Frommer’s Travel Tips Help You Save Money, Minimize Mistakes
I could hardly believe that *the* Pauline Frommer, daughter of Frommer’s guidebooks founder Arthur Frommer, would be delivering some Frommer’s travel tips live at the Denver Travel and Adventure Show. Yes, I was fan-girling when she took the stage; even more so when I spoke with her afterward.
You see, I began traveling in the days before the internet. In those times, you had to buy guidebooks and maps to plan your trip. You actually had to call people to book things. (I know! It’s a wonder I went anywhere.) The benefit, of course, is that I read a lot of historical and cultural context before I simply showed up in a place and expected to work it out. And I certainly made use of Frommer’s travel tips, even carrying dog-eared copies of their guides to my destinations.
Pauline Frommer began traveling with her guidebook-writing parents when she was just a baby, but she’s a force in her own right. She’s written 12 books and authored thousands of articles. She cohosted a nationally syndicated radio, and her podcast, “The Frommer’s Travel Show,” was named one of the 13 best for travel by the New York Times. She’s created weekly travel segments for CNN’s Headline News and spoken all over the country. Pauline is currently co-president of Frommer Media, the publisher of the Frommer’s guidebooks and Frommers.com, with her late father, who endured bigotry as a young person, who made travel accessible to ordinary people with his book “Europe on 5 Dollars a Day” in 1957, and who passed away in November 2024 at age 95.
Pauline began her presentation by sharing a quote from travel writer and essayist Rolf Potts in The Vagabond’s Way: “Oftentimes, the most essential thing you learn on the road isn’t a skill so much as adaptive savvy — instincts like time management, goal setting, negotiation, networking, cultural awareness — that arise along the way. Moreover, since travel to distant places allows you to risk failure in a setting where nobody you know will see your mistakes, it emboldens you to learn in a more vulnerable way.”
She went on to share ways to help travelers minimize those mistakes and save money, a one-two punch necessary for any great guidebook. Here then are a few of Pauline Frommer’s travel tips live from Denver.
Frommer’s Travel Tips
Find Day Tours/Attractions
- Get Your Guide (One of our favorites! www.getyourguide.com)
- Tiqets (www.tiqets.com/en/)
- Airbnb (www.airbnb.com/s/experiences)
- Traveling Spoon (www.travelingspoon.com)
- EatWith (www.eatwith.com)
Find Multi-Day Tours
- Travelstride (www.travelstride.com)
- TourRadar (www.tourradar.com)
- Lokal (www.lokaltravel.com)
- Viking Cruises (www.vikingcruises.com) See also Julianne’s story on the Pros and Cons of a Viking Cruise.
- Ponant (https://us.ponant.com/new-ponant-site)
- Hurtigruten (www.hurtigruten.com)
- G Adventures (www.gadventures.com)
- Allianz (One of our favorites! www.allianztravelinsurance.com)
- Squaremouth (squaremouth.com)
- InsureMyTrip (insuremytrip.com)
- TravelInsurance (travelinsurance.com)
- Pauline also says you should never buy travel insurance through the travel provider.
Volunteer on Vacation
- Earthwatch (www.earthwatch.org)
- Global Vision International (www.gviusa.com)
- Give the Kids the World Village (www.gktw.org)
- Global Volunteers (www.globalvolunteers.org)
- Julianne has also traveled with Fields of Dreams Uganda for a girl empowerment trip. This is an organization with a consistent, stable, in-country presence and staff. (www.fieldsofdreamsuganda.org/)
Save on Airfare
- Purchase airfare on Sundays for 5 percent cheaper domestic travel, 15 percent cheaper international travel.
- Start your trip on a Wednesday.
Find Airfares
- Skyscanner (www.skyscanner.com)
- Kiwi (www.kiwi.com/us)
- Hopper (https://hopper.com/)
- See also our article on Google Flights.
Get Hotel Discounts
- Room Steals (https://roomsteals.com)
- Travel + Leisure Go (https://go.travelandleisure.com/)
- We’ll be adding Room Steals to our list of ways to choose a hotel on a budget!
Find a Home Exchange
- Third Home (www.thirdhome.com)
- Home Exchange (www.homeexchange.com)
- If you’re willing to care for someone’s pets while you’re traveling, check out our tips on house-sitting.
Explore the Nomad Life
- The Earth Awaits (theearthawaits.com)
- Julianne is also planning to travel with Sojrn (www.sojrn.travel) one day soon; most likely to Columbia first to finally polish her Spanish.
Find Short-Term Work/Travel Opportunities
- WWOOF / Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (https://wwoofusa.org/en/)
- Workaway (www.workaway.info)
- Worldpackers (www.worldpackers.com)
- We’ve included a few more in our article on unique accommodations.
Though Pauline has been all over the globe many times, I was struck upon meeting her by how grounded, warm and personable she remains. The travel that she advocates has much the same vibe. It’s not flashy influencer photography. It’s not showing up at a resort and just lying on a beach for six days before leaving the country again.
In fact, during the presentation Pauline shared a photo of her daughter cheerfully wielding a toilet brush during a Workaway trip. It hardly gets more real than cleaning bathrooms in your destination. And while Lysol-ing loos may not be everyone’s cup of disinfectant, Frommer’s travel tips have consistently advocated for an understanding of place and people over tourism at its most base or shallow.
And so it’s fitting that Pauline included the quote below in her presentation. It’s why I travel, reflecting my insatiable curiosity and compulsion to observe and explore. Challenge offers growth; it allows one to see connections and context. I truly believe that it causes us to be better human beings.
Of course, I’d prefer to become so without making unnecessarily dumb mistakes or spending more than I need to. I have to thank decades of guidebooks filled with Frommer’s travel tips for fostering my fearlessness while sparing my safety and my pocketbook.
“What gives value to travel is fear. It is the fact that, at a certain moment, when we are so far from our own country … we are seized by a vague fear, and an instinctive desire to go back to the protection of old habits … this is why we should not say that we travel for pleasure. There is no pleasure in traveling, and I look upon it more as an occasion for spiritual testing … Pleasure takes us away from ourselves in the same way as distraction, in Pascal’s use of the word, takes us away from God. Travel, which is like a greater and a graver science, brings us back to ourselves.” ― Albert Camus, Notebooks, 1935–1951
For more great Frommer’s travel tips, sign up for the email at frommers.com and listen to the podcast, “The Frommer’s Travel Show.”
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