After a few months of denial when it comes to the impact of our weak dollar on travel, I have to admit that I’m finding fewer Americans on the road. And at many sights that were notorious for crowds and delays, visitors no longer have to be as concerned about how to get in without a long wait. As I update my guidebooks, I find myself deleting related tricks and warnings (such as recommending booking tickets to Mad Ludwig’s castles in advance). Part of the reason is fewer crowds. The other is smarter systems to move the masses through these popular sights.
It’s fun to see tourism evolving with our age. When I started traveling, the elegant nighttime “son et lumiere” (sound and light) shows were a huge deal. People would bundle up, pay a steep price, and sit under the stars on folding chairs. They’d watch colored spotlights light up the ruined arches of static, old sights, as a cast of grand and evocative voices thundered the history of that place.
Whether listening to the spirit of King Henry at a château on the Loire, Napoleon at Paris’ Les Invalides, great Greeks at the base of the Acropolis, the pharaoh at Giza, or Quetzalcoatl at the pyramids outside Mexico City, we would thrill to the sounds and lights bringing those stones to life. Nearly all those shows are now long gone.
In this fast-paced age, where special effects make “sound and light” shows as exciting as watching paint dry, traditional music shows are endangered as well. It’s much tougher than it used to be to find quality Norwegian or Scottish folk shows. Only in Ireland has traditional folk music stayed strong in pubs. And a good evening of slap dancing and yodeling in the Tirol is going the way of the hokey-pokey.
Rather than spanking each other’s lederhosen shiny, the people of Reutte, the town I often call home in Austria’s Tirol, seem more focused in maintaining their community for their families. As an example of how committed the town is to maintaining its character, real estate there can be sold only to those using it as a primary residence. The people of Reutte saw that many other formerly vibrant Alpine towns made a pile of money, but lost their sense of community, by becoming resorts. These towns allowed wealthy foreigners — who just drop in for a week or two a year — to buy up everything. Now streets of these towns are shuttered up and dead for most of the year, and these towns have forever lost their real vibrancy.
Rick I was reading an article in “the Economist” that indicates Britian is in just as bad a shape as us or worse when it comes to the housing bubble and credit problems. According to the article they are just going into what we are in the middle of so travel abroad will be lean. I also read an article on the Carnegie Endownment site an Article from the Washington Post that the cohesive spirit of the EU is crumbling due to each countries economic stumbling and leaning more toward their own nationalism to get through these tough times and less to the european rally, kind of every man for himself . Over the last 10 years Britian and Spains housing market apparently appreciated 140 percent and now they are crashing down, everyone everywhere is worried and seems even Europeans are sticking close to home for vacations. I am glad to know the lines will be manageable, leaving for France in 3 weeks and counting.
Fewer loud-mouthed Americans in Europe will make my upcoming vacation there a much more enjoyable experience!
We have the same thing here in Park City, Utah. Rows and rows and neighborhood after neighborhood of empty homes. All owned by wealthy American’s who come to visit infrequently.
We haven’t given up on travel, but I think the trips will have to be spread out a little more now. We have now considered taking a couple Rick Steves tours to some of the countries that are not on the Euro. Now the biggest problem is getting reliable flights that don’t cost a small fortune. Our flight to Rome in April was so messed up we ended up in London before we could get to Rome!
Regarding Len’s comment: Yay! American bashing! My favorite part of traveling abroad as well as studying abroad…Many so-called well-informed European citizens seem to view it as their national pastime.
Len and Kaley, I just don’t know where you travel, who you see, and where you hang around. My Sweetie and I have spent 605 nights and 87,000 miles in our RV in about 29 European countries, several islands, and we have yet to have the problem with Americans or Europeans, that you allude to. The people who we have had a disagreement that we remember, could be counted on the fingers of one hand. I think you should remember (and this is a repeat I am sure) === It’s amazing how many ridiculous, stupid, ignorant, inefficient, obnoxious people you will meet, when you are in a bad mood. === And while you travel, remember “Curiosity as to how people live and work, is just as intelligent as the curiosity that leads to the study of the contents of an art museum.†=== And also remember, Breathes there a man with soul so dead … †that he is not gratified by another’s appreciation of his home, his city, and his country.†=== As for getting along with people, you get what you give, nothing more, nothing less.
I think the Beatles said it best ” The love you take is equal to the love you make” –Lennon/McCartney
Jim, I agree. In fact, I had very little (if any) real trouble with it. I just got tired of hearing people who thought that we NEEDED to know that they disapproved of our government. Heck, most Americans do too! Can’t we please talk about something more interesting?! Ha.
The myth of the unfriendly Frenchman. === We had very nice experiences with French people, and mentioned how helpful people had been on more than one occasion. Our friend Brigitte said, “We French people don’t even like each other.†We stopped to see Brigitte and Paul, the people we met on our tour to Africa last year. We took them to lunch in Nice one year, and we had dinner in their high-raise condominium, high on the mountain side overlooking the city of Nice and the Mediterranean Sea, another year. === And another sample == Tried to find the Paris campground where we stayed before, but found nothing. We saw a French family, complete with dog and kids, starting out for a drive. We asked if they could direct us to the campground. The son was happy to use his High School English, the father signaled, “Follow me,†and drove to the campground. The whole family, including the dog, got out and shook our hands. Yes, including the dog, that was cute. There are two rivers just south of Paris, I knew we were on the right street and knew the campground was on a river bank, we were just at the wrong river.
Hi Rick, I like your shows… Still I do not understand how you make so many ridiculous errors: for instance you say, in one of your shows, that it takes “only” half an hour to travel by car from Innsbruck to the Italian border on the Autobahn…. 30 minutes to travel more than 15 but less than 20 miles on a road where you can easily go 80 miles an hour???? Usually it takes me about 15 minutes to go from Innsbruck to the Italian border, and I am a slow driver.
Rick, I enjoy your blogs on your “real time” travels…so often people base their opinions on a trip that was “only two years ago.” I am gearing up for a trip in October to Prague and Poland… Mostly due to the poor Euro/Dollar exchange rate. I don’t like that your usually optimistic tone seems to be wavering… Just remember this is all an adjustment period and people will get used to the cost of things and begin to travel again. Or if they are like me they realize that things will never be “cheaper” than they are right now! :) Cheers!
I am afraid Rick’s “wavering” is justified by the very unfavorable exchange rate. I just returned from 18 days in France and even knowing afore hand of the exchange rate, I was stunned. The upside for those who like to travel without having to lock in on a specific location is that even the Rick Steves pick hotels in France are available on short notice. Even the very good values in the France guide were slow in what should be the height of the season. What is not good that the very conscientiously run places that Rick’s guides recommend are struggling.
Your point about the town that no longer allows “investment” properties, but rather, requires the owners to actually occupy their properties as a primary residence makes sense to me. I have watched how in Dubrovnik this is happening. Interestingly, it seems most of the investors there are Irish or English. Maybe with the pound getting pounded, much as the dollar, this will happen. I’m personally hoping for a serious economic slump in Dubrovnik because it has lost the charm it once had, is outrageously overpriced for being a Balkan city and locals have grown rightfully to despise the tourist trade that no longer brings them charming tourists, but hoardes of overweight and lazy cruise boat tourists. My other Croat friends who run river and outdoor adventure companies are really feeling the pains of low bookings this season. Some may have to close up shop. Their prices have risen to nearly American levels for a product that should clearly cost half as much as here. And their audience has primarily been Americans, Brits, Irish, etc when they needed to cater to more Europeans. Though interestingly, my friends said they don’t want to cater to smoking Italians, French and Spanish because they want people who live a healthier lifestyle, which by and large, are non smoking Americans who do adventure or outdoor travel. And interesting double edge sword.
WHAT! No slap dancing in Tirol? Bummer. It was going to be one of the highlights of our visit there. We’ve watched it obsessively on UTube. Is that the only place we’ll see it?? It’s such a pity that we have become so homogenized and vanilla the world over. In this country, you could be dropped anywhere USA and feel “at home.” Every mall has the same stores whether you are in San Diego, Chicago or Kansas City. Every new “neighborhood” has the same housing designs, facades and perfectly manicured lawns with the same monotonous flowers. Our children all must play the same sports – and learn to think like their neighbors – if they don’t want to be ostracized. I want to see Europe again before its’ personality is all gone, and I want my son, who was born in Russia and is now a total California dude, to appreciate the differences in cultures and that not everyone does – or should – think or live in just one way. Hope it’s not too late. We leave Saturday for three weeks.
… Oh, I forgot to add have you heard about Beijing destroying older buildings and putting up new, modern ones in time for the Olympics in the hope that this will appeal to more tourists. This is what they started to do in Tibet until they were made to realize that the traveling Americans WANT to see the old, traditional buildings and temples. That’s what attracts the tourist buckaroos.
It’s great to her all of these comments and stories. As a two-time ETBD alumni, I can only brag about the expierences and the bang-for-the-buck they provide. I challange anyone to outdo one of Rick’s tours. My discovering a part of my family’s history during the G-A-S Tour when visiting the Wies Church was ‘the stuff dreams are made of’. Many of the people I met on the tour I continue to communicate with and the locals I met were a treasure to me, as much as the countries they live in. Thank you Rick, for providing everything from tours to books for us ‘poor folks’. My family in Bavaria and Switzerland keep me informed of the economy there and it’s very similar to us and our situation, but, they know how to deal with it by offering great deals. The services will be more personalized and you will have a lot more ‘room’ to explore without the crowds, too. It is still much easier to travel cheaply throughout Europe, especially with the fantastic mass transit systems they have. Reutte is a gem, and more so for the person who enjoys bike riding. Oktoberfest in Munich is the expierence of a lifetime and the perfect place to meet Bavarians in their favorite enviroment: people and bier. Plan on at least two days to take it all in and tons of stuff for the kids, too, with the latest and greatest amusement rides in the world. I strongly recommend that people think about Winter in Bavaria and Switzerland, with a plethora of things to do and very reasonable prices, especially airfares from the U.S. And don’t miss Baden-Baden and the spa. I still dream about that and it will be on my next itenerary. At about $35 for 2.5 hours of total bliss, it can’t be beat. For you ‘virtual travelers’, I hope you get there soon and for you planning a trip, I wish you the best of travels. Thanks, Rick!!!
My wife & I returned on July 16 from a wonderful 3 weeks in Benelux – Northern France, which included 8 days in Paris, and we, too, noticed few American tourists (except perhaps in Paris). However, there seemed to be fewer tourists overall: our delightful B&B in Brugge (recommended by Rick!) was under-booked and had vacancies July 4 — at the beginning of the European holiday season. We experienced few delays in visiting local attractions (except the Eiffel Tower) due to fewer tourists and following tips offered in Rick’s books — a plus for us, not so good for the locals. We have nothing but positive comments about Europeans of that region (locals on the street as well as hotel and restaurant staff). I can not recall one time when we experienced a rude or even aloof reception. Even people on the streets would stop to ask if they could help us find something when they observed us puzzling over a local map. Nor was language an obstacle: even the French worked to understand our rudimentary attempts to speak their language. We did find things expensive and even more so due to the exchange rate, but 8 euro for a beer (almost $13) and 1,42 euro for a liter of diesel fuel (almost $9/gal) is expensive in any economy, regardless of the exchange rate! An overall great experience that was well worth the cost — one just has to plan differently.
I too was worried about travel costs this year. i usually go to Germany every year, but i didn’t go last year because i was too nervous about the economy. But i found that i really missed the planning and the going too much, and this year, i reorganised my life so that my travel expenses would be covered. I also reorganised my trip – going and staying in one place, where there is lots to see and do, rather than traveling around, and finding a really cheap but homey place to stay. My expenses will be higher, no doubt, but not unnaffordable, and since I love to travel so much, and it makes me so happy to be going somewhere, that it’s definately worth it.
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