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

Support Bread for the World’s work with a $100 donation, and I’ll match it. Plus I’ll mail you a special Christmas gift. Join me in this challenge by going to Rick Steves’ Christmas Fundraiser Challenge.

I’ve enjoyed sharing my experiences filming our public TV special in the Holy Land over the last month. It was a powerful learning experience for me, and I hope you found it worthwhile, too. Now it’s great to be back home.

Whenever I travel outside of the peace, stability, and affluence of Europe and the US, I find myself adjusting my worldview. I become more in tune with the realities of people who will never have the joy of seeing their name on a vacation plane ticket. If these times seem tough for our friends and family, imagine how tough they are for hungry and poor people — especially in tumultuous and less stable parts of our world.

To add extra meaning to my holiday season, I’m helping to raise funds for Bread for the World, an organization that advocates for hungry people at home and around the world. This year, the needs are particularly great, so I’ve got a fun challenge to do something that, collectively, can make a huge difference: Consider supporting Bread for the World’s good work with a donation of $100 — and I’ll match all gifts up to $100,000. Imagine: As an extended family of caring citizens, together we can empower their work with $200,000! Make your donation by going to Rick Steves’ Christmas Fundraiser Challenge.

Bread for the World advocates for the world’s poorest people. In others words, they lobby Congress to go light on budget cuts that will hurt those in need. Considering all the interests competing for attention on Capitol Hill, I’m proud to support what I consider the best way possible to give the hungry a voice.

Bread for the World is amazingly effective. While the food provided by all the charities in our country only amounts to 6 percent of the food assistance available, our government provides the rest. That means Bread’s advocacy work has a huge impact. For every dollar Bread raises, it leverages $100 in terms of funding that is vital to poor people. Assuming that ratio holds, if we hit our $200,000 target, we’ll generate $20 million of life-giving, hope-instilling funding for this cause. I’m convinced that supporting Bread is the very best way to leverage my charitable giving. That’s why I’ve been a Bread member for 30 years.

So here’s my challenge: To give this holiday season an extra punch this year, go to Rick Steves’ Christmas Fundraiser Challenge, and help Bread for the World with your gift of $100 or more. As a thank you, I’ll match your donation (so Bread will receive double what you donate) and send you three gifts from my Rick Steves’ European Christmas collection:

Rick Steves’ European Christmas DVD
Rick Steves’ European Christmas coffee-table book
Rick Steves’ European Christmas music CD

I’ll happily pay for the cost of these three gifts, plus shipping, so that Bread for the World can put 100 percent of your donation to work. Make your gift by Dec. 10, and you’ll get everything in time for Christmas.

Thanks and Merry Christmas!

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

November 22, 2013November 27, 2013

Holy Land Webcast a Success

Whew! I’m back from the Holy Land and ready to put my focus back on Europe. Thanks for traveling with me on this adventure here on my blog. (My TV crew will now begin editing all that great footage into our upcoming Holy Land special.)

Last night, we streamed my homecoming lecture. And, while it was fun to have about 600 people in the auditorium, it was really exciting to have thousands of people “attending” virtually via our streaming of the event.

For those of you who did watch last night, I’d love some feedback both on the talk and on the tech end of it. How could I have made my lecture and slideshow more helpful as a primer for someone wanting to better understand the Holy Land? Also, how can we tweak the technology to make viewing a talk like this online better from your end? I’ll enjoy your suggestions and comments.

By the way, many asked if we’re going to upload the lecture for later viewing online. We will certainly offer this lecture online (likely a later live presentation), but it’ll be coordinated with the fanfare we hope to generate with the release of our hour-long public television special (which we plan for this April). Stay tuned for more on that.

November 21, 2013November 27, 2013

Don’t Be Duped — Travel and Talk to People

Flying home, I’m pleased with what we learned and what we have to share. The montage to introduce our one-hour Holy Land special goes like this: “While Jewish Israelis and Muslim Palestinians have overlapping claims and struggle to share it peacefully, this land has a rich and fascinating heritage. We’ll visit Jerusalem, considered by both Israelis and Palestinians to be their historic capital; feel the modern pulse of urban Israel; eat and drink with Jews; and follow in the footsteps of Christ. In Palestine, we’ll harvest olives; visit a local home; see the Tomb of Abraham; learn to wear a scarf with style; follow pilgrims to the place of Jesus’ birth; bob in a very salty sea; hike to an ancient monastery deep in the desert; and feel the energy of an emerging economy. Along the way, we’ll learn about walls, settlements, and the challenges facing the region.” Reading that again, I can see the vivid images we’ll edit together.

While there are no easy answers, actually coming here and experiencing the Holy Land firsthand is the best way to gain context and understanding. Lots of people in the USA seem to think they already know the answers. They’ve learned about it on TV, or from other Americans.

I remember when I first went on a political trip. It was back in the 1980s, to Nicaragua and El Salvador. Seeing me off, my Dad (suspicious of communism) said, “Don’t be duped.” Now, after 30 years of satisfying my curiosity about our world and its challenges by traveling and talking to people, it’s clear to me: The people most in danger of being duped are those who stay home.

I hope that when our program airs (which we expect to happen in spring of 2014, nationwide on public television), you can enjoy, as we did, “The Holy Land: Israel and Palestine Today.”

To celebrate my homecoming tonight, I’ll give a live, free slideshow lecture at 7pm P.S.T. in Edmonds, Washington. You can attend in person (registration required)…or watch the live webcast from anywhere in the world (no registration required). Learn more at Rick Steves – Holy Land: Israel and Palestine Today.

Thanks for following my trip!

One of my favorite sequences in the program is a montage of clips showing me connecting with various locals. The theme: Good travel is all about meeting people, talking with them, and learning. In the last few weeks, I’ve learned what Muslims think of Jesus while sitting on a carpet with an imam; talked about raising kids while sipping coffee with Israelis who live in a settlement overlooking the West Bank; and visited with a Palestinian refugee as he clutched the key his parents took with them when their fled their village in 1948, thinking the move would be temporary. I’ve roasted coffee with a Bedouin, talked with soldiers in guard towers, and gained insight into why a proud and independent young woman would choose to wear a hijab.

Our guides were hugely helpful both in Israel and in Palestine. If you are traveling to the region and need help, they are all self-employed, licensed, and happy to schedule time with any visitor: Benny Dagan (dagantrl@inter.net.il) and Abie Bresler (center in photo above, abresler@zahav.net.il) work in Israel. And Kamal Mukarker (left in photo above, kamal_mukarker@hotmail.com) and Husam Jubran (hjubranus@yahoo.com) are ready to be your guides in Palestine. Thanks to Benny, Abie, Kamal, and Husam for some great travels.

We finished our Holy Land special with this close: “In this land — so treasured by Jews, Muslims, and Christians — I’m reminded that the prophets of each of these religions taught us to love our neighbors. And the lessons learned traveling here in in the Holy Land can inspire us all to strive for that ideal. I’m Rick Steves. Keep on traveling. Shalom, Salam, Peace.”

I had a miserable trip…it changed my pre-conceptions. People whose language always sounded to me like terrorists conspiring are actually gentle souls with big challenges. It seems to me there are two sure things: Violence doesn’t work, and neither the Jews nor the Palestinians are going to move. The only workable road is one of peaceful co-existence.

November 20, 2013November 27, 2013

What’s Your Occupation?

While the Holy Land’s troubles are no joking matter, sometimes a little humor can help defuse the tension. I couldn’t help but chuckle at this joke: An Israeli diplomat, when filling out the customs form upon entry in the USA, misunderstood one of the questions, Where it said “Occupation?”, he wrote, “No, just visiting.”

Israel needs to protect itself. That’s obvious and understandable. And there’s a terrible history of terrorists, desperate extremists who will die to kill, and countries that swear they will not rest until Israel is pushed into the sea.

At the same time, one thing that virtually all visitors to Israel and Palestine eventually grapple with is the irony of Jewish people who were so cruelly treated through history — and especially during the horror of the Holocaust — now playing the strongman.

As observers from a distance, we can’t really get an honest picture of the reality here. I might see a news clip of Palestinians destroying a synagogue. It looks so hateful. And then I learn that during a land swap, Israel agreed to give back land upon which they had built a luxurious modern settlement. And, before retreating, they destroyed every building in the settlement except the synagogue. When hardscrabble Palestinians, so poor and needy, walked into their land, they saw only rubble except for one building — and they got mad and destroyed it. It’s ugly both ways.

Today, I sense a commitment among Palestinians to grow beyond violence. (They really have no choice.) In fact, the main job of Palestinian security forces is to support the Israeli forces in keeping angry, pent-up teenagers calm and out of Israeli prisons.

On the other side, among Israelis I met in Palestine (mostly security forces), I noticed a kind of occupier’s vengeance. It’s something most Israelis would not condone, but it’s done in their name nevertheless.

Israelis believe Palestinian children are taught in school to hate Jews. And Palestinians believe Jewish children are taught to hate them. I asked a Palestinian if schoolbooks teach children to hate Jews. He said, “As a parent raising my family under Jewish occupation, it’s my challenge to teach our children not to hate Jews.” I hadn’t considered that angle. But just being a tourist here for a week, I can understand the toll it must take on any “love thy neighbor” person to live in a land where they say, “Mere existence is resistance.”

While edgy political art is commonplace here, I was particularly struck by this mural (in Bethlehem) of a little Palestinian girl shaking down an Israeli soldier. It was only later that I learned it was by the famous British street artist Banksy.

I’ll continue this Holy Land series until November 21st. Then, to celebrate my homecoming, I’ll give a live, free slideshow lecture on Thursday, November 21st at 7 p.m. P.S.T. in Edmonds, Washington. You can attend in person (registration required)…or watch the live webcast from anywhere in the world (no registration required). Learn more at Rick Steves – Holy Land: Israel and Palestine Today.

November 19, 2013November 27, 2013

The Hijab — The Meaning of a Scarf

To show modern Palestine both in its people and its institutions, we popped into Birzeit University. Its campus, at the edge of Ramallah, has an enrollment of about 10,000. With beautiful landscaping connecting modern buildings and a student body that seemed like the future leaders of this young country, the campus was a huge contrast with the intense and chaotic cities.

Strolling through the campus, I sensed a younger generation working hard for a stable and prosperous future. My agenda was to connect with young women and learn a bit about the status of women in Palestine. Along with many other things, I’m curious about the beautiful hijab, or head covering. I’ve noticed that some women throughout the country wear it, while others don’t.

We’ve filmed a series of interviews with people from many walks of life in Israel and Palestine to be used as DVD extras for our Holy Land special (and, I hope, for radio interviews). Our guide set us up with these three women. They were majoring in architecture and civil engineering and spoke English well. We had a delightful conversation about the role of women in a Muslim-dominated society. They all agreed that there were more women than men here in higher education, and that they can do anything if they work hard. Still, the consensus was that a woman’s role is generally to raise children and run the family, while the man’s role is to be out making the money.

The women I talked with agreed that women are free to be individuals in Palestine, and that choosing to wear the hijab was entirely up to them. The woman who covers up is just as socially active and in on all of the jokes and fun. But when she walks in public, she feels she gets more respect.

While a woman on the street wearing a scarf is treated differently, that doesn’t mean she isn’t fashion-conscious. One woman I met told me that she has over a hundred scarves, and each morning, she enjoys choosing one that fits her mood. It’s an ensemble. You never wear pattern-on-pattern or solid-on-solid. If the dress is solid, the hijab will be patterned. And color coordination is important, too. Many women are sure to have toenail polish, handbag, lipstick, and scarf all in sync.

Rick Steves’ Travel Blog