How The New York Times’s Frugal Traveler Packs for Any Trip Imaginable

An illustrative collage with a person riding on a camel, a couple of piggy banks, a hiking boot, and binoculars displayed in front of a background made up of passport stamps and a snowy mountain range.

Packing light? It’s basically Elaine Glusac’s job.

As the Frugal Traveler columnist for The New York Times, Glusac is an expert budget traveler. But that doesn’t mean scrimping on experiences.

“When people hear ‘budget travel’ … they think, ‘Oh, you’re couch surfing,’” Glusac told me in a video interview, but it’s more about getting the most value for the money across a spectrum of budgets. This often involves traveling in novel ways and getting off the beaten path. “It’s travel for real people,” she said.

Over the past 25 years, she has visited more than 65 countries. Recently she took a 10-day sojourn involving a budget leg in London, went on a beach trip to the Caribbean, and visited the only wine region in the US you can reach via public transit. (Spoiler: It’s in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.)



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