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

For my holiday season gift to you, I’m sharing three exciting glimpses of why I love Europe on three successive days. Yesterday was remote. Tomorrow is wild. And today, it’s sacred.

In this clip, let’s savor perhaps the most exquisite medieval art in Europe: they Byzantine mosaics in Ravenna, Italy, and the soaring Gothic architecture and stained glass at Chartres, France.

These images share the joy I get from my work. Along with my 100 workmates here at Rick Steves’ Europe, I’m working harder than ever. And knowing that because of our hard work, 20,000 happy travelers who join our tours this year will learn that they have been art lovers all their lives — and never realized it until now — brings me great satisfaction. In a sense, our writers and guides here at Rick Steves’ Europe evangelize an appreciation of art, history, and culture.

Happy dreams of travels filled with sumptuous art treasures…

-Rick

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

December 25, 2014December 29, 2014

Why I Love Europe: Remote

For my holiday season gift to you, I’d like to share three exciting glimpses of why I love Europe. Over the next three days, we’ll travel to slices of Europe that are remote, sacred, and wild — starting today, with remote.

In today’s travel-dream-come-true, let’s canoe together on the canals of Holland, hike along the Cinque Terre (my favorite stretch of Riviera trail), and climb a tiny but dramatic and rewarding mountain in North England.

These images share the joy I get from my work. Along with my 100 workmates here at Rick Steves’ Europe, I’m working harder than ever. And knowing that because of our hard work, 20,000 happy adventurers who join our tours this year will be dealing with post-tour smile creases keeps me happily coming to my desk each day that I’m not on the road.

Happy dreams of happy travels…

-Rick

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

December 25, 2014January 5, 2018

Merry Xmas

We all treasure our Christmases at home. But I treasure my Christmases abroad, too. I’d love to hear your favorite memories about being in a country that celebrates Christmas with a different twist that you enjoyed.

By the way, “Xmas” is OK. While some believe that “Xmas” takes the “Christ” out of “Christmas,” it’s actually not the case at all. X was the ancient Greek abbreviation for the word “Christ.” The word for “Christ” in Greek is Xristos. During the 16th century, Europeans began using X, the first initial of Christ’s name, as shorthand for the word “Christ” in “Christmas.” Although the early Christians understood this shorthand, later Christians mistook “Xmas” as a sign of disrespect. So, if you’d like to refer to Christmas as Xmas, you’ll only offend people who don’t know their history.

Merry Xmas

December 24, 2014December 23, 2014

The Real Meaning of Christmas

Community center in Managua

Dear traveling friends,

This mural reminds me how travel can help us be one with the world.

It can help us to see truths we’d never appreciate if we stayed home.

While, at first, these truths can sometimes rub us the wrong way,
once we get comfortable with them, we’re thankful for the broader perspective.

This humble yet poignant painting gracing a community center in Managua reminds me how people in places like Nicaragua and El Salvador can have an advantage when it comes to understanding the real meaning of Christmas.

It’s my Christmas wish that your travels give you a bounty of reasons to be thankful and celebrate all that is good in our world.

Rick Steves

P.S. How have your holiday travels enriched your understanding of the real meaning of Christmas? It would be a gift to hear your stories.

December 18, 2014December 18, 2014

Flashing Back on a Decade of Holiday Beer Labels

For me, one of the delights of working at Rick Steves’ Europe is the way my staff mixes fun, creativity, talent, and hard work. Each year we brew a holiday beer as a staff event, and our art department comes up with our own beer bottle label. Here’s a review of a decade of Rick Steves’ Europe-produced beers. I wish you could taste them, but at least you can enjoy the creative talent of our art department.

“Mona Drinks” is a reference to our beloved Mona Winks guidebook, which was filled with self-guided tours of Europe’s top museums (now out of print, but resurrected as the audio tours in our free Rick Steves’ Audio Europe™ App):

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“Mona’s Back,” from 2002, was a statement in the year after 9/11 that we were traveling on:

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Eur-o-pean_pale

The “Immaculate Consumption” was built on sketchy archaeological evidence that there may have been beer at the manger on that first Christmas:

Stille-Nacht_Immaculate-Consumption

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“Ale 70 Shows” refers to our anthology of TV shows that has grown every two years — from 36, to 43, to 56, to 70, and so on. We’re at “over 100” now, but at the time, “All 70 Shows” seemed like quite a pinnacle”:

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The “Eyjafjallajökull Steam Ale” from 2010 commemorated the Icelandic volcano commonly known as E-15 (for the number of letters that followed the first letter in its unpronounceable-to-most name):

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