Smaller text Larger text

Rick Steves’ Travel Blog

Here you can browse through my blog posts prior to February 2022. Currently I'm sharing my travel experiences, candid opinions, and what's on my mind solely on my Facebook page. — Rick

Posted on

8 Cities in 8 Days – Keep on Travelin’!

Rick Steves Sold Out SignI am at Boston’s Wilbur Theatre at a WGBH event, midway through an exciting eight-cities-in-eight-days lecture tour — and every night we have a sold-out house. It feels great to be connecting with travelers so enthusiastic about their travels. I’m also appreciating the wonderful early 20th-century theaters that caring communities have saved and are now enjoying. So far, I’ve been to the Keswick Theatre in Philadelphia, the Baird Auditorium at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, the classic old Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and the Wilbur in Boston. Coming up: Houston, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Florida, and then home to Seattle.

Many of the events are fundraisers for public television. In the face of a government that is opposed to anything with the word “public” in it, I’ve witnessed a powerful energy for this important community resource. Yes! It is worth $1.35 per citizen in tax revenue for a great nation like ours to have one oasis on the media dial that is non-commercial. Thanks to public broadcasting on radio and TV, our communities can enjoy programming that assumes an attention span, respects our intellect, and is driven not by a passion for keeping advertisers happy, but by a passion for educating and inspiring us to embrace life and celebrate diversity. Please, raise your voice for a smarter and less fearful society… raise your voice for public broadcasting.

Posted on

Video: Homemade Tortelloni – A Love Story

I have an American friend, Steve Brenner, who is raising his beautiful family in Orvieto, Italy, for the quality of life and the family values. (He also runs a great hotel/hostel in Rome called The Beehive and curates private apartments at Cross-Pollinate.) Occasionally, Steve produces wonderful little videos celebrating that essence of small-town Italy.

In this fun little clip about the local pasta shop, just watch the fingers stuffing the tortelloni. Feel the passion, the love, the community…people living their lives intentionally, celebrating quality, struggling with how to feed the kids in a healthy way, and embracing that good old “small is beautiful” ethic.

 Steve writes: “I’m a big fan of making my own bread and pasta and think it’s worthwhile for everyone to learn — it’s easy, cheap, and for most people, what you can make at home is much better than anything you can buy from a store. However, it’s another story when you live next to a fresh pasta shop like La Bottega del Tortellino. For years we’ve enjoyed their ricotta and spinach ravioli at least once a week. We’ll get a few portions of tortellini to serve in broth, or the potato and taleggio cheese ravioli, which we’ll toss with butter and sage. Yes, this is what we get to eat when we’re too lazy to cook — fresh pasta, usually made that day. This video is a hometown story about changing careers, becoming professional pasta makers, competing with big business, a changing food culture in Italy, and of course, pasta!”

You can see more of Steve’s work on the Cross-Pollinate blog — and be sure to also check out his video about my evil twin, Nick Steves.

Posted on

Video: 20 Radio Interviews in 4 Hours — Buy My Guidebooks!

When you write a guidebook, your work has just begun. You have to update it, and you have to promote it. I’m thankful to have a great relationship with a smart and supportive publisher, Avalon Travel Publishing. And Avalon (I like to think) is thankful to have a writer who jumps at any opportunity to tell the public about his books. Every year or so, Avalon offers to hire a special service that lines up an intense morning of radio interviews for me. And every year, I say, “Yes!”

Before dawn, I set up camp at my office. The service calls in, and then, from 6:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m., they connect me with talk show hosts all across the country. I do an eight-minute interview nearly every ten minutes. When I finally hang up the phone, the call duration reads “4 hr 30 min” — and I’ve talked with perky commercial radio hosts for 20 or so drive-time interviews right across the USA. When done, I run to the men’s room and think, “That was a great morning’s work.”

There’s lots to talk about these days. Here are a few of my key points:

Europe is on sale — with the dollar nearly at parity with the euro.

It’s critical that smart American travelers be proactive about planning for the marquee sights, as they’ll be competing with lots of travelers from the emerging economies of China and India. In those countries, there are suddenly 100 million people in the middle class with enough money to fly to Europe, and who have long dreamed of seeing Europe’s top ten sights.

If you’re wondering where your travel dollar stretches the farthest, I make three points: know more about what you’re looking at, and each admission earns you double the experience; your time is a valuable and limited resource that deserves being treated as thoughtfully as your money; and the best values are had in the places where your travel dreams are taking you. If prices are cheaper in Portugal, but your travel dreams are in Scotland, your best travel value is in Scotland — just equip yourself with good information so you can travel smartly there.

That’s when I segue into a reminder that guidebooks are $20 tools for $3,000 experiences — and my Scotland guidebook has all the practical information you’ll need for a great trip there. It’ll earn back its cost on your first day in Edinburgh.

Stoking your own travel dreams? You can find all of my guidebooks in my travel store.

Posted on

Video: Rick Steves’ 1990 Report on Terrorism — Still Relevant Today

I recently found this video of a talk I gave 27 years ago, with my two-minute, circa-1990 take on terrorism. While the eyeglasses may be dated, the message is timeless: Keep things in perspective, don’t turn a small terrorist event into a big one by overreacting, and keep on travelin’. The differences between then and now: More people were being killed by terrorists in the 1980s than in the 2010s; back then, only 8,000 Americans were victims of gun-related homicides annually, while now that figure is closer to 13,000; and today we have sensationalistic, fear-mongering 24/7 commercial news working overtime to keep us on edge.

Earlier today, I was being interviewed on a radio station that needed to cut away for breaking news: In a breathless voice, the announcer reported, “In London, pedestrians have been mowed down by a car and a masked man with a big knife is inside of Parliament. Stand by for more news as it breaks.” With only that information, it was easy to imagine unspeakable carnage unfolding in the House of Commons. The reality — while undoubtedly tragic — is turning out to be much less dramatic, as the police quickly took control of the situation.

There has long been terrorism, and there always will be terrorism. I like to say, “Terrorism is the new normal.” But as this video shows, it’s far from new. And something else that hasn’t changed: If our reaction to these events is exaggerated, we’re still richly rewarding the terrorists for their actions.

In my experience, the most fearful people are those who don’t get out much. But the flipside of fear is understanding — and we gain understanding when we travel.  As you watch this vintage clip, please remember: The best way to stay safe is to keep on traveling — and striving to better understand and better fit into our beautiful world.

Posted on

Gay Travel in Europe


As racist, bigoted, and right-wing movements are on the rise on both sides of the Atlantic these days, I’d love to host a sharing of experiences that gay travelers are having in Europe. Where do you feel comfortable? Where don’t you? What are good sources of information? With hate crimes on the rise in the USA, do you sense any changes to the vibe in Europe lately?

Be sure to check out the conversation on my Facebook page as well.