Enough with the road less traveled. This is the story of straight-up, cliché-ridden tourism, a funny, thoughtful remix of the standard travel memoir formula, a journey firmly on the beaten path and an exploration of how, exactly, the path got so beaten in the first place.
When Doug Mack picked up a 1963 edition of Europe on Five Dollars a Day, he stumbled on an inspired idea: to boldly go where millions have gone before, relying only on the advice of a travel guide that’s nearly a half century out-of-date. Add to the mix his mother’s much-documented grand tour through Europe in the late 1960s, and the result is a funny and fascinating journey into a new (old) world, and a disarming look at the ways the classic tourist experience has changed- and has not-in the last generation.
After a whirlwind adventure spanning eight countries — and costing way more than five dollars a day — Mack’s endearing account is part time travel, part paean to Arthur Frommer’s much-loved guide, and a celebration of the modern traveler’s grand (and not-so-grand) tour.
