for NYC travel (4, 7-9).
1) Never make a phone call, change money, or send out laundry from your hotel. Each of these activities is a hotel ';profit center,'; and hefty surcharges are added. Change money at a bank, use a cell phone or public booth for your calls and visit a Laundromat to clean your clothing.
2) In addition to avoiding hotel cashiers for money-changing purposes, do the same with respect to commercial money-changing kiosks and other storefront establishments. Look instead for a bank, the biggest you can find; they pay the best rates. Better yet, search for a bank ATM machine that honors your card -- they are increasingly found all over the world -- and you%26#39;ll get even better rates from them.
3) Pack the least amount of clothing your courage will allow. People who don%26#39;t pack light, become money-squandering beasts of burden, needing expensive porters and taxis, unable to shop around among several hotels for the best value.
4) As a tourist, eat one meal a day picnic-style. Pick up bread, pat茅, cheese, wine from the foreign equivalent of a delicatessen, or at the grocery section of a department store, and consume them on a park bench, alongside a river, or even in your hotel room. You%26#39;ll save money and eat healthily at the same time.
5) When eating at restaurants abroad, split, share and divide with your travel companion. When two of you dine, order one appetizer, one main course, and then split those dishes between you; you%26#39;ll still send uneaten food back to the kitchen, and you%26#39;ll save 50%.
6) Never judge a hotel by its facade. Some of the best lodgings values are in period buildings centuries old. Don%26#39;t be deterred by the lack of an impressive lobby. Go upstairs and inspect the rooms.
7) Visiting any large city, make a point of learning to use inexpensive public transportation. Sample the neighborhoods. You%26#39;ll not only save money; you%26#39;ll discover how people there live.
8) And sightsee on your own two feet, without a plan, resisting the lures of city sightseeing motorcoach tours. On your own strolls, you%26#39;ll eventually pass the same great monuments and museums visited by the buses, but you%26#39;ll see so much more, and without cost: you%26#39;ll look into the courtyards of schools and hospitals, visit groceries and shops, talk with local residents.
9) Buy your theater tickets as residents do -- on the day of performance, at half price. On arriving in any major theatre city, ask for the location of the local discount ticket booth.
10) In any English-speaking city abroad, or here at home, haunt the university bulletin boards -- they contain the best-possible calendar of events, a treasure trove of listings for free and almost nightly lectures, concerts, workshops, and social gatherings, superior to most other forms of evening entertainment.
11) In your travels through America, make use of tourist office discount coupons, available at each city%26#39;s main tourist information center. These handy leaflets bring important reductions in price at places you already planned to visit or patronize.
12) And finally, never visit any destination without first purchasing a budget guidebook to it. No matter how confident you may be of your own travel knowledge, you will always find in such books at least a few valuable suggestions of low-priced lodgings, meals or activities of which you would otherwise have been unaware.
Frommer's 10 commandments of smart travel%26gt;%26gt;6) Never judge a hotel by its facade. Some of the best lodgings values are in period buildings centuries old. Don%26#39;t be deterred by the lack of an impressive lobby. Go upstairs and inspect the rooms.%26lt;%26lt;
So true. For example, you could walk past the Covent Garden Hotel in London and not notice it. When the cab driver dropped me off there that first time I looked out the window and thought, ';This is it?!';
But inside it%26#39;s one of my favorite hotel environments anywhere.......
And in New York: Never judge a hotel.....or restaurant.....or shop....by its facade!
Frommer's 10 commandments of smart travelI love these - here are my two favorite travel guide posts...
';When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.'; -- Susan Heller
';If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.'; -- James Michener
This should be #1 on any one%26#39;s traveling must do list!!
12) And finally, never visit any destination without first purchasing a budget guidebook to it. No matter how confident you may be of your own travel knowledge, you will always find in such books at least a few valuable suggestions of low-priced lodgings, meals or activities of which you would otherwise have been unaware.
A bit of BASIC research is invaluable in making a routine trip an adventure.
Poppa
Very good suggestions and I can truly say that I live by almost all of them when I travel, not 10 and 5 though, I love to eat.
6) Never judge a hotel by its facade. Some of the best lodgings values are in period buildings centuries old. Don%26#39;t be deterred by the lack of an impressive lobby. Go upstairs and inspect the rooms.
I don%26#39;t completely get this one. Unless you are booking a Manhattan hotel from...well Manhattan (or any city for that matter.) You can%26#39;t go upstairs and inspect the rooms. Once you arrive at your destination and are confronted with a shabby lobby, you have no choice but to go and inspect the room or forfeit a night%26#39;s deposit (at least.)
3) Pack the least amount of clothing your courage will allow. People who don%26#39;t pack light, become money-squandering beasts of burden, needing expensive porters and taxis, unable to shop around among several hotels for the best value.
This might answer my question......what moron walks around (luggage in tow.) knocking on hotel room doors looking for the ';best value';? Wouldn%26#39;t showing up unannounced at any hotel with your bags indicate that you are a.) an idiot and b.) without options? Therefore at the mercy of whatever said desk clerk decides to charge you. (Investigating beyond the lobby is not going to make you look like a savvy traveler at this point.)
12) And finally, never visit any destination without first purchasing a budget guidebook to it. No matter how confident you may be of your own travel knowledge, you will always find in such books at least a few valuable suggestions of low-priced lodgings, meals or activities of which you would otherwise have been unaware.
Was there a link to their handy guidebooks under this one?
cbcito, No, there were no links for guidebooks. It seems like there was an excellent marketing opportunity missed for Frommer%26#39;s guidebooks, doesn%26#39;t it? ;o)
I posted his ';great myths';, too. He has ';great truths'; which seem to be rehashing points from the myths and the commandments. #4 of the truths is in line with the James Michener quote. I%26#39;ve found that my outlook has grown to be more accepting (can I say liberal without getting tomatoes thrown at me?) as a result of travel - both inside and outside the US. It%26#39;s a whole lot easier to discount people because you think your way of life is the only way to live.
';4) Listening with an open mind to people at the destination is a key to greater understanding, an exceptional reward of travel. Smart tourists welcome the chance to encounter viewpoints or lifestyles totally different from theirs%26#39;, and find that such encounters are among the great adventures of life. Above all, the smart American tourist avoids making speeches or delivering comparisons to our own life at home.';
You can ask to see the hotel room assigned to you before deciding to take it. Any decent (or halfway decent) hotel will allow you to do this. I totally agree with #3--we always pack light and when flying only take carry-on luggage. It makes life so much simpler! #6 made me think of the Hotel Penn. So many reviewers talked about the beautiful lobby and then they saw their rooms...
';we always pack light and when flying only take carry-on luggage'; That%26#39;s great if your luggage is TRULY carry-on.I fly way too much with way too many ';overhead hogs';...check your airplane out too before you fly and pack that ';carry-on'; suitcase to make sure the bins are big enough to hold yours AND your seat-neighbors luggage.
Aside from a miserable lost baggage experience this last round of travel that I did, I truly find that checking luggage is more convenient in MOST cases. When I do my three or four day trips into New York, when I fly direct/non-stop then I pack a SMALL carry-on bag. But I%26#39;ve been known to give it up to gate check too....
If you are referring to me--yes, I do make sure my carry-on luggage meets the airline%26#39;s criteria as far as size is concerned. And, yes, I make sure that I don%26#39;t exceed the number of bags allowed. So, no--I don%26#39;t hog the space and I don%26#39;t have any problem with putting luggage under the seat in front of me if necessary. That said, there are people who abuse the rules and I applaud any airline that takes action.
I wondered about #3 too. I can%26#39;t imagine showing up in a city without at least the first night%26#39;s room reserved, no matter how light my baggage. Even without any luggage at all, I wouldn%26#39;t want to be wandering around looking at rooms, checking out prices, etc. You%26#39;d have to allow extra vacation time for that!
No comments:
Post a Comment