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TV Show: "Rick Steves Travel Tips and Tricks"

A one-hour RS show titled "Rick Steves Travel Tips and Tricks" popped up on one of the local PBS stations today. I hadn't planned to watch it, because I assumed it was pieced together from the three travel skills shows he did back in 2012, which I have. But this turned out to be a taping of an in-person talk Rick gave in 2018.

Rick did an excellent job of touching on a lot of the issues new travelers face. For example, he acknowledged the crowding at some key sights in Europe and presented a list of 16 for which reservations are recommended to avoid long ticket lines. The only places I've thought of which were omitted were Seville's Alcazar and Cathedral and the Harry Potter studio tour in England.

He pointed out that most travelers do want to include the hyper-popular places in their itineraries, pointing out the advantages of staying in popular day-trip cities so you can experience them without the midday crowds. He mentioned Toledo, Venice and Rothenburg odT in that context but (surprisingly to me) talked about the Cinque Terre and Hallstatt without identifying them as places totally blitzed by day-trippers. The Cinque Terre surely deserve that warning, and is Hallstatt really a place to commune with Austrians when you want to escape touristy Salzburg?

This show would be great for new travelers or folks who have only taken a tour or a cruise. It would be even better if it were four or eight hours long so more topics could be covered at greater depth. This one didn't mention the evils of dynamic currency conversion or the difference between fee and no-fee debit and credit cards.

I think the show I just watched is available here on this website. It's the one-hour show.

There's also a 2-3/4 hour show broken up into segments. That one was filmed in 2015. I guess I need to watch it to see what else is covered there.

Posted by
1024 posts

Thanks acraven for the recommendation. I will definitely check it out. It is too early for me to start planning international travel this year, but I am substituting travel through shows and I have always enjoyed Rick's tips.

Sandy

Posted by
7891 posts

Interesting and helpful. Always good to learn (or be reminded) of travel developments and tips. I bet Rick will have a whole series of post-pandemic travel information, to be shared on TV, radio, print interviews, and of course, his Website.

Posted by
2572 posts

I stumbled across the show yesterday. I thought it pretty good. Rick did seem quite a bit older - but then we all get older