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
It’s pledge season again. Across the nation, public television and radio stations are reminding their viewers that non-commercial broadcasting “is possible only with support from viewers like you.” KQED in San Francisco is one of our nation’s top stations, and I really like flying down to do travel marathons with them, as I have for the last 15 years. With this clip, you can see the action from my seat during an actual break. (We’re nearly done, and my co-host, Greg Sherwood, is just wrapping up the break, thanking volunteers and groups that helped out.) There are three cameras, a floor director, a table full of gifts to fondle, a room full of volunteers hoping to answer lots of phone calls, and my co-host and me. We ad lib it back and forth for about 12 minutes per break, with video “roll-ins” showing off the gifts and reviewing the thank-you packages. It was exciting for me, because this is the first time I’ve seen our new series actually broadcast. And better yet, even though we were up against the San Francisco Giants in Game 3 of the World Series, the phones were ringing like mad. In a good six hours of travel like we did last Saturday, we raise about $80,000 for the station.
In Europe, they dispense with all this, figuring it’s worthwhile and more efficient just to have the government pay for it with tax dollars. In the USA, we do it this way — in a hundred such stations across the country. Either way, I’m thankful people recognize the value of having one place on the dial that treats its viewers as citizens rather than as customers, and broadcasts high-minded and challenging programming.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
Last week, I squeezed in a quick trip to New York City to give three talks at an industry conference hosted by Visit Britain (the national tourist board for Great Britain). In order to fit the event into my schedule, I had to sleep on the plane and give my first talk in a pretty disheveled state of mind. The impressive conference was run to the minute with a frantic series of 12-minute, one-on-one meetings at little tables where tour wholesalers tried to sell their products (hotels, tours, experiences) to retailers (travel agents). The energy in the room was intense. I was hired to provide three breaks over two days, giving 30-minute talks on Great Culture in Britain, Great Heritage in Britain, and Great Nature in Britain. It was a bit unnerving to give my talks to a room full of professionals — half of whom were actually British — but it turned out just fine. I accepted the gig on the condition that I could talk candidly about what I really like and don’t like about Britain, and I think the crowd actually found that refreshing. But I was cornered by the Birmingham promoter, who wondered why I never mentioned her city.
In any event, here’s a quick look behind the scenes of the mainstream travel industry.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
My travels have been in-state lately — bringing a European sensibility toward drug policy to my neighbors.
I’ve just returned from my ten-cities-in-seven-days, state-wide road trip. From the East to the West, conservative and liberal Washingtonians are learning that I-502 — which will legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana for adult use — is not pro-pot. It is anti-Prohibition, pro-public safety, creates a better situation for children, actually makes our roads safer, and undercuts a vast black market industry — all while raising some serious money for our state.
I care about this for lots of good citizenship reasons. Watch this video to see highlights of my talk in Spokane last week at the Bing Crosby Theater. (B-B-B-Bing, by the way, enjoyed the responsible adult use of marijuana quite famously.) This is an important issue. It’s on track to win in our state, and I’d love a chance to explain to you the case for I-502.
Please watch the video and check out my editorial. And, one way or another…please vote! Thanks.
If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.
Today marks the 1-year anniversary of the devastating floods and mudslides that ripped through the Cinque Terre villages of Monterosso and Vernazza, burying their streets under as much as 12 feet of mud and debris. I have written about this disaster before, and more recently about each village’s remarkable recovery. Today I’d like to tell you a different side of that story — what happened to a group of travelers we had in Vernazza and Monterosso on that day one year ago, and how their tour guide’s hard work and focus helped them get through the crisis safely.
Our “Heart of Italy” tour’s free day in the Cinque Terre is normally devoted to hiking the scenic trail that connects the five coastal villages running from Riomaggiore to Monterosso. On the morning of the disaster, because of rain, guide Karin Kibby (pictured) and her group of 28 hopped on the train from Monterosso to Vernazza, where Karin arranged a tasty cannoli treat for everyone. As the rain poured down more heavily and ankle-deep water began rushing down Vernazza’s main street, some of the group decided to remain in Vernazza to wait out the storm, while the other 20 or so, along with Karin, chose to take the short train ride back to their hotels in Monterosso.
As is common with our tours staying in the Cinque Terre, this group was split between two hotels — the Villa Steno, up the hill from the train station, and the Pasquale (owned by the same family), located closer to the beach. By the time the train pulled into Monterosso, water was rushing down the hill fast and deep enough to block the path to the Villa Steno. Everyone ended up wading “downstream” to the Pasquale.
As the rain kept coming, stronger and stronger, Karin and her soaking-wet tour members sat in the hotel’s breakfast room, watching the water rise higher outside. Before long, a stream pushed its way in through the doorway, flooding the room. The group moved up, first to the stairway, then to the hotel’s upper floor. The power went out, and everything was plunged into darkness.
As tour member Paul Moss put it, “There’s something about extreme stress that can undo a person’s language skills.” The hotel’s staff, frantically coping with a situation that had gone from inconvenient to dangerous, gave up on English, and spoke with Karin in rapid-fire Italian. Their first concern, according to Paul, was something he’ll never forget: “None of us knew how bad the situation could get, but it was deteriorating rapidly and it had to be heartbreaking for the owners of the hotel, watching their investment and community being devastated. And at that moment they turn to Karin and tell her they are worried about not having enough clean sheets for everyone who will need to spend the night in shared rooms. All they cared about was the welfare of their guests! If that isn’t a WOW moment, I don’t know what is.”
The group was cold, wet and stranded — without power, food or plumbing. Half of them had none of their belongings, as their bags were still up the hill at the Villa Steno. And four were still somewhere in Vernazza. It was a situation ripe for fear, frustration and anger, but Karin’s leadership made all the difference. As one tour member put it, “Karin was literally our ‘port in the storm.’ I know how stressful our situation was for her. I believe that what kept us all calm and in control was our confidence in her abilities.”
Throughout the night and into the next morning, Karin kept in touch — in-person and via cell phone — with police, emergency workers, people at the train station, and our office in Edmonds, relayed constant updates to tour members, and made sure people had everything they needed. Early the next morning, she even led a commando-style mission of several volunteers, climbing over fences and rooftops (evading police who might delay them) to retrieve tour members’ luggage from the dark and abandoned Villa Steno up the hill. Once they had what they’d come for, they could more boldly (and safely) return via the streets, which were about six feet higher than normal, packed with mud and debris. Then, discovering they hadn’t gotten quite everything, Karin scrambled back up the hill.
Soon after returning, Karin gathered everyone up and led them to a special evacuation boat, which she had learned about as a result of her constant contact with everyone who could possibly be of help to her group. The boat, packed with shivering, exhausted travelers and locals, made its way through the debris-filled sea to the Vernazza breakwater, where the four “lost” members of her group (who’d made it through their own ordeal) awaited rescue. They were thrilled to see Karin at the bow of the approaching boat, waving her arms to welcome them.
One tour member summed up his feelings about Karin Kibby this way: “Karin is simply amazing — helpful, knowledgeable, smart, interesting, clear, personable and friendly under normal circumstances — calm, level-headed, even-tempered, confident, and decisive when everything is going to hell around her. I’ve known very few people like her in my life, and it was a genuine privilege both to have her as a tour guide, and to be caught in a disaster with her.”
One year later, Vernazza and Monterosso are nearly back to normal, the Villa Steno and Pasquale hotels are filled with happy guests, and Karin Kibby is a hero to a special group of Rick Steves travelers — including Rick Steves.
All over the world, hoteliers are paying to be part of the TripAdvisor universe. Here, friends in Venice proudly show off their TripAdvisor certificate.
In my last few years of European guidebook research, it’s increasingly impossible to ignore a new power on the block: TripAdvisor. Many guidebook mainstays have faded, and now small hotels and restaurants can be made or broken by their TripAdvisor rankings. While I am still committed to finding, evaluating, and listing the best hotels for my travelers in Europe, I expect that in the future, fewer people will rely on guidebook listings for their hotels and more will use online services.
I never even visited TripAdvisor.com until a few months ago. Considering the power it wields over so many of my hotel and restaurant friends in Europe, I was curious. It is, admittedly, an impressive collection of reviews from travelers. But anyone can submit feedback, and my hunch is that a significant percentage of them are by friends of enemies of the place being reviewed. I find more and more small hotels offering a free breakfast to people who promise to write kindly about them on TripAdvisor. Conversely, several hoteliers have told me that occasionally guests threaten them with a bad review unless the hotel gives them a deep discount.
I also have serious doubts about TripAdvisor’s restaurant rankings, which reflect the tastes of tourist reviewers rather than local foodies — and therefore skew toward glitzy, obvious places rather than good-value, authentic, hidden alternatives. (If you’re not convinced, see how your favorite restaurants in your hometown stack up on TripAdvisor.)
While it can be helpful to look over TripAdvisor’s hotel and restaurant listings, I wouldn’t rely on them blindly. On the other hand, I’ve found the most helpful categories are those listing tours, sightseeing experiences, and entertainment. When in Salzburg, I clicked around the TripAdvisor reviews to survey the many little outfits doing Sound of Music tours. And from TripAdvisor, I learned that the big shot who owns Red Bull (the energy drink) has an ego-boosting space at the Salzburg Airport (called “Hangar-7”) where he displays his hot cars and fancy personal airplanes, viewable by the public for free.
For me, the most interesting dimension is the huge impact TripAdvisor and other Web booking services are having on hotels all around the world. Hoteliers in Europe have told me they see all marketing these days as two branches: publicity (traditional ads) and recommendation (TripAdvisor). They know that a good TripAdvisor ranking can make their business — and a few bad reviews can sink them. They’re awed and terrified by the power of this one website.
As “recommendation marketing” becomes the dominant force, powers in that arena are jockeying for position. The rise of TripAdvisor goes hand-in-hand with the new power of booking services like Booking.com, Venere.com, Hotels.com, and Expedia.com. All of these services pay to have a link on TripAdvisor. That way, when people search hotels on TripAdvisor, they simply click through to reserve — not directly with the hotel, but through the booking agency (which the hotel must pay a commission).
If you own a small hotel needing to rent rooms via the Internet, you now feel like things are out of your control. To be listed by any of these services, hotels are pressured to pay fees, additional fees for good placement and photos, plus even more fees to allow travelers to book rooms directly. A “parity clause” requires hotels not to advertise or sell rooms for less than the price promoted on these booking sites. While a few hotels refuse to be controlled by online booking services (and don’t play the Internet booking service game), most find it’s the only way to stay in business.
I’ve talked to hoteliers who are trying to migrate to Facebook, where they can sell rooms outside of the booking-site commission racket. To get around the “parity clause,” they are creating clubs where members can get “fan rates.” Even if this works for them now, the hotels fear that Facebook is just waiting for them to do the hard innovation work…and then Facebook will come in, co-opt the business, and extort their own charges and fees. (By the way, Europeans trying to get into the social media swing find Facebook viable for reaching American adults, while it attracts a younger clientele in Europe.)
Now Google is getting into the mix and positioning itself to be the default way to book a room. Hotels report that Google is dropping by to film 360-degree views of their places. European hoteliers told me they worry that Google may soon threaten to make everyone play by its rules for placement in searches.
In short, European hoteliers tell me that if you’re an investor, pull out of TripAdvisor and invest in Google and Facebook. That’s where they predict the next power will reside.
So, in a nutshell, as a community of travelers, we are enjoying new recommendation and booking services — but, whether hotels like it or not, we are all paying 20 percent more than before for our accommodations. This money is not going to the hotels, but to Internet companies.
What’s your take on Trip Advisor as a source of information for your European travels? Have you enjoyed good experiences through TripAdvisor, or do you find the rankings biased? When you book a hotel, what do you find the best method?
