Rick Steves’ Travel Blog

I was recently asked to review trends I’ve seen in recent years in European travel. Here are a few thoughts:

Our guidebooks and tours are selling better than ever. Tourism to Europe is up. And so are airfares, add-on flight fees, and the costs of changing your ticket. Good luck here!

Electronic communication is revolutionizing things: Disposable mobile phones, cheap and easy Wi-Fi availability, and so on, have changed the way we travel. Just try to find a pay phone in Europe these days. (Calling someone on Skype over a Wi-Fi connection is both cheaper and easier than paying to use a phone.)

It’s predicted that by the end of 2011, half of all American mobile phone users will have smartphones (compared to just 10 percent in 2008). My hunch about why Apple features little old us in their iPhone ads is that they want people to perceive their iPod Touch and iPhone as essential travel tools (and our content-loaded Rick Steves Audio Europe™ app makes a strong case for exactly that). As more people travel with smartphones, there will be more handy apps.

Of all the royalties I get for my guidebook sales, ebook proceeds make up only about 5 percent. But this will change rapidly in coming years. More and more sights are sharing a digital look at themselves for online viewers. Google’s new Art Project lets you take a virtual tour of some of the world’s top museums, including the Uffizi in Florence, the Palace of Versailles near Paris, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, and the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Even the staid Vatican City has gotten in on the act, with their heavenly, online, interactive look at the Sistine Chapel.

Europe’s increasingly common chip-and-PIN system for purchases, which requires users to insert a pre-loaded card with an embedded microchip and key in a PIN, is frustrating American travelers (whose banks are sticking with the magnetic-strip credit cards). Don’t fret about this, though. For now, the chip-and-PIN system is used mostly for convenience machines (e.g., automated gas stations, ticket machines, parking meters, and tollbooths). Merchants, ATMs, and hotels have no problem with your magnetic strip. (Still, to avoid potential frustrations, it’s handier than ever to use cash.)

As Europe has united, the rich countries have brought along the poor ones (like Greece, Ireland, and Portugal), creating a false affluence. And apparently, it doesn’t work. Because the relatively poor-performing countries are locked into the euro, they can’t make macro adjustments by docking their workers’ wages with a devalued currency. I believe that’s why these countries are in a more serious crisis (and need to be continuously bailed out by Germany and company) than the rest of Europe. How will that impact the traveler? It won’t, really. I wouldn’t look for any deals. And I wouldn’t worry about demonstrations. Instead, I’d simply anticipate demonstrations in the streets of Europe for years to come. It’s a healthy thing. It’s how those democracies vent. As their politicians force their economies into reality (cutting back on promised entitlements, as when Sarkozy raised the French retirement age from 60 to 62), workers will march. That’s just way too much exercise for Americans…who’d rather just go home and find a TV station that affirms their frustrations.

Europe’s cities are becoming more pedestrian- and bike-friendly. (Paris’ borrow-a-bike system, called Vélib’, is a model; London, Brussels, Vienna, and many others are following suit.) Some cities levy a congestion fee, charging almost any traffic for entering the old center. Many tourists don’t understand, drive into traffic-free zones, and end up with pricey tickets added onto their car rental bills. Learn the local signs that help you avoid this inconvenient expense.

Some sightseeing news: The biggest construction site in Europe is for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where Blue Badge guides lead cheap, fascinating tours of the ongoing work. In Paris, the Orsay Museum plans to re-open its top-floor Impressionist area this fall after a long and extensive renovation. At the Vatican, they’re in the process of moving Pope John Paul II’s remains from the crypt up to a more prime spot in St. Peter’s Basilica. (By the way, on May 1, JPII is being beatified ‘ the final step before sainthood. The festivities will clog Rome with visitors and fill its hotels for days.)

I’m heading off for two months of travel (guidebook research and TV production ‘ mostly in Italy and Turkey) in a couple of weeks, and can hardly wait. Stay tuned for lots of travel insights and fun.

Someone recently asked me why I write. We all have pastimes. I don’t knit or follow sports. I don’t do crossword puzzles. I can’t play cribbage. But I do write. I journal (just for myself) when I’m going through tough personal times. I write poems (to my partner) when I’m in love. I write editorials for neighbors who might benefit from my worldview on political issues (and, therefore, vote the way I do). And as a travel writer, I share travel experiences in hopes that people blessed with the opportunity to explore our world can minimize the expense and maximize the experience by learning from my mistakes rather than their own. Writing is my pastime…and my passion.

Why else do I write? Let me count the metaphors…

Writing unleashes the child in me. It’s how I enthuse. I’m having so much fun in my corner of life, I want others to come out and play. It’s like the wide-eyed innocence of a third-grader during show-and-tell. “Wow, this is neat. Check it out!”

Writing also channels the hunter-gatherer in me. I go out, shoot an idea, bring it home, fillet it, and cook it up to be consumed by people I care about. Sometimes I just want to serve up some tasty intellectual nourishment.

And occasionally, when we are under attack, I need to blow a trumpet from the ramparts with my pen, warning, “All hands on deck!” or “Duck!”

Writing gives expression to the artist in me. Ideas are my palette. The English language, which I have such a respect for, is my brush. And your brain is my canvas. The beauty of my creation is a matter of the way I design and present the ideas.

Writing forces me to gather my thoughts and design them for public consumption. Just like many people enjoy going out on the town, but would never do so without tucking in their shirt and combing their hair, I want to share ideas, but wouldn’t do it without being presentable. I like my ideas to be put together well. (The best book I’ve read on writing well is just that: On Writing Well by William Zinsser.)

So, like the old man whittles, I polish my writing. With each pass, I whittle it into a tighter, more effective piece of communication. Illuminating ideas get lost in the din of shrill discourse dominating our society today. It’s fun to find ways to cut through that din. In the arena of ideas, how well you write determines the strength and sharpness of your sword.

I believe strongly in the value of what I have to say as a travel writer: In Europe, there are two IQs of travelers: those who wait in lines, and those who don’t. If you have less than a month in England, don’t visit both Cambridge and Oxford; see one or the other…and Cambridge is better. I believe that bringing home a broader perspective is the best souvenir. And I believe that there’s too much fear in our society these days, and fear is for people who don’t get out much.

I can share these ideas verbally. But by writing, I amplify my voice. I believe traveling in an efficient and meaningful way is worthwhile, and I want to share these ideas with as many people as possible. In my work, I measure profit in terms of “GTI” ‘ gross trips impacted. By writing well, I increase my GTI. That’s success.

But I also write to make money…so please buy my books. (And happy travels.)

We are having fun releasing our new smartphone app. On its first day on the iTunes App Store, Rick Steves Audio Europe climbed to about #12 on the list of free travel apps. (The competitor in me is dying to crack the top ten.) Because our app is so easy to use, so full of helpful information, and entirely free, we have high hopes to make it a standard pack-along for any thoughtful Europe-bound traveler.

My initial blog entry about the app got piles of encouraging comments from iPhone and iPod Touch users…and just as many people asking when it will be available for the Android platform. The people who designed our iPhone app are busily working on the Android version, which they expect to have ready within a month.

This weekend, the LA Times is including our app on its list of top Europe travel apps. And when something appears in the LA Times, it pops up in other papers across the USA. We’re pulling out all the publicity stops to help this app get into electronic orbit.

While the app’s major feature is all of our audio tours covering the big museums, palaces, and neighborhood walks in London, Paris, Venice, Florence, and Rome (with Athens coming up in a couple of weeks), there are also dozens of interviews in the country-specific playlists that will add to your enjoyment of your next trip. And in case you haven’t noticed, the app also has a playlist called “Notable Travelers,” with a collection of fascinating conversations I enjoyed with people such as Greg Mortenson, Salman Rushdie, David Sedaris, Tony Wheeler, Arthur Frommer, Elizabeth Gilbert, Frances Mayes, and Bill Bryson.

Please let your traveling friends know about this, and check it out yourself if you can. This app is just a wonderful way to organize interviews from our public radio program archive and other audio files to make sure this trip-enhancing info is easy to use and access in a way that fits your next itinerary.

I’m excited to announce the release of my new app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch ‘ Rick Steves Audio Europe™. It organizes my vast library of audio files ‘ self-guided tours and radio interviews ‘ into country-specific playlists covering all of Europe. Over a year in the making, this free tool is impressive not in its complexity but in its simplicity. It doesn’t rob your attention forcing you to look at a little screen. It makes you smart as you look directly at, and become immersed in, the artistic and cultural wonders of Europe. I can’t tell you how this new tool thrills the tour guide in me. It’s so easy your grandmother can use it. The files live on your mobile device so you can listen to it anywhere, any time with no roaming charges. And it’s free.

Rick Steves Audio Europe will save you hundreds of dollars in guided tour expenses. It’ll save you lots of time. And it’ll make your sightseeing both fun and meaningful. Learn more by watching my video demo and then download the app from the App Store. You can learn more on my website at www.ricksteves.com/audioeurope. Don’t let your friends go to Europe without it.

And fear not! We’re busily working on an Android version. Stay tuned…it’s on its way.

Happier travels!

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