The father of thrifty travel

[Bulldog]

Originally published May 13, 2007
NEW YORK // Arthur Frommer first saw Europe in 1953 from the window of a military transport plane.

He had been drafted and was headed to a U.S. base in Germany. But whenever he had a weekend's leave or a three-day pass, he would hop a train to Paris or hitch a ride to England on an Air Force flight.

Eventually he wrote a guide to Europe for GIs and had 5,000 copies printed. They sold out at 50 cents apiece, and when his Army stint was over, he rewrote the book for civilians, self-publishing Europe on 5 Dollars a Day in 1957.

"It struck a chord and became an immediate best-seller," he recalled.

On the 50th anniversary of the book's publication, Frommer is still being credited with helping to change leisure travel by showing average Americans that they could afford a trip to Europe. And while the dollar-a-day series is finally ending this year after selling millions of copies, the Frommer brand remains strong, with a new series from Arthur's daughter, Pauline, carrying on the tradition.

More important, Frommer's original approach -- a combination of wide-eyed wonder and getting the best value for your money -- has become so standard that it's hard to remember how radical it seemed in the days before discount flights and backpacks.

Anne Sutherland, a professor at the University of California at Riverside who studies tourism as a global phenomenon, used Europe on 5 Dollars a Day on a six-month trip in 1965. "When I read the title, I said, 'I can do Europe on $5 a day? I'm going!'" she said. ""And I really did live on $5 a day. For my generation, that really made a difference."

Bertram Gordon, a professor at Mills College in Oakland, Calif., recalled sitting in a cafe in Paris in the mid-1970s where "it looked like every third person passing by was carrying a Frommer's." But Gordon, who teaches a course on the history of European travel, noted that many factors contributed to Frommer's success, including the affluence of post-World War II America, adventurous baby boomers, and the rise and ease of jet travel.

In the 1960s, when inflation forced him to change the title of the book to Europe on 5 and 10 Dollars a Day, he said "it was as if someone had plunged a knife into my head." Thanks to the weak dollar, the final editions were titled Europe from $95 a Day.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/travel/bal-tr.smart13may13,0,7058301.story?coll=bal-artslife-travel