The Frugal Traveler

Seth Kugel has, hands down, the best job in journalism. 

Kugel is a travel writer for The New York Times and for the last 13 weeks has blogged about his travels adventures from São Paulo, Brazil to New York City in his new blog the Frugal Traveler.

As the Fugal Traveler, Kugel’s challenge is to traverse across South and Central America on less than $500 a week, or $71 per day, for food, transportation, entertainment, and travel expenses. The New York Times describes the travel blog as “first-class living at steerage prices.”

Kugel traveled through Brazil, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Peru, Colombia, Barbados, Guatemala, and Mexico before crossing the border back into the Southern United States.  His main modes of transportation are public buses, taxis, trains, rental cars, boats, and occasionally planes.

I was initially drawn to Kugel’s blog because I love to travel and he recently traveled through Barbados and Colombia, two countries that I visited last year.  His blog recollections and pictures brought back memories of the good times and adventures that I experienced on my travels.

The Frugal Traveler is updated weekly with long detailed reports of his experiences in each country since his departure from Brazil in June.  Kugel also adds a small 100 word blog nearly each week about an interesting fact about the area he is visiting, such as Bermuda shorts, interesting indigenous foods, local signs, and native customs.

My favorite blog of Kugel’s travels was, Frugal Summer: Highs and Lows, a final blog about everything he loved and didn’t love so much about his travels during the 13 weeks.  The pictures in this blog were amazing with vibrant colors and beautiful scenery.  The stories were humorous recounting his worst border crossing experience, his favorite snack and the best place to spend eternity.

What I did not like about the Frugal Traveler blog was Kugel’s video blog entries.  Kugle is quite monotone throughout the narration, and his humor does not come through the boring recounts.  The videos would be much better if he conducted more interviews with locals and fellow travelers while showing footage of the scenery.

Kugel is a veteran journalist to The New York Times, initially starting with the newspaper in 1999 as a free lance writer.  Kugel was hired full time to The New York Times in 2001 and covered the Bronx and North Manhattan beat as well as the continuing to freelance for the Metro, Travel, Styles and Escapes sections.

Originally from Newton, Mass., Kugel graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Political Science.  Kugel then went on to teach third-grade bilingual education in the Bronx with Teach for America, a program to reduce education inequality among public education in low-income communities.  Kugel is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese and French.

After his extensive time working in the Bronx, Kugel co-authored a book in 2006: Nueva York: The Complete Guide to Latino Life in the Five Boroughs.  From 2006 to 2008 The New York Times offered Kugel a weekly column in the travel section writing Weekend in New York.  Kugel moved to Brazil in 2008 and wrote travel columns and reviews on hotels, restaurants and shopping in Brazil while working as a correspondent in Brazil for The Global Post.

Throughout Kugel’s journalist career he has freelanced for O: the Oprah Magazine, Everyday with Rachel Ray, ARTnews, Playboy, Conde Nast Traveler and Food & Wine.