Interview with Seth ball, the New York Times Frugal Traveler
Nomadic Matt: How did the Frugal Traveler?
Seth ball: It took a bit of a lifelong perfect storm. One could say that it goes back to travel with my parents, shunned the fashionable restaurants and vacation packages let me in the country Kenya go on an exchange trip when I was in high school. (I came home with the hepatitis A and the desire of African politics at school to study.) After studying history a bit more twisted gets: I worked as a teacher and immigrant service providers in Latino neighborhoods in New York, to an appearance lining out of the Bronx as a freelancer with New York times city section, book on Latino New Yorkers coauthoring, and finally a few items in the times travel part, of which the first was about the ultimate frugal Amazon tour, sleeping next to a few hundred Brazilian stranger on a hammock. I combined my interest in travel writing and to propose in New York City a column that become "Weekend in New York" I. For about three years Then I fled the US freelancer in Brazil to be where they about politics and economy and culture, but still on the travel portion of times a post . Two years later, Matt Gross, the Frugal Traveler left position, and I was in the wrong place at the right time. So I moved back to New York. It is actually one of the few jobs that I would have left Brazil. opposite Zoe Saldana in cast Avatar II would have qualified, but that has not happened. (Zoe, call me.)
For people who do not know, tell us about your job. What do you do exactly?
traveling Essentially, I write on a very tight budget and then to a weekly column about my travels (and occasionally other travel topics) for New York Times . It appears every Tuesday afternoon on nytimes.com/travel and sometimes in print on Sunday. Luckily for me, my travel full (if frugally) funded by the hours , making me a very, very few full-time travel writers who do not accept junkets, press discounts, corporate sponsorship, and the like, which means I can perhaps in my travels and experience the world as any of my readers remain anonymous. That's great, although it can be a stumbling block to all the time, to be people I meet. I wish I could say that I stories spin a Hollywood stuntman or a Nobel Prize-winning physicist or distant heir to be the British throne, but usually only that I say I am an English teacher.
As you go about your plan trips? Have a process that you use?
There are no accurate checklist; I think I do what most people do, except that I do more of it. For any given travel I like usually with a huge list of places, at the end I would go and things I want to do on the way; those coming from a variety of Web resources, and friends of friends who live in the target, details in books or articles that I have read, and tips that come in from Twitter. Then, when I arrive, I ditch most of the recommendations and wings by instinct and recommendations from people I meet along the way.
If the New York Times choose where you go or get to pick your targets?
When NYT You mean my editors, the answer is a bit of each. Some rides arising ago Hin-and-from a; others I can think of. Occasionally an editor says only: "Why do not you go here?" It is not I would not say ever; it's pretty much nowhere I will not go. But "a target picking" is actually the least of it. I am writing this from a dirt cheap all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic - technically the goal - but the story is, as a possible cheap for four days at a Caribbean beach. I could be from Jamaica in a sandy tent in Curacao or a wobbly sailboat. But here I am. Earlier this month I wandered the coast of Piauí, to visiting a state in northeastern Brazil virtually no international tourists. But the piece really has nothing to do with Piauí; it is about a creative, original path by a very overdocumented world.
not with a dollar figure. Many people write to say something like: "!?! You are not sparing you spent $ 50 per day in X Country Last year I lived there for a month and spent only 14 cents" OK, but what have you done? Have a ham and cheese sandwich for breakfast, lunch and dinner and refuse, for a bus to be paid in the countryside or to obtain the mountains? do not go on a wonderful little museum or invite a new friend on the spot for a beer
Frugal means to me, at least the cost of unnecessary comfort to avoid: nice hotels, chic restaurants, excursions. It probably includes some niceties you to refrain enjoy at home. A comfortable mattress, organic products, a car
But in its essence, that faith is less experience spending almost inevitably to more, and that the best travel experiences are to avoid just about anything built the travel industry wants you to do.
publicists write me all the time and try to get me to believe their clients hotel or restaurant or attraction, my column is perfect. But the mere fact that a place is a publicist hired pretty much automatic disqualification of frugal status.
There is a perception that travel is expensive and unaffordable for most people. How do you fight against this perception in your writings?
If "most people" the most people live by on planet Earth mean, I think that's certainly true. Also economical travel is a luxury from this perspective. But there are a lot of people out there who might be traveling, and are not. One of my goals is, it can show, travel cost much less than they think, and may be worth than they would ever dream of more.
Under the Frugal Traveler to be what most has interesting journey that you have done?
The day someone finds something more interesting that a wobbly boat hang a hammock and the Amazon for three or four days in addition to several hundred working class Brazilians heading up, I would like to know what it is. I've done it three times and I would go back tomorrow if I could.
Have you reach your audience for advice much?
Reader tips for me very good or bad - never more than on Twitter, where there is not much room to back up your proposal with some details. I'm doing some good advice over email, though - people who feel passionate enough about a place to write their own personal experiences there and sent it to me do me a great service
Nevertheless, I often. for advice on Twitter, ask and answers quite often is enough for me intrigue that I will write directly to the person and ask for more advice.
If you are not on the road, what your favorite activity to do?
see as many friends as possible. But it's a losing proposition. Although I "moved" from Brazil to New York more than two years ago technically, I'm on the road so much, many of my New York friends I still live in Brazil. The first thing I hear from most, if I let them know I'm in town, is, "When are you leaving?" Not to feel everywhere fully at home is really the biggest drawback of the job.
Since you travel a lot for work, where you travel for pleasure?
This is easy. To my parents for Thanksgiving, and my brother to visit my nephew.
What are your three top tips for being "frugal?"
- Pretend nice restaurants there is not. I literally do not even notice they are no longer.
- book accommodation from hostel websites, even if you do not want to stay in a hostel. These sites also offer inns and cheap guesthouses not so easy to find elsewhere.
- go places where you have friends. Or a friend. Or a person you met somewhere on a train, who said: "If you ever get to X, you look at me." X is my favorite all-time goal.
For economical travel tips, you can Seth ongoing adventures in the NYT the Frugal Traveler, and on Twitter at @frugaltraveler.
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