Donald Olson (Chapter 1–11 and 15) is a novelist, playwright, and travel writer. His newest novel,
Confessions of a Pregnant Princess, was published in 2005 under the pen name Swan Adamson. His travel stories have appeared in
The New York Times, Travel & Leisure, Sunset, National Geographic books, and many other publications. His guidebooks
London For Dummies, Frommer’s Best Day Trips from London, Frommer’s Irreverent London, Germany For Dummies, and
Frommer’s Vancouver & Victoria are all published by Wiley. He also writes
England For Dummies, which won a 2002 Lowell Thomas Travel Writing Award for best guidebook.
Liz Albertson (Chapter 12) worked as an editor for Frommer’s Travel Guides for four years before making the leap to the other side of the computer as the author of Ireland For Dummies. When she isn’t researching and writing, Liz spends much of her time in Ireland sitting in on traditional music sessions, fiddle in hand. She currently teaches fifth and sixth grade in New Haven, Connecticut.
Joseph Alexiou (Chapter 13) works as a freelance journalist and has contributed to France For Dummies and Europe For Dummies. His work has appeared in the New York Press, the New York Observer, and Newsday. He lives in Brooklyn and is currently pursuing an M.S. at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
George McDonald (Chapter 14) is a former deputy editor of and currently contributing writer for Holland Herald, the in-flight magazine for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. He has written extensively about Amsterdam and the Netherlands for international magazines and travel books such as Frommer’s Belgium, Holland & Luxembourg and Frommer’s Europe.
Maggie Childs (Chapter 16) is a journalist and travel writer for publications such as Condé Nast Traveller, The Vienna Review, Gig magazine, and various in-flight magazines. She has lived in Vienna for 14 years and also works for the Vienna bureau of the Associated Press. She is the coauthor of Frommer’s Austria and Frommer’s Vienna & the Danube Valley.
Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince (Chapter 17) have written numerous best-selling Frommer’s guides and are co-authors of Frommer’s Europe. Porter is a former bureau chief for the Miami Herald, and Prince, who began writing with Porter in 1982, worked for the Paris bureau of the New York Times.
Mark Baker (Chapter 18) is a long-time American expat who lives in Prague. He’s one of the original editors of The Prague Post and was for years a correspondent and editor for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, based in Prague. He’s now a freelance writer and reporter. He’s the author of Frommer’s Prague Day by Day, and co-author of Frommer’s Eastern Europe and Frommer’s Poland.
Bruce Murphy and Alessandra de Rosa (Chapters 19–21) are part-time residents of Rome. Murphy’s work has appeared in magazines ranging from Cruising World to Critical Inquiry. An avid traveler since her first cross-Europe trip at the age of 2, de Rosa was born in Rome and has lived and worked in Rome, Paris, and New York City. They are the authors of Italy For Dummies and Rome For Dummies.
Neil E. Schlecht (Chapters 22 and 23) is a writer, photographer, and cycling aficionado who has lived in Spain, Brazil, and Ecuador. He has worked in Spain as an English teacher, as a consultant on social and economic development projects for the European Union, and as a contributing writer for a Spanish art and antiques magazine. He is the author of more than a dozen travel guides, including Barcelona Day by Day, Mallorca & Menorca Day by Day, and Frommer’s Peru.
Vancouver-born Tania Kollias (Chapter 24) longed to travel since a teen trip to England to meet the relatives, and used a Frommer’s guide for her first solo journey to Europe. A degree, four continents, and many journals later, she now lives in her father’s native Athens, Greece, where she wrote the country’s first comprehensive listings book for expats, edited the Now in Athens monthly for the 2004 Olympics, and still works as a journalist and writer. She travels in and out of Greece whenever she gets the chance.
