The quickest way to drive from the Washington, D.C., area to Savannah, Ga., is to steel your nerves, grit your teeth and high-tail it for nine and a half hours down the monotonous, multilane, McDonald’s-laden highway called I-95. Looking for Southern culture? Try a McRib sandwich. But there’s an alternative. It’ll take you a lot [...]

 

Seth KugelNow, that’s legroom! The Frugal Traveler in business class. No sooner had the captain turned off the “fasten seat belt” sign than the flight attendant on Air Pacific flight 411, headed from Fiji to New Zealand, performed the same dispiriting act I’ve seen dozens of times around the world: He drew together and Velcroed [...]

 

I like backpackers as individuals and tolerate them in small groups, but this crowd terrified me. They were lining up for a bright yellow catamaran called the Yasawa Flyer to speed from Fiji’s main island to some of its tiniest and most idyllic. And I was with them, worried I was about to spend my [...]

 

Seth KugelThe author’s haul from El Super, a Mexican supermarket in Los Angeles. I can trace my interest in supermarkets as tourist attractions to time I spent in the Dominican Republic 17 years ago, when, shopping with local friends, I was downright shocked by the variety of shapes and sizes of the kitchen tool invented [...]

 

More than once during my attempt at a $100 weekend in Melbourne, food came to my rescue. Last summer, Melbourne, Australia’s graceful, lively and remarkably clean second city, was named the most livable city in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit. That’s a catchier selling point than my former impression — the Australian city [...]

 

Seth KugelThe Rev. Fatuatia Tufuga gives the Sunday sermon at the Manurewa Samoan Parish of the Methodist Church of New Zealand, one Pacific Islander spot in Auckland. For some reason, few memories are more indelible for me than when I hear familiar phrases in an unexpectedly foreign language. Like when as a teenager I pulled [...]

 

Early on a chilly March morning, my iPhone alarm clock sounded. I extracted myself from deep within a navy blue comforter, sat up and opened the door. I had momentarily forgotten where I was. Oh, right. I gazed out at Lake Taupo, a sprawling lake on New Zealand’s North Island. Ducks gliding along just offshore [...]

 

Seth KugelCastle Hill Lodge Bed and Breakfast in Garston, New Zealand, is just one of the farmland B&B’s on the country’s South Island. Jogging down a rural stretch of road on the scantly populated and mountainous South Island of New Zealand last week, I noticed a herd of cattle staring at me. Never one to [...]

 

Seth KugelA group of Tongans in New Zealand, where the Frugal Traveler’s ethnic compass seems to have gone through a magnetic field. Compared with the culture recalibration required of Americans when they travel to some far-off parts of the world, arriving in New Zealand is a rather smooth experience. Kiwi society functions in a way [...]

 

Seth KugelIn Auckland, New Zealand’s biggest city, there are frugal gems to be found. Auckland is New Zealand’s biggest city and the place you’ll almost certainly fly into if you come from the United States. It’s also quite a pleasant spot. That may sound like damning with faint praise – you don’t fly halfway around [...]

 

From left: Kelly Guenther for The New York Times, Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times, Seth KugelHidden gems in New York City. From left, the Labyrinth for Contemplation in Battery Park, Shopsin’s at the Essex Street Market, and Casa Latina in Spanish Harlem. How many times have you heard this?: “We stumbled on this place [...]

 

Seth KugelAt The New York Times Travel Show, representatives from Silk Road Treasure Tours, which specializes in trips to Uzbekistan, dressed in traditional clothing. This weekend was The New York Times Travel Show at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, where exhibitors, some clad in native costumes, dole out brochures, advice and even free Thai [...]

 

Seth KugelRevelers celebrating Carnival in São Luiz do Paraitinga, Brazil. A young woman in a full-body cow suit danced frenetically across a rooftop to the upbeat march music of Carnival, stirring up thousands of revelers who passed by below, part of a cow-themed procession. “Why is she so fired up?” asked Adam, who along with [...]

The two men drinking coffee at the table next to me were talking about hunting mountain lions when the conversation took a sharp turn — to hunting hogs. More specifically, how, when given chase by a particularly adept hunting dog, a hog would always end up backing into a hole in the bank of a [...]

 

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York TimesThe offices of Joy World Cruise Tour agency in New York. I remember the days when it wasn’t faceless online search engines that helped me find the best deals on flights, but real live people called travel agents. Ivica got me a great bargain to Croatia. Alla helped me maneuver [...]