Europe on 5 Dollars a Day (Reproduction of Original Printing)

by Arthur Frommer

Book Overview

In 1957, Arthur Frommer published a slim travel guide that showed Americans how to travel to Europe without breaking the bank. "Europe on 5 Dollars a Day" revolutionized the way Americans traveled -... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0470165642
• ISBN13: 9780470165645
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Frommer's
• Length: 126 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The World Is Your Oyster

I believe this is a reproduction of the 1959 original edition of this book. I have a slightly later edition, one that was actually used, but I figured I'd post my review anyway, and maybe fill in a younger generation on what was a breakthrough in travel for Americans of the early 1960s. Right now, in the first decade of the 21st century, the entire travel guide business is undergoing a massive change. Guide books are morphing into web sites, and these web sites as a rule include reader feedback. The traditional, how to find a hotel, how to find a good restaurant travel guide is rapidly vanishing. Only cultural guides remain, and these will only remain for so much longer. The times, they are a changing. But, this revolution is not the first revolution in travel guides. When Europe On Five Dollars A Day was first printed, it sparked its own revolution, and changed not only travel guides, but the entire way Americans looked at world travel. When Arthur and Hope Frommer's guide to travel in Europe first came out, commercial jets had been flying for only six years. The air travel industry was heavily regulated and subject to complex international treaties. Great ocean liners still served as a means of transportation, not just as traveling resorts. Few Americans had traveled to Europe, save as GIs on Uncle Sam's nickel. European travel was for millionaires and the truly cosmopolitan or bohemian. Europe On Five Dollars A Day advanced the then audacious thesis that just about any American could travel to Europe, providing they were willing to travel the way Europeans traveled. Europe, back then, was much poorer than it is now, and the typical European earned much less than the typical American. Despite this, Europeans managed to tour their continent. They stayed in modest, but clean and safe hotels. They ate good food at reasonable prices. They took the train or drove strange little cars. The book itself was written as a manifesto, a common form in the 1960s, an era of manifestos. The introductory chapters challenged the conventional wisdom and got right down to the nuts and bolts. One chapter explained how to get to and from Europe, weighing the merits of jets versus passenger liners versus tramp freighters. There was a discussion of aviation law, and how you could game the system by flying Icelandic, a non-treaty airline, taking a charter or exploiting special package fares that were slipped into the system. Another chapter discussed how to get around in Europe. It introduced automobile Americans to the well developed European rail system, Eurailpass deals, and, if one just had to drive, to the various buy a car and rent a car packages. You can see echoes of Europe On Five Dollars A Day in Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book and Stewart Brand's Whole Earth Catalog. The bulk of the book is dedicated to various major European cities with a chapter on each. Each chapter described hotels and restaurants with an emphasis on getting value for money. It may