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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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A Perfect Storm of Portuguese Culture

Just as I was an expert picnicker as a young backpacker, I’m realizing older backpackers — who are packing a little extra taste and money — find themselves seeking out wine-bar “picnics,” delightful plates of fine local cheeses and meats to match the local wine. Wine bars are popular all over Mediterranean Europe these days. Here’s a video clip of one I really enjoyed in Lisbon. And, for a sneak peek at the 2017 edition of my Rick Steves Portugal guidebook, see the listing below. (I’ve added the listing for a wonderful new bakery that only serves the favorite local custard pie — which is two blocks away and provides a great and cheap capper to your “foodie’s picnic.”)

Lisbon Winery Wine Bar and Tapas is a new and casual little hole-in-the-wall with a passion for the best wines, cheeses, and meats — finger food served on a slab of wood or slate with a thoughtful explanation. Along with its quality local ingredients, it has cork walls, a 500-year-old cistern under glass flooring, and fado music playing; it’s a perfect storm of Portuguese culture. Alex, a sommelier, is evangelical about the wide variety of Portuguese wines and ports he serves and how they complement the tasty ingredients. Just tell him your budget and he’ll work within it. I recommend two people pay €20 each for a complete array of cheeses, meats, and wines (daily 12:00-24:00, Rua da Barroca 13 in Bairro Alto, tel. 218-260-132, www.lisbonwinery.com). Cap your experience by tossing a cork into the cistern.

Manteigaria Fábrica de Pastéis de Nata is simply the best place in town for Pastel de Nata — everyone’s favorite local pastry. The key here: they only serve one treat and constantly churn the lovable little €1 custard pies out of the oven. You eat it not reheated warm…but original “hot-out-of-the-oven” warm. While here, enjoy a look at the busy little kitchen (on Rua Loreto just off Praça Camões, daily until 24:00).

 

This is Day 4 of my 100 Days in Europe series. As I research my guidebooks and make new TV shows, I’m reporting on my experiences and lessons learned in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Romania, and beyond. Find more at blog.ricksteves.com.

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It’s a New Day, and I’m Feeling Good

I’m in Portugal and just kicking off a great season of travel. It just makes me happy to be away from the media and into the arms of human reality — good people in distant lands, doing well. I don’t understand endorphins, but I think mine must be doing flip flops when I’m mixing it up with other cultures and other peoples. Someone gathered together twenty years of me having fun working in Europe in an amusing video clip. As you watch this, think of how the good in this world vastly overwhelms the bad. That’s something to be thankful for and to never forget.

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Share, Share Alike: Cut Costs and Meet Fellow Travelers with Shared Tours for Rick Steves Readers

Every young child knows that it’s nice to share. But grown-up travelers find it fun, cost-effective, and educational, too.

One of my favorite travel splurges is hiring a local guide to show me their hometown. I find that a private guide helps me make the most of my time while enhancing my appreciation of a place. I recommend the best of these guides in my books. But I realize that not everybody can afford to hire their own guide for the day.

That’s why, a few years ago, I had the brainstorm to work with great guides to assemble “shared tours” for groups of my readers — letting good travelers split the cost of a great tour, and giving a great guide more work.

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The first place I tried this was in Sevilla, Spain, where Concepción Delgao and I worked together to come up with the perfect two-hour walking tour. For the last several years, Rick Steves readers have been happy to show up each morning at 10:30 (except Sundays…Concepción’s day off) and chip €15 apiece into the communal hat in exchange for a top-notch tour. Thousands of my readers have taken advantage of this…and Concepción couldn’t be happier.

Later, I teamed up with Annie Adair — an American expat married to an Italian — in the Tuscan hill town of Volterra. We created a similar tour that lets Annie and her colleague Claudia show off the best one-hour walk of Volterra for just €10 a head (meets Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings at 6:00 p.m., and Wednesday mornings at 12:30).When I was in Volterra last summer, I just had to check out how the tour was working. I met up with Claudia, as we explain in our book. It was a slow night, so we waited to see if the required-minimum three Rick Steves travelers would show up. Sure enough, at the stroke of 6, a family arrived for the tour…and we all enjoyed a great guided walk together.

Vincenzo, an ambitious entrepreneur based in Naples, runs Mondo Guide. I have long regretted that Naples, Pompeii, and the Amalfi Coast — three of Southern Italy’s best experiences — were so challenging to see on your own, but so expensive to do with a private guide. Vincenzo and I hatched a plan to offer shared tours, tailored for my readers, for these three itineraries. Vincenzo designed a website to make signing up easy, and for the last two years, thousands of my readers have had a better (and more cost-effective) experience in this part of Italy. New for 2016, Mondo has added two more shared tours for my readers: A private boat trip from Sorrento to the Isle of Capri (a romantic and efficient alternative to the crowded public ferries); and thoughtfully designed shore excursions for cruise passengers arriving in Naples and Salerno.

In each of these cases, shared tours are a win-win-win. My readers are happy because they get to split the cost of a talented local guide’s personal attention. The guides are happy because they get more business (and, they tell me, they find my readers great to work with). And I’m happy because everyone else is happy.

Helping travelers maximize their experience in Europe, while minimizing the cost, is our mission. Shared tours like these are just one of many ways we enjoy our work at Rick Steves’ Europe. Happy travels!

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Very Old White Port — “It’s Just Heaven in a Glass”

I love how Europeans embrace their culture with such expertise, passion, and abandon. This quick video clip demonstrates what I mean: After a busy day of showing me around, my Portuguese guide, Alex Almeida, is up against a cork wall enjoying what she calls “heaven in a glass” — a 55-year-old white port. This is the kind of pure cultural joy we experience as we get to know different lands and different people. Thanks, Alex, for sharing what I’m sure is a life-long memory.

 

This is Day 2 of my 100 Days in Europe series. As I research my guidebooks and make new TV shows, I’m reporting on my experiences and lessons learned in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Bulgaria, Romania, and beyond. Find more at blog.ricksteves.com.