How did you get to the RS forum?

My first RS book was “Europe Through the Back Door” and we also discovered the fall festival in Edmunds which was about a year before our first trip. I think we went to the festival in 2009 and our first trip was in 2010. The book, visiting HQ, the seminars, and finally to the Forum (then called the Helpline and Italy was “To the boot!”). The first year I mostly lurked and read lots of prior posts.

We first encountered Rick in the late seventies , when our PBS station in NY was airing his original " Travels in Europe " series . Then , it seemed a distant , inaccessible dream . Never stopped hoping , and in our September years , it became a reality . I started looking at the website around 2009 , and began posting as we began to travel in 2010 .

Through his TV shows on PBS

We did alot of traveling 30 plus years ago. Italy and France each twice plus the Orient. Back then I painstakingly used the Michelin guides for food and lodging---had a ton of fun planning. Our last trip to Italy was 2 years ago and planned in 4 months. I picked up the Rick Steves guidebook at the library and did a crash course on the places we wanted to go. I had no idea there was even a Rick Steves forum and my daughter found ridiculously cheap tickets so I ended up getting a travel agent to help with the trip since we were in a time crunch. In my research I found the forum but it was too late to really utilize the forum. Now, though, it is my morning website to enjoy my coffee and dream. Hoping to go to Sicily or Spain next.

I have no idea

Not sure, but I learned of Rick some time ago from my local library. His PBS shows of VHS. Then his guide books, then his YouTubes and somewhere from there to here.

I had a few trips under my belt before finding RS, and it was awhile after that that I started participating on the forum. I think I was using Frommers forum way back then. Our 2010 trip to Northern Italy and Austria was helped immeasurably by folks on this forum and I have stuck around ever since.

I have no idea

Honesty is the best policy, Uncle Gus!

As for me, I joined the forum around the time of my first RS tour in 2006 (my first post appears to have been in 2007). I watched the shows on PBS for years...as I am from the Northwest, he's a pretty big fixture on our public television station. I continue to use this venue because of the (mostly) supportive participants and similar approach to travel.

CL I think what may have happened was that someone on Trip Advisor asked if I would go to Rick Steves Czech Republic Forum and help someone out , at that time there were few people making contributions there.lot better now though.

First became aware of Rick Steves in the 1990s when I was working on political campaigns after graduation from college. Checked his books out from the library and we’d all watch his show on PBS. He books seemed one step above the shoestring travel that I’d read about in Let’s Go. I found these forums around 2012 or so but basically lurked. I’ve been a lot more active the past couple of years.

My brother became interested in light packing and was on a small forum on that topic. One of the members there mentioned he was doing a light packing seminar at his local library which happened to be in a small town near us so we went. He must have mentioned the RS forum so I found my way here from him.

How many of you remember Rick Steves’ “Graffiti Wall” which predated the Forum?

yosemite1- I do remember the graffiti wall! I think that's when I first became interested in following all the various incarnations of what has become the "forum". I appreciate all the worthwhile information and the contributions I find here. It has been invaluable in my trip/tour research and definitely (mostly) fun and informative to read. Some of the more recent posts and replies are just downright laugh-out-loud!

Yes - books - TV show - tour - website.
There used to be a bookstore here in Kansas City that dealt only in travel books. In the early "80s I would go and browse the piles of discounted books they sold. I picked up a copy of his first book (I think) "Europe in 22 Days" or something like that. I enjoyed the style and the (to me) fresh ideas on how to travel independently and frugally. Years later, I made the connection of the author to the PBS (public television) series that I started watching, and eventually started accumulating more of his books. I came to the website much later (in the 2000s) as we (older then) became interested in trying a tour. The forum (and its predecessors) became a source of entertainment. A lurker for several years, before asking some questions.

We've also observed that a lot of people on the tours aren't aware of the forum or even the TV show. Word of mouth brings people in.

After using RS books to travel for years and years, and watching RS shows with my Mom who (now) prefers to travel from the comfort of her armchair, Dad and brother took an RS tour last summer. (Brother declared he would never travel to Europe any other way!) They mentioned the forum to me.

Back in the late nineties, a friend invited me to a RS talk at the center in Edmonds, WA. I lived in the area at the time, so I went and was dutifully impressed! I had only been to Europe once at that point.
Like Chania, I discovered this forum first and after reading how great the tours are, we are taking our first one in 2 weeks. Now, we also get the guidebooks too and we love the PBS shows.

Met my wife at a public TV auction where we both volunteered at the auction and at pledge drives. Part of the specials we ran during those were the original Rick Steves pledge drive specials.

This is a few years ago.

Long story short, we wound up moving back to the UK and what we had seen inspired us to do a lot more European travel. Got a whole load of VHS tapes. Read and used the books. We had a cup of coffee at the same place as Rick Steves in Paris - pure coincidence - and thanked him for helping us with Europe.

When we got home I sought out the Rick Steves website and came across first the Graffiti Wall and the the Helpline. I decided I could pass on some of the knowledge and started answering questions. And asking a few.

Now all my VHS is gone, and most of the many DVDs too since it is so easy on this website to find the exact show I need.

I thought I would look back at when I started posting but I have found that my history only goes back to 2007. I know I was around here at least 5 years before that.

6 years ago all I knew about RS was that he was that nerdy guy on TV. That Fall we booked a Mediterranean cruise. I was checking out a book store for travel guides and came across the RS books. I had no idea he had books. Loved his style of guide books and have been using them since. But until about 2 years ago I had no idea he had a website or offered tours. My wife heard about his tours from a friend and we ordered a brochure. Still no idea about the website or Forum. Discovered the website last summer when we booked a tour, it wasn't until this time when I created an account that I really became familiar with the website and the forum. Been checking it out ever since and I think it was about that time that I began participating.

I watched the RS programs on PBS before I had the opportunity to start traveling to Europe. I made my first trip in 2006 and thought it would be my one and only trip there. I will be making my 10th trip next month. For that first trip I bought RS books and lurked on the Helpline. I've never taken a tour, RS or otherwise. Like Nigel, my history only shows back to 2007. I know I was on the Graffiti Wall/Helpline before that.

I'd been watching RS on PBS and reading his books since the 90's when I was planning my first trips to Europe. Those trips were on group tours (not RS tours) but I used his suggestions and advice when deciding which tour to take and to plan my free time on those tours. I don't exactly remember what brought me to the 'helpline', probably a google search in 2008/9 when starting to plan my first solo trip to Europe. I was 2 or 3 years out and hadn't picked a destination yet so just lurked on the forum for a couple of years before starting to post in early 2012.

I first started when it was the Graffiti Wall and we were still traveling on our own. I was booking Battlebus Tours (Dale Booth used to be one of their guides) for our trip to D-Day sites and Rick Steves was mentioned on their website because RS tours used them as their local Normandy guide.

I must have gotten here via Google. I read everything for about a year before posting my first questions in 2012. It was fun just now to look back and see who answered my questions back then.

We began watching the TV shows in the early 90s. And making VHS recordings! Our first tour was in 2000. I recall the Graffiti Wall, but am not sure when I began using the Helpline and now the Travel Forum—maybe just before or soon after that first tour. And now, with a dozen trips to Europe under our belts including four RS tours, we wonder how many more trips health and age will permit.

First I remember is devouring ETBD in preparation for a 1992 trip to England and Scotland with my then-12-year-old daughter (using 22 Days in England book.) Somehow found the Graffiti Wall and lurked for years.

That was a long time ago and I don't remember. I started on the Helpline first and that eventually turned into this forum. My first post appears to be from about March 2007.

I don’t remember how I found the forum or my first post in early 2017 to get ready for the lost Trail of Lippizaners tour. But I’m sure glad I found the forum. I’ve learned a lot from everyone and made new friends.

Ken, it seems that the posting history is only going back to 2007. I'm sure you were posting before that time. I know I was and it only shows back to 2007 for me.

Nigel, I love your story!! Meeting your wife doing a pledge drive, being inspired by Rick, then meeting him in Paris after you had moved back to europe!

I feel like I kind of always knew about the PBS show. How I got hooked on the Helpline, I don’t really remember. It may have been that my brother recommended a podcast or an article from the site . . . and then I started exploring (??).

In 2014, I decided to make my first trip to Italy. I assumed everyone did trips to Europe with a tour group, so I googled something like "best tour company Italy." One of the result links led to a post on this forum with a similar title, and the OP was encouraged by forum members to do the trip independently. The more I read, the more I realized, "Hey, I can do this on my own! I don't need a tour company!" Several independent trips to Europe later, I am really glad that I found this community!

I don't recall how I got started on the RS forum. I have used RS Guidebooks for years and live near RS headquarters but I was unaware of the forum. I too have met people on RS Tours who aren't aware of the forum. I started using the forum in 2016. @Chani- you were one of my first contacts when we were planning our trip to Greece. You were so helpful!

On our recent trip to Central Europe & Amsterdam I mentioned to our guides that I found their information on the RS forum. They had no idea that the forum existed. There go-to is Tripadvisor.
They were amazed how many contributors are reached on this forum.

In 2008 I wanted to plan my own trip to Europe. I knew about Rick’s TV show, so searched for him on the internet for inspiration, which lead me to this forum, or the helpline, what ever it was called at the time. Rick Steve’s information gave me great tools for planning my trips, and you all inspired me to believe I could do this on my own. I have gone on several trips since then with much help and inspiration from this forum. I don’t ask a lot of questions here myself, but often benefit from questions others ask.

I came to it through a backdoor. I had been a French-American working wife and mother living in both countries for about thirty years when I needed to buy some plug adapters one day. Via Google, I stumbled on the Helpline to ask the question—and got a few answers. I saw people were asking questions I knew quite a bit about, so I started answering. But since my life had been limited to where I or family and friends lived in France, I learned a tremendous amount about other places, where and how to travel from others. I’ve never taken a RS tour and use the books from the library. Voila, that’s it.

Like most of the responses so far, I got here via PBS shows, travel books and Google. I used all those information sources and the RS website to plan a 2 month trip for my husband and I in 2009, his 1st but not mine.

Over the years this particular resource in all its forms and with all its names has continued to improve and become easier to use. The expertise and advice of Forum participants, the books and the website have helped me immeasurably.

From 2009 on I self-planned all our trips until 2014 when I wanted to combine a visit to Istanbul with a self-planned 4 week trip to Greece. I felt totally out of my depth to self-plan for Istanbul, so I signed us up for the RS week tour.

2016 was the last year I self-planned an entire trip, 6-weeks to England and Scotland. Since then I've taken 4 RS tours, all sandwiched between self-planned time before and after.

Having gone on a total of 5 RS tours now, I too remain perplexed by the consistent majority of people on the tours who know nothing about the existence of the Forum or even the website itself.

How do they find out about the tours? How do they make reservations for them?

Andrea,

My recollection is that I started posting before 2007, but I have no idea exactly when that was or when the Helpline started. I vaguely recall that I've been following Rick's travel advice since sometime in the mid-1990's.

My college professor recommended RS books for our college trip to Italy in 2007. I joined the forum when planning my honeymoon to Italy in 2012. Everyone was so helpful back then and are still so incredibly helpful now.

I've been watching his shows since the early 2000's, but was rather unaware of his whole website. I stumbled onto the forum/helpline and his guidebooks for a 2009 trip (my only previous European trip before that was in 2007 and I used another guidebook with glossy color pictures!). My first post was in March 2009.

I started with the Grafitti Wall and then the Helpline. I used to watch the shows on PBS--that was pre-Create! And it was when I lived in Wisconsin. I went back to Europe in the late 90s after nearly a twenty-year gap. I was probably trying to find a photo tour in Scotland after a 1996 business trip to the UK which told me that I could go to Europe and have a good time for less time than a month. :) I wonder if the Webmaster could find our earliest postings?

My first encounter with Rick Steves was his episode on Hallstatt I caught on TV in Spring of 2009. After watching that I knew I had to go see the town for myself. I found the forum by looking up RS online & made it to Hallstatt in May 2015.

After years of watching Rick's shows on PBS, at one time setting aside 3:30pm on Saturdays for the weekly broadcast on our local station, and using his guidebooks as the primary source of trip planning information, the Graffiti Wall became another source of gaining/sharing information.

On Rick’s Website, the Graffiti Wall page featured a kid seemingly writing on a wall with a pen - I suspect that was Rick’s son, Andy, who’s now written his own travel book and heads a tour company himself.

And back then, instead of individual country categories, Europe was broken down into general categories: To the North, To the West, and To the South. The one exception was Italy, under To the Boot. More individual countries have even recently been added to the Forum lately, so it continues to evolve.

I go way back to 1988...I had a RS book and used his company to book a Eurail pass for a month long trip with my sister. Our goal was $30 per day per person and that included food and shared "zimmer" style budget rooms. I continue to use RS books but have never been on a tour with RS. I did attend a presentation in Peoria Illinois a few years ago and my friend and I were in the minority. Most of those in the audience were RS fans and had taken many tours I often travel solo and enjoy the freedom and flexibility. I like staying 3-4 days in one location on an extended trip of 6-8 weeks. I believe I can stay longer if I don't take a tour. As a retired USA teacher, I go budget style using tips from this forum plus trip advisor forums and Lonely Planet and Moon guide books.

I found Rick's first TV series way back when (late 80's and early 90's???). And I started watching it because I had been in the Air Force stationed in Germany in the early 70''s. I watched because Rick kept featuring places we had visited while in Germany. Many of the places Rick features are sights and places the US military members and their wives had discovered probably because they had been found and patronized by local Germans and other Europeans. We were told about Bacharach and Rothenburg before we left by an Army wife who had lived in Germany in the late 60's. Scenic and interesting place draw the public. Rick found them and made them known to a North America audience with his guide books.
One time I figured that Rick made his first solo trip while we were in Germany in 1973 during his first solo trip to Europe after he graduated from high school.

I kept watching his tv shows for many years before I was able to return to Europe. I used is guidebooks and wished they had been available back in the 70's as his books are so much better than our Europe on $15 a day guide book.
When his shows started promoting visit ricksteves,com , I did. And found the section that is now the Forum.

I still check it almost everyday as there is usually some bit of information that I might want to file away for possible future use. And I did this summer as there had been a number of postings about the Swiss Rail pass. I used this information and the current Switzerland guidebook for a 7 day stay in Lauterbrunnen this past summer. I used my 7 day rail pass to get to and from the Zurich airport and for day trips. I had used a Swiss pass 5 or so years ago but a review of these materials were a great confidence builder for my daily train trips to other sites.

RS Helpline over a decade ago....

I started looking at travel websites back when I worked for Customs and Border Protection. I was the spokesman for Global Entry (and other bilateral travel agreements) at the time. I figured it would be good to see what people were asking about and give factual answers (and references to find more information).

I've always loved travel so it was also interesting personally.

I've been watching the PBS show since at least the late 80's and through his show we discovered his "shop" in Edmonds, WA and actually we met with a travel consultant there about our first trip to Italy. It was from that visit we learned about the forum but I think it was an actual search for lodging that one of the entries was a forum on the old graffiti wall! The rest, as they say, is history!

Seattle friends told us to buy the guide books for European travel in 2000 or so. We took several other guides along and used the RS guides the most.
Not sure how that got me to the forum though. Perhaps it popped up on a Google search for some place in Europe. We haven't take a RS tour as we travel independently most places.

I use my computer.

Little jokey there.

In 2011, we traveled with our children to Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, and Croatia. My daughter put a FB photo blog entitled "In Rick Steves we trust". After that, I found the forum.

Following our first Europe visit in 1997 we began and followed RS on line advice with G Wall & Help line, and don't recall forum first dates of reading. Yesterday returned from Best of Germany with Maisie for our 17th RS Tour. Found our first RS guide book in UC Berkeley student store when planning first Europe trip for son's Germany wedding in 1997--followed RS Guide for Ireland before wedding, and after then used RS Guide for the Romantic Road, Austuria, & Muren area. On that tour other tourist saw our Guide and told us who Rick was. Returned home to see Rick on PBS and realize how much we'd driven right past; and decided to do 21 Day B of E. in 2002 & was then using G Wall + help line. In 2004 changed a tour from Turkey to following year and switched to the then Best of Spain and Portugal from the Turkey tour based on weather + date infor passed to us from a Help line contributor.

TV shows, then guidebooks, then Helpline and Forum, now about to start my second tour.

I read and post on a timeshare forum which has a strong US presence and there was often frequent reference to Rick Steves. I had never heard of him before so decided to do a bit of searching and came across this forum. It appeared to be a well maintained and polite site (sometimes I let the side down on that one so I apologise!), I felt that I could offer some advice and stuck around.

Found the Forum by accident 2 years ago, while searching the Rick Steves website for...well, I can’t remember what anymore :)

I loved the kind and helpful tone of the contributors; have learned so much, and try to pay it forward.

For the longest time I gave some thought to joining a forum, to offer what little advice I might have. I used to really like the Slow Travel Forum but was too late for that when I finally decided, it was winding down and became full of yentas talking about expensive travelling shoes. My favourite format of all was the now defunct Virtual Tourist, not so much for the forum but the helpful snippets and real photos of places visited by members. There was one British member, I don't remember his name, who lived in either Stuttgart or Frankfurt and worked in the video gaming industry, whose little travelogues were really first rate. Same with an American lady by the name of Beaujolais (?).

Anyway, the RS Forum appeared to me to be the most civil of the two or three I considered joining. I actually enjoy some of the snappiness and know-it-all nature of some comments, of which I may be accused of at times. However, as with some people being more equal than others, some people are more snappy and know-it-all than others. But no need for the IMHO's or LOL's, it is all about opinion anyway.

I hope people take my recommendations to heart, I am always right with my advice.

At first I had a hard time remembering how I came to the Forum, as it has been a long time. However, I think it was just like what Dick from Olympia said: TV shows, guidebooks, Graffiti Wall, Helpline and then visits to Europe Through the Back Door center/store in Edmonds. I signed up for one RS tour - "Heart of Italy" in May of 2010 and have mostly lurked on the Forum for many years. I do post my comments and helpful hints and always try to post trip reports. If I am not actually travelling, I am reading, watching, talking, or listening to travel stories. When anyone in my firm comes back from a trip, I am on them to get the most information I can about their experiences. Its an obsession, for sure!!

Happy travels, trails and rails to you all.

Linda

Gosh, I guess it goes back to 2002 when we were planning our trip to Scotland. We had been long time fans of his TV show and I found the his backpacks which we bought and took to Scotland. 17 years later we still use them regularly.

I guess I found the forum when we started planning our trip to Italy. Recommendations here were a great help and we ended up having a great independent trip.

Stepping away from my official role for a moment...

I first knew of Rick from the TV show in the late 90s. I remember thinking... who is this guy recommending that people go to France when he is so bad with the language! Of course, the whole point was to show that anyone (well...) can and should travel. I learned to make travel a part of my budget, got a guidebook and a rail pass from Rick's Travel Center in Edmonds, and went to France... several times. Fast forwarding to '07, I had quit my job and spent a month traveling by rail pass with Rick's guidebooks through Sweden and Germany. Having trouble finding any jobs in my field, I applied for a rail-pass sales position at Rick Steves Europe. I didn't get the job(!) and I was politely told by HR that while I interviewed well, the job was going to someone with 20 years of rail pass sales experience. I couldn't argue with that. Then I was told that I could take a File Clerk gig if I wanted it. Half time, $9 an hour. Having nothing else at the time, I took the job. Fast forward two years later through the recession and I had made my way up the chain to be at the controls of this very website, moderating something new to me called the Graffiti Wall and Helpline. At the time, it was remarkable to me how polite most everyone was in this corner of the internet. I vowed to do my best to help keep it that way. The people here were so helpful, not just to other travelers, but to me and to this community, keeping the spam and troublemakers at bay so that everyone else could enjoy the travel discussions. Today, many of the same players are still here (holy cow... Ken has 30,000+ posts now!), and many new faces (avatars?) have joined in to help others with their travel advice. Now, I wear many hats including leading one of our tour itineraries and assisting new guides as they learn the ropes. Summing all that up, my journey has been TV, guidebooks, filing, forum, and tours. Aside from filing, I suppose that progression isn't unlike many of your journeys. ;) Is anyone here from the radio show? Rick's newspaper articles? I'm guessing more than a few of you are here from the Googles?

Just checking a PM and found I have been posting longer than I thought. I know I first heard of RS thru PBS then bought his ETBD and then found this site which has been so helpful and entertaining.

It's hard to say whether I started watching his TV shows in the early 1990's but I did then and still do watch pretty much all travel shows on TV. Also watch PBS a lot.

Before my first trip to Italy as an adult in 2000, I would have gotten all the books about it from the library, so certainly Rick's too. I have no specific memory of looking at the website, but I've used a computer since about 1988 and I did book our hotels and agriturismi online for that 2000 trip. And I definitely remember the Graffiti Wall, whenever that was. For all of our Italy trips, one France trip, and two England trips I would have been Googling for travel information and that would have included this website.

I never posted anything, however, until two years ago when I answered a question about Matera and then posted a very specific question about the buses in Florence, which was very kindly and helpfully answered by Roberto and several others. After that I mostly just answer questions and also enjoy messaging with and finally emailing with several posters (so we can exchange photos and Word documents).

Pretty much every day, I look at the Italy forum, even when we are in Italy. It is the only social media thing I do.

Like Barbara, I was just blundering about on the internet (as I often do) probably looking for a way to get to a city centre from a European airport. I mean, the solutions apply equally even if you are, in my instance, on the ‘wrong’ side of the pond and/or have a head start on most readers and contributors.

Being something of a ‘joiner-in-er’, where I thought I might be able to weigh in with any useful advice for American visitors to the U.K., especially the somewhat neglected north of England, I did. Interesting to subsequently discover that many of the U.K. contributors have northern roots, even if they aren’t currently based here.

I’m always pleasantly surprised that, in general, forum contributors are polite, pleasant and well mannered, not to mention very funny in several cases. It’s not always the case these days when there are so many trolling ‘keyboard warriors’ out there - very refreshing!

And I’m grateful for the forum in general - an invaluable source of information wherever you are headed.

Ian

I started posting to the forum in January 2012, after we had signed up for our first RS Tour (Paris). We had used RS guidebooks on previous independent trips to Italy.

Is anyone here from the radio show? Rick's newspaper articles?

What is this strange "newspaper" thing that you mention?

Back in 2002 when my twins were in daycare, one of the other Moms came in one day and went on all about a recent trip she took with her then 4 y/o to Italy and how cheap it was using Rick Steves’ tips and guides. Well of course I had to go right out and buy Europe through the Back Door. Unfortunately it was 2 years later before I could use the info for my first trip to Paris with a friend for 5 days.

Although I seldom post, as most here have much more travel experience than I do, I have been coming to this website almost daily since then. I’ve had some wonderful trips with the information from this great community and enjoy the funny and interesting personalities.

A relative told us about RS and the guide book ETBD over 20 years ago. We had already booked a tour with another company but bought his guidebook and it helped make for a great trip. I would go on the website and dream of the day we could go to Europe again. It took about 15 years before our next trip but I read the graffiti wall and learned new tips for packing light, etc. I rarely post something because I don't have the experience that most posters have but have been most appreciative of people sharing their advice. Thank you!