TRAVELLING ABROAD. [From the " New York Sun."]

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 403, 18 September 1889, Page 6

TRAVELLING ABROAD. [From the " New York Sun."]

Every year vacation tourists find that Ihey can travel further and cheaper than they ever could before ; that new attractions for sight seers are constantly being brought within reach, and new facilities introduced for reaching the old sights more pleasantly and expeditiously. A round trip to Jerusalem from this country used to cost about $1,000. It can now be made very comfortably for a little more than half that sum. It is certain that in the near future a railroad will connect Jerusalem with the sea, and then the cost of the trip will be still further diminished. Many people imagine that a trip to India is necessarily very expensive. The fact is, that without practising rigid economy an extensive journey "may be made in the wonderful peninsula without being absent from New York more than eleven weeks, and at a cost not to exceed $800. These are the figures given by a gentleman who made the trip a year ago last winter, and who did not try to do iteither on a severe economical plan. Winter is the best time to visit India, and by travelling across Europe by rail between Paris and Brindisi, the actual time required in travelling both ways between London and India is only about thirty days. In a trip from New York lasting eleven weeks there would remain about four weeks in which to see the wonderful civilisation and monuments of the great empire. In that time one could comfortably visit such diverse and widelyseparated cities as Bombay, Calcutta, Benares, Lucknow, Delhi and Jeypore, and even extend his trip to the raih-oad terminus between India and Tibet, where he could drink in the wonderful scenery of the Himalayas. This is a wonderful vacation, trip, and the time is doubtless coming; when more Americans will pay flying visits to this land of marvels, a country that is crowded with historic interest and full of architectural wonders and of the strangesb and most beautiful sights. The act of making economical excursions to Europe is now well understood. Hundreds of the teachers who have gone abroad in parties this year do not expect to spend over $300 for trips extending from Scotland or London to Switzerland and occupying eight or ten weeks. A young man who is bleesed with stout legs and good health can find a way to see a great deal of country at very small expense, it he has plenty of pluck and determination. A young gentleman of Brooklyn a while ago made a ten-weeks' trip abroad. He had only $150 to spend, and his purpose was to travel just as far as he could make his money lasb. He first provided himself with a round-trip ticket for the cheapest cabin passage he could find. Of course he could have economised a little further by travelling in the steerage, but he drew the line there. As he was able to strike out at a gait of thirty miles a day, he walked much of the way between London and the Scotch highlands, going up one side of England and down the other. Then he travelled through France to the Alps, made his way down the Rhine to Holland and back again to London, where he embarked for home. He spent a week in London and another in Paris, saw the grand opera in the French capital for 35 cents, and on the trains travelled third class, both in Great Britain and on the Continent. He reached home with 11 cents in his pocket and a nice little collection of photographs which he had bought out of his meagre funds. Perhaps few young men would care to economise so closely, but this particular traveller enjoyed roughing it, had lots of fun, and undoubtedly saw more than many people would see who spend ten times as much | money. His experience shows what can be. done in the way of economical travelling. Joseph Pennell, who rode on his bicycle over a considerable part of Europe, says in his newspaper articles that his expenses average a little less than §1.50 a day. In France, for instance, he does not travel like a swell touiist who has plenty of money and is anxious to sling it ai*ound, but he journeys just as thrifty French people do when they go away from home. Everywhere he finds that clean, middleclass restaurants are good enough for him. At these places, he says, he has often found jolly commercial travellers who have been glad to give him lists of cheap, comfortable hotels from one end of their route to the other. In some towns he finds his expenses mount upto 9francsaday, bufcfor weeks at a time he stops at clean decent wayside inns in the country, where his bill is about 4 francs for dinner, lodging and breakfast, and in the course of a few weeks, instead of exceeding 7 francs a day, it rather falls below that sum. That is the way, he says, that Frenchmen do, and that men like Stevenson, the famous novelist, have travelled so on the Continent. When Stevenson came to this country, a few years ago, he travelled in the second cabin of a Glasgow steamship. Pennell's philosophy of travelling cheaply seems to be to adapt oneself as much as possible to the habits and customs of people of the middle class whose country one is visiting. In this way he succeeds in combining economy and comfort, for his system does not require him to constantly stint himself to save a penny here and there, but he enjoys such comforts as thrifty middle-class people of the Continent are ' willing to pay for, and in his opinion they are good enough for anybody.