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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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Earning Democracy in Iran

A year after our Iran TV special aired, I still get feedback from Iranians in America thankful for our public television work. Now, as the protests in Iran persist, our government is encouraged to get more involved. Who knows the best action for the Iranian people? But my strong hunch is that Iranians need to earn their freedom (as France, the USA, and South Africa all did), and support in spirit from the USA is the most we should give. I believe (given the power of modern government propaganda) that concrete action in their support from the USA would actually hurt the students on the street. They would then be discredited as puppets of the USA, and a groundswell of politically naive and frightened Iranians would crush them.

 The following letter, which I just received (and appears here with all its charming typos intact), gives a touching insight into the spirit I felt while in Iran. It is the spirit of a grassroots movement hungry for freedom.

Hi Rick,

My name is amir. I born in Isfahan on 1974 and I came to US. on 2001. It was too hard to get immigration visa and come to your beautiful and toppest country in the world. We went to Dubai and then Abu dhabi to get visa and I was so excited to see an American flag hangs on the building. I was excited to see inside the Embassy also. I got black stamp in my passport and crying that I couldn’t get it. it was for 2000. on 2001 we went to istanbul and then Ankara and I saw American big flag that moving with breeze and hang on the building and we can not see american flag that hangs in Iran. I came to us and we landed in seattle first and i was so excited. we are walking in u.s. land finally. on the first trip on 2004 i saw American embassy again in Tehran and I saw those ad on the walls again. we are tired to violence to America and American Flag. Say new dialog. it is not only just my opinion not. it is many Iranian voice. We can not change many things but we are try.

For this christmas I got your dvd iran and I didnt belive that one of my American friend give it to me as a gift. I watched it 3 time and I cry…

I will go back to Isfahan on march Also I will buy your dvd and give it to my American friends.

we Love Americans sorry if sometimes in iran say something or violence to American flag. On 4th july I saw that howmuch Americans love their flag and in Iran they burn American flag.

sorry -we get shy to see that

amir 35 years -california

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A Hundred Suggested New Year’s Travel Resolutions

Last week I posted this. We sent it to our general list and we’ve had a great response. I thought you might enjoy another look at ways we can all travel well in 2010. Peruse the comments…add your own if so moved:

OK travelers, it’s time for New Year’s resolutions. In 2010, in my travels I will strive to maximize the experience these ways:

• In small towns, villages, and rural settings, take my last glass of wine away from the restaurant and enjoy it in the elements under the stars — in whichever corner of Europe I’m enjoying.

• Stretch 10 minutes a day so all my exercise will feel good rather than just tighten me up.

• Eat at the counter in market eateries to season the meal with all that local action.

• Order more adventurously to delve more deeply into regional cuisine and treats of the season.

• Drink more — and work less — late at night.

• Take time to talk with more people — both locals and tourists.

• Refuse to let small-minded victims of 24/7 news and media-stoked fear shrink my worldview.

• Buy clothes on the road and wear them.

• Take more photos with my tiny pocket tripod.

• Make music a bigger part of my travels.

• Embrace technology more vigorously in the interest of using my time smarter, capturing experiences, and then amplifying tales of the fun I’ve had — and the lessons I’ve learned — to others.

Please share your resolutions so we can all enjoy happier and more rewarding travels in the New Year. And best wishes to all in 2010.

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Shirelles Fight Fear

In last week’s blog list of New Year’s Travel Resolutions, I pledged that I would “refuse to let small-minded victims of 24/7 news shrink my worldview.” A few days later, at a New Year’s Eve party, I finally found a way to enjoy Fox News.

The TV was running without the volume, and we were listening to early-1960s girl groups like the Shirelles and the Supremes. Watching the Fox talking heads–popping up in various boxes, hands busy helping make their points, the visuals were amazingly in sync with the playful party-and-heartache lyrics of the songs. It was an absolute delight. (If you make a Supremes channel with your Pandora app, then listen to it while watching Fox News on mute, you’ll be there.) I guess it was particularly enjoyable because, even without hearing a word they were mouthing, I knew the “newscasters” were sowing fear while the audio track was celebrating life.

Older people seem most vulnerable to the 24/7 news fear-mongering. A week ago, a loved one called me up. He was almost breathless, saying that 283 Americans were nearly blown up by a terrorist. I pointed out that, while the thwarted attack could have been tragic, on that same day, 20,000 children around the world actually died because of bad water and no immunizations.

With the failed attempt to blow up a plane last week, blankets on laps and trips to the toilet are now suspect on flights. Egged on by our hysterical media, we’re fixated on a risk we can never completely rid ourselves of. But that’s not news: The Department of Homeland Security has kept our airports at code orange (“high risk”) for the last three years straight.

The irony is that those most obsessed with the risk of terrorism are the ones empowering the terrorists…whose purpose, after all, is to frighten us. The people who need to travel the most are the ones whose worldview is shaped not by actually going places, but by 24/7 news coverage. And those news stations are peddling fear for profit. If it bleeds, it leads…and a thwarted terrorist attack at Christmas, if properly stoked and prodded, can turn into several days of huge ratings.

Last night, I enjoyed dinner with a 20-year-old who recently spent an exciting week in Cuba. He was filled with stories…and wisdom. Now he’s planning to learn Arabic in Syria. The University of Damascus offers Arabic courses to English-speakers for free. The US Department of State warns that Syria is unsafe for travel, and our media is shouting about how dangerous our skies have become. But, inspired to learn a new language, experience a foreign culture, and meet the Syrian people, my young friend is ignoring all of those risks. He’s way too young to be listening to the Shirelles. Why is he not afraid?

Here’s to less fear in 2010.

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A Christmas Greeting from Rick

For me, Christmas is more than a beautiful time of year.
It’s a powerful time of year.
We’re reminded of our humanity —
the hows and whys of our lives.
We’re reminded — whether we like it or not —
of the rich blessings of friends and family.
We’re reminded of triumphs and failures, gains and losses
in our families, communities, and world.
I think we’re blessed, thrilled, nagged, or annoyed
by the story of the first Christmas
and the presence of our maker in our lives.
For me, with the grey blanket of a Seattle winter solstice as a backdrop, I become more keenly aware of my blessings
and the importance of taking time to survey and appreciate the things that combine to make our reality.
While things get revved up at holiday time,
celebrate the silence, too.
When silence strikes, make it a gift.
Have a wonderful holiday.
I hope you can make it one you’ll long remember
warmly and happily.

Merry Christmas
May 2009 be looked upon as a springboard for a wonderful 2010

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I Got a Bad Case of Botticelli. And I’m Not Alone.

As we prepare to host our tour guides in early January, I was thinking about how deeply rooted our tour program’s passion for teaching culture is. It actually goes back to the only other job I’ve ever had…piano teacher. That was back in the day when I hand-drew coupons for a maple bar at the corner bakery as an incentive for a well-prepared lesson.

I’ve always taught what I loved. I spent my high school years as a piano teacher. I was known among parents in my community for taking boys with tear-stained cheeks to my piano bench, starting them out with boogies and pop songs, and eventually getting them turned on to Bach and Beethoven.

I had a piano studio with a recital hall. In 1980, while I was teaching a piano lesson, a truck dropped off 2,500 copies of my first guidebook — Europe Through the Back Door. I had no idea then that those 256 typewritten pages multiplied by 2,500 would provide the teaching foundation of everything we’ve done since.

During that year’s Christmas recital, some parents sat on boxes of travel guidebooks while their kids played their carols, boogies, and Bach. By the next Christmas, I had let my piano students go. People were still sitting on boxes of guidebooks, but now that recital hall was a travel lecture hall — and students were preparing not for their sonatas, but for their European adventures.

From that point on, I would be teaching European culture off the keyboard…to smart people who thought Toscanini was a pasta and Botticelli was an intestinal problem.

For 25 years, I led our tours while apprenticing our tour guides — sharing ways I had developed to help people who’d never considered writing a poem, to do just that (at least in their mind), while in the presence of Europe’s cultural wonders. We carry on that passion-for-teaching tradition to this day, and that’s one big reason why, on January 14, we’re flying fifty of our guides to our headquarters here in Edmonds, where — on the same street where I taught piano — we now teach travel. (See our website for details on the public dimensions of this festival.)

I know our tour guides teach an appreciation of European art and culture in the same fun and inspirational way I strove to. And that’s one reason why I know anyone hopping on a Rick Steves’ Europe bus tour this next season will enjoy glissandos of rich memories and trills of travel joy.