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

Good Guidebooks Provide Creative Solutions: Shared Minibus Tours of the Amalfi Coast

We recently had our annual meeting with our publisher, Avalon Travel, and enjoyed celebrating the fact that our guidebooks are the USA’s best-selling books in each category. We’re just a little company, and I often ponder why the larger corporations struggle to keep up with us. I think a big part of our success is our creative and generous passion for making travel affordable, experiential, and meaningful.

Here’s a good example: I’ve long been frustrated by how costly and difficult it is for a budget traveler to enjoy Italy’s super-scenic Amalfi Coast efficiently. The public buses are cramped and stressful, and hiring your own driver — while a good-value splurge — is beyond many travelers’ budgets.

 

The Amalfi Coast (Photo: Cameron Hewitt)

 

Two years ago, while updating my guidebook in Naples, I got to know a local tour company called Mondo Guide. And I proposed a creative solution for my readers: Why not let them split the cost of a private minibus tour along the Amalfi Coast with other Rick Steves readers?

If Italian businessmen make me wary, Neapolitan businessmen make me paranoid. I needed to be sure that Mondo wouldn’t abuse the trust of our readers. I insisted on making no money from this arrangement — I just wanted to be the conduit between our travelers and their guides. And Mondo agreed to offer their guiding and minibus services to our readers at the wholesale, insider price (for the best possible value). In addition to the Amalfi Coast drive, we also created shared walking tours of Naples and the ancient ruins of Pompeii.

Mondo Guide created a custom website to gather the groups, and we announced the tours in our guidebooks. My editorial staff partnered with Mondo to monitor the debut season and ensure that everything was on the up and up. And today, two years and 6,000 happy travelers later (yes, 6,000!), we’ve got a wonderful system established.

Just last week my lead researcher, Cameron Hewitt, took one of the Amalfi Coast minibus tours incognito as a final check and reported that it worked just as hoped. So, I’m happy to share this with you. This cooperation embodies the spirit of our teaching and writing, and we’re thankful for our readers’ support in keeping idealistic initiatives like this viable. If you’re heading to the Bay of Naples, check out Mondo Guide, and consider this unique way to save money, avoid frustrations, and maximize your experience.

Posted on

Floating Through the Pyrgos Dirou Caves Is a Trip for the Senses

One of my fondest memories of traveling in Greece as a student back in the 1970s was gliding by boat through the Pyrgos Dirou Caves. Now, a generation later, I’ve returned and the experience was the same — a boatman poled us along beautifully lit canals from one stalactite to the next for about a kilometer. (It costs about $15 for 30 minutes.) My guide, Niki, translated the boatman’s scant narration as I savored the natural wonder, the coolness, and the way the sound of dripping water cut through the silence. What are your favorite cave memories from the road?

Posted on

Savoring a Sweet Mani Peninsula Surprise

Driving around this land so steeped in conflict and bloody vendettas, it occurred to me that there are a lot of towers on the Mani Peninsula.  While everyone gets excited about the towers of San Gimignano in Italy because they are so unique, here on the Mani, towns with such skylines are common. It seems like wherever people lived around here in medieval times, those places were fortified with towers built by family warlords. Seeing this town on the horizon, we had to stop. And as soon as I got out of the car I realized the sweet blessing of this stop: bees. I had stepped into a world of hardworking, honey-making bees. The flowers here (these, which we couldn’t recall while videoing, are sage) make the Mani honey the most treasured (and expensive) in Greece. Later, we stopped at a group of hives and met the beekeeper (who had an eye nearly swollen shut due to a bee sting). He explained how beekeepers constantly relocate their hives to get the best action. The lesson: Stop the car a lot, get out, talk to the people…and smell the sage.

Posted on

Let Your Imagination Fly in the Ghost Town of Vathia

If the Peloponnese’s Mani Peninsula is famous for its rugged terrain and desperate history, that history and culture is embodied in the dramatic ghost town of Vathia. Just a 10-minute drive from the coast, it’s free to explore (also windy — pardon the buffeting) and, as I hope this clip illustrates, it is best when you let your imagination off its leash. Also, pardon my goof at the start of the video, where I say “Turkey” when, of course, I meant to say “Greece”!