Things to include in my guidebook

Two of my favorite areas in Germany that I can visit over and over are the half timbered small cities like Wernigerode and Quedlinburg in the Harz region. I’m so thankful to have visited this emerging region every few years from 1990 to now. None are in Rick’s guidebooks.

My second area is Lake Constance or Bodensee. I prefer any of the towns on the eastern side to the larger city, Constance/Konstanz on the western side. What a lake and so much variety of things to do from Bregenz to Überlingen. I’m hoping to go back for a week or two this summer.

Having just returned from two weeks in Germany, I would add Heidelberg for at least a day. Rick finds it too touristy but we found it interesting because of historical location, the Castle and an opportunity to hike. It was extremely cold while we were there in early December during the Christmas markets. No hiking due to snow and ice in the higher elevations this time but would be lovely in spring, summer or fall.

Basel Switzerland. RS doesn’t mention this Swiss city in my guidebook (maybe he has added it to his more recent editions?). We prefer Basel to Lucerne and consider it a close second to Bern as our favorite Swiss cities. Great, compact city center with shopping, pubs, churches and character aplenty. If you make it there in December, the Christmas markets will make even the biggest bah humbugs smile with Christmas spirit.

Slovakia: Banská Bystrica https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Yr-xWBduu_A and Banská Štiavnica https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=6jvlAkr9g60

Albania: Gjirokastra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNGU7k2Hx_I

Romania: Sighisoara https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByrGZ4o6dk8 and Timisoara https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIstkqusezA and Sibiu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWyyVJPDR7Y

Bulgaria: Plovdiv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pR-2fa1ACsw and Veliko Trnovo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G24mZ5yN7oY and Nessebar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJFx7R4IgLY

Ukraine: Lviv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyTDjn3reVo and Odesa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_nPuNMkMKk and Kyiv https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN5VOkFNATQ

Montenegro: Budva and Perast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd6ErEHPHmg and Uncinj https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaPcThRQdi4

Jay MN, I never considered Basel until seeing your post. In winter of 2016 the Stedelijk museum in Amsterdam featured a temporary exhibit of Jean Tinguely. It was some of the most interesting kinetic art I've ever seen. When looking at activities in Basel I found that a museum features the permanent installation of Tinguely! That makes Basel an even more desirable location to me. Thanks for sharing your recommendation. Here's a short video made by the Stedelijk about the exhibit.

Tinguely at the Stedelijk

Brittany, a large and wonderful part of France, is barely mentioned in Rick’s France book. Maybe it’ll get more mention in the future, but Rick’s books are getting thicker and thicker, and he’s always tried to keep them focused on his “best” places - By definition, if everything in a country was excellent, it would all be average … for that country.

For the longest time, although he’d filmed Sicily for TV, it was missing from his available guidebooks. There was no Iceland book. The Spain guidebook had one paragraph for Cordoba, saying he wasn’t going to include sights or other information, as it wasn’t quite making The Cut. Now Cordoba is a premier part of his guidebook. The Italy book excludes Bologna and so many regions of the country.

Times change, Rick’s books are getting thicker, and overlooked places are getting more attention. Others’ guidebooks are getting bigger and heavier, too, but it’s a big world out there.

Hi Allan, I have some places and activities that immediately come to mind - Angers’ Fortress, etc. But, a definite factor of why so many were outstanding was because they weren’t filled with tourists, so the experience was so much more fulfilling or personal.

For instance, walking into the Moretti Caselli painted stained glass lab studio in Perugia and being given an outstanding solo tour by an 80-year old relative with impeccable English language skills who showed me everything in detail because of my interest and respect - a definite three triangle experience! But, if that same experience was with a group of people, all of the personal connection through conversation between this woman and me (my former engineering studies & photography hobby both played into it) wouldn’t have occurred.

Walking through a quaint small village (I will leave unnamed) can be a three triangle experience, but add a lot of tourists, and that ambiance is gone. So I’m curious, Allan; do you think the lack of tourists for some of your favorite experiences you listed were also a factor in making them so memorable?

Here are a few that don't make many "must see" lists but I think should:

-Amsterdam Museum (beautiful display of the city's history in chronological order all the way up to modern times) https://www.amsterdammuseum.nl/en

-Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris (another beautiful chronological display in a building right next to the Louvre) https://madparis.fr/

-Salzburg Museum (beautiful interactive exhibits) https://www.salzburgmuseum.at/index.php?id=1773

-House of Music in Vienna (more interactive exhibits including conduct your own orchestra) https://www.hausdermusik.com/en/

-Benjamin Franklin's House in London (maybe of interest only to those of us from USA but he lived there 18 years and it is a great minimalist depiction of him and his time there) https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/

This is why I like to supplement RS guidebooks with Lonely Planet or others, that include more places and details. I've advocated for years, that all the RS guidebooks could do with a complete overhaul and rewrite, not just a regular tweaking.

But I've heard him say it several times, live and on TV, that his guidebooks are intended to encourage people to explore and discover things and places on their own, not to be followed slavishly, e.g., the "find your own backdoors" tone now explicit in the ETBD book. If you look under the surface on the tours, they have an undercurrent of teaching people the skills to be comfortable traveling independently as well

I think a lot of people skip all the boilerplate discussion in the books, and just go right to the individual cities' description, and thus get disappointed by not seeing a comprehensive list of sights, or restaurant reviews.

But that's where this forum does a great job of coming up with diverse suggestions and opinions.

I'd probably start by creating a Rick Steves guidebook just for Poland.

......and Bulgaria.

No matter what RS includes in his books people are going to wonder why he left this or that out.
RS guidebooks are a great starter. They have plenty in them. If you want more, there are plenty of other guidebooks. Some of them so entire of a country coverage that it makes your head swim.
Almost every question on this forum is related to people trying to decide on itineraries and choices. There is already a huge amount of indecisiveness out there. People have a hard time with choices and decisions. Other places in expanded RS guidebooks may only serve to make it seem more impossible for people to decide where, when, and how long to go.
OP seemed to find his Canterbury and Black Prince without RS guidebook.

Hiking up to Villa Jovis on the island of Capri. Its the turn we made, instead of gong into town or following Steves guide.

In hindsight, this was far more important a place see then anything else.

Rick provides no information on Atlantis, although past posts on this Travel Forum indicate there’s been a lot of interest in that destination.

If he did have an Atlantis guidebook, he probably wouldn’t be able to feature a walk, as he’s done with so many other places. Maybe he’d do a downtown swim, to cover some of the highlights.

Valencia.

“ Here are a few that don't make many "must see" lists but I think should:
-Amsterdam Museum (beautiful display of the city's history in chronological order all the way up to modern times) https://www.amsterdammuseum.nl/en”

@Laurie Ann; the Amsterdam museum is closed since February this year for major renovations. These renovations are so extensive that an opening date is not known yet, but it certainly wont reopen in the next couple of years.
I have reported this closure, as well as the permanent closure of the Amsterdam Hermitage, twice now to RS using the special form to give feedback about the travel guides. The first time I reported it was in March, the next time in July. I’m sorry to say I’ve received no response whatsoever on either of my reports and the RS website still lists both museums as open and rates them 2 triangles.

I think the House of Music was in the guidebook I used that included Vienna-I think it was Eastern Europe.
I haven't been to either, but from what I've read on this forum, it might make sense to remove the overcrowded Cinque Terra and substitute Bologna. And maybe have 2 books for England(north of London and south of London), with London being in both.

Guidebooks all include the chateau de Chantilly outside of Paris.

A lot of them, including Rick's, don't say that if you get on the bus at the train station and stay on past the Chateau you get to the beautiful village of Senlis with great medieval walls, incredibly walkable and historic city center and a very nice art museum. If you go the very friendly tourist information center will give you a great walking tour map!

So I’m curious, Allan; do you think the lack of tourists for some of
your favorite experiences you listed were also a factor in making them
so memorable?

Jean, it can't hurt, but I don't think crowds factor in as a negative for me compared to some posters I read on this forum. When my kids were growing up, we went to Disney Parks a lot and we simply learned how to deal with crowds. At Bodiam, it didn't seem crowded to me, but the parking lot was full, so maybe it was crowded for it's size. But I think in this case it was something that was very appealing and interesting to me. It's location may be what keeps it from being more popular, but then again, it's only 20 minutes away from Battle, which is a significant historical site and was extremely busy when we visited right after Bodiam.

Canterbury Cathedral is a popular site and it had a steady stream of visitors, but very few people stopped at the exhibit that I mentioned. Even the docent that gave us our tour didn't talk much about it.

Winchester was busy, but we just found it very appealing and maybe in the future, a perfect place to spend a couple of days in the middle of a trip.

While it would be nice to have RS include many of these places in his guidebooks, in many ways I am glad he does not. I had the luxury of going to the Cinque Terre many decades ago before it gained a huge tourist following due to Rick Steves. I was one of the few tourists there and found a room with a cute little old couple who housed me in their apartment overlooking the sea. I stayed there for five wonderful days. I haven't been back since but from what I understand, it gets very crowded.

When I went to Spain, we headed over to the Extremadura area, which is not in the Spain guidebook, and had a beautiful visit to Cáceres and other places in the area. Because it's not promoted, it was blessedly peaceful without too many other tourists.

I understand why Rick Steves does what he does, and I applaud it but at the same time, leaving some places off gives travelers the opportunity to enjoy them without a multitude of travelers filling the place. Not all the time, of course, but you have to admit that where Rick goes, travelers follow.

It isn't so much the "leaving off" that bothers me as much as the "don't bother going there" statements. Not sure about other countries, but he tells his readers not to bother with Mainz or Wiesbaden, that there is nothing worth seeing there. Seriously??? When was he there? What kind of crappy guide did he have? Mainz has 10 times the history that Munich or Rothenburg could only dream about. Wiesbaden has gorgeous architecture, as well as beautiful thermal baths and casinos.

Betting the last time he was in Heidelberg was 40 years ago when there was a large military base there. That has been gone now for close to 20 years.

And Frankfurt? His film of the city made me sad, as he leaves out all the really good sites that make this city worth seeing. The guidebook at least now has corrections done from the one I first saw 15 years ago. I was shocked at all of the mistakes. I sent the editor 2 pages of corrections. Makes me wonder what other cities have suffered from the same lack of accurate research. This was just one city. The walk through Frankfurt is awful too.

With the internet at our fingertips, perhaps he could drop hotel and restaurant recommendations, which by the time the book gets printed are not only woefully out of date, there is no way they are accurate. The editors cannot visit every hotel listed in each book, let alone every restaurant.

I had the luxury of going to the Cinque Terre many decades ago before
it gained a huge tourist following due to Rick Steves.

Are we giving Rick to much credit for his influence? Maybe I'm just not good at Googling, but where are the references that he is to blame for over-tourism? The only one I can find is this blog from Cameron Hewitt.
https://blog.ricksteves.com/cameron/2016/05/the-curse-of-the-cinque-terre/

2.5 million people visit Cinque Terre every year, but the only demographic reference I could find is that 6.6% in that region are American while the vast majority are from Europe. Seems to me Cinque Terre isn't some great secret the Americans are keeping from the rest of the world.

So only 165,000 Americans visit the Cinque Terre in a year? It seems that all of them (including us two) were there the day that we were in Vernazza, October of last year . Compared to June 2001, the last time we’d been in the Cinque Terre, the crowds were exponentially greater.

Rick Steves certainly isn’t solely responsible for overcrowding at travel destinations in Europe, but he has definitely contributed to making people aware of places, their attractions, and possible places to sleep and eat. We’ve stayed at places that weren’t recommended in Rick’s guidebook, yet there was one or more copies of his book on their shelves. His guidebook is also displayed by many recommended restaurants and gelato shops, and at lots of lodging spots that he lists.

It was definitely not the only time this has happened, but at a restaurant in Orvieto last year, there was one Italian father and young son at dinner, and the rest of the tables in the big room were clearly Americans - at every remaining table - with Rick’s guidebook sitting on several. It wasn’t one of the places that Rick promises will give you something extra if you show them his book, so the books weren’t just there for scoring a treat. He includes lots of useful recommendations for places to go, and savvy people take note. There are now lots of savvy people who go to Europe these days. Some go places listed in Rick’s book, many go to places that aren’t (yet) included.

Maybe I'm wrong. From your description, maybe Cinque Terre was unknown to Americans before RS. That's a powerful testament to Rick if that's the case.