One Rick, many Steves

I went to a Rick Steves lecture at a travel show and while he can be cheesy, his sincere love of travel and being an intelligent traveler is catching. It was fun and crazy to see the Rick-nicks-I sat by one who had all his book. He was nice enough to sign everyone's books at the end and yes he does the form a circle and spin around signing books.

I'm a bit like Rick in that I've visited more European cities than American. Hope to someday remedy that.

Thanks for the great read!

Will that be in the NYT Magazine that comes with our Sunday paper?

Just finished reading the article on Rick. He's so interesting! Thanks for sharing.

I met him at the Reunion weekend in Edmonds in Jan. I shook his hand and said Rick, thank you for the joy! And he replied without skipping a beat, Thank You for the joy! It was a very brief moment but he was spontaneous and sincere. That's part of what makes him so likeable and why I connect with him on his tv shows and guidebooks and, probably many others.

I just read it in the NYT Travel online. Well done!

Thanks for posting that link, FastEddie. I very much enjoyed reading about Rick Steves, his philosophies and his rise to fame.

Saw RS at the Wash DC travel show on a few occasions over 4 years or so. He presentation never changed. Very personable, although I liked Samantha Brown every bit as much.

We get the Sunday Times, but I didn't see that article. Where was it?

Edit to add: Oh, I see now it was in today's Times. I didn't know they did a magazine on other days. We only take the Sunday Times.

Thanks for the link, though. I skimmed that article and bookmarked it. I'll read it more thoroughly later.

There’s also a link to the article from the main RS page.

Hi, Jane. I think you'll get that magazine with your Sunday, March 24 newspaper.

That is what I am expecting. It seems they release the on-line version of the magazine on Thursday, then put the paper magazine in the Sunday paper.

Hi, Laura. Thanks for the tip. And Lola - I knew the magazine went to press earlier than the rest of the paper, but I didn't realize it came out online that early.

It takes us all week to read the Sunday Times as it is - don't need no online stuff in the middle of the week! We already take three local papers (only one of them a daily) and countless magazines. Our jounalistic cup runneth over, and so does our coffee table, bookshelves, stacks next to our chairs...

Don't miss the "Behind the Cover" one-minute video. It very briefly shows the photo session where the art work was created. Rick Steves couldn't go to Europe for the photos, so they brought Europe to him.

Zachary Scott’s riotous technicolor portrait of Rick Steves rejoicing in an alpine meadow is both a tongue-in-cheek version of a vacation snapshot from some fabulous European destination and also an earnest visual metaphor for the way a powerful travel experience can open your heart and mind to the world’s wonders.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/magazine/behind-the-cover-rick-steves-wants-to-set-you-free.html

@jaimeelsabio-

I think we were at the same travel show. I was surprised how much I enjoyed Samantha Brown's talk as on her show she came across to me as a bit of a ditz and not a fan of her show. But in person, she is as knowledgeable as Rick.

Really great article. I find it interesting that Rick knows he's selling a product to a specific group and targets it, yet he's also genuinely cornball enough to be the thing he is selling. Geez, this sounds like an entry in his "stoned thoughts" journal which might in fact be my favorite thing about Rick Steves.

The 2nd sentence of the NYT article says: "He can tell you where to buy cookies from cloistered Spanish nuns on a hilltop in Andalusia." A few hours before reading the NYT article, I'd been reading Rick's Spain book and decided to buy some "nun goodies" (as Rick calls them) from those nuns! It's in Sevilla, where we'll be for a week next month!

Interesting article, Rick said he learned some things about himself that he didn't know, I guess many of us did.

I've never met Rick in person although, living in Seattle, I've been to his travel store a few times. He's a bit cheesy/preachy, but he's very sincere. A Rick Steves guidebook is always on my list when I start planning a trip. You can't beat his practical information. He seems to be a very ethical individual. He's used his fortune to buy low income housing for women and children, he always matches $ or $ any amount his readers contribute to a campaign for Bread for the World.

I've in some ways become a mini-Rick Steves. If someone asks me about travel I get so enthusiastic they're a little taken aback. Rick is right getting out of the echo chamber that is US media is an eye-opening experience.

Fun article. It says, in reference to Rick's TV show, "The show has aired now for nearly 20 years..." Is that correct? I seem to recall taping his show on VHS back in the early 90s. So I would have said the program has been running for nearly 30 years. No biggie, just wondering.

Steves' first television show, Travels in Europe with Rick Steves, debuted on public television in April 1991 and ended production in 1998. His second show, Rick Steves' Europe, debuted in September 2000, and has aired episodes through 2018, though because he does not produce a season every year, this accounts for ten seasons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Steves

“Look at all the buildings!” he exclaimed. “There’s so much energy! Man, oh, man!”

Reminds me of advice a friend of mine from Brooklyn gave me. The tourists in NYC are the ones looking up gaping at the tall buildings.

Sorry but I'm thinking Rick has it all wrong. What Americans need is to see their own country to better understand their compatriots. His flippant statements about not seeking out anything of interest on his domestic book tours and eating mostly subway just reinforce the feeling that abroad is better and domestic is boring, even worthless, populated by bogans.

Tom, it's not "Rick Steves America" it's "Rick Steves Europe." He doesn't make millions telling people to stay home.

I have been lucky enough to travel through this great land of ours. It is a beautiful country with interesting people everywhere. Sadly, the media today only portrays the extremists and not your average American.

And while fast food seems to be multiplying faster than rabbits, just about everywhere has some mom and pop restaurant with great food. You just have to seek them out.

My wife can't believe Rick smokes pot. He seems like an "aw shucks" Leave It To Beaver kid from next door back in the 50s and 60s.

I'll bet he would be fun to hang out with.

His flippant statements about not seeking out anything of interest on his domestic book tours and eating mostly subway just reinforce the feeling that abroad is better and domestic is boring, even worthless, populated by bogans.

I disagree. I don't think his remarks are flippant. Really, on a book tour there's hardly time to do anything but speak, sign books, eat a quick bite, and sleep in the most convenient hotel. He often says that he knows he should spend more time exploring the US. He has never said abroad is better; if he thought that why would he always say he wouldn't live anywhere but the US? He only says it is different and those who seek to broaden their horizons should explore other parts of the world; and those that only stay in their ethnocentric bubble will never know what seeing other cultures can teach us about our own.

Nancy,

Yes, travel for business is more grueling than pleasure. Friends who went into Airlift (in the Air Force) never saw anything - even though they could claim to have visited almost everywhere.

I think that's somewhat true for Rick's current European travels. Rick is very successful but that also makes his trips to Europe business trips with a set schedule of things to accomplish. I hope he's able to set aside some time to go at his own pace and see what he wants. We're all pretty demanding about wanting new guidebook content and updated shows.

Work takes a lot of fun out of travel.

Travel for business is not fun. I had a cousin who planned events for a big corporation and traveled to the Caribbean, Europe, etc. It sounded like fun until you realized or 10-12 hours a day there were in a convention center or office building and could rarely see the sights, plus flying every week unless you have a private jet can get tedious.

I recall Rick saying that his travels to Europe are business and not the "fun" of an actual vacation.