How do you search this forum?

Click on the hamburger icon ( 5 white horizontal lines stacked)
at the top of the homepage, left of the “Rick Steves Europe logo”, then you’ll see the “search” bar (light grey with a magnifying glass icon) in which you type what you’re looking for.

Thank you! I assumed it would be a forum search only. I never would have found that! 😂

Another method is to use a search engine like Google. Type in “Rick Steves forum……..”

The search engine on this site is not great, as you can't use Boolean terms with any success. If you are having trouble finding something (or finding too much of something, which is usually what happens), you can filter your results by clicking on the blue box to the left that says, "filter your results" then click on Travel Forum. You can then filter it by date, which can be a good idea depending on what you are searching for. I doubt you would want hotel info from 12 years back.

That said, I think the best way to search this site is through Google, but there is a way to narrow the search down to just this forum. To do so, go to google.com, then in the search bar, key in site:ricksteves.com/travel-forum. Hit the spacebar after the word forum, then key in your search terms; for example, site:ricksteves.com/travel-forum cologne day trip. This will give you the best search results.

A note to regular posters-
Pls be more specific in your posted titles. The Search function here seems limited to titles, not content, making it even more awkward. Really wish RS staff would improve the functioning of this feature. A lot of helpful info gets buried, and requires re-posting when a new query is posted.

I'm pretty happy with Rick's blue box at the top center of my desktop screen pages. I see it pre-filled with a transparent text "Search", and a magnifying glass icon to the left. I particularly like the option to choose newsboard only, and then to choose six-month to two-year old posts. I do not believe that the search is limited to Subject line. I do have difficulty using a screen name in the search, because it only works if a responder quotes the name in their reply.

As an older user, I would point out that mobile and desktop experiences are not always identical. Any serious research I do is on desktop.