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
Sit back, grab a mojito, and experience the resilient joy and spirit of the Cuban people. KCTS 9’s TV special about my trip to Cuba earlier this year is now available to watch online.
Venturing to Cuba offers a chance to befriend a poor and struggling island society that is, in its own way, an inspiration. It’s a one-of-a-kind time warp, free of the strip-mall banality of our rich world. But with Castro gone, pent up change is likely to sweep Cuba. And that includes a tsunami of American tourists.
Did you visit Fidel’s Cuba? I would love to hear about your travels.
Photo: Cameron Hewitt
As we anticipate the arrival of Thanksgiving, my fellow guidebook writer Cameron Hewitt shares a beautiful travelers’ holiday message on his blog. Cameron challenges those of us who value travel, diversity, and cultural bridges to splice that worldview into our holiday planning. After all, what’s more fundamental: the turkey, the trick-or-treating, and the caroling…or the coming together of loved ones?
Cameron’s family Thanksgiving report comes from Tuscany. With the help of our favorite agriturismo host, Isabella, he gets us up close and steamy with a delicious mashup of American and Tuscan cuisine. (Isabella actually imported cranberries — which are unknown in Italy — just for the party.)
As the holidays approach this year, travelers should know that good-hearted Americans are enthusiastically welcome at joyful family feasts all around the world.
OK, the forces of Trump have taken the White House. For people who love our world and celebrate diversity, it’s a setback…a big setback. We internationalists, progressives, and people who want to build bridges rather than walls lost. But by our nature, we don’t scream “rigged system”…we’ll be thankful we have a peaceful transition in our country, and we will soldier on. As for our mission of keeping America traveling and engaged in our world: It is stronger than ever. We will keep on travelin’ — and hope our country will, too.
While our Rick Steves’ Europe management team was out on our annual retreat, my staff put on their “Keep on Travelin’” T-shirts and surprised me with these photos. Thanks to my wonderful staff for affirming our more-important-than-ever mission.
The consequences of this election are undeniably huge. Those of us who see our world as a family and our environment as a trust, and who believe that the measure of a society is how it cares for those in need, can be sad in this defeat. But the voters have spoken. I hope we all do our best to accept President Trump, pick up the pieces, and carry on. This morning—mindful of our mission to help America “keep on traveling”—I reassured our staff that, as things become darker, our light becomes brighter. Together, we will shine our light with more energy than ever.
To paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr., the moral arc of our world is long but it bends toward justice. As travelers engaged with our world in all of its diversity, we contribute to that arc. It’s a long haul, but I have confidence that that arc will bend in a way that is ultimately right.
When I share political observations learned from talking with people in foreign countries, some people say, “Rick, stick to travel.” But these ideas are the very essence of travel. My mission is to help make travel a broadening and educational experience. That’s why I’ve written a book called Travel as a Political Act.
This clip shares a few thoughts that hit me several years ago, as I stood among Germans at the top of their glassy, then-new Reichstag dome in Berlin — thoughts on the dangers of a dumbed-down society. It’s just one minute, excerpted from my 80-minute “Travel as a Political Act” talk. Warning: If you think I should “stick to travel,” watching that talk could make you really angry.