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Destination: Uncategorized

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What’s Changing — and What Isn’t — in Austria’s Idyllic Hallstatt

Cameron Hewitt (my wonderful co-author and fellow guidebook researcher) continues his insightful blog series. Researching our Austria guidebook, he visits the classic “Back Door” alpine town of Hallstatt. Nostalgic for his first visit there in 1999, Cameron still finds plenty of beauty and tradition in a village that, in his words, is slowly transforming into “a tourism machine with a veneer of quaint.” Here’s Cameron’s fascinating report.

Cameron is reporting on his summer European travels on his blog. If you enjoy Cameron’s take on Europe, be sure to also “like” his Facebook page — he’s just wrapping up Austria, and will be reporting soon from Budapest, Bulgaria, and Romania. Don’t miss out on Cameron’s keen insights.

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The Rick Steves Book Club

Books can have a huge impact on our outlook. I wish I were more well-read. But I’ve enjoyed some powerfully influential reading since I “finished school,” and I’ve collected what I think are the most important books in my life below. I’m not saying these were enjoyable reads — these are the books that most shaped my thinking, prepping me to get the most out of my travels. If you’ve enjoyed (or been perturbed by) this blog in the past, you can thank (or blame) these authors.

When I visit someone’s home, I feel I can learn lots about them by seeing what books fill their shelves. For your interest, here are my top ten MVBs (listed in chronological order):

Bread for the World (Arthur Simon)
Food First (Frances Moore Lappe)
The Origins of Totalitarianism (Hannah Arendt)
Future in our Hands (Erik Dammann)
Manufacturing Consent (Noam Chomsky)
War Against the Poor: Low-Intensity Conflict and Christian Faith (Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer)
Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes (Robert McAfee Brown)
The United States of Europe (T.R. Reid)
The European Dream (Jeremy Rifkin)
The End of Poverty (Jeffrey Sachs)

While many of these were best consumed ages ago, they still have their place and most of the authors have gone on to do great things. You can Google any of these and see what I mean.

For travelers, I believe it’s important to read books that explain the economic and political basis of issues you stumble onto in your travels. A basic understanding of the economics of poverty, the politics of empire, and the power of corporations are life skills that give you a foundation to better understand what you experience in your travels. Information that mainstream media considers “subversive” won’t come to you. You need to reach out for it.

What are your most influential books…and why?

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A Steely Eyed Look at Salzburg’s Sound of Music Tours

Cameron Hewitt (my wonderful co-author and fellow guidebook researcher) is at it again. He’s giving a sacred tourism cow a hard, non-dewy-eyed look: this time, it’s the Sound of Music tours. On assignment to update the Salzburg chapter of our Vienna guidebook, he was confronted with a classic guidebook researcher challenge: Two companies offer the same tour. Which is the better value for our traveling readers?

To find out, Cameron spent two half-days on buses surrounded by S.O.M. aficionados singing “Doe, a Deer.” In this take — or is it a “takedown”? — Cameron freely admits he’s not a fan of the movie…and it shows. S.O.M. fans, click through only if you have a sense of humor.  Here’s the full report. (Full disclosure: The Sound of Music was so big in my family that my father actually named his piano business “Steves’ Sound of Music.”)

Cameron is reporting on his summer European travels on his blog. If you enjoy Cameron’s take on Europe, be sure to also “like” his Facebook page — he’s just wrapping up Austria, and will be reporting soon from Budapest, Bulgaria, and Romania. Don’t miss out on Cameron’s keen insights.