I have a friend, Matt Barrett, who is the go-to guy for Greek travels. His www.greecetravel.com website is a wonderful resource. He just emailed me today to share a message he received and to encourage us in our ongoing work:
Hey Rick, let me take you out for an ouzo and meze next time you are in Greece. Your support through this “crisis” has been invaluable. Your readers are the last of the courageous American travelers. I started this day very depressed and this e-mail picked me up. Keep doing what you do. Matt
“Hi Matt, Your website was recommended to us by a Rick Steves guidebook. (I’m glad he did.) It’s loaded with information and we took it to heart as we planned our first trip (4 weeks) to Greece in April. We followed your advice and contacted Fantasy Travel. He has set up and organized all our transfers, flights and ferry, hotels, tours, and car rental as we requested. Everything is now booked, reserved, and ready to go. We also arranged a 3-day tour with George Taxi Tours to go to the cog train and drive around the Argolis area. And we are having a one-day tour of eastern Crete with Lefteris Taxi. With your recommendations, we are excited about our upcoming Greece trip. Thanks. Marilyn, Vancouver, BC”
I’ve been thinking about fear and travel myself, so I found Matt’s comments interesting. I’m moving forward with my plans to visit Egypt, Israel, the West Bank, and Turkey this April. Here at Rick Steves’ Europe, we don’t do La-La Land. The bestselling guidebooks these days cover Walt Disney World and Orlando. Clearly that’s the first choice for lots of Americans. But our travelers have an appetite for reality, and that’s what we target in our travels. We come home smarter, changed, and more empathetic with the struggles of people far away. Happy real travels.
P.S. Tomorrow we meet with our publisher and his staff to see how we can close the gap between our guidebooks and those Disney World ones. And the next day, our staff will enjoy an after-work happy hour to celebrate a milestone for us — we’ve sold 10,000 tour seats for 2013. That’s far ahead of our 2012 tempo…and lots of those seats are to Greece!
There is no “gap” to close. People either like going to Disneyland or they want to go International. I have never passed over a Rick Steves book to buy one for Disneyland. And most people I know that don’t want to travel to Europe, book or not they are going to Disneyland!
Ever thought about writing and publishing “Rick Steves’ EuroDisney Through the Back Door”? It could be a match made in adventure travel heaven!
We have summered in Greece eleven times. Minimum one month per visit. The last two trips were especially rewarding. Our patronage was greatly appreciated by our hosts. Many say that the Greeks are the most hospitable people in all of Europe. We agree. The “old days” in America are not gone forever. They are alive in the Mother Culture of us all. No need to reserve much ahead beyond the first couple of nights. After that the warm embrace of “Xenia” will be offered to you. Try to leave the fear and paranoia of America behind. You will be glad you did.
Rick,
I most definitely agree with the sentiments expressed by Marilyn! I’ve also found Matt’s website to be enormously helpful for planning travel in Greece. I had a few specific concerns not covered on the website, and Matt graciously provided the information I needed via E-mail.
Following a RS “Athens & Pelopponese” tour I toured some of the Greek Islands, and also used the services of Fantasy Travel to plan that part of my trip. I was extremely pleased with the service they provided, which included having a representative at the docks in Piraeus at about 06:00 on a Sunday morning. She handed me a large envelope with all the Vouchers for Ferry tickets, Hotels and Transfers. That’s excellent customer service! The arrangements they made worked flawlessly.
I was also thinking about “fear and travel” prior to my trip to Greece. Severe protests were taking place in Athens at that time (2010), including one in which there were several fatalities. Several people I know expressed concern about the wisdom of travel in Greece, suggesting that perhaps I should “wait until things settle down”. I had no concerns and the entire trip was incredible!
Do we have to choose one or the other? I enjoy both. Since 2001, I have spent 24 weeks in Europe over 5 different trips. I own 15 Rick Steves Guide books (not including phrase books and Europe 101 and DVDs). One of my guide books is a copy of Europe Through the Back Door printed in 1980- which I believe may be the first year it was printed. I have received invaluable help from the books and dvds. In that same time period, I have also made 8 trips to Disney theme parks (2 to Disneyworld and 6 to Disneyland) for a total of 27 days. I won’t detail all the other areas in the US and Canada I have seen in that same time period but suffice it to say I don’t limit myself to those 2 choices. What do all these trips have in common? I never regretted taking any of them.
To each his own. “When it comes down to changing our minds or proving we don’t need to, most of us get busy on the proof.” John Kenneth Gailbraith
To anyone who has an appetite for reality and really wants to come home smarter, changed, and more empathetic with the struggles of our fellow citizens right here, may I suggest a quick road trip to the Yakama Reservation. Spend a day in White Swan and Ft. Simcoe. Happy real travels.
I agree with Christine. You should consider it.
“Here at Rick Steves’ Europe, we don’t do La-La Land.” Umm… no offense, but from the perspective of someone who lives in Europe and has seen your videos… yes, you do. I’m glad you encourage your fans to travel to this continent, but if you really wanted them to see reality, you would direct them towards the lower Rhine cities of Germany instead of Rothenburg, or to Basel instead of Gimmelwald.
Steves promotes his own business and if some of his customers or prospective customers even “dip their toes in the water” by taking just one of his trips (even to a touristy place) it is one step forward for U.S. citizens who have never been beyond their own country. One sip doesn’t make a swallow but his marketing not only benefits himself but many of the rest of us – in my humble but experienced opinion which comes from the school of hard knocks : )
I’ve done two Rick Steves tours, love international travel–but I also love going to the Disney theme parks, and I am a Premier annual passholder (that means I have an annual pass for both Disneyland in California, and Walt Disney World in Florida).
I know why people like to visit the parks, and as Judy says, I don’t know that you can close the gap. For a lot of Disney theme park visitors, their idea of international travel is to visit the various pavilions in Epcot, where they can try a French pastry or Japanese curry.
Christine does have a good idea, though. I would love to bee a guidebook for Disneyland Paris written in Rick Steves’ style. It might actually serve as a great gateway book for Disney fans to learn to try out other European destinations!
I think EPCOT gets unfairly criticized. Of course it’s not real, duh! Even pre-schoolers know that. It’s not supposed to serve as a substitute for the real thing. But there’s a reason why all of those countries sponsor the pavillions, and it’s the same idea behind the World’s Fairs of yesteryear. By providing a small sample of their culture and heiritage, they hope to intice new visitors to the actual country. Worked on me. I can definately trace my lifetime desire to see Norway (fulfilled several times over by now) to a visit to EPCOT when I was 10.
I see nothing wrong, in fact it is instructive, in experiencing so-called la la lands along with
more locations from the mundane of Europe to the exotic of India and Africa. All travel should be about exploration and pleasure and self-satisfaction and curiosity and helpfulness, not necessarily in that order.
Kinda funny how Matt Barrett cites Rick’s readers as the last of the courageous “American” travelers. The email he quoted is from “Marilyn, Vancouver, BC”…uh, that makes her Canadians (who are really just Americans with better manners and universal healthcare ;-).
Regarding fear and travel options, isn’t it kind of silly to make judgments of people based on their travel choices? Because someone decides to spend their vacation dollars by going to Disneyland/DisneyWorld does not make them a closed-minded fearmonger any more than a choice to go to Greece makes them an open-minded, citizen of the world thirsting for knowledge of other cultures and greater understanding.
How about some REAL understanding – people may need to make choices based on financial capacity, availability of vacation time, or simply the extent to which they want to escape their workaday life and relax, guided by their own preferences and season in life.