There have been lots of questions over the last month on this blog. Let me answer a few of them:
Question: Will you ever do any more TV shows like the Travel Skills Special, with more general information about travel?
Answer:I’d like to. The three-part Travel Skills series we did is getting old, my old aviator glasses are looking dorkier than ever, and we could do it in high definition with the new 9 by 16 widescreen format. Most important: Travel has changed, and the skills need updating. The challenge: It takes three weeks in Europe to make it. Stay tuned.
Question: Are you planning any TV shows on Istanbul? Have you thought about visiting and/or filming in Riga? Lithuania and Latvia? Finland? Iceland? Malta?
Answer:I plan to shoot a new show on Istanbul in April. I have a great script for Helsinki and Tallinn in Estonia (likely in three years). I need to learn more about Riga and Vilnius. I’d like to do a show on the Baltic capitals. I have no plans for Malta or Iceland.
Question: Is there a way for people to see your St. Peter video when it comes out? (Other than through the Lutheran Church?) Will you post it? YouTube it?
Answer:The video will be finished within a month and it will be posted on YouTube (as my Luther video is now) and available on DVD through the ELCA. (It’ll be sent to all 12,000 ELCA Lutheran churches.)
Question: How about a guidebook focusing on wine regions and Back Door wineries?
Answer:I don’t do special-interest guidebooks such as those. And I’m not enough of a wine enthusiast to do a good job on that one anyway.
Question: Will you ever write a Greece guidebook?
Answer:Greece is my obvious gap. And I’m afraid it will stay that way. I don’t want to do a book that I am not enthusiastic about and that I couldn’t follow through and make it deserve the high sales it might enjoy. As I learned on my recent trip, I like Greece…but it just isn’t my forte. So I’ll let others with a passion for Greece be the teachers.
Question: Would you consider making a tour for people with different physical abilities? For mature travelers who want to go at a slower pace?
Answer:We are talking about a slower, less physically demanding tour, but nothing is in the works.
Question: Will you offer a single supplement on your tours?
Answer:We already offer single supplements on a few of our tours. But on other tours, it would require more individual rooms, which would force us to abandon many of our small, characteristic hotels — which we are very reluctant to do. Much of how we shape and promote our tours is designed to attract a hardy, fun-to-travel-with, and low-maintenance crowd. We believe our “no grumps” policy makes for a better tour.
Question: Did you ever think of a 7-day trip to Athens (with day trips)? A week-long city tour of Istanbul?
Answer: I would not do such a tour for Athens, but a week-long Istanbul tour is something we are considering. I’ll be doing TV shows on both destinations this April. To make Athens work, I’ll need to side-trip to Delphi and the Isle of Hydra. My challenge with Istanbul is that it could easily fill two scripts. Istanbul is just bursting with fun experiences that will make great TV.
Thanks for the answers
Hi Rick: I have truly enjoyed your blog and hope you consider continuing it indefinitely. Re the single supplement..I am somewhat of an insomniac when I travel and because of this I am sensitive to imposing my sleeplessness on a roommate (esp one I don’t know). Is there even a possibility of having limited availability on each tour? I have loved the two tours I have taken thus far with ETBD both with the single supplement.
Greetings Rick! I’ve been a longtime fan of your TV show and guidebooks. Now, I’m enjoying your travel blog and it’s great! I do have one suggestion: Start each blog with a dateline so I can more easily tell where you are, kind of like they do in those antiquated newspapers: ROME, Italy — Thanks for considering this small change! Happy trails…
I’m really looking forward to the updated travel skills episode. My wife and I used your tip you mentioned in your blog a few months ago about bringing empty water bottles through security, then filling them in the water fountains and deli water dispensers (the soda dispensers always have a tiny Water button). They never give you enough water on the plane and they nuke you on the price for bottled water at the airport. The cold fountain water tasted just as good as bottled water after a few shakes to air out the chlorine taste. Your tip saved us a small fortune and lightened our load to the airport. Thanks and I’m looking forward to other cool tips!
Thanks for responding to some of the blog questions. I really hope you do put in a slightly less physically demanding tour, because I promise those of us who would take it will be so thrilled to be there we will be your ideal tour group!
Here is a question that I will ask, then try to answer. It will take two Posts to cover the whole story.
One day my Sweetie and I were sitting for a moments rest, in the Tourist Office at the south/west corner of St. Marks’s Square. In front of us was a map of the city, and it dawned on me that there was a unique method to copy that map.
The Tourist Office people were thrilled, and said this was the first time they ever saw what I showed them.
For those of you who have traveled in Venice, have you noticed that you have a Map of the city with you at all times?
More than one person, who has traveled with this information, has come home from Venice and said it really helped find where they were in the city, but they did get some strange stares from people who watched them study the map.
On the map, Venice looks like a large island, divided by the reverse S-shaped Grand Canal.
Hold both of your hands, backs of the hands up, fingers slightly bent.
Interleave the hands, not touching, with fingers of the right hand on top, left hand fingers between right fingers and thumb, right thumb is between left fingers and thumb.
That reverse “S†space between the fingers and thumbs is the Grand Canal.
Piazzale Roma is at the knuckles of the left hand.
St. Mark’s at the base of the right thumb.
The Rialto Bridge at the end of the fingers on the left hand.
Scalzi Bridge is between the tip of the right fingers and the back of the left fingers.
Accademia Bridge from the tip of the right thumb across the Grand Canal to the left thumb.
The beautiful church called Santa Maria della Salute (Our Lady of Health), is right at the tip of the left thumb.
Your map of Venice really works. McDonald’s is near St. Mark’s, Häagen-Dazs is near the Accademia Bridge.
We’ve been to Venice 7 times.
Rick, Since your not writing a book on Greece, how does your son Andy feel about Greece….maybe he could write a book on this ancient land….college students seem to love Greece the most…just an idea
Rick, I really enjoy reading your blog. My husband and I haven’t been able to travel as much as we would like for the past couple years so this is like getting to go along on the trip with you. We like to know new travel tips and what is current and changing in Europe. We are planning to go back this spring or maybe at Christmas. The first trip we made overseas was before ATM’s and rolling suitcases. We use your advice when we travel and it has helped so much. Thanks for sharing your adventures with us. I also like reading Jim Humberd’s posts. Jim, I hope you are still traveling. Maybe Jim should consider becoming a tour guide for you.
THanks for more Q&A Rick! I too would love a new Tips 3-parter! It would be great to inlcude more airport info – and more bag tips since there are more restrictions but also more ways to deal with them as you and FANS point out on the grafitti wall! It was great to hear you weigh your bag since I always wondered if youre own personal bag weighs the same it did 3 years ago! thanks again!
Hey, Rick, I know it’s a stretch, but have you ever considered a tour to St. Petersburg? I would love to go there for the art and culture–both the classic art and the reportedly bustling contemporary art scene–but I’d rather not go alone, especially on a first trip. Was wondering if it’s in consideration.
Am I a geek, or what? I was just re-visiting my “Rick Steves: Rome” guidebook the other day. I took a trip nearly 10 months ago…and I soooo want to get back! Rick’s advice was indispensible, and as I re-read the guidebook remembering all the great things I did, I just wanted to say “thanks, again!” for all the hard work, and fun writing style, Rick’s put in over the years to make travel easier for folks like me. Incidentally, I was in Rome for 8 days, and as Rick points out, a 7-day in Rome allows the traveller to see most of the major sites. What a great time I had. Ciao!
Diana
My Beautiful Sweetie will have her second birthday in Heaven on Nov. 15. Even if I wasn’t so old, wthout her, no way would I travel anywhere. I would be the worst possible guide for a trip like Rick creates.
Twice we met a group of Americans who were traveling in Campers. Each tour was directed by a “Wagon Master†who made arrangements for campgrounds, gave directions and instructions where to meet the next night, what to do on the way there, sometimes hosted meals, and was the tour guide for events for the whole tour group.
Some people like the regimentation, Sweetie and I are so individualistic that when we have been asked to take the job, twice, we said “no†to being “Wagon Masters.†Can you imagine me making arrangements for a restaurant meal for a group?
A couple of times, after hearing about our travels, someone would say they would like to go with us.
We quickly changed the subject, the two of us completely filled our tour group.
Hi, Rick! Thanks for the answers. I like the “no grumps” policy. :) Look forward to the new shows and books.
Rick, in your October 24 Q&A post, was it your intention to equate singles with Grumps? Wow! I am without words!
Kim, I think you misinterpreted what Rick said. The way I read it is that someone who is “low maintenance” and not a “grump” is someone who can /will share a room with a roommate. This does not exclude singles – just singles who are unwilling to share a room.
Hi Rick, We are planning to go to Europe to see 2 foreign exchange youth. One in Paris & the other in Brussels. We would also like to see a little more of Europe but not sure where to start. We’d like to see London, Germany & Switzerland. We plan to be gone 10 days. Is this doable & where do I start? We are on a tight budget. Thanks
Hello Rick! If you really do want to learn about Riga, please contact me! I included my email address. The last time we emailed each other, I had a different email address. I changed servers. Below my name when I signed in, I put down my new email address. I can get you such great information on Riga!! Fondly, Lisa P.
will be interested in your 2008 Istanbul tour information when you have it developed. thanks
Would you consider expanding into Egypt? I have been there when I traveled to Israel and Jordan and found it such a fascinating area. I don’t mean the entire country just the eastern part – Cairo and south?
Whether or not you write a Greece guidebook is up to you, but I must say that I appreciate your willingness to farm out your guide to Istanbul to other skilled and informed writers. The guidebook is a complete success: it features an incisive analysis of the art and architecture of the city and all of the basic information and insights critical to a successful, relaxing, and rewarding visit. In short, you should not hesitate to take advantage of good writers who can match, and if I may say so, exceed your own mastery of the travel guide genre.
rick, just to repeat the tour evaluation thoughts given about single options last month-october- on my best of europe tour. I can “willow” to anything-except having a roomate who can not sleep because of my “London Blitz” snoring. Yet I’d truly be sad to choose not to take another tour (now #14 and counting) because my roomate had to sleep in the bathroom. Or I’d have to do so! Yes, it has happened. Of course, best is working with the guide, on a couple of tours, where things were usually resolved-getting and my paying for a room along the way was one option. Finding the roomate who just took out their hearing aids was another! Can I be the only single traveler with this issue?