Ups and Downs of Frommer’s Guide

“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.

We began studying Frommer in earnest on the train from Bruges, Belgium, to Cologne, Germany.

Arriving in Cologne at 7 p.m., exhausted and eager to find a room, we called one of Frommer’s reader recommendations, the Hotel Brandenburger Hof. A pleasant desk clerk told me in fluent English that, yes, he had a room.

Just as Frommer’s reader had said, it was only a five-minute walk to the Brandenburger. We were shown to a pleasantly appointed room that cost us just $8 apiece, including the next morning’s breakfast of breads, cheeses nd boiled eggs, served with strong coffee or hot chocolate.

Headed for the Rhine

Leaving Cologne, we headed for the Rhine and, following the advice of another Frommer reader, took the train to Koblenz for the shorter boat ride to Mainz, an adequate 4 1/2 hours of prime castle viewing.

Wending our way down through Germany and Switzerland to Italy we used Frommer sporadically, putting him to rest during a three-day driving tour of the Black Forest.

But it was in Florence, Italy, halfway into our trip, that we were most disappointed, both by Frommer and by our decision to not book rooms in advance.

Florence in late September was absolutely bursting with tourists. At 5 p.m. an information counter at the train station was jammed with travel-weary tourists, short-tempered and exhausted by the sweltering heat.

I spent 1 1/2 hours cutting an ever-widening circle out from the station, inquiring at nearly every hotel and pension in the Frommer guide as well as several more. Nearly all were complet.

Frommer’s recommendations were invariably tackier than he suggested and the proprietors, whom he called “warm” and “friendly,” were often rude or indifferent.

No Room at the Inn

At the Locanda Marcella, a tawdry pension Frommer calls “pleasant,” I was told that there was a three-night minimum. At Locanda Nella I asked for a room for two and the proprietor asked “Two boys?” I said, “No, a boy and a girl,” and he replied, “No. Filled.”

At the Hotel Nuovo Italia, which Frommer describes as having “somewhat splurgy” singles and doubles, I was told there were only rooms for five or more guests.

We left Florence out of desperation and spent the night in Pisa, then proceeded through Genoa on the way to Nice.

It was after boarding the train in Pisa that we became acquainted with the pitfalls of the Eurailpass and the inaccuracies in Frommer’s depiction of its uses.

It is, as Frommer says, a rather enticing gimmick, but he is wrong when he says, “You needn’t buy a single other ticket, or pay any supplemental or reservation charges.”

We had already found out that you had better make reservations whenever possible, and that even with a Eurailpass you pay at least $1 to reserve a seat almost everywhere in Europe.

Mysterious Surcharge

And there can be other fees. Traveling from Pisa to Genoa, we were confronted by a conductor who charged us an extra $2.40 each, a tariff, he said, for the 165-kilometer ride. I never understood why. (To Frommer’s partial credit, he does warn readers of his 1986 edition that there are supplemental fees in Italy and Spain.)

Soon after the mysterious surcharge, we were to learn the hard way the truth in Frommer’s exhortation to always take bottled water on the train.

We rushed onto the train in Genoa after eating anchovy-covered pizza and downing a carafe of wine. As it turned out, the train to Nice had neither a dining car nor the customary porter with refreshment cart, and the restroom sinks warned against drinking the water. By the time we got to Nice, our tongues were stuck to the roofs of our mouths.

After refreshing ourselves in Nice, I began calling hotels. The second call was to the Frommer-recommended Hotel Novelty where, luckily, they had a room. The clerk told us how to find his hotel and we walked the three blocks from the station.

Our third-floor room was, as Frommer said, clean and typically French. Besides an ornate armoire, it had a washbowl, a shower and a bidet. French windows, which we kept open for fresh air, opened to a courtyard and the tantalizing smells of a bakery.

We were so pleased with our $12 room and with Nice that we extended what was to be a short stopover to four days. And we were so well within our budget that we treated ourselves to more extravagant meals than those offered at Frommer’s fixed-price recommendations.

A Charming Choice

In Paris I decided to phone Frommer’s Left Bank hotels, and half a dozen calls later found a vacancy at the Hotel d’Albe at 1 Rue de la Harpe. At $28 (less than Frommer’s quote), it turned out to be a charming choice.

For dining in Paris, a potentially expensive proposition, Frommer proved invaluable.

The first night we tried his Les Balkans near our hotel, and he was right--it was only OK. But the next evening we were delighted to be introduced to Du Grand Cerf in the heart of the red-light district. The family-style restaurant served terrific paella with salad, bread, dessert and wine, all for under $6 apiece. As we left we showed the manager the entry in the Frommer guide and he beamed.

For lunch one day we stopped at Chez Melanie, a Frommer choice close to the chic Champs-Elysees. We had tasty roast lamb with an enormous helping of fresh spinach, a tomato salad, bread and cheese, with wine, all for under $10 for two.

A half-day trip from Paris took us to Amsterdam, our last destination. As it turned out, Amsterdam was to leave us with ambivalent feelings, both about the city and Frommer’s advice.

Amsterdam has no clusters of hotels near Central Station, so we took a trolley to the busy Leidseplein, then looked for street references that matched Frommer’s recommendations.

Little to Recommend

When we found a public phone we called the Hotel de Leydsche Hof, where a pleasant woman told us that, yes, they had a room. Though we chose to stay, it was at the Leydsche Hof that we became acquainted with the folly of taking Frommer too literally. Or, perhaps, of not taking him literally enough.

True, as he says, the hotel has a beautiful oak staircase, but there is little else to recommend it. We found ourselves assigned a large room but it was not wood-paneled. The walls were cracked and pockmarked stucco covered with dingy off-white paint. There was torn vinyl furniture, and the bed was just adequate.

The best part of the room was the view through the window of the canal below.

The breakfast, which Frommer calls “typically incredibly large,” consisted of a boiled egg, two kinds of white bread, a couple of foil-wrapped triangles of cheese and coffee.

He was close on the price. That fact, and his recollection of the staircase, led us to believe that he had been there. But when I showed the proprietor the book, he was indifferent.

Among the disappointments following breakfast was a mid-afternoon boat ride. Frommer says of the ride: “No better way exists to see the essential features of the city.” But we were to discover that the best way to see the city and the canals is from the streets or the many bridges over the waterways.

A Perilous Route

That evening we asked the hotel owner about a Frommer-recommended restaurant for dinner. He agreed that the Ling Nam was a good choice for Chinese food. In his polite but business-like way, he gave us directions.

What Frommer doesn’t tell you about the Ling Nam is that to reach it you pass through the red-light district and into what may be the roughest part of town. You are glad to enter the restaurant just to get off the street. Neither the neighborhood nor the touted rijstaffel cuisine is to everyone’s taste.

For us, highlights of Amsterdam were Rembrandt’s house, a Frommer recommendation, and a delightful bar called Club Jazz Alto, where we heard live music into the morning for only about $7 worth of drinks between us. The club should be a Frommer recommendation.

In all, Frommer was a good friend to have along, invaluable at strange train stations in the inevitable pinch to find a room, less satisfactory in dining choices. Our opinion: Find inexpensive lodgings, but treat yourself to good meals.

Finally, if Frommer is the traveler’s bible, then like the Bible it must be appreciated in all its subtleties. Look to it for the overview. Know when to take it strictly literally.

If Frommer praises the beauty of small details such as staircases, know that that may be the establishment’s only redemption, and know when to refer to it for larger themes and generalities.