Barbara Balfour
In her travels to more than 50 countries, Barbara Balfour has chilled with sumo wrestlers in Tokyo, baked bread in the mountains of Georgia, salsa danced under the stars in Cuba, and hesitantly swallowed bumblebee larvae at the world’s #1 restaurant in Denmark.
Barbara is a writer, editor, media trainer, TV host and producer. She was the longtime host of a live daily talk show on Rogers TV in Ottawa.
Her work has appeared in BBC, ELLE, Michelin Guide, Economist Group, People, Fodors, Frommer’s, TimeOut, Virtuoso, and every major daily newspaper in Canada. She is also the author of Frommer’s 2025 guidebook on Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
Barbara has lived in Belgium, Japan, Norway, and Denmark. Currently based between Canada and Italy, she specializes in writing about travel, food, culture, luxury hospitality, business, design, and human-interest storytelling. She has studied business, Russian, and journalism and speaks seven languages at various levels.
Other ContributionsElle
BBC Travel
Michelin Guide
People Magazine
TimeOut
Fodor's
Covered TopicsFood
Culture
Luxury Hospitality
Design
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Zac Thompson
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Frommer's Managing Editor. Covers travel topics relating to the TSA, national parks, pop culture, the South, budgeting, &c. Upcoming trips: Chicago and Florida.
zthompson@frommermedia.com
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President of FrommerMedia LLC, Editorial Director of the Frommer's guidebooks, author of the best-selling Frommer's New York City 2026 and Frommer's New York City Day by Day, host of The Frommer's Travel Show, named one of the 13 best podcasts for travel by the New York Times.
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Anna’s writing career started in journalism as a film critic for Time Out Paris. Today she is the author of eight travel guidebooks for Frommer’s and has written for multiple major publications, including the Financial Times, The Times and The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, where she is a long-standing France expert. She is also an award-winning children’s book author, known for middle-grade comedy and interactive picture books. Recent titles include Death by Chocolate and Murder Unwrapped, the first books in a new cozy crime series, Coco Bean Investigates, set in France (and inspired by her guidebook travels). When not writing, she has been an actress and an electro-pop artist, performing on stage and composing songs for films and commercials. Raised in Britain, she now lives in Paris with her French-Canadian husband and son.
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