fodor's vs. frommers
 

I am posting this on the Europe board because this is where I pick up most of my travel info and contribute sporadically. I am curious how many people who are regulars on this board also post on Frommers. A magazine I read at the gym today (sorry- title eludes me- I actually was merely perusing) listed Frommer's as a recommended travel site and did not mention Fodor's. I was shocked! I was wondering if I am missing something (or if Fodor's boards are a well-guarded secret gem!) Any feedback is helpful. Thanks in advance...

I don't usually, but I was looking at Frommers yesterday to check something.

I was appalled. Virtually none of the peer reviewing that makes this board work. A poster would ask - say - about trains to Edinburgh. A respondent would come out with some third-hand nonsense ("I've been told they're quite reliable") And that would be it.

The point about this internet doodah is that there really isn't any reliable source of information on many things. Even I get things wrong sometimes.

The value of this site is that you've only got to say the bus from Pisa station to the Campo dei Miracoli costs €0.70 and a few minutes later someone pops up and says they were on it yesterday and the greedy sods have put the fare up a staggering €0.10

Frommers has none of that. Supine, the posters seem to be.

I'm not sure why you are "shocked" since those ratings are who-knows-how determined.

The format at Frommers isn't as user-friendly as the format here IMO and, of course, you have the moderators, some of whom used to be regulars here, and their own set of biases.

Frommer's travel talk is very slow compare to Fodor's. The talk is separated by country unlike Fodor's. This is bad.

The one thing I found better on Frommer's travel talk is information about Israel - compare to Fodor's much livelier.

As for "destinations" part I like Frommer's much more. More information, better organized.

As for books - I get them from the library, the SF main library has recent editions, it depends on the destination, but usually Rick Steves beats them both :)

I post on Frommers, also, although not quite as much, and like it. I don't agree with the above statement at all, in fact, Frommers generally is a little more open and less censurious than Fodors, in my experience (I"m talking about the management deleting posts or banning people, etc.). People do disagree with others all the time on that board, I certainly do it and so do many others. Perhaps flanneruk just hasn't used it much and it didn't happen on the few he or she read.

It does have somewhat less traffic than Fodors, so maybe there are fewer people to offer alternative opinions, and certainly some countries have fewer posts. It actually does have individual country boards, unlike Fodors, so not as many people may notice or read some of the posts. For example, I usually only look at France on there, as it's a particular interest, and once in a while some others, but I don't go out of my way to read posts on Spain or some other countries where I have some experience, but I would on Fodors.

What a magazine recommends generally doesn't have anything to do with anything in terms of quality. It could just be the author ran across that one site, or sometimes they are fed information my others (sometimes promotional or advertising), or anything. I don't know what that magazine actually said, either, I know once someone made a similar statement on here about a newspaper article, and when I read the actual article, the poster had not reported the article correctly and it really didn't say what they said it did in terms of qualitative comments or rankings or something, the article merely mentioned a few travel sites.

I prefer Fodors over Frommers....by far.

I do prefer Frommers books over Fodors though....

Frommers forum is DEAD... at least in the destinations where I post. You would get 50+ replies here in the same time, while over there maybe 1-2 if you get lucky (I've tested it).

Just adding to what's already been said here. I used to go to Frommer's a lot. But now that I'm hooked on Fodor's, I check it far less often. As others have said, it's just so darned slow. (Much slower loading too than Fodor's!)

I really think that the fact that Fodor's has much more of a "community" feel to it is a lot of the reason that it's so much busier. And that, of course, is why responses are so much faster here. We may be somewhat of a dysfunctional family, but we're a family none the less!

But, as Anne said, I prefer Frommer's books. I think Fodor's is getting better about including information for budget conscious travelers. But, on the whole, I still think Frommer's has more of it.

I was actually on Frommers before Fodors (I registered on Fodors in 1998 and Frommers a year or so before that) But the format on Frommers is just too clumsy. I hadn't been on there for maybe 2 or 3 years when I re-registered about 6-8 months ago. And it is just as bad as ever. For all the complaints from some of the techies on here - this format is sooo much better.

(I don't <u>really</u> like either company's books/publications)

I looked at Frommers yesterday and didn't care for it. The format here is so much better. For my first trip to Europe I did take along Europe for $5 a day. Now that dates me.

chatham, I did, too. I still have that baby, filled with notations, dogeared and loaded with wonderful memories.

Frommers has very few posts and it seems like a lot ofo the people that do post don;t really know anything. (Have been to europe on a tour for 6 days and are &quot;experts&quot; on countrties they've never seen.)

There are several very good kowledgeble posters. Pauline Frommer lives in NYC and always has good info - and there are a couple of european posters that are very good.

But - overall - very limited info - much of it wrong.

The online versions of both sites are worth visiting, if only to get some different perspectives.

As far as forums go, to each his own.

I did meet a Frommer's writer who gave me some great tips for Munich, William Danforth Prince. I met him many years ago in the sauna at the Kempinski Vier Jahreszeiten. He told me about some new hot restaurants that had just opened and I went to one with a business associate. Great place. Went back a few months later and the place was packed. They only let me in because they remembered me from when they first opened. The writers in for the long haul, be it Fodor's or Frommer's, tend to be very good at ferreting out hot new places.

Thank you all. I guess I will check Frommers out when I have time.However, I definitely will keep asking my questions here since they always get answered (usually politely...)and as fast as the speed of light! That's a good thing!!!!

And then there's Chowhound.com for food. Some great lively discussions about restaurants all over the world - and not just the fancy ones.