The travel guide that told tourists to sleep in bathtubs

A closer look

Before travel influencers ruined everything, an ex-GI named Arthur Frommer published 'Europe on 5 Dollars a Day' in 1957. It was an overnight sensation that democratized travel, mostly by telling American tourists to embrace mild suffering. The book legitimately advised travelers to sleep in cheap pensions, skip private bathrooms, and literally rent bathtubs to sleep in if hostels were full. He basically convinced an entire generation of post-war adults to act like broke college students, birthing the dirtbag backpacker economy.