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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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Guides’ Variety Hour: Two Cristinas from Portugal

With over a hundred European guides filling my home last weekend, we threw an impromptu, multicultural talent show. One of the smallest national contingents was Portugal…and both Portuguese guides present were named Cristina.

The party took place just before the big Seattle-San Francisco playoff game, so all of the guides are now honorary Seahawks fans. In this clip, the Portuguese Cristinas remind us that the San Francisco 49ers may have been tough to beat, but the real matchup will come on June 22, when the USA soccer team faces off against the Portuguese team in the World Cup. More typically, our Portuguese guides would have sung a lovely and lilting fado love song. But for this occasion, it was an almost aggressively proud rendition of the Portuguese national anthem.

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

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Guides’ Variety Hour: Italian Guides Do “Bella Chaos”

During our tour guides’ party at my house last weekend, we let the guides from each country organize a little cultural presentation. Here, our Italian guides (the biggest contingent) illustrated how in their country “organization” is actually “disorganization.” This little performance starts with several Italian classics being sung in unison. It eventually worked out just fine — much like things do in Italy (although our guides had a great leader in the person of Neapolitan guide Susanna Perruchini). Enjoy a little of Italy’s “bella chaos.”

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

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Guides’ Variety Hour: Stephen McPhilemy from Ireland

With over a hundred European guides filling my home last weekend, we threw an impromptu multicultural talent show. I simply took volunteers, made the list, and called the party to order. Here, Irish guide Stephen McPhilemy (from Derry in Northern Ireland) sings a rebel song dedicated to our English guides.

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

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Invite 100 European Guides into Your Home and Get Ready for Fun

As is tradition at each of our tour guide summits, last weekend I invited our guides into my home for a party. As is also our tradition, the guides — representing about 20 countries — had a chance to show off their culture in a boisterous “talent” show. Over the next few days, I’ll post some of the show’s hilarious highlights here.

For our first installment, let’s go to Spain. Here’s a quick snippet of guide Federico Barroso García singing “Bésame Mucho” in such a passionate way that our other Spanish guides could simply not contain themselves. Federico was lovingly mobbed by his fellow Spain guides.

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

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Europe Invades the Taki Tiki

When my tour guides fly to my hometown of Edmonds for a week of working together, I enjoy taking them out to a local bar. Twenty years ago, we’d all fit in one booth. Today, with close to 100 guides, we take over an entire tavern. In this video, I’m welcoming our tour-guiding gang to A Very Taki Tiki Bar & Grill for a night of fun before a day of meetings. Cheers, santé, salud, prost, and skål!

My pride and passion is sharing the energy and talents of these guides with our tour members each year. Tomorrow — Saturday, January 18 — with our voices still a little hoarse, join our guides and me online from 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. PST for the live streaming of Test Drive a Tour Guide — eight free, one-hour slideshows on Europe’s top tour destinations for 2014. Happy Travels!

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