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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

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Eyewitness Report: The Media’s Painting a Distorted Picture of Europe

We travelers know that the media can make faraway places seem chaotic or unsafe. One of our lead tour guides, Sarah Murdoch, shares her take on things from a smart, solo-woman traveler’s perspective in a wonderfully insightful blog titled “Adventures with Sarah.” In her latest post, she analyzes media-shaped images with her on-the-ground experiences in Rome (Jubilee Year mob scenes), Athens (refugee concerns), Paris (security issues), and London (after the Brexit vote). Sarah’s take is candid, fascinating, and answers questions that many of us logically have…and that’s why I’m sharing it here. Enjoy!

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Top Eureka Moments

Even after decades of visits, Europe still surprises me. Here are a few of my favorite “aha!” moments from my last trip.

Couple

A couple out for a romantic evening proved that in a place as dreamy as Venice, a few €1 boxes of red wine and a shrink-wrapped portion of prosciutto are all you need for a memorable canalside dinner.

Rick Steves and Ibn Battuta

I was having a quiet lunch at my hotel in Romania when I found myself on the restaurant’s wallpaper. And I met Ibn Battuta, who, 700 years ago, was “the Rick Steves of his days, roaming the world to tell everyone what they were missing.”

Boot knife

At a new exhibit in Normandy, I found a knife just like the one I treasured as a kid — sheath and all — strapped to the leg of a paratrooper ready to jump behind German lines the night before D-Day.

Rick Steves and Andy Steves

photo: The Travelphile

Coming home to find my son’s first guidebook, “Andy Steves’ Europe: City-Hopping on a Budget,” on my desk. (You can get your own copy of City-Hopping on a Budget on my website.)

Table with prosciutto and cheese

I never thought I could have too much fine prosciutto and pecorino cheese in Tuscany. But when the gentleman pig farmer laid out a table like this for the fifth day in a row, he confessed, “What I really dream of is a nice filet of fish.” And after yet another meal of so much pork and cheese, I thought, “Hmmm…fish does sound nice.”

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Travel Bite: Beautifully Preserved Lucca, Italy

From time to time, we share a random video to fuel your travel dreams. In this clip from my TV episode about Tuscan side trips, I join a friend for a lazy pedal around the top of the Renaissance wall in Lucca, Italy.

The wide, fortified wall effectively keeps out both traffic and, it seems, the stress of the modern world. Within the wall, which now functions as a circular community park, visitors find a relaxed Old World ambience, elegant streets, and pristine piazzas.

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Collaboration with Just the Right People

I decided long ago that life is too short to work with people you don’t enjoy. I realize some people aren’t as blessed as I am to be in a position to choose their coworkers. But it’s a luxury I treasure. I work hard in Europe, and to do it with talented people who are just as committed to our excellence — people like Steve, Cameron, Simon, and our local tour guides — is like skiing with just the right wax, skating with sharp blades, playing on a newly tuned piano, sailing with a nice steady breeze, or bungee jumping with a short-enough cord.

Rick Steves and Steve Smith

Co-authors like Steve Smith (in France), who help craft our guidebooks with love.

Rick Steves and Cameron Hewitt

Cameron Hewitt, who takes me through Eastern Europe without shooting myself in the foot, and artfully makes my writing concise and well-structured.

Simon Griffith

Simon Griffith, the producer with the big tripod and a “cool” light on the TV production warpath. Simon ventures fearlessly where no tripod has gone before (and his is huge!).

Rick Steves and Cristina Duarte

Local guides everywhere in Europe (like Cristina Duarte in Portugal) who take my passion for helping American travelers create vivid and meaningful experiences and amplify our work to thousands — on our bus tours, hired privately by people with our guidebooks, and by helping me update our guidebooks for travelers who can’t afford the luxury of a private guide.

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Good Travel Is Connecting with People

It’s the people that carbonate your travel memories. Say yes to any opportunity to meet people. Here are some of my favorite recent interactions.

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The hairstylists who make the frightening visit to get a haircut in a foreign land an enjoyable experience…even when you don’t have the necessary vocabulary.

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American students in Orvieto whose teacher uses my TV shows in their classroom.

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Bulgarian folk troupes who still dance and share their culture for visitors.

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Isabella and Carlo at their farmhouse B&B (Agriturismo Cretaiole), who provide a cultural boot camp for our travelers and make sure everyone (including our TV crew during a four-day stay there this spring) creates lifelong memories, drinks some amazing limoncello, and brings back a little Tuscany in their hearts.