2010 New York Times Travel Show Blog (Day 2: The NYT Travel Writers Speak)
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New York Times travel editor (for at least one more week) Stuart Emmrich moderated a panel featuring the various [insert adjective here] Travelers, including Matt Gross (The Frugal Traveler), Michelle Higgins (The Practical Traveler) and contributor Jennifer Conlin (no adjective needed I suppose). Let’s hope they don’t run out of titles. I’m not sure I want to read anything by “The Gassy Traveler,” or “The Pygmy Traveler” (however there may be a market for that somewhere in the world).
Jennifer discussed living in Cairo, as she does now with her family, and how surprisingly interesting and metropolitan of a city it is once you get past the crowds, noise and trash that the city is otherwise known for. A must-visit for any serious traveler.
Jennifer also shared some tidbits about her life as both a travel writer and as a mother, including forcing her children to shack up in temporary apartments and hostels in London for a story, despite actually living there at the time with an actual apartment; as well as what plane travel is like with three small children (hint: elicit the help of nearby businessmen and sympathetic mothers).
When discussing saving money by booking flights, Michelle mentioned the sight Yapta.com, a fare tracker that alerts you if your flight goes down in price after the fact (in which case you can complain to the airline and request a voucher for the difference). Matt mentioned his recent Frugal Traveler article that discussed using Kayak, Bing, Vayama, and SeatExpert.com to snag, hold onto, and finagle the best-priced and best-situated seat on the plane.
Toward the end of the talk an audience member asked the panel that old gem: Where’s your favorite place in the world to eat? Michelle played up to the local crowd, naming New York, and Matt picked Vietnam, to the general approval of the crowd. (As a funny and perhaps prescient side-note, an audience member predicted Matt would one day fill the role as the NYT’s food critic. Remember, you heard it here first.)
Another funny exchange occurred with Stuart asked the panel where he should travel in the world now that he can travel for pleasure rather than for business. He was told to finally make the big trek and visit Brooklyn: there’s a whole other world of New York out there. (Apparently he’s never been. Sigh.)
A quick check of my notes to see what else was discussed reveals that I forgot to take notes. I think I covered the best parts: Go to Cairo, go to Vietnam, and go to Brooklyn. Kind of hard not to say yes to that.