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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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Orlando or Greece? Your Choice.

I have a friend, Matt Barrett, who is the go-to guy for Greek travels. His www.greecetravel.com website is a wonderful resource. He just emailed me today to share a message he received and to encourage us in our ongoing work:

Hey Rick, let me take you out for an ouzo and meze next time you are in Greece. Your support through this “crisis” has been invaluable. Your readers are the last of the courageous American travelers. I started this day very depressed and this e-mail picked me up. Keep doing what you do. Matt

“Hi Matt, Your website was recommended to us by a Rick Steves guidebook. (I’m glad he did.) It’s loaded with information and we took it to heart as we planned our first trip (4 weeks) to Greece in April. We followed your advice and contacted Fantasy Travel. He has set up and organized all our transfers, flights and ferry, hotels, tours, and car rental as we requested. Everything is now booked, reserved, and ready to go. We also arranged a 3-day tour with George Taxi Tours to go to the cog train and drive around the Argolis area. And we are having a one-day tour of eastern Crete with Lefteris Taxi. With your recommendations, we are excited about our upcoming Greece trip. Thanks. Marilyn, Vancouver, BC”

I’ve been thinking about fear and travel myself, so I found Matt’s comments interesting. I’m moving forward with my plans to visit Egypt, Israel, the West Bank, and Turkey this April. Here at Rick Steves’ Europe, we don’t do La-La Land. The bestselling guidebooks these days cover Walt Disney World and Orlando. Clearly that’s the first choice for lots of Americans. But our travelers have an appetite for reality, and that’s what we target in our travels. We come home smarter, changed, and more empathetic with the struggles of people far away. Happy real travels.

P.S. Tomorrow we meet with our publisher and his staff to see how we can close the gap between our guidebooks and those Disney World ones. And the next day, our staff will enjoy an after-work happy hour to celebrate a milestone for us — we’ve sold 10,000 tour seats for 2013. That’s far ahead of our 2012 tempo…and lots of those seats are to Greece!

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Is Airport Security Killing Us?

I’ve been through a lot of airports lately, and I have to say, when people joke about TSA meaning “thousands standing around,” it has a ring of truth. In November, Bloomberg Businessweek reported that we spend about $8 billion a year on scanning machines, all that time-consuming checking, and employing those people who stand between us and our departure gate. And that cost doesn’t even consider the valuable time wasted by travelers who need to allot extra time to cover surprise delays at airport security.

Sure, we need to spend some money and time on security. But does anyone in government have the nerve to raise their hand and ask, “Could we lighten up here a bit?” or even “Aren’t we going a bit overboard there?” Bloomberg Businessweek reports that entire years go by (such as 2011) when TSA doesn’t spot a single terrorist trying to board an airplane. And then there’s s this staggering statistic: “In fact, extremist Islamic terrorism resulted in just 200 to 400 annual deaths worldwide, outside the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq — the same number…that occur in bathtubs in the US each year.”

Following 9/11, there was, understandably, a push to strengthen our airport security measures. But these efforts may be costing us even more lives. According to Cornell University researchers cited in Bloomberg Businessweek, after 9/11, frightened travelers switching from flights to drives resulted in over 200 more traffic fatalities every month. In the long term, due to security hassles, about 5 percent fewer people fly than used to, resulting in even more road fatalities. In other words, far more people have died on the road as an indirect result of 9/11 than actually died on 9/11.

Maybe it’s time to come to grips with the risk of terrorism and finally put it in a rational perspective. Many will say, “If TSA and all the security saves just one life, it will be worth it.” The way I see it, wasting money wastes lives. Intimidating people into driving instead of flying wastes lives. A nation can reach a point where its passion for showboat security designed to make people feel safe actually kills them. Security is good, but a cost-benefit awareness is simply smart. What do you think?

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Haiti or Egypt? The Answer Is Yes.

Today I’m struggling with a decision: Do I go to Egypt this spring, or put it off? Venturing there to learn and scout for a TV show won’t really help my business directly. I could spend the time being much more conventionally productive in Europe — and there’s plenty that needs doing there. But I want to connect with the Arab Spring and walk through all the dust that rises in the streets when people earn change and progress. On the other hand, I don’t want to be reckless.

In an ADD moment, I browsed over to my niece’s blog (which I link to on our website because I find her such an inspiration and want to share her experiences). Nicolina was recently in Cuba, then Haiti. Her report, recounting the fear, exhilaration, and ultimately relief she experienced landing in the poorest country in our hemisphere, reminded me of the last time I landed in Cairo. Within two days, she was surrounded by children in the vast slum of Cité Soleil. She wrote this:

These kids own less than any children I have ever met. One of the boys was playing with part of a ripped power cord as a toy, a girl was playing with a rubberband. I marvel at their joy within the confines of their poverty. Even before they knew we were going to paint they were full of happiness. These children possess something special.

When I first moved to NY from Seattle I worked as a nanny for a wealthy family on 5th avenue. They had three boys ages 13, 11, and 7, who I would pick up from school in the afternoon and watch until around 9 p.m., and then put to bed. Their mother would come from who-knows-where each night after they were sleeping. Their father worked overtime as an investment banker and had his own babysitter for them on the weekends. They had been raised by nannies. These kids had all the toys a child could dream of. They had a small basketball court on the second level of their penthouse suite. They had a mini toy castle to play in, a micro-corvette to in which to cruise around the huge apartment, and all of the latest technology and video games. They fought with each other bitterly and treated their mother and me with utter disrespect. Some days I would pick them up from school and the oldest boy just wouldn’t speak. He refused to talk with anyone for any reason. Not me, not his teachers, or even his brothers. He was mute with pain. If he absolutely had to say something he would go as far as to write it down on a piece of paper. I would take him to his therapist who told me he’d been that way for years.

What’s better? To have all the things in the world, but no love? Or to have nothing, not even enough food or fresh water but to have love, parents who are there, the emotional support of community and many friends? It’s easy to see who’s happier.

Finally the palettes are full with color and I ask my little friends in Haiti, “Are you ready to paint?!” in French, and they all shout “Ouiiiiii!!!!” We pass out the paint and they go for it, attacking the panels with gusto. After they finish I notice right away a different kind of style in their work. There always is. In Japan many kids painted manga and pop-culture icons, in Mexico most of the children painted elements of nature, in NYC the hearts tended to include a lot of material things like phones, money and clothes.

A child in Haiti holding her exuberantly painted heart.

After reading of Nicolina’s rich experience, earned by getting out of her comfort zone, I decide: “Yes, I’m going to Egypt.” Thanks, Nicki! She’s in Brazil now and finished reporting on Haiti. Click on over and travel for just a few minutes with abandon…as my niece, the globetrotting street artist, shares her adventure.

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Italian Friends Stressed Out in Anticipation of a Flood of Rick Steves Travelers

Yesterday we closed down the office at Rick Steves’ Europe to gather our staff together — all 80 of us. This annual meeting ensures that we’re all working in sync, and that our staff knows what my vision is for the coming year. After my “state of the company” address, each department shares what’s new for them. The day was both long and exhilarating.

Our marketing team has had a particularly busy year, and to share all their accomplishments, they played a video of an Italian family on the receiving end of all the travelers we’re sending them. While subtitles are necessary if you don’t speak Italian, this fun report from Rich and Rhonda in our marketing department illustrates the impact our passion for making sure our travelers have a rich cultural experience is having on Europeans. As I like to be unguarded and candid here on my blog, I thought I’d give you this insider’s glimpse at what’s new with us and our impact on Europe.

The Italian folks we eavesdrop on here are girding for more American visitors than ever as they frantically discuss our new 100-show DVD anthology, our new tour catalog, the new website we are constructing, the joy of being able to stream our lectures online, and the new “unguided” option our My Way tours offer.

We broke from our annual huddle with each of us determined to help as many Americans as possible enjoy maximum travel thrills per mile, minute, and dollar in 2013… even if it might overwhelm our Italian friends.

Happy travels and buon viaggio!

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

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Washington DC, Part 2: It’s My Hollywood

George Washington said that America’s most important challenge and accomplishment was “not the election of the first president, but the election of its second president.” The peaceful transfer or extension of power is a blessing. Last weekend, I traveled across our country — from our first president’s namesake state to his namesake city — to celebrate it.

With about a million gathered for Obama’s second inauguration, this could be considered a front-row seat.

The inauguration festivities were a thrill. While expensive, exhausting, and time-consuming, the journey was worth it. My son once told me it was worth two days of travel just to see Lance Armstrong speed by on an alpine stretch of the Tour de France. The same was true for us to be on Pennsylvania Avenue to watch our President and First Lady get out of their armored limo and walk hand-in-hand, waving at so many enthralled Americans… including my partner Trish and me.

We waited an hour for security at our parade bleachers, and this sight made it worth the shivers. (All photos by Trish Feaster; for more, see www.thetravelphile.com)

We dressed up and attended what must be the biggest ball ever thrown. The DC convention center opened up all its collapsible walls, and more than two football fields of floor space was absolutely jammed. We muscled our way close to the pastel patriotic stage to hear John Legend, the cast of Glee, Stevie Wonder, and Soundgarden — and to watch the second couple, Joe and Jill Biden, dance to a Jamie Foxx serenade. (The line was so long, we missed the President and First Lady.)

This shows only about a third of the floor at the Inauguration Ball. Don’t lose your partner.

But for us, the highlights were the smaller events. Being a good partisan and a co-sponsor of our winning bill to legalize marijuana in my state gave me VIP status for the weekend. My senator, Maria Cantwell, took me as her guest to a big-ticket fundraiser at the mansion of a former ambassador. She introduced me to seven senators as “the man behind Washington State’s drug policy reform law.” I met Senators Tom Harkin (Iowa), Jon Tester (Montana), Bob Casey (Pennsylvania), Bernie Sanders (Vermont), and even Chuck Schumer (New York).

Thrilled to meet Senator Schumer, I held out my hand, and before I could say, “I’m a fan,” he said, “I love your guidebooks. We just traveled with you through Italy and had a marvelous trip.” I gave him my card, and the next day I got a call from him sharing a tip on a good restaurant in Florence. Later, along with the rest of America, I watched him introduce President Obama at the inauguration. A staffer told me, “Washington is my Hollywood.” I felt the same way.

I also went to the new Bread for the World offices and huddled with 40 or so religious leaders in the USA. Jim Wallis (of Sojourners magazine), David Beckmann (president of Bread for the World), Reverend Mark Hanson (the Presiding Bishop of my Lutheran Church) were all there, along with Gene Sperling (Obama’s principal economic advisor). We discussed the “circle of protection” we are advocating to spare our nation’s most vulnerable citizens from cuts in the federal budget. Great public servants took turns talking about how we must find “common ground for the common good” and how, “in these times, protecting gains for the hungry has the same value as winning those gains in the first place.” To be with a room full of committed leaders passionate about our fiscal soul, rather than afraid of our fiscal cliff, was an inspiration.

Inaugurations bring lots of people together. Lutherans don’t have a Pope, but we have a Presiding Bishop, Reverend Mark Hanson.

Mr. Sperling congratulated Bread for the World and Sojourners as the only voices for the voiceless in the lobbyist-infested world of Congress. He noted how, because of their hard and effective work, even after several trillion dollars of necessary cuts to government programs, the “circle of protection” they declared around our country’s poorest citizens has survived so far essentially unscathed.

Flying home on Alaska’s wonderful direct five-hour flight from DC to Seattle, the newly elected governor of Washington State, Jay Inslee, was asleep in seat 21A behind me. Thinking he’s likely tired after his meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder to discuss how the Department of Justice will respond to our marijuana law, I’m thankful I live in a nation where engaged citizens can actually take part in their government. And I’m thankful we have a government that is filled with real people who, as far as I can tell, work hard for us and really care.

It’s my hope, perhaps helped by a little inspiration that comes from considering the amazing story of our nation, that together we can indeed find common ground for the common good.