Arthur Frommer

Arthur Frommer says our embargo on Cuba is "farcical" ["The Wide World of Arthur Frommer," by Susan Spano, July 12]. What is really farcical is his liberal double standard. Don't go to Burma [Myanmar] or Libya, but by all means go to Cuba and China. After all, left-wing tyrants are much more preferable than right-wing ones. I wonder if Frommer's guide on Cuba points out the jails where political prisoners are rotting, or advises visitors not to speak disapprovingly of the Castro brothers because they may see their vacation cut short.

He is America's premier authority on travel. From the self-published "Europe on $5 a Day" in 1957, he grew an empire that has included travel guides, a magazine, newspaper columns, a radio show and a blog. Now 80, Arthur Frommer could slow down -- but he won't. He recently published "Ask Arthur Frommer," an encyclopedic approach to travel questions, and he blogs daily at Frommers.com. He grew up in Jefferson City, Mo., until the family moved to New York, where Frommer still lives.

ARTHUR FROMMER does New Orleans a terrible disservice by writing off the city as a tourist destination, "at least for 2006" ["Positive Signs From a Tumultuous Year," On a Budget, Jan. 8]. The French Quarter, the Garden District and other tourist areas were spared serious damage by Hurricane Katrina. The city is not only open for business but also needs a steady influx of visitors to stay afloat. I was living in Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001. In the weeks after the attacks, New York businesses (including mine)

Arthur Frommer, in "10 All-Purpose Rules That Cut Costs of Vacationing" (Travel Insider, June 14), suggests ordering one dish between two because "the size of portions in most touristic restaurants overseas is enough to feed a family." I'd like to know where in the world portions are larger than in U.S. restaurants. Surely this is one aspect of life in which the U.S. can still claim the No. 1 spot. ELIZABETH BOTSFORD Santa Monica

Four decades ago, Arthur Frommer's "Europe on $5 a Day" launched a generation of budget-minded Americans across the Atlantic. The book helped turn its peripatetic author into one of the travel industry's biggest brand names--and, more recently, one of its most acerbic critics. Frommer's latest platform, a Web site dubbed "Arthur Frommer's Outspoken Encyclopedia of Travel" (http://www.frommers.com), includes liberal doses of both commercialism and idealism--with varying degrees of success.

The president was Eisenhower. The U.S. dollar bought seven times as many French francs as it does today. And at his desk in a fancy Manhattan law firm, a young lawyer named Frommer had an idea. If only he could make middle-class America understand how affordable Europe had become, Frommer reasoned, he could not only help thousands of Americans appreciate the riches of Western Civilization in person, but he could make a few dollars selling guidebooks.

"Europe on $25 A Day": Some call it the traveler's bible; to others it's a bulky intruder in that already overstuffed travel bag. But for this only moderately experienced world traveler, Arthur Frommer's 1985 guide (the 1986 edition has just been released) to making one's way cheaply through Europe proved invaluable and usually on the mark. Early last fall my wife and I embarked on a long-planned tour of Europe, and we selected Frommer as our guide.