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McCool Travel is excited to present tips from travel experts in our 5 Minutes interview series featuring travel industry giants, super frequent travelers, and adventurous persons.
For the 15th profile, I am honored to present Samantha Brown. Samantha is the wildly popular Travel Channel host of programs including Passport to Great Weekends, Samantha Brown’s Asia, Passport to Latin America, and Passport to Europe With Samantha Brown. Sam travels 200 days each year but calls Brooklyn home. I was fortunate to talk travel with Sam Brown at the Washington D.C. Travel and Adventure Show last month.
Always in my luggage…
ear plugs, peanut butter, I Love NY t-shirts (or other gifts from home)
3 favorite home-away-from-home places…
Santa Fe, Nicaragua, Cambodia
A favorite travel memory is…
After a long walk in Malaysia, I sat down to rest and a local woman approached me. She said hello and asked if I was British. I said No. American? Yes. Then she showed me her baby, who was half Western. She thought it would be calming for him to see someone like him. Not a PC moment but a wonderful memory.
3 favorite travel brands…
3 money-saving travel tactics I use are…
- ask locals
- eat breakfast (ask night guards for suggestions)
- walk around
3 ways that I have fun while traveling are…
- walks
- playing video games
- talking to locals
Thank you, Sam, for sharing your thoughts with McCool Travel and may you have countless more memorable travel adventures!
Join Samantha on Twitter (@SamTravels).
Previous 5 Minutes With post: Pauline Frommer.
Do you want to appear in a future 5 Minute With post? Contact me directly by email (CharlesMcCool -at- gmail -dot- com).
For frequent travel deals, follow me on Facebook (McCool Travel) and Twitter (@CharlesMcCool).
McCool Travel is excited to present tips from travel experts in our 5 Minutes interview series featuring travel industry giants, super frequent travelers, and adventurous persons.
For the 14th profile, I am honored to present Pauline 
Frommer. Recognize the name? Her father is Arthur Frommer, a true travel industry giant. Pauline Frommer is blazing her own trail as the creator of the award-winning Pauline Frommer Guidebooks, radio talk show host, and travel blogger. She calls New York City home but is an insatiable wanderer. I was fortunate to talk travel with Pauline Frommer at the Washington D.C. Travel and Adventure Show last month.
Always in my luggage…
a good book
3 favorite home-away-from-home places…
India, Ireland, Italy
A favorite travel memory is…
climbing the volcano in Guatemala (Pacaya) and toasting marshmallows
3 favorite travel brands…
Frommers, JetBlue, Weather.com
3 money-saving travel tactics I use are…
- alternative accommodations
- deep airfare search / flexible schedules
- shoulder season travel
3 ways that I have fun while traveling are…
- meeting locals
- challenging myself to try scary things
- pigging out
8 word (or less) travel mantra…
Spend less, see more.
My favorite non-travel website…
Most memorable souvenir…
a rug that I shouldn’t have bought in Turkey
Favorite cheap eat…
donuts/fried dough with sugar in Nice, France
I would like to meet …
Thank you, Pauline, for sharing your thoughts with McCool Travel and may you have countless more memorable travel adventures!
Join Pauline on Twitter (@PaulineFrommer), Facebook, and Pauline Frommer’s Travel Guides.
Previous 5 Minutes With post: Bruce Northam.
Do you want to appear in a future 5 Minute With post? Contact me directly by email (CharlesMcCool -at- gmail -dot- com).
For frequent travel deals, follow me on Facebook (McCool Travel) and Twitter (@CharlesMcCool).
This past weekend, I attended the DC Travel and Adventure Show (Twitter, Facebook) where I was fortunate to spend 5 minutes each with Samantha Brown and Pauline Frommer. Q&A from those sessions will appear in future McCool Travel posts.
Yesterday, I published Travel Tips from Pauline Frommer, from one of her talks.
Samantha Brown, photo from http://images.zap2it.com/
Samantha Brown also gave two talks at the show. Here are 8 Great travel tips from Saturday’s talk, “Lessons From the Road: A Life on the Go.”
- Accents. Ask housekeepers where they eat. Samantha learned about a great Vietnamese neighborhood in Orlando by talking to housekeepers. “Find food and places not covered by guidebooks.”
- Breakfast. Talk to night guardsmen for breakfast suggestions. “Night guardsmen always know where to find the best breakfasts in town.”
- Southeast Asia. Other than the airfare to get there, Southeast Asia is so inexpensive. She cites $10 hour-and-a-half massages, $5 perfect meals, and $100 four star hotel stays.
- Latin America. Europe is so steeped in history but Latin America taught her to enjoy the culture for what it is NOW.
- Explore. Resist the urge to overload your schedule. Take time to just walk around where people live, away from the tourist areas.
- Language. Learn a few key phrases in the languages where you visit. It establishes an immediate connection with the locals. Samantha speaks a little Spanish but is not fluent in any language, other than English.
- Solo Travel. “Do it!” People will take care of you. You have different experiences when you do not have a travel partner.
- Japan. Japan has the hardest culture to get to know. It is difficult to know the rules sometimes. Once you are “in,” it is great.
Can’t get enough Samantha Brown? Follow her on Twitter.
For frequent travel deals, follow me on Facebook (McCool Travel) and Twitter (@CharlesMcCool).
© 2011, Charles McCool
Over the weekend, I attended the DC Travel and Adventure Show (Twitter, Facebook) where I was fortunate to spend 5 minutes each with Pauline Frommer and Samantha Brown. Those Q&A sessions will appear in future McCool Travel posts.
Pauline Frommer signing books, from http://twitpic.com/48w5ec
Pauline Frommer gave two talks. Here are some fantastic tips from her first talk, “Travel Smarter: When to Splurge and When to Scrimp.”
Individual preferences vary, of course. Pauline polled the audience for each travel category and there usually was a good division between scrimping and splurging. She even admitted to disagreeing with her father, Arthur Frommer, on one category (which one? see below):
- Lodging. Scrimp. With alternate lodging and home exchanges, in particular, you can get greater value for less money. Two resources she uses are HotelsCombined.com and Hipmunk.com; use the overlay map with categories such as food (good) or vice (avoid).
- Airfares. Splurge (involuntarily). She suggests buying airfares now as expectations are that airfares will continue to increase. For airfare searches, Pauline likes momondo.com and dohop.com. For business class flights, she suggests using flights.com and cheapoair.com.
- Car Rentals. Scrimp. Look for firms that do not annually turn over their inventory. Mom and pop agencies can be found on breezenet.com. Pauline also suggests using AutoSlash.com and Priceline/Hotwire.
- Sightseeing. Splurge. Look for small group adventure tours rather than anyone using a bus. “If a bus is involved, it will be a big tour company.” She particularly likes Gap Adventures, Intrepid, Adventure Center, and Djoser. These companies use local transportation and stay in local guest houses. Per day rate is on the order of $50 instead of $200 for bus company.
- Food. Depends. Sometimes street food is preferable and sometimes you want to take advantage of world class chefs. Pauline suggested signing up for and using Groupon and Living Social. “NEVER ask a concierge for a dining recommendation.”
- Cruises. Scrimp. This is where Pauline and her father differ. He likes to splurge on cruises. Pauline says to use public transportation to visit excursions and save a ton of money–and avoid the crowds. An example she cited was visiting the Mendenhall Glacier in Alaska ($80 cruise fee or $3.50 public bus). Some resources with discounted excursions include ShoreTrips.com, PortPromotions.com, and PortCompass.com.
How about you? Do you scrimp wherever possible? Always splurge?
For frequent travel deals, follow me on Facebook (McCool Travel) and Twitter (@CharlesMcCool).
© 2011, Charles McCool
Travel shows are great opportunities for learning about travel deals, hearing from travel experts, and perhaps win a great prize.
I will attend the DC Travel & Adventure Show this weekend. Speaking at the show will be travel experts and personalities including Pauline Frommer, Samantha Brown, Mark DeCarlo, Mireya Mayor, The Lost Girls, and Peter Greenberg. Sorry, I am not presenting; maybe next year!
At last year’s show, I listened to and met Julia Dimon and other travel experts, participated in a couple of adventure activities, and collected great information and trinkets from travel suppliers and tourism bureaus.
Tickets will cost $15 at the door or $9 on the website. Enter code PF (thanks to Pauline Frommer) to get a $7 ticket.
If you will be at this weekend’s DC travel show, let me know (email CharlesMcCool -at- gmail -dot com). I would love to meet other passionate travelers.
Next weekend is the Los Angeles Times Travel and Adventure Show, featuring some of the same speakers and other travel experts. Regular price is $12 but save $3 by buying online. Tip: look for promo codes on Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere. Perhaps the same PF code will work and save you more money.
For frequent travel deals, follow me on Facebook (McCool Travel) and Twitter (@CharlesMcCool).
© 2011, Charles McCool
