The 3-part "Travel Skills" videos

They were hopelessly out of date even before the pandemic.

I won’t even recommend Europe through the Back Door until it gets an absolute total revision.

I agree about Europe through the Back Door. It's not nearly as useful as it probably once was.

I've suggested before that a lot of the books need a complete re-write, not just a tweaking.

Agree.

One of Rick's reasons for using his books, versus other travel guides, is that his are regularly updated. Seriously out of date information, however, regularly finds itself into the new "updated" editions. I used to send in recommended updates for his books. I gave up long ago. They were posted online but never seemed to connect with the guides.

I purchased the Back Door book for my husband since next month will be his first EU trip but not much in it turned out to be very useful. There were a handful of brief COVID mentions but otherwise it was basically the same info as the older edition that we had checked out from the library. He also really needs to update the photos in these books.

These days I find the most useful travel advice is on YouTube. There are some great channels that will keep you current on everything from cash vs credit norms, getting into town from the airport, changes to how restaurants or museums are operating, etc.

I suspect that there is a massive (in fact, daunting) backlog of unglorious work waiting to be done at RSE on many fronts -- book updates, TV program updates, website updates, and a hundred other projects that are in serious need of some refresh (never mind expanding to new areas and new business opportunities) -- all that is probably sitting on the back burner up in Edmonds.

A little perspective: This company has been around a long time. They had a "well-greased machine" that they had slowly and carefully stood up, and has been kept running for years; much of that business required only a modest amount of ongoing maintenance and minor updates. As the years went by, running the tours became the biggest part of their buisness and understandably receive the bulk of their attention, but all the other assets and facets were still there and quietly chugging along.

Then the pandemic happened. They were literally shut down for 2 years (though still paying staff). Many travel companies went belly-up, but RSE clung to hope and held on.

It's worth remembering, things didn't re-start for this company until just a few months ago (how quickly we forget, and how quickly some of us expect everything to snap back to "normal" instantly). The company deserves a lot of credit, I think, for how they have managed to carry on, even in the face of this summer's major COVID challenges.

I think the company has been working very, very hard through the spring and the summer, have been more than busy, and are only now probably starting to look to the end of the summer season for a chance to just catch their breath. I was in Edmonds last week, having dinner, seated at a sidewalk table. I looked up and there was Rick Steves walking by. He looked relaxed, slightly sunburned, content, and a little tired (it was after 7 pm, and it looked like he was walking home from HQ -- being early August, I was a little surprised that he wasn't in Europe, but August is a good time to come home and sauté some onions...).

My guess is, most RSE staff are probably pretty exhausted about now. They've been going at Warp 10 for months, re-starting the tours and improvising as COVID and other challenges landed in their laps. I bet they are all looking forward to September and a gradual relaxation to get back to a more sustainable pace for the months ahead.

Point being: Their business is ruled by the calendar. Summer is peak season for tours. They have probably been all-hands-on-deck for months now, and you can only do that for so long before people burn out and bad things happen. I suspect that in the fall, they will finally have a chance to apply some attention to long-simmering pots on the back burners...like updating their content that has been accumulated over the past 35 years. Let's cut them some slack, and hope that they have a productive fall and winter seasons to get caught up and refresh lots of things for the year ahead.

(And Rick, if you ever need any help with any of that, you know where to find us...)  😎

Well said, David. I appreciate the perspective you have brought.

I would agree with David's post also. I think RS had to go in to a hunker down mode, and save what he could. The Pandemic made, and still makes, for very fluid environment to work with. Recommends are gone, sights closed, hotels shuttered, travel restrictions changing all the time. There was no reason to put any of this in print or updates till there is some sort of stability to it all.

“ There was no reason to put any of this in print or updates till there is some sort of stability to it all.”
Im sorry, but I don’t agree. I can fully understand that they can’t update every printed guidebook, but they can make sure their Guidebook updates on the website are up to date. I checked the guidebook updates for the Netherlands and it seems the most recent update was written in early 2019. A lot of things have changed since then and not just because of the pandemic. For instance 2 major museums in Amsterdam (Resistance museum and Amsterdam museum) are closed long term for major renovations and the Hermitage museum permanently closed its doors this February due to the war in Ukraine. Despite my report to RS about these closures many months ago, a visit to these museums is still recommended on the website and nothing is said about them now being closed.

I think unfortunately that many locations in the Europe Through the Back Door book have moved to Europe Through the Front Door ... still useful for planning but there's a lot more current information, just takes a little digging.

The movement of locations to the front door: Yes, I think that this is true. Cesky Krumlow, Cinca Terre, Italian hill towns - the ?RS effect" is to publicize and partially obliterate (sad to say) the obscure charms of these destinations.

"On the Road with Rick Steves Tours" actually claims a slowing of tours during the hottest months. The August 19 weekly report states "August is a slower period for our tours with many of the warmer destinations on summer hiatus."

I'm sure the covid complications are eating up staff time. That same weekly report also states "The Covid positive numbers remained steady this week at 4% About double that number of people leave the tour early as family members who have not tested positive generally opt to stay with their loved one. Travel partners of someone who tests positive, also qualify for our Covid refund policy (even if they test negative)." That's a lot of refunds being offered, tour guide shuffling, assistance being given and general disruption.

Winter months might be their target for the update work. I noticed that most of the tour book updates are not available until next year and in some cases a little less than 3 months before tours start.