Transatlantic Time Travel: 1881

A search in the New York Times' archives turned up a fascinating time capsule of travel advice. 

A full 80 years before Let's Go popularized a style of travel writing that didn't mince words or gloss over nitty-gritty details, a staff writer on the New York Times—a man "of some experience, gathered during the progress of ten annual tours in Europe"—strung together 5,000 words of practical and unglazed advice for anyone considering a summer trip to Europe. 

The article was published on September 4, 1881.  Below are my favorite excerpts, which I've divided into three categories:

Category One—My, how times change:

• On getting there: 

"I do not believe it absolutely necessary to secure passage by the very fastest lines. In Summer there is a difference of speed of about 24 hours on each voyage between the most notable steamers and many humbler vessels..."

"The voyage brings with it repose, for you are out of reach of business, the telegraph, and the post, and for seven or eight days your ignorance of all events terrestrial makes thought and worry fruitless. But here the chief advantage ends. You cannot find comfort in your small state-room and narrower berth; you cannot linger over your food, cooked as it is in a tiny 'galley' after it has become tasteless through days of preservation upon ice, and you cannot take exercise unless the flush deck of your steam-ship is unusually free from chairs and the Atlantic much smoother than it habitually is. A week spent under the influence of a harmless narcotic would be as profitable and agreeable as the ordinary ocean voyage."

• On budgeting time and money:

"I should not counsel the tourist to undertake a voyage unless he had at least seven weeks' leisure at his disposal. Nine would be better still, but the shorter period will leave him 25 to 28 days for European travel, and much can be seen, and satisfactorily, in that space of time."

"The total cost, then, of a seven weeks' trip from New-York to London, Paris and Bernese Oberland need not exceed $320, to which sum about $20 should be added for special outlays, fees, etc. An additional week's stay, with a run into Italy or Germany, would bring the amount up to about $390 or $400."

(Editor's note: According to this inflation calculator, $400 in 1881 would have been $8,493.60 in 2007 dollars).

• On … Baedeker's?

"...the tourist can make up from Baedeker's very complete books a list of the things most worthy of a visit."

Category Two—The more things change, the more they stay the same:

• On customs checks:

"When you land in Liverpool you will have to open your trunks just as you do on the pier in New York. And you will have to do likewise in Paris, and in Germany, and in Switzerland, and again in Italy—where, by the way, if they suspect you of possessing a dozen cigars the frontier doganiere will ask you to divest yourself of your boots and search the legs thereof."

• On not finding the comforts of home:

"You will find no gas burners in your hotel room, either in London or on the Continent, and the running water of America will be missed everywhere. Your request for ice will be received with surprise, and heeded or not, according to circumstances."

"As the Pullman car is seldom met and the coupe an institution quite devoid of comfort in comparison with our own excellent carriages, I do not think that railroading in Europe is in all respects agreeable."

• On tourists unclear on the concept:

"He and his peers would like to ascend Vesuvius in an elevator, and have Raphael's 'Sposalizio' brought for examination after dinner by a District Telegraph messenger."

• On English, widely spoken:

"...for travelers having but seven or eight weeks at their command, Paris, London and the Bernese Oberland will fill the time most satisfactorily. And this route is furthermore to be commended, as English is spoken at almost every stopping place."

Category Three—Timeless truths:

• Something that modern travel articles tend to play down:

"The tourist should under all circumstances make up his mind that he will not 'know' London or Paris either in two weeks or in two months. One must have lived the life of these cities for years to claim the complete initiation into their secrets."

• The impressive closing paragraph of the original article, and so too of this post:

"The Old World and the New would, I am sure, be benefited alike by yearly pilgrimages of thoughtful and curious people, with smaller letters of credit and larger minds and souls than the average tourist who knows no medium between grumbling at not finding 'home' in a foreign land and contrasting Europe with America, to the everlasting disadvantage of his native land."