Why Rick Steves' Tours Are So Dang Good

0:00 Hello everyone and welcome to the Rick

0:02 Steves Europe Festival of Tours grand opening.

0:06 Whether you have traveled with us before,

0:08 either on the ground on a European tour

0:10 or virtually through one of our other events,

0:13 we are grateful to be traveling with you again.

0:15 And if you are new to our Merry Band of Travelers, welcome aboard.

0:19 We are going to have a lot of fun.

0:21 My name is Gabe Gunning and I have the privilege of serving

0:24 as your moderator as tonight Rick joins us to answer the age-old question,

0:30 what makes Rick Steve's Europe tours so dang good?

0:34 Now, without further ado, I would like to turn things over to the one

0:38 that's going to answer that eternal question for us.

0:40 What makes Rick Steve's Europe so dang good?

0:43 Rick, over to you, Gabe.

0:45 Thank you so much.

0:47 What a good question.

0:48 What makes Rick Steve's tours so dang good?

0:51 Well, they must be pretty good.

0:52 We just opened the gates today at noon.

0:55 Uh, haven't even advertised yet.

0:57 We haven't told anybody,

0:58 but apparently people were standing in by waiting because I

1:00 understand 193 people have signed up for tours in 2027.

1:07 The very first tour to sell was central Europe

1:10 and the next one was the heart of Italy.

1:12 So, they're off.

1:13 We're going to be having a lot of travels coming up.

1:16 I'm heading to Europe for 50 days.

1:18 Wow, I can hardly wait.

1:19 I'm leaving on Mayday and I'm flying over to Greece.

1:23 I'll be uh uh working on guide books there.

1:26 Uh going to Tuscanyany and then up to Germany and finishing in Switzerland.

1:30 But right now, I'm just glad we're all together and we

1:32 can talk about um what makes a good tour program.

1:35 So, thank you for joining us.

1:36 What makes a Rick Steve's tour great?

1:38 Well, good wine, that's for sure.

1:42 I was thinking about that.

1:43 Um you get scarves.

1:44 You can buy scarves that actually mean something to you.

1:47 This scarf must have been from the Contrada of the the dragons.

1:53 Um and um that's in Sienna.

1:56 You might see the running of the bulls.

1:58 Um what else?

1:59 You could go to Pmplona and uh everybody's wearing this red scarf because St.

2:06 Fine was beheaded and this is to remember him and they run the bulls

2:10 in Basque country or in um you may find yourself weaving a carpet.

2:16 Um I I wanted to weave a carpet.

2:19 I only got this far so I I truncated the experience and I

2:24 made a a souvenir which is actually um kind of a a necklace.

2:29 Um or you might want to get a better idea about what makes cork.

2:33 Here we got this is from our Portugal

2:35 tour and I learned where a cork comes from.

2:40 A cork comes from a cork tree and they peel off the bark and we

2:44 get to see the whole process before trying some of that beautiful local wine.

2:48 And I got a few more show and tell items there coming up.

2:50 But I'm just uh eager to take you on a little tour.

2:54 So, thanks for joining us.

2:56 And um I thought I would just put some slides together that lets

3:00 us um celebrate Europe together because I

3:03 work with an amazing group of travelers.

3:05 My colleagues and I are missiondriven and our mission

3:08 is to equip and inspire Americans to venture beyond Orlando.

3:13 And we've got 50 different itineraries.

3:15 We'll be taking 35,000 Americans around Europe in 2027.

3:20 That's how many were taken this year.

3:21 We've got 50 or 60 buses on the road today in Europe.

3:25 Uh we took about 35,000 people last year.

3:29 And we're just um take our this opportunity

3:33 as a very serious responsibility to organize your time,

3:36 maximize your experiences, maximize the value of your dollar,

3:40 and uh be sure that you have a tour that is giving you lifetime memories.

3:45 I uh I just like to start off with this mural.

3:47 This is our we call it the Rick Steen Chapel.

3:50 This is the 15 ftx 24 ft newly painted mural on the ceiling of our public space,

3:56 our library here in Edmonds where we work.

3:58 My niece painted this.

4:00 It's a little bit immodest.

4:01 God is giving me a guide book.

4:03 But from that guide book is exploding all of these travel wonders.

4:08 And as your tour guides, we are interested in turning all

4:11 those travel dreams into smooth and affordable reality.

4:15 Now, I've been doing this ever since I was a kid.

4:18 That was me a little while ago uh enjoying the Greek seas

4:22 and I'll be out there in in three weeks doing the same thing.

4:26 And I'm a little bit older now, but uh my my spirit is just as youthful.

4:30 And that's one thing we we love to think that uh in our travels,

4:34 what I've learned from my tour members is age only matters if

4:37 you're a cheese and it's never too late to have a happy childhood.

4:41 Uh this week we are kicking off our annual

4:44 festival of tours and here you can see the schedule.

4:47 These are free events every one of these evenings.

4:50 It's uh I'll be starting it uh tonight,

4:52 Monday, and finishing it two two weeks from tonight.

4:55 And then Monday through Thursday for two weeks,

4:57 we've got events going on at 6:00.

5:00 It's free.

5:00 You just got to sign up on our website.

5:02 I'm sort of kicking it off here with a general look

5:04 at our tours and a swing through our our flagship tour,

5:07 the best of Europe in 21 days or 20 days.

5:10 But you'll see here we've got um our our wonderful guides uh

5:14 teamed up uh generally uh a European guide with one of our staffers

5:18 here and uh each evening we'll be tackling a different corner

5:22 of Europe and and these are where we have our 50 different itineraries.

5:26 So take a look at that and uh I

5:29 hope that you can u join us for whatever evenings

5:32 uh are interesting to you and also remember these will

5:35 be archived so you can watch them anytime you like.

5:38 I wanted to just go way back and kind of see what is the basis of our tours.

5:43 And uh ever since I was a a kid,

5:45 I've been traveling around Europe, not always comfortably.

5:48 And I've learned a lot about, you know, uh good values and bad values.

5:53 Uh uh I think the foundation of my whole experience is when I

5:56 took a bus tour to India from Istanbul when I was 23 years old.

6:02 I wrote this book.

6:03 I'm heading off around the United States next week to visit

6:05 five or six cities and give talks about this book.

6:09 But on this hippie tour,

6:11 I like to just talk about that because this tour bus here much more rugged,

6:16 much less comfortable than our tours, that's for sure.

6:19 Uh but uh this was a thing that kids did back then.

6:22 I opted out of the tour in this case

6:24 and just took public transit all the way to India.

6:27 But on that trip, I learned the basics of good travel and what a wonderful

6:32 world we have to explore and the importance

6:34 of experiences and the importance of information.

6:38 Back then, there was no internet.

6:39 There weren't many guide books and there were grape vines.

6:42 There were bulletin boards and so on.

6:44 Well, when I got home from that trip,

6:46 I decided, hey, I learned a lot from my experience.

6:48 I want to start teaching it.

6:50 In 1980, I wrote my first book.

6:53 I was Europe through the back door.

6:54 I was a piano teacher back then.

6:56 I turned my recital hall into a lecture hall for travelers

7:01 and it's on the same street we work on right now.

7:04 I'm looking out the window at that street.

7:06 And um since then we have um built quite a business with our guide books,

7:12 with our TV shows, and with our tour program.

7:15 When I got home from that trip to India,

7:17 the first thing I did was sign up to teach

7:20 a class called European Travel Cheap at the University of Washington.

7:24 You can see the Europe is person uh Britain is personified

7:28 and and Britain right there uh with his mouth at Cornwall is

7:31 saying feel my fjords caress my castles again it's all about experiences

7:39 I'm not a tourist I live here that's what the t-shirt says

7:42 we want to be temporary locals we want to go through

7:44 the back door we want to equip ourselves with good information and travel

7:49 smartly so the happiest time for me these days is when

7:53 I'm running around Europe and I stumbled into one of our tours.

7:56 I was just in Istanbul a few months ago and I met Mert

8:00 with a group of his Rick Steve's tourists and I'm so thankful and proud

8:05 to be able to sell these tours and fill these buses and put

8:09 our travelers in the care of our amazing guides with our amazing itineraries.

8:14 When I meet one of our tours on the road,

8:17 this is in the Galada Bridge in Istanbul, uh, in Turkey, of course,

8:22 I see what a great job our guide is doing by the faces on the tourists.

8:26 I look closer at those faces and I realize they're having a great experience.

8:32 We have 200 guides.

8:34 I am I couldn't do these tours without our European guides and we

8:39 work very hard to make sure that our tours are well organized,

8:43 that they're safe, and that they are efficient.

8:46 I love to pop onto a bus when I'm over in Europe and just

8:50 say hi to people and thank them for trusting us for their vacations.

8:54 One thing we like to do, of course, is to see the major attractions,

8:58 but also find the offbeat nooks and back door crannies.

9:02 That very first book was called Europe through the back door.

9:05 And back doors are places like this where you can hike up that donkey

9:08 path and you can find your own little bit of oldw world Europe.

9:12 This is the most characteristic part of the Italian Riviera.

9:15 If you've traveled with us, you probably know the Chinquter.

9:18 And I'm so excited that our tour is going to stay in this little

9:22 chunk of the Mediterranean coastline and be

9:25 surrounded by all that Italian wonder.

9:27 twinkling Mediterranean vistas,

9:30 hills that are terrace since the Middle Ages and now filled with vineyards.

9:34 Oh my goodness.

9:36 Well, that's what I wrote about in my first book,

9:37 Europe Through the Back Door in 1980.

9:39 I've updated it every year since, for 40 years.

9:42 Way back then, I'd find a great hike and I'd write it

9:45 up and imagine tight roping on the ridge high above the Swiss valleys.

9:50 On one side, you got lakes stretching all the way to Germany.

9:53 On the other side, you got the most incredible alpine panorama anywhere.

9:56 Tiger Monk and Yungfra cut glass peaks and ahead of you hear the long

10:00 legato tones of an outpour announcing

10:02 that the helicopter stocked mountain hut is open.

10:04 It's just around the corner and the coffee schnaps is on.

10:08 I've been saying that in every lecture I've given for the last 40 years

10:11 and I'll tell you I wanted to go back to that ridge and I did

10:15 and the ridge is a little shaggier and I'm a little older but the magic

10:19 of being on that bridge on that ridge 40 years later is still there.

10:24 We've got a tour called My Best of Alps, My Way.

10:27 And every part of the Alps, we stay for a couple of days and you

10:31 get a chance to do some hikes just like that.

10:34 Well, this is the 40th edition of that book.

10:37 We're still doing exactly the same thing.

10:39 Our mission again to equip and inspire Americans to venture beyond Orlando.

10:44 Originally, I escorted small groups as part of a 50

10:51 seat on a 50 seat 50 people on a 50 seat

10:54 bus tour in order for me just to get a free

10:56 trip to Europe if I could sell 15 seats or whatever.

10:59 A local travel agent gave me a spot on the tour and a airplane

11:03 ticket and uh I kind of learned how tourism worked and I didn't like it.

11:10 This the theme of this shot is this is back before I had my own company.

11:14 I was just couldn't afford a trip.

11:15 So I'd earned a trip by selling these people a Cosmos tour.

11:19 And our motto was if you want an Americanstyle breakfast,

11:24 if you have a need to have something from back home,

11:27 beat it to death with a hard roll and become a temporary European.

11:31 And that's what we did on the context of that 50 people on a 50 seat bus.

11:36 But I don't like the way mainstream organized tourism goes.

11:40 Guides are not paid fair uh anything but a token wage.

11:44 They have to make their money off of you by selling you things

11:46 and getting kickbacks by selling you

11:48 optional sightseeing tour and angling for tips.

11:51 If you know our tour program, you know all the tips are included.

11:55 There's no organized sightseeing so the tour company can make a little

11:57 extra money and uh all of the sightseeing included that the group does.

12:02 So instead of using that standard model which exists to this day,

12:06 we have innovated our own style of travel.

12:10 It occurred to me way way back then when I was still just a student.

12:13 Many many people wait their work there.

12:15 They wait their working lives dreaming and scrimping

12:18 and saving for a trip to Europe

12:20 and they finally get over there and it's just not as exciting as it could be.

12:25 And I as I was sitting there with with this lame kind of tourism,

12:29 it occurred to me we could do this better.

12:31 We could capitalize on the efficiency and economy of organized travel

12:36 with a group of people sharing one vehicle and having a great guide.

12:39 while maintaining the wonder and the education

12:42 and the vivid experiences of going on your own.

12:45 We could have the best of both worlds,

12:47 the best of independent travel and the best of organized travel.

12:50 And that's what I set out to do.

12:52 I was tired of bland travel.

12:54 I wanted to spice it up.

12:56 So, I started doing minibus tours and just me and eight people.

13:01 And the whole idea, if you can share the cost of the vehicle,

13:04 it's cheaper for everybody.

13:06 If everybody gets a guide,

13:07 you can afford it because the cost of the guide is shared.

13:11 And we had so much fun on those early tours.

13:14 Um, again, it was where we learned how to do the philosophy of our tours,

13:20 but just with eight people on a minibus.

13:23 Efficiency, one person can do the laundry, so eight other people don't have to.

13:28 Uh, back then it was just girls.

13:31 Don't ask me why.

13:32 Uh, I think it was just adventurous women wanted to go to Europe,

13:36 but they were more comfortable with the group.

13:38 So, we had little groups doing

13:39 the adventurous things that the vagabons were doing.

13:42 And those were our very first tours.

13:44 But there's just way too much demand for those tours.

13:48 So, we decided we got to get serious.

13:51 I didn't want to be the driver and the guide.

13:54 I wanted to have a safer driver.

13:56 I wanted to have a big bus.

13:57 I wanted it to be more scenic.

13:59 And we needed to be able to have a little more

14:02 revenue by having 20 people on the bus instead of eight.

14:05 So we could do all the things we wanted to.

14:07 It could be inexpensive for the travelers and still good business for us.

14:10 So we went from eight people trying to straighten up the leaning tower

14:14 of Pisa to 24 people trying to straighten up the leaning tower of Pisa.

14:19 Now we could have a big bus.

14:21 We could have a professional driver driver and our guides

14:24 could focus on the job of being a good tour guide.

14:28 That's how our tour program started and we've been growing

14:31 and growing and growing until about COVID time and now

14:34 we've plateaued at 35,000 travelers on 12 or 1400 tours

14:38 a year and we're at a very comfortable level for us.

14:41 We have half as many people on a bus as a typical tour.

14:45 24 people to 28 people on a big 50 seat

14:48 bus instead of 50 people on a 50 seat bus.

14:52 That makes all the difference in the world.

14:54 For typical tour companies, they're not as efficient as we are,

14:58 and they've got to have 50 people on the bus to make their profit.

15:01 Um, we'd much rather have smaller groups and room to stretch out

15:05 on the bus and ways to travel without 50 people stampeding everywhere you go.

15:10 Uh the trips originally were um sold just through the lectures

15:15 that I would give and I had the handbook for the tour

15:19 laying around and I hope people would thumb through the handbook

15:22 of the tour and like what they see and take the tour.

15:24 But time and time again people would thumb through the handbook,

15:28 like what they see and steal the handbook.

15:30 And I thought, my goodness,

15:31 this this little booklet is driving decent people to theft.

15:35 It must be available for for retail purchase.

15:39 So I the next year put everything I knew about doing our flagship tour,

15:44 the Europe in 22 days itinerary.

15:46 Everything I knew about doing that tour,

15:48 I put into a book and I sold it for $3.50.

15:53 And it also functioned as the handbook for our tours.

15:56 And to this day, these books are the handbooks for our tours.

16:00 And the guide books are designed to give people

16:03 the information they need to function independently on our tours,

16:06 but also to do our tours without us.

16:08 My friend said, "Rick, you're giving away your secrets.

16:10 You're going to ruin your tour business." No, that's baloney.

16:14 Some people want to do it on their own

16:15 and others want somebody else to do the driving.

16:17 There's plenty of travelers that for each camp.

16:20 So, we uh produced our guide books that were

16:25 available to do our tours with or without us.

16:28 And for a while, the only kind of tours we did were 22 days.

16:32 And then my staff told me, Rick,

16:33 if you want to um uh be accessible to the American market,

16:38 we have to remember we got the shortest vacations in the rich world,

16:42 we need to have shorter tours.

16:43 So now our tours range from seven or eight days to 20 days.

16:48 And uh we can accommodate people's um vacation times.

16:51 Again, Americans have the shortest vacations in the rich world.

16:54 We got to use our time smartly.

16:56 So, we uh we uh expanded our program and now

17:00 we have 60 different guide books covering all of Europe.

17:03 And these books are included in the tours.

17:06 I've got a little show and tell here.

17:08 I'll just do with a little picture and picture.

17:09 When you take a tour,

17:10 you get the guide book for that city or that region or that country.

17:15 If we don't have a book for it, uh we will generally make a book for it.

17:19 This is a book called Germany Austro Switzerland.

17:22 It's not for sale anywhere.

17:23 It's just for the people who take the tour.

17:26 This is a a perfect bound book uh for the byway Alps tour and so on.

17:30 We think it's very important to give our travelers information.

17:35 Information is power.

17:36 When you're equipped with information,

17:38 you are emboldened to use your free time smartly.

17:42 Uh so from the start, we had a philosophy of running a tight ship.

17:46 We wanted it to be a great value and we wanted

17:49 it to be affordable and we wanted to also be profitable.

17:52 And we can do that by having a good fill rate.

17:54 We aim to put 28 people on a bus and that's pretty much what we do.

17:58 And we have a wonderful relationship with our bus company in Europe.

18:03 And another thing is we are very punctual.

18:06 We are super punctual.

18:08 When we say we're going to leave at 10 minutes after 2,

18:10 it is wheels up at 10 minutes after two.

18:13 We've always had a philosophy of doing things for the group

18:17 that make people thankful that they're in a group.

18:20 Um, for instance, for many years, we provided a cash pack back when they need we

18:24 needed a cash pack because every few days you'd change currencies.

18:27 We would put $100 worth of cash into the money belt that came with the tour

18:33 uh we provided and that was be included in the cost of the tour

18:37 and people would then have about a $10 bill for each country that they

18:42 could uh function before they had to get to a place to change money.

18:45 Of course, we don't need to do that now

18:47 because we have one currency basically everywhere, the euro.

18:50 But that's a good example of our philosophy of thinking of clever

18:56 ways to organize and capitalize on the efficiencies of group travel.

19:03 As I mentioned earlier, it's never too late to have a happy childhood.

19:07 And we like to have active tours.

19:09 Our tours um are are just a a wonderful

19:12 way to roll up your sleeves and experience Europe.

19:16 Uh our guides are it's a little confusing because in Europe a a guide

19:22 that stays with you for the whole time is generally called a tour manager.

19:25 I've always called them guides.

19:27 And the fact is they're both tour managers and they are tour guides.

19:31 That's one thing I love about our guides.

19:33 Our guides come to us because they don't want to work for tips.

19:37 They don't want to work for selling and getting kickbacks

19:40 on on options that they sell optional sightseeing or taking people shopping.

19:44 They want to be paid upfront.

19:46 They want to be paid well.

19:48 And then they want to be free to teach

19:50 and to be friends and the supporters and the advocates

19:52 for the people on the bus rather than having

19:55 a tour company that gets people on the bus,

19:58 I think disingenuously where you haven't made the money you expect

20:01 to make and then make money off of your travelers once

20:04 they're over there far from home and um don't really know

20:08 exactly what's going on and they are easy to take advantage of.

20:12 No way.

20:13 There's no way we can make any more money off

20:15 of you over the course of your vacation after you've signed up.

20:18 We are on your side.

20:19 And our dream is to give you the very best vacation.

20:22 So, you'll tell your friends and you'll come back and travel with us again.

20:26 That's why half of the people that took

20:28 our tours last year are return customers.

20:31 And many people on the tours had been on five or 10 or 15 of our tours.

20:35 For the right person, these tours are an amazing experience.

20:39 For the wrong person, it's a hellish vacation.

20:42 You really need to be sure you know what

20:45 you're getting into before you sign up for any tour.

20:47 And for the right people,

20:49 and that's what we're looking for, you're on the right program.

20:54 Okay.

20:54 So, I love my guides and I also love our local guides.

20:58 This is Don and Barry.

21:00 Um, and um, Barry just passed away this year, so I'm sad about that.

21:06 But Don is Barry's mentor and Don is taking over.

21:10 And for for 30 years, we've been having beloved guides,

21:14 this is in Ireland here, that take good care of our travelers.

21:17 And we just love to bring a tour into town

21:21 and then take a walk and and and and go

21:23 to the great museums and so on with people who have

21:26 grown up with that culture and are so proud to share it.

21:29 This is Francesca.

21:30 She's one of our wonderful guides in Rome and all over Europe.

21:34 We have local guides that know our program.

21:37 Other tour companies, they don't care who the person is.

21:41 They just need a guide.

21:42 And there's a guides organization and they'll take who's ever next.

21:45 We have a personal relationship with our guides.

21:48 That's a big part of the tour.

21:50 It's not potluck.

21:51 You're going to get a good guide because you're

21:53 going to get a guide that is friends with us.

21:55 I just had dinner with our Roman guides,

21:58 our local guides a couple months ago and it was a beautiful, beautiful time.

22:02 We have local experts like Malcolm Miller,

22:05 the wonderful scholar from Scotland who has lived at Chart and still to this day

22:11 is giving visitors uh the most amazing

22:14 tour of Europe's most amazing Gothic cathedral.

22:17 We got friends like Richard Carpet who dresses

22:19 up like Hans Christian Anderson and and just

22:23 our groups are swept away with the wonder

22:26 of Huns Christian Anderson while they're in Copenhagen.

22:29 It's a beautiful experience.

22:31 We have people like Dale Booth who

22:33 lives and breathes Normandy history, the D-Day landings.

22:37 He's a military history buff and we love to be in Dale's care

22:41 or guides like him when our uh our itinerary includes Normandy and France.

22:47 This is Elizabetha.

22:48 She's our Venetian guide for a lot of our tours

22:51 and I was the tour guide for this tour.

22:54 But of course, when we have our local guide taking over,

22:57 I become the support person for our local guide.

22:59 And I'm more than happy to hold the map while our local

23:03 guide explains to our group where we are and what we're doing.

23:07 Remember, everybody who takes the tour gets the book.

23:11 And we wrote the book.

23:12 Uh we know what's out there.

23:14 And this book lets you study in advance.

23:16 This book know helps you know where to have

23:19 a good meal when you have a meal that's not included.

23:21 This book lets you know what's going on late

23:23 at night if you want to be out after dark.

23:25 Uh you've got the power that this book gives you.

23:29 Plus, you've got the advice of your guide.

23:32 One thing I love to do, and I know all of our guides love to do,

23:35 this is me with a group on the Chinquter.

23:37 We're walking to dinner in Mont Roso, and I've got a beautiful walk that I take

23:42 our groups on when we go to dinner in Mont Roso.

23:44 And this is the night that we arrive.

23:46 So, I get to stop and point out stuff,

23:48 hoping to orient people because the next day there's a lot of free time,

23:52 and I want people to be comfortable knowing what

23:54 there is to see and what there is to do.

23:56 We love to orient and disperse.

24:00 This is Alfio in Sicily.

24:02 I took I've for the last decade I've been taking tours rather than leading them.

24:07 I just love paging through our catalog and whatever tour tickles my fancy,

24:11 I'll sign up for it.

24:12 And uh I I took our Italy or Sicily tour.

24:16 I love our Sicily tour.

24:18 And um Alfiel was my guide.

24:20 And here Alfo is teaching us how to bargain

24:23 in the market because that's a a life skill in Sicily.

24:27 We when we take people to a big city like London or or Rome or Paris,

24:32 part of uh the whole experience is using the public transportation.

24:36 So we'll be sure to uh embrace public transportation.

24:41 You'll use it with the group and you'll be comfortable with it on your own.

24:46 Each winter we try every actually every 18 months now

24:50 uh we try to bring our guides together here in Seattle

24:54 and we have a roundt we have a a summit we

24:58 just had 130 guides in town for a week uh just

25:02 a couple months ago and every day was busy every day

25:06 was busy with workshops with uh itinerary planning with skills building

25:12 with anything that we found that is a is a skill

25:15 for our guides that can help us do a better job.

25:17 We come together with these summits so our guides

25:21 can do the job in the Rick Steve's way.

25:24 One thing we like to do with each day is

25:26 to work out the very best itinerary and then when you get

25:29 into your town wherever you are on your tours and by the way

25:33 I'm giving this talk tonight in a very general way.

25:36 You may be thinking about Portugal.

25:38 You may be thinking about Greece.

25:42 You may be thinking about Norway.

25:47 Everything I'm talking about applies to all these itineraries.

25:51 And also remember all the photographs you're looking

25:54 at, you're seeing people who take our tours.

25:56 You're seeing our guides.

25:56 You're seeing our buses, our hotels, and so on.

25:58 So you can get a sense, a very candid sense of what our tours are like.

26:04 One thing I think is very important on the tour is

26:07 that um every day you have a schedule and it's posted

26:10 uh it's posted at the hotel reception desk and it's posted

26:14 on the on the bus if we're on the bus that day.

26:16 People take a photograph of it.

26:18 People know what the plan is so they can be independent.

26:22 You don't have to do everything,

26:23 but this way you know what we're doing and you're

26:26 ready to get the most out of that time.

26:28 Something I've been doing lately,

26:30 every winter is taking what we're calling a guides mentoring tour.

26:33 Just a month ago, I was in Italy with 24 of our guides.

26:41 And I was the guide along with Ben and Tara from our office.

26:46 And the 24 guides were the tourists.

26:49 They're all professional guides.

26:50 They've all worked for other companies.

26:51 They're all good enough to be hired by us, but they were new guides.

26:55 And we wanted to give them the personal experience.

26:57 It's the Rick Steves Tourguiding Boot Camp.

27:00 So, we could uh help them drink that Kool-Aid

27:03 and understand what makes a Rick Steves tour very, very special.

27:07 I love working with these guides because

27:10 I then am comfortable trusting them with you.

27:14 These guides are missiondriven.

27:16 They're working with us because they like our philosophy.

27:19 And I'm thankful they're working with us because every one of them can

27:23 do a better tour in their country than I could in their country.

27:27 If they understand what we want to do with our tours,

27:30 if they understand my passions,

27:32 they already understand their own history and language

27:34 and culture and cuisine better than an American ever could.

27:37 And that's the magic mix that makes these tours really exceptional.

27:42 I'll tell you, I meet people have been on five of our trips all the time.

27:46 Everywhere I go, I meet people and they say, "I've been on five.

27:48 I've been on six.

27:49 We took a tour.

27:49 We've we're on our third tour now.

27:51 And the one common thing they say is,

27:54 "Your guides are incredible." A lot of people,

27:57 they want the guide they had on their first trip.

27:59 And all we can say is you're not

28:00 going to have that guide in a different country,

28:02 but you'll have the same quality.

28:04 So, we're over there with this in Europe

28:07 um uh workshop and it's a very intensive

28:11 week and we're teaching them all of our strategies

28:15 about um uh working with the group,

28:18 working with the economics of using people's time smartly,

28:21 our philosophy of uh orient and disperse, how to talk politics,

28:26 um how to teach history with a so what test, how to calm people's anxiety,

28:31 uh anything that you can encounter as a tour guide.

28:34 And boy, there's a lot you encounter.

28:36 We work on it and it's a real art as well as a science.

28:40 This is another example of something that we like

28:43 to have for our tour groups just to address anxiety.

28:46 How many miles are we going today?

28:48 Is this tipped?

28:49 There's a freeloader on our walking tour.

28:51 How long till the next rest stop?

28:52 You know, this causes anxiety.

28:54 And and we we we tackle that anxiety right

28:57 up front so people are no longer wondering about it.

28:59 We introduce the freeloader.

29:00 We tell them you can walk with us uh but you got to stand

29:03 in the back row and not ask any questions and we make a friend.

29:07 Uh we remind people everybody's tipped but you don't need to tip them because

29:10 we tip them right from the start as a company and on and on.

29:14 I love the idea that everything can be a teaching moment.

29:18 If you go to Holland wooden shoes are a teaching moment.

29:21 A windmill is a teaching moment.

29:23 You got to know what an Archimedi screw is or you don't know what a windmill is.

29:26 That's that big spiral contraption at my feet.

29:30 Imagine the Dutch.

29:31 They didn't have any other natural resources, but they had a lot of wind.

29:34 They harnessed that wind centuries ago.

29:36 And when the wind kicked in, the blades

29:38 turned and then the gears redirected that power.

29:42 The Archimedes true went screw went round and round and they

29:46 pumped the water from down there over the dyke into the sea.

29:49 They drained the land and made a great nation.

29:52 We want people to have experiences.

29:55 We want to have taste treats.

29:57 It is so much fun to get people out of their comfort zones.

30:01 I have this philosophy that culture shock is not something to be avoided.

30:05 Culture shock is a good thing.

30:07 It's constructive.

30:09 Culture shock is the growing pains of a broadening perspective.

30:13 It just needs to be curated.

30:14 And what we do as guides is we curate.

30:17 We create and then we curate.

30:20 And people go home with a broader perspective.

30:22 You don't need to like bor's tongue sausage,

30:26 but you can try it and at least you know if you like it and if you don't.

30:31 We love to sit people on the rubble of ancient Rome.

30:34 This is I've been doing this for 50 years.

30:36 Um, and this is such a turnon for a tour guide to be able to talk about

30:41 the rise and fall of Rome while your group

30:43 is sitting there surrounded by the wonder of the remains,

30:47 the rubble of that ancient civilization.

30:50 ancient Rome.

30:50 It lasted for a thousand years from 500 BC to 500 AD.

30:54 It grew for 500 years.

30:56 It peaked for 200 years and it fell for 300 years.

30:59 It's a little more complicated than that, but that gives

31:02 you a good basic kind of context.

31:04 And now we're going to dig in and learn more.

31:07 I'll tell you, art needs to be fun.

31:10 And I'll tell you another thing.

31:11 Museums can ruin a good vacation.

31:14 This is what I call the victim of the Lou.

31:16 It's the longest.

31:17 That's me.

31:18 It's the longest corridor, the longest gallery in Europe.

31:22 And I just think it's so important to recognize people,

31:25 they cannot look at art forever.

31:27 Uh, you know, the the mortal tourists can enjoy just a handful

31:31 of Madonna and children before they'd not cross the street to see a Raphael.

31:36 So, we want to make the art fun

31:37 and meaningful before taking you into a Gothic cathedral.

31:41 Hey, let's just take a moment and build a Gothic cathedral.

31:44 It takes 13 tourists to build a Gothic cathedral.

31:47 Here I'm doing it.

31:49 These are all of our these are guides on one of our guides mentoring

31:52 tours because I want them to build a Gothic cathedral when you're on the tour.

31:55 And you can see Carl, my cameraman.

31:56 We were filming it for our art series.

31:58 You can actually see this little stunt

32:00 in our six-hour European art series on public television.

32:03 But here we got six columns, six buttresses.

32:07 We've got pointed arches.

32:08 We've got flying buttresses.

32:10 We got lots of distance between the columns

32:13 to have go uh uh stained glass windows.

32:16 And when that spire hoists herself up there with our pointed arches,

32:21 with our flying buttresses, oh baby,

32:24 that is a structurally sound Gothic building.

32:27 You see the skeleton of support there and you then understand

32:31 the difference between Romanesque and Gothic 800 years ago in Europe.

32:36 After that, you step into a Gothic cathedral and wow, you understand it.

32:42 You get it.

32:43 The walls are now just window holders

32:46 and the place is bathed in glorious stained glass light.

32:50 This is the triumph of the middle ages.

32:52 Imagine 800 years ago, the most beautiful, exquisite spaces you'll find.

32:58 But you need to understand what you're looking at.

33:00 That's it.

33:01 Our whole philosophy is the more understanding you bring to your sightseeing,

33:04 the more you get out of it.

33:05 This is not an aqueduct.

33:08 This is the most scenic bridge in a 30-m long aqueduct in southern France.

33:14 Built by Romans 1800 years ago to bring water on a square little

33:19 man-made river from the spring all the way to the city of Nee.

33:24 Engineered by Romans to lose one inch every hundred yards for 30 miles.

33:29 Oh, baby.

33:30 Now you know what that's all about.

33:32 It's breathtaking.

33:34 But you need a guide to un to help you understand what that is.

33:38 And then you go to Neem and you look at the end

33:41 of that 30-m long Roman structure and you imagine the jubilation on that day,

33:47 18800 years ago when water gushed out of that aqueduct and people no

33:53 longer had to sweat and carry water from the countryside into the city.

33:58 It came there by gravity.

34:00 and you've got a better understanding of the awesomeness of ancient Rome.

34:08 Complicated u politics can be complicated as we

34:12 know we're living in a complicated political age.

34:16 Today we are celebrating because Hungary, using democracy,

34:22 using people power, using solidarity, Hungary has voted out their autocrat,

34:32 the first leader that endorsed our President Trump

34:35 back when he ran for his first administration,

34:39 the man who gave Russia a seat at the table at the European

34:44 Union because so much of the European Union needs to be unanimous

34:48 in Hungary with just 10 million people voted the way Putin would vote

34:53 and it stymied so much good stuff that the European Union wanted to do.

34:57 Just I believe yesterday the Hungarian people

35:00 voted out Victor Orban and our guides.

35:04 I know our guides Andrea Peter George

35:06 Atelka and the rest of our Hungarian guides.

35:09 They're having a great day.

35:10 Well, we need to understand what's going on in Europe.

35:14 This is such a beautiful time to be traveling.

35:16 You know, Europe has the divisions that we have.

35:19 Europe has the wannabe autocrats.

35:21 European Europe has people fear-mongering and scapegoating immigrants.

35:25 Europe has all sorts of stuff just like we do.

35:28 And we can compare notes and talk with each other.

35:31 Here we are in Northern Ireland and you see a European Union flag.

35:36 You see a flag of Ireland and you see a flag of Palestine.

35:41 What is a Palestinian flag doing in Northern Ireland?

35:44 Well, there's a reason.

35:47 It's a long story.

35:48 I'm not going to tell you right now, but if you go on the Ireland tour,

35:51 you'll understand which community will fly

35:54 the Palestinian flag in Northern Ireland

35:57 and which community will have the Confederate flag in its fish and chips shops.

36:02 There's a lot of logic to this.

36:04 There's a lot of history to this and this is

36:06 something we will deal with when we go to Europe.

36:09 We will learn the challenges confronting other countries,

36:13 the complexities of it all in a respectful way and we will

36:17 come home with a better grasp of our place in this world.

36:23 Crowds are a big challenge these days for anybody

36:25 traveling independently or anybody traveling on a tour.

36:29 We deal with the crowd challenges.

36:31 In some cases, they no longer let big groups into great sites.

36:34 So, we have to hire two guides and you take smaller groups into the sites.

36:38 We do never compromise what you'll experience

36:40 because of the challenges presented by crowds.

36:43 But we work very long and hard to make reservations,

36:46 to go to these places when they're least crowded,

36:49 to break our groups into smaller groups and so on.

36:52 It is crowded over there.

36:53 And if you want to go to the famous places

36:55 and see the famous sites in the best time of the year,

36:58 you're going to be dealing with crowds.

37:01 So, we need to be smart.

37:03 We will never go into the Acropolis when everybody's going into the Acropolis.

37:07 We want to go into the Acropolis when everybody's leaving the Acropolis.

37:10 Why on earth would you take the most hot time a day between 10 and 4 and go

37:15 in the Acropolis when everybody on the cruise ships

37:17 is hellbent on getting up there to see the Parthonon?

37:21 You know, we have the opportunities to skirt

37:23 around these crowds and still see the great sites.

37:26 There's some sense in Europe uh these days that it's anti-ourism.

37:31 No, it's not anti-ourism.

37:33 It loves and needs tourism because that's critical for the economy.

37:36 It's a great employer in Europe.

37:40 Europe is anti-b bad tourism.

37:43 And what's bad tourism?

37:45 Well, it's the opposite of Rick Steves tourism.

37:47 Here I am in a very touristy town, Rodenberg,

37:50 meeting with the mayor and I'm getting a special award.

37:54 Rick Steves is I I can Let's see.

37:56 Our deepest respect and cordial gratitude from Roenberg

38:01 Ander Talber from the Lord Mayor Walter Hart.

38:05 Wow.

38:06 I had a wonderful time where being vetted in Roenberg

38:10 and I've been vetted in many towns because we bring good tourism.

38:15 Good tourism is curious tourism.

38:17 Paying to go through the turn styles

38:19 and see and appreciate the art and the culture.

38:22 Eating dinner in the town, not on the cruise ship.

38:25 Spending a night in the town,

38:27 not at a big hotel far away with all the big buses.

38:31 We are the kind of tourism that that touristic

38:33 towns in Europe appreciate because we are staying the night.

38:37 We're buying dinner and we're not just stampeding in and stampeding out.

38:42 So, who takes a Rick Steve's tour?

38:44 Well, I would just say you can look at the people in these photographs.

38:48 These photographs are just all the shots

38:50 I'm showing you are just typical groups.

38:53 So, they're young at heart people.

38:55 It skews older.

38:56 I call it PBS demographics.

38:59 uh young at heart people, curious people,

39:02 um people that are looking to sample new things

39:07 and carbonate their life story by making friends far away.

39:13 I just love being with groups like we put together.

39:16 That's one of the beautiful things about our tours

39:18 is you can honestly say the people that you'll

39:22 be eating with and sightseeing with and climbing

39:24 little mountains with are a delight to be with.

39:27 Part of that is not an accident.

39:29 We shape the clientele by the way we advertise our tours.

39:34 You carry your own bag, period.

39:36 Nobody's going to carry your bag up to your room.

39:38 You do.

39:39 There's no shopping.

39:40 Uh, you know, we're staying right downtown uh in characteristic hotels.

39:45 You're not going to have a lot

39:46 of the conveniences you get with a high-rise hotel.

39:49 And we want people that want to become temporary locals.

39:52 Um, it kind of scares away the high maintenance travelers, to be honest.

39:56 They're on other companies that have fancier hotels and elevators everywhere.

40:00 Um, we're hardy.

40:03 We stay right downtown.

40:04 It's not always easy to stay right downtown,

40:07 but I I'll tell you, location, location, location.

40:09 It really matters if you're traveling.

40:11 You can't get the buses to the good hotels downtown these days

40:15 because mayors appreciate birds and pedestrians and bikers more than cars.

40:21 Consequently, the old characteristic quarter is um closed to big vehicles,

40:27 certainly closed to buses,

40:28 and we have to walk a couple of blocks to get to our bus.

40:31 That's a small price to pay to stay into an unforgettable hotel,

40:35 family run right downtown.

40:37 And you carry your own bag.

40:39 You got to be mobile.

40:40 Nobody takes a Rick Steves tour with more than a carry on the airplaneized bag.

40:45 This is very important.

40:47 These are good travelers right here.

40:50 9 by 22 by 14 in.

40:53 You got the big bag that you leave on the bus or you leave it

40:58 at the hotel and you got your day bag

41:00 that you're out and about with during the day.

41:03 It almost looks like people here are terrorized

41:05 into thinking if I don't have the Rick Steves bag,

41:08 I won't get a good room assignment.

41:10 Well, that's not the case.

41:12 Um, but we do appreciate it when people have our bags.

41:14 This is the bag that I've designed.

41:15 I live out of a bag like this for 80 days out of the year.

41:19 I have for decades and it's just the perfect bag.

41:22 But we do limit the amount the baggage that you can take on the tour.

41:25 Again, it's a carrying the airplane size bag.

41:27 That's all you're allowed to start the tour with.

41:29 And if you don't like that, maybe you'll appreciate another tour better.

41:34 How fancy are our rooms?

41:36 Well, they're totally comfortable.

41:38 This is a typical room on a Rick Steves tour.

41:41 Nothing fancy.

41:42 Um, but I like it.

41:44 To me, if it's familyun, if it's local,

41:47 if it's right downtown, if it's quiet and safe,

41:51 uh, and if it's adequate like this, you got

41:53 a private shower and a toilet in your room,

41:56 you generally have an elevator, you generally have air conditioned,

41:59 but but, uh, you know, it's it's not cookie cutter rooms.

42:03 These are old buildings.

42:04 I was just in this hotel a couple months ago with our mentoring tour,

42:09 Hotel Lancelot in Rome.

42:11 And we've been going to this hotel for 20 years.

42:13 many of the hotels we've been with for we're into the second

42:16 generation of the family that runs it and they appreciate us.

42:21 This is uh Roberto who runs the wonderful for 30 years.

42:25 He was our our host in Venice at Hotel Guato

42:28 and I knew him when I was a little kid.

42:31 We walked through Venice with our kids on our on our shoulders when when Andy

42:35 was small enough to be on my shoulders and is like 38 years old right now.

42:40 So that's a long time I've been trumping

42:41 around Venice with my friend Roberto and uh we

42:44 are good buddies and uh you know hotel

42:47 years like this is what characterize our tour program.

42:50 This is three generations of the Steiner family.

42:53 Oh, I just love staying in this little Tyolian town.

42:57 Our bus drivers are also friends of our tours.

42:59 This is Heidi.

43:00 She's a wonderful bus driver.

43:02 We have Belgian bus drivers with H Highabloom

43:04 and we've been with them for a long long time.

43:07 And then we have bus companies in the distant corners of Europe

43:10 that are from those countries like

43:12 in Spain and Portugal or Greece or Scandinavia.

43:15 I love to pop onto the bus and kind of surprise the bus and see the driver,

43:20 see the guide, and see how the group's doing.

43:23 Uh I love the fact that you get basically two seats per person on our buses.

43:27 If you look at that, that's about the standard situation.

43:30 I like that a lot.

43:32 I like to have my own private time on a bus.

43:34 You spend a fair amount of time on the bus.

43:36 It is your rolling classroom.

43:39 It's your place to take a nap between towns.

43:42 It's the way we enjoy the beautiful visual, the sightseeing wonders of Europe.

43:46 It's our home on the road.

43:47 And you got your guide and the guide will

43:50 have the schedule and the guide runs a tight ship.

43:53 One thing we are really excited about doing is making sure

43:57 you understand the trick to European cuisine is the quality ingredients.

44:02 the quality ingredients like the hamon, the ham in Spain.

44:07 Life is too short in Spain to eat mediocre ham.

44:11 If you're in Spain just for a little bit,

44:13 you want the hamone eico and you will get it with our tours.

44:18 You know, um eating is a big part of any any uh travel experience.

44:25 And um this is a a banquet we're having in uh Sicily.

44:31 And it's a good example of a creative way

44:34 to to eat your way through the local cuisine.

44:37 We have a chef.

44:38 We always take a moment to explain what you're eating.

44:41 And we work long and hard to be sure that you

44:44 get not only a good representative sampling of the local cuisine,

44:48 but quality local cuisine with good wine to match and with a description

44:54 by your guide or by the chef so you know what you're eating.

44:58 Um, all the breakfasts and half of the dinners are included on your tour.

45:03 Uh, and that means there's plenty of free evenings

45:06 where you can use your guide book and use your advice of your guide and team up

45:08 with friends and go have a meal on your own.

45:10 We could include all the meals in the tour

45:12 if we want to and just charge a little more,

45:14 but uh I like to have u all the breakfastes

45:17 included in half of the dinners because that gives

45:19 you the social time with the dinners and it

45:21 gives you the free time to do your own thing.

45:22 If you want to just picnic in your room or if

45:24 you want to go out and have a romantic splurge,

45:27 you can do that according to your taste.

45:29 I'll never forget the joy for me to bring one of our groups.

45:32 This is a group that I I I took to the Chinker a few years ago.

45:36 And before we went into the restaurant, I wanted Roberto to come out and explain

45:41 to our group to welcome them and explain to him what he and his brothers are

45:44 cooking for us at hotel at restaurant Belvad.

45:48 And he was proud to explain that to the group.

45:51 I want our groups to eat scary things.

45:55 Raw herring, why not?

45:56 You're in Holland.

45:57 It's not raw.

45:58 It's pickled.

45:59 And uh you got to learn how to eat it and uh how the locals eat it.

46:04 And you don't need to eat it again.

46:05 But chances are you'll like it and you'll have more on your own.

46:08 Essgo, one of my favorite things to do

46:10 as a tour guide on the best of Europe tour.

46:13 This is what I was doing for 20 years.

46:16 Taking people on that big best of Europe route.

46:18 My son is leading a tour as we speak.

46:21 He's just meeting his group in Amsterdam today.

46:23 It tell we're going to show you in just a minute.

46:25 And um I just love towards the end

46:28 of the tour to go from Switzerland into France.

46:31 And the first evening dinner is included.

46:33 It's in the town of Bone and Burgundy.

46:35 Burgundy is famous for Esargo.

46:37 You got to buy two dozen Esargo.

46:40 If you got 24 people on your bus and I

46:42 do it with fanfare and everybody gets to try, everybody has to try one escargo.

46:49 One beautiful drenched in garlic and butter snail.

46:55 I'm just thinking of it right now.

46:56 It's so good.

46:57 Now, a lot of people wiggle their noses.

46:59 Oh, no, no, it's gross.

47:00 Or, I had it in America and it was not good.

47:02 If you have not had it in Burgundy, you can't make a decision on it.

47:05 You've got to have it there.

47:06 And you don't need to like it.

47:07 You just got to try it.

47:08 And then for the rest of your life,

47:09 you'll know if you like it because you've tried it in its home.

47:12 But I'll tell you, the next night when people are on their own,

47:14 half of them will order half a dozen esargo just for themselves.

47:18 When we're in Portugal, look at that.

47:21 Gross looking, delightful tasting barnacles.

47:25 I love barnacles and I love them fresh.

47:29 You eat it with your beer in Portugal.

47:35 Perce your guide will introduce this to you and how you eat it,

47:39 how you break off the necks, slurp it down,

47:43 wash it down with a little Portuguese beer.

47:46 Here's a bus stop at a beautiful ancient

47:49 site in Scotland when I took our Scotland tour.

47:53 Remember, I've taken most of the tours myself just because

47:56 I love our guides and I want to have the experience.

47:58 I want somebody else to do the driving.

48:00 And that's our driver with the red tie.

48:03 And they've put the guide and the driver

48:04 have put out an amazing smorgasborg of Scottish delights.

48:08 It's just a little taste treat.

48:11 I want to remind you that a good

48:14 guide carbonates your trip experience with maximum experiences.

48:19 It's all about experiences.

48:20 I just produced a 1-hour TV show for public television.

48:23 It's called Experiencing Europe.

48:25 You can watch every TV show we've ever made at ricksteves.com in the TV section.

48:30 Uh, and you can watch all the TV shows

48:32 at the PBS app if you're supporting public television.

48:35 Thank you very much for doing that.

48:37 But one way or another, see this show,

48:39 Experiencing Europe, because it's our philosophy of travel.

48:42 It's a very very entertaining one-hour uh um basically a lecture

48:48 as if you're traveling all through

48:49 Europe uh celebrating the importance of experiences.

48:53 We want you to have the best of the experiences wherever we go in Enducia.

48:58 You'll certainly have a evening of flamingco.

49:03 Look at that.

49:04 Oh, it's just riveting.

49:06 Look at how frightened the little girl with the binky in her mouth looks.

49:10 Wow.

49:13 And we'll do impromptu things.

49:16 If you're in Northern Ireland and you're driving and all of a sudden,

49:19 oh my goodness, this is the dark hedges from the Game of Thrones.

49:23 It just makes sense to stop the bus,

49:25 let everybody get out and walk through the dark hedges

49:28 and pick people up at the other end of that street.

49:30 If we're going to a castle in Scotland and there's a bag piper,

49:33 let's stop and get to know him.

49:35 Let's have a little tour of his pipes.

49:37 And I love to demonstrate for our groups just how it works.

49:41 If we're in Vienna, we're friends with Karen and Ghart.

49:45 And we know that you are probably fascinated, whether you know it or not,

49:50 with the years after World War II,

49:52 when Vienna was a hive of espionage and pretty much still bombed out rubble.

49:59 What an amazing amazing uh sort of a cult movie,

50:06 The Third Man is, and we'll go to the Third Man Museum.

50:09 They open the museum for our visit, so we have a private tour of it.

50:13 When we're in Harlem,

50:14 the first night of our trip when you take a best of Europe tour,

50:17 you have your Indonesian rice taffle and your guide will know

50:20 if there's a a pipe organ concert just down the street.

50:24 It'll be free.

50:26 And if it is, what an experience to hear that magnificent pipe organ.

50:30 You'll see pipe organs that Mozart played, and you'll hear them played, too.

50:34 If you're in Rowan and you're on the right night,

50:37 your guide will know if the lasers are shining

50:40 on that cathedral as a show will demonstrate how the people lived,

50:44 how they worshiped, and how they built that great cathedral.

50:48 If you're in Greece countryside,

50:50 your guide will know the local priest and you'll learn the incense.

50:55 This priest asked me and my travel partners when we were filming,

51:00 "Do you know the incense?" And we

51:03 learned the incense from that Greek Orthodox priest.

51:06 If you're in Italy and you're having a cappuccino,

51:08 why not drink it with a capuchin monk

51:11 and learn why and how it earned its name, capuccino.

51:14 Capuchin.

51:17 If you're in Sicily on Palm Sunday

51:20 and there's parades going through the streets, your guide will know it.

51:24 You'll have the context explained to you and you'll be

51:27 curbside as the floats go by as they have for centuries.

51:32 If you're going through southern Germany,

51:34 you're coming into Munich and it happens to be Oktoberfest time,

51:37 why don't you get up early and get in a little

51:39 later and give yourself 3 hours at the fairgrounds.

51:42 October Fest.

51:44 We can't promise these things, but if there's a festival,

51:47 you can bet your guide is going to find a way to have that experience.

51:50 If you're going to be in Dordon,

51:52 it's kind of fun to drive up the river and everybody get a one of these uh

51:58 uh little kayaks and paddle down the river

52:00 surrounded by beautiful Dordon countryside and ruined castles.

52:05 If you're in the Swiss Alps, I had a most magnificent day with Ben and our tour

52:09 group there in the shadow of the Aigger Monk and Yungfra.

52:13 Beautiful sunny day and we went for a beautiful walk,

52:16 ride the lift up, stroll down.

52:19 A lot of times we kind of push it.

52:21 Looking at this elevated bridge, a lot of people said,

52:26 "Oh, no, no, that's not for me." And we said,

52:28 "Oh, yes, yes, I think you can do it." We didn't force them, but we almost did.

52:34 And people made it over that bridge.

52:36 We got to the other side.

52:38 We had a big group high five.

52:40 We had a wonderful group photo.

52:43 And then we went back across that bridge boldly

52:46 for a impromptu surprise little party with a bunch

52:49 of beers at the top of that ruined castle

52:52 and had some free time to explore the castle.

52:55 Boy, that's good travel.

52:57 That is a really good travel.

52:59 Zipping around Scotland.

53:00 If there's a clan gathering nearby,

53:02 I don't want to go to the big famous one that's on TV.

53:05 I want a small town clan gathering where Americans would be fun, welcomed.

53:10 Americans can actually get in on some of the games.

53:13 We'll get to know the people.

53:14 We'll get to know the dances.

53:16 We'll stop by a sheep farmer's place and he'll

53:19 demonstrate how the dog rounds up the sheep.

53:22 And then we get to cuddle the new baby sheep dogs.

53:27 In Ireland, we might drop by a glass cutter.

53:30 Oh, this is Chandel in the Dingo Glass Works.

53:34 And to see his glass works is amazing.

53:36 If we know there's a chateau nearby where the lord

53:39 of the manor is going to be feeding his dogs at 5:00,

53:43 we'll be there at 5:00 and see the hunting dogs get fed.

53:47 If we know the lady who makes the most wonderful

53:49 pastries in Sicily happens to be Senora Grammatico, we'll be there.

53:55 We'll be with her.

53:56 We'll be tasting.

53:58 We'll be cooking.

54:00 We'll be learning.

54:02 In Tuscanyany, we love to make our own pasta and then eat what we made.

54:08 I'll never forget I, you know,

54:10 I've warmed up to the idea of group cooking experiences.

54:13 They're wonderful.

54:14 They're unforgettable memories and we get to eat what

54:17 we make and it's always impressive how good it tastes.

54:20 I do want to remind you it's hot, you know,

54:23 and I don't want to shield you from that.

54:25 These days, climate change has has really hit hard.

54:29 If you come from a part of the United States that's always hot,

54:32 well, you're used to it, I guess, but I'm certainly not.

54:34 I'm a Seattleite and I don't know

54:37 the um Celsius versus Fahrenheit numbers very well.

54:42 But I do know that 82 is 28.

54:46 In other words, if it's 82 degrees, it's hot for me.

54:51 And that would be 28 in Celsius.

54:54 And when you look at a climate map and you see everything is in the 30s,

54:57 you know, this is like 90 degrees.

55:00 I do not do well in 90 degrees, especially when it's humid.

55:04 It's very hot in Europe and it's getting hotter.

55:09 That's why we don't do many tours in July and August.

55:11 We do a lot of tours in May, a lot of tours in June,

55:14 a lot of tours in September, a lot of tours in October.

55:19 Climate change.

55:21 We're part of it as tourism and we need to be ethical.

55:25 I don't want to be flat shamed out of my travels,

55:29 but I want to pay for my carbon.

55:31 As a tour organizer, I'm contributing mightily to climate change,

55:37 and I really want to mitigate that carbon.

55:39 I took 30,000 people to Europe or so last year.

55:42 I know according to science it takes $30 well invested to negate

55:48 the carbon we put into the atmosphere by creating that much goodness.

55:53 So what we do is we have a self-imposed carbon

55:56 tax and I'm going to it's a little wonkish here ladies

55:59 and gentlemen but I want you to know that if

56:01 you take a Rick Steves tour your carbon is being covered.

56:06 uh we tax ourselves $30 per person.

56:11 30,000* 30 is 900,000.

56:13 We round it up to a million.

56:15 We have a portfolio of 10 nonprofits working

56:17 in the global south designed and their mission is

56:20 to help farmers in the poor world do

56:24 their farming implementing what's called climate smart agricultural techniques.

56:30 doing it in a way where they get more yield out of their land,

56:33 take better care of their soil, and produce less carbon.

56:37 It can be done.

56:38 It's mindblowing how effective this little bit of technology

56:42 can be for farming in the global south.

56:44 We could mitigate our carbon or or creatively

56:47 try to mitigate our carbon by buying carbon offsets,

56:51 but I would rather be a little more

56:54 creative and a little more entrepreneurial and a little

56:57 more get a tooth out by helping people in the poor world at the same time.

57:01 So, I just want to remind you that we spend over a million dollars every year,

57:06 $30 per person that takes our tours to pay for the carbon

57:10 you create to go from here to Europe and back.

57:12 doesn't car cover it all.

57:14 You still got other stuff you're doing in Europe.

57:16 It's nothing to brag about.

57:17 It's just to me baseline ethical.

57:20 If you go to our website, you can search for climate and read about it.

57:23 And you'll notice right on the top it says,

57:24 "If you're a tour organizer, steal this program and don't credit me.

57:28 Just steal it and implement it because we in tourism need

57:32 to pay for our carbon." And if you take a Rick Steves tour,

57:36 you've got that peace of mind.

57:37 Uh, and if you look at our portfolio of organizations that we're helping,

57:41 it's a beautiful thing.

57:42 I'm so proud of this organi this this um um program of ours.

57:49 And uh I think it's really important that we

57:51 all get serious about climate change if we want

57:53 our children to be able to enjoy the world

57:56 and traveling through it as much as we are.

57:59 When we think about the value of travel these days,

58:02 I want you to think about bridges.

58:04 I love bridges.

58:06 You got two choices these days.

58:09 It seems we've got uh walls or we've got bridges.

58:14 And um people want to build walls these days in our society

58:19 in our complicated political pickle because they

58:23 think we'll be safer if we build walls.

58:25 The sad irony and any traveler who's thoughtful understands this.

58:30 The last thing you want to do if you want to be safe is build walls.

58:33 You need bridges.

58:35 You need to engage with the world.

58:37 We're 4% of this planet's population.

58:40 There's 96% out there.

58:42 My greatest takeaway from spending a quarter of my adult

58:45 life living out of a 9x22 x4inch car

58:48 in the airplane size back overseas is to come

58:51 home and realize the world is a beautiful place.

58:54 The world is filled with joy.

58:56 It's filled with love.

58:56 It's filled with wonderful people.

58:58 I'm not um in denial about it's complicated.

59:02 there's some bad characters and we need our military and there's some bad

59:05 charact uh uh things going on that we need to be involved in.

59:09 But generally when you travel, you're impressed by how good the world is.

59:12 And I'll tell you, when we travel,

59:14 it helps us better understand people that don't understand us.

59:18 And when we come home, we can share with our neighbors what

59:22 we've learned to understand about people far away.

59:24 When we travel, it makes it tougher for their propaganda to demonize us.

59:28 And when we come home, it makes it tougher for our propaganda to demonize them.

59:32 Travel is a force for peace.

59:35 And travel teaches you the beauty of building walls and the bu

59:40 the beauty of building bridges and the folly of building walls.

59:45 Oh my goodness.

59:46 I just love it.

59:49 You know, Europe has one currency.

59:52 How do you decorate your currency if you if 20 countries are sharing it?

59:56 Whose president goes on the paper money?

59:58 Whose national bird goes on the paper money?

1:00:01 Well, the one thing Europe can agree on to put on their currency is bridges.

1:00:07 Because Europe is all about bridges.

1:00:08 I love it.

1:00:09 If you look at all the currency of the euros, it's all bridges.

1:00:13 That's what Europe is about.

1:00:15 People coming together.

1:00:16 People coming together.

1:00:18 I want to remind you once more, I'm just kicking off our Festival of Tours 2026.

1:00:24 Today we open the gate.

1:00:25 We've already had in the in the first six hours, we've had 193 people sign up.

1:00:30 We've got 35,000 seats left to sell.

1:00:33 You've got complete choice of seats right now on our tours.

1:00:38 Um you can see tomorrow we're going to Germany,

1:00:41 Austria, and Switzerland with Travis and Jim.

1:00:44 The next night we're going to Britain and Ireland with Lisa and Charlie.

1:00:47 The next night we're going to Central Europe,

1:00:49 Eastern Europe with Cameron and Peter.

1:00:51 Peter's from Hungary.

1:00:52 He's a happy man right now.

1:00:54 On the 20th, we're going to Italy with Dave and Andrea.

1:00:58 21st, Robin and Andrea are taking us to Portugal and Spain.

1:01:03 22nd, Gabe and Nina will take us to France.

1:01:06 Talk about what's new with Aggie and Robin.

1:01:08 And then I'll be back two weeks from tonight

1:01:10 sharing my favorite wow moments all over Europe.

1:01:15 We've got about 50 tours and you can see how Europe

1:01:18 is covered right there ranging from 7 days to 20 days.

1:01:26 I want to cover in the next 10 minutes before we open up to questions.

1:01:30 If you have any questions,

1:01:31 put them in the in the chat or in the question box there.

1:01:35 Uh but I want to review our flagship tour.

1:01:37 This is the tour that I drove and guided for 25 years.

1:01:43 I love this itinerary.

1:01:45 My son's doing it right now.

1:01:46 My son's just met 25 or so people and they're getting

1:01:49 on their bus up in Amsterdam and they're going to do exactly this.

1:01:52 When you look at these itinerary maps,

1:01:55 we put in the in the little circles the number of nights you spend.

1:01:59 221 22 22 two22 one two uh totaling 21 days.

1:02:04 Okay.

1:02:04 Now, we do whatever we can to minimize the number of one night stands.

1:02:09 We like two nights.

1:02:10 So, you'll see very few one night stands in our tours.

1:02:13 This is the introduction to Europe.

1:02:15 That's the best Europe has to offer in 3 weeks and 3,000 miles.

1:02:21 If you don't have that much time or money,

1:02:23 you can do it in two weeks and do 2/3 as much.

1:02:26 Starting in Rome and it's 222212, finishing with a finale in Paris.

1:02:32 And if you're going with your family, we have some wonderful family tours.

1:02:35 This is a great way to expose the kids to the wonders

1:02:38 of the diversity in Europe from London to Florence in 13 days.

1:02:44 I do want to remind you that um anybody who books

1:02:47 a ticket until July 6th gets a $100 early booking discount.

1:02:53 Uh and now I want to head off.

1:02:54 We're going to if we take this best of Europe itinerary starts in Amsterdam.

1:03:00 Oh jeez, I love Amsterdam.

1:03:01 And we all, one thing very important about our tours is we stay right downtown.

1:03:06 I mean, you just you're you're 100 yards from views like this from your hotel.

1:03:11 We have reservations already for the most important sites, you know,

1:03:15 the the Reichkes Museum to see uh Rembrandt Nightw Watch.

1:03:20 We got a reservation for the Van Go Museum.

1:03:22 Uh the best of Europe in 21 days.

1:03:24 We're going to head off now.

1:03:25 We're going to go from Amsterdam to the Ryan Valley.

1:03:28 This is the big 21-day trip.

1:03:29 And you know there's two other itineraries that are variations on this.

1:03:32 We go down the rine.

1:03:33 We stay in Roenberg.

1:03:35 We check uh Saltsburg.

1:03:36 Then the the best of Italy, Venice, Florence, Rome, and the Italian Riviera.

1:03:40 Up for my very favorite part of the Alps.

1:03:43 A good representative uh stop in the countryside

1:03:45 of France before a finale in Paris.

1:03:48 I like starting in Amsterdam and finishing in Paris because you

1:03:50 could enjoy some extra time in both those cities if you like.

1:03:53 And this is open jaw.

1:03:54 Very efficient.

1:03:55 Into one city, not of another.

1:03:56 not wasting the time and money to get back to your starting point.

1:04:00 Cruising the Rine will go on a boat on the Rine,

1:04:03 of course, and it'll be all we'll know exactly when the boat's leaving.

1:04:07 It's covered.

1:04:07 Everything, all the sightseeing can do is covered

1:04:09 and the your guide and driver will drop you at one port.

1:04:12 You'll visit the castle and then you'll go down the river to the next port

1:04:15 where your picnic lunch will be waiting for you and you get back on the bus.

1:04:19 The bus is waiting for you in that little park and you carry on.

1:04:21 Something like that.

1:04:22 It's all organized beautifully.

1:04:24 We spend the night in Bakarak.

1:04:26 I love Bakarak.

1:04:28 And then we drive over to Roenberg on Tabber,

1:04:30 the most beautiful, beautifully preserved medieval city,

1:04:35 half-timbered and fortified.

1:04:37 And we do the night watchman's tour.

1:04:40 That's a lot of fun.

1:04:41 Down to Saltsburg with one of the biggest castles in Europe,

1:04:44 the hometown of Mozart.

1:04:47 Beautiful, beautiful shops.

1:04:49 And then it's over the Alps and down to Venice, the island city.

1:04:54 In its day, the most powerful city in all of Europe with a trading

1:04:57 empire that spread all the way to the to the Holy Land.

1:05:00 And uh we'll stay on the island.

1:05:02 Most tourists do not stay on the island.

1:05:04 They stay on the mainland and then they charge you to get to the island.

1:05:07 We pay the extra to sleep right where you want to be so

1:05:12 that you can be oriented and get up before breakfast or stay out after dinner.

1:05:15 And Venice is your playground.

1:05:17 It's crowded in the middle of the day, but it's all yours earlier and late.

1:05:20 And I like to be there right downtown.

1:05:23 Oh, I love Venice.

1:05:26 Of course, you're going to go in a gondola.

1:05:28 Of course, you're going to meet a guy that makes masks.

1:05:30 And you can even try them on.

1:05:32 And then we go three hours south on the bus to Florence.

1:05:35 Cut in half by the Arno River.

1:05:37 There's the Ponttovecio for centuries with the shops right on the river.

1:05:41 And all the business and government and big churches

1:05:44 and so on is on the one side of the river.

1:05:46 And the workingass side other side is the ultra

1:05:49 arro where you see the artisans in action.

1:05:52 Oh, within a 10-minute walk of that dome, you've got the greatest masterpieces

1:05:55 of the Renaissance right there in the epicenter

1:05:58 of that cultural explosion 600 years ago right there in Florence.

1:06:03 The Renaissance masterpieces by Bacelli,

1:06:10 Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo, you name it.

1:06:16 You'll go to the Euphitzi Gallery.

1:06:18 We've got the reservation already.

1:06:19 You'll have a local guide.

1:06:21 You'll go to the Academia.

1:06:23 It'll just be you and David.

1:06:25 And then three hours south, you go to Rome.

1:06:27 Look at the skyline of Rome.

1:06:29 What an amazing city.

1:06:31 And you'll walk through the forum.

1:06:34 This is the Vacre, the main street of ancient Rome.

1:06:37 And with your guide, oh,

1:06:40 you'll you'll get goosebumps thinking about the triumphal

1:06:43 parades of the emperor bringing in booty

1:06:46 and plunder and slaves that are imprisoned

1:06:48 from the barbarian tribes they conquer conquered.

1:06:51 What a rough and tumble story of Rome.

1:06:54 And you'll be able to resurrect that rubble because you

1:06:58 will have a guide that explains to you what's going on.

1:07:01 The Pantheon, the building that gives you a feeling for the magnificence

1:07:04 and the splendor of Rome better than any other building.

1:07:07 So beautifully preserved, exactly as wide as it is tall.

1:07:11 It's a a circle can fit in that box.

1:07:14 140 ft wide, 140 ft tall with a big sunroof in the top that opens up.

1:07:22 Amazing architecture.

1:07:24 And then we'll check out the Vatican, the greatest church in Christryendom.

1:07:28 Other churches are marked where they would fit if

1:07:30 they were put inside with little marks on the floor.

1:07:34 Oh, under a dome designed by Michelangelo.

1:07:36 Taller than a football field on end.

1:07:42 And up there in six foot tall letters, you can just barely see them.

1:07:45 In LAN to S Petrus, you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church.

1:07:52 This is the holiest place for a billion Roman Catholic Christians

1:07:57 and it is such a thrill to be able to go there.

1:08:00 And of course, you can toss a coin into the fountain to be sure you come back.

1:08:04 Then we head north to the Italian Riviera and we stay in a town like this.

1:08:09 We stay in a little town.

1:08:10 It's so cool.

1:08:12 I just love it.

1:08:13 I can't get enough it.

1:08:14 I was just there a couple months ago

1:08:16 hiking from town to town having fresh seafood.

1:08:20 It was swimming yesterday and then up into the Alps.

1:08:24 There's a lot of Alps.

1:08:25 We know just the very best of the Alps.

1:08:27 La Brunan Valley.

1:08:28 We don't we know just where to stay.

1:08:31 We like to stay up on top of the cliff and we know

1:08:34 just how to be positioned to enjoy the wonders of that alpine experience.

1:08:40 Ben and I were with a group there a few years

1:08:41 ago and we took a beautiful walk, took the lift up,

1:08:45 enjoyed some of the entertainment at the stations and then we got

1:08:49 up close and personal with the cows before heading off to Burgundy.

1:08:53 We have one stop in the French countryside, Burgundy,

1:08:55 with the most famous wine and then on into the capital of Europe, Paris.

1:08:59 What a finale for the tour.

1:09:01 Can't get enough of Paris, the Louv with the pyramid entry.

1:09:06 You already met the San Chappelle,

1:09:08 the greatest Gothic interior anywhere in Europe and wonders of French

1:09:12 culture with a guide making sure you know what you're seeing.

1:09:17 Once again, we're just kicking off the Festival of Tours here.

1:09:21 Uh this is the first event Monday,

1:09:24 April 13th, Monday through Thursday, Monday through Thursday.

1:09:27 And then I hope to see you again two weeks

1:09:29 from tonight as we wrap it up with wow moments.

1:09:32 I do want to remind you that when we came out of COVID,

1:09:35 we were really frisky and instead of 12 nights or whatever,

1:09:39 however many we got, we had 20 nights and this is three years out of date,

1:09:44 but each of these uh countries are featured all alone.

1:09:48 So, it's twice the information on the tours and you might find that interesting.

1:09:52 You can find that with so much other information on our website there.

1:09:57 You can go to school on our website and it's not all just selling tours.

1:10:00 There are programs there that'll help you travel without a tour.

1:10:04 I also want to remind you that our staff is so missiondriven,

1:10:08 so dedicated to helping you know,

1:10:11 sort through the superlatives and know what you should factor

1:10:14 into your travels to make your travel dreams come true.

1:10:17 We have um evenings designed to answer your questions about our tours.

1:10:21 And it's kind of just a a chance to sit

1:10:23 down with a guide and have your questions answered.

1:10:26 We have two of them coming up uh May 19 and June 25.

1:10:30 It's free.

1:10:31 You just register like you registered for this class

1:10:33 and then you can learn more about our tours that way.

1:10:36 I want to remind you at ricksteves.com there is

1:10:39 a you could go to the University of Travel right here.

1:10:42 It is all free.

1:10:43 Every TV show we've ever made.

1:10:45 200 hours of classes like I'm given right

1:10:48 now in the archives for Monday night travel.

1:10:51 Uh all of our travel talks.

1:10:53 I mean, if you're considering cruising, we got a two-hour lecture on cruising.

1:10:56 If you're all excited about art, we've got a six-hour TV series on art.

1:11:00 Probably the best six hours you can invest in your trip before you go.

1:11:03 Um, we've got Classroom Europe, which which uh takes my 150 shows

1:11:08 and break them into 600 little teachable clips, and you can with immediiacy,

1:11:12 you can just type in waterlies and learn everything about Monae.

1:11:16 You can uh type in canals and learn everything

1:11:20 about canals or castles or windmills or whatever you like.

1:11:23 U we've got all of our radio shows.

1:11:26 We've got our apps and so on.

1:11:27 It's all right here.

1:11:29 And also under travel talks you can find this event

1:11:34 and events like it if you're curious about our tours.

1:11:37 I should also remind you that um well any of my lectures are available there.

1:11:42 Once again 50 different itineraries.

1:11:44 We've been talking about the best of Europe itinerary 3 weeks,

1:11:47 two weeks, or designed for families.

1:11:50 One more reminder, uh $100 off on all of our tours

1:11:54 for 2027 for those who book early until July 6.

1:11:57 And we do have a few tour seats left for 2026.

1:12:02 And if you're curious about those, um you can find out about it at our website.

1:12:07 And they're $300 off.

1:12:08 They are discounted.

1:12:09 The tours uh uh on a number of our departures coming up in the next few months.

1:12:14 Uh we are standing by to answer your questions.

1:12:17 This is our tour experience our our our customer experience

1:12:20 team and if you email us at tour ricksteves.com they all

1:12:25 know our tours intimately most of them are guides and they

1:12:29 can help you answer your questions about anything you may have.

1:12:33 On behalf of all of our guides, most of whom are Europeans and eager to see you,

1:12:39 we would invite you to trust us with your precious vacation time and money.

1:12:44 And we can promise to give you the trip of a lifetime.

1:12:47 And these are just a few of the smiles of the people that take our tours.

1:12:51 Again, the happiest time for me is the people I meet in Europe.

1:12:55 And I'll be meeting a lot of groups like this in the next

1:12:57 couple of months as I'm over there updating our material.

1:13:00 And uh they're the people that trust us for their vacations

1:13:03 and they come back and back to take their Rick Steves Europe tour.

1:13:08 All right.

1:13:08 Well, there you go.

1:13:10 And uh Gabe, I uh I think it's time to answer a few questions.

1:13:14 I was five minutes longer than I said I would be.

1:13:17 I apologize.

1:13:18 I was having a lot of fun.

1:13:20 Honestly, Rick, that is I feel like better than usual.

1:13:24 So, five minutes over I'm happy with.

1:13:27 All right.

1:13:27 I'm hired.

1:13:29 All right.

1:13:30 Well, we have a lot of excellent questions for you, Rick.

1:13:32 Um, and a few of them relate, I feel like, to our mission statement.

1:13:36 As a good Rick Steves Europe employee,

1:13:38 I always remember our I feel like I should do like a scouts honor or something.

1:13:42 Our mission is to inspire, inform,

1:13:44 and equip Americans to have European trips that are fun,

1:13:47 affordable, and culturally broadening.

1:13:49 And one of our first questions is from Mike, and he says, "Why European tours?

1:13:54 uh why not why not branch out to some tours in other parts of the world?

1:13:59 You know, I made that decision a long long time ago.

1:14:02 And um I wanted to focus on a place I love and I know.

1:14:07 I've got a degree in European history.

1:14:08 My family heritage is Europe, a Norwegian.

1:14:11 My dad imported pianos from Germany.

1:14:14 I've spent so much time in Europe.

1:14:16 I wanted a place that had a big market because I wanted to help a lot of people.

1:14:19 And I wanted to take all the energy I could

1:14:22 and focus on one important beat and be the best at it.

1:14:27 We could sell piles of tours and make piles

1:14:30 of money going to Costa Rica and going to, you know,

1:14:33 Thailand and go to Vietnam and and go to uh I don't know, Colombia.

1:14:38 But other people can do that.

1:14:41 I just want to be the best in Europe.

1:14:42 So, plus if I went places beyond Europe,

1:14:45 I'd have to change all my business cards.

1:14:46 The company is called Rick Steves Europe.

1:14:49 I just love Europe.

1:14:50 So, no apologies there.

1:14:52 I just want to be the very best in Europe.

1:14:54 And uh we have it's a big beat.

1:14:57 Uh we've got, as you mentioned earlier, we were counting up our itineraries.

1:15:00 We got over 50 itineraries now.

1:15:02 And I feel like we've covered it really

1:15:04 well and I'm very proud of our itineraries.

1:15:06 I'm proud of our guides and I'm really thankful

1:15:09 for the hundred colleagues that you and I get to call workmates.

1:15:13 I know.

1:15:13 I love seeing all the photos that you have of the guides

1:15:16 in Europe and now getting to have personal connections with a lot of them.

1:15:20 Um can speak to how excellent they are.

1:15:23 Thank you.

1:15:23 We have Deanna that's wondering about

1:15:24 the Americans part of our mission statement.

1:15:27 Diana's Canadian and is wondering are people if they're

1:15:31 from Canada or Australia or another part of the world are

1:15:34 they welcome on our tours and why is it

1:15:37 that uh we have such a focus on the American perspective?

1:15:41 My personal mission is to help

1:15:43 Americans broaden their perspective through travel.

1:15:46 I have great admiration for Canadians.

1:15:48 They already have a European perspective.

1:15:51 Um, so they're not as needy of this as our Americans are.

1:15:55 So my reason to work as hard as I do,

1:15:58 and I got a life out of balance, I'll tell you.

1:16:00 I just eat, breathe, and sleep this stuff.

1:16:02 um is to get my countrymen out there because we need to we need

1:16:07 to start thinking bonvoyage again and get over

1:16:09 this have a safe trip business, you know.

1:16:11 Um I I really that's my main thing.

1:16:15 Now, of course, other people are welcome and uh I think Canada's got a little

1:16:19 less than 10% of our population and I

1:16:22 would think 10% of our travelers are Canadians.

1:16:25 My grandparents homesteaded in Edmonton in Alberta

1:16:28 and I've got cousins up in Vancouver.

1:16:30 My mom grew up in Canada.

1:16:32 Some people think I'm Canadian because I talk

1:16:34 I think I have a Canadian accent, I guess.

1:16:35 And I think it's because my mom taught me how to talk.

1:16:37 I am I cry every time I talk to my cousins in Vancouver.

1:16:42 I'm so embarrassed about our country right now and the way we have

1:16:45 a bully president that has no understanding

1:16:48 of the value of friendships between nations.

1:16:51 You know, our president just wants to everything has

1:16:54 to be a deal and it's got to be win-lose.

1:16:57 And if you know me, my philosophy is be other people's cash cow.

1:17:00 We need to be win-win.

1:17:01 And there's ways to do that if we work together well.

1:17:03 So, I don't fault Canadians for being upset with us and wanting to boycott us.

1:17:08 Uh, if I was a Canadian, I'd probably feel the same way.

1:17:12 But having said that, once we get over to Europe, um, well,

1:17:16 any money a Canadian gives us is going to be put to good use.

1:17:18 I can promise you that.

1:17:20 Good use, making America a better place.

1:17:22 And, uh, everybody is welcome on our bus.

1:17:25 We get people that find their way onto

1:17:27 a Rick Steves tour bus from all over the world.

1:17:30 But I do have to admit it's it's focused on we market to Americans

1:17:34 and um I don't know why we are Americans and Canadians are Canadians,

1:17:39 but we stole the name.

1:17:40 Uh and it's just a marketing thing.

1:17:42 So long-winded answer.

1:17:44 Canadians, I love you so much.

1:17:46 If you want to join your tours, I'm all over it, you know.

1:17:50 So come on on.

1:17:51 And we've had a lot of great Canadians on our buses.

1:17:54 Rick, you mentioned this idea of people don't say bone viage anymore.

1:17:58 They say have a safe trip.

1:18:00 And especially in the world today,

1:18:02 we had a few people asking on um should they be concerned

1:18:06 about you know traveling during this time where there's the conflict in Iran

1:18:11 or you know we have the the war in Ukraine and what's

1:18:14 your general philosophy philosophy about traveling smartly

1:18:19 and safely despite global events like these?

1:18:22 Well, when I go into the voting booth,

1:18:24 I've got this quirky philosophy of not voting for what's best for me,

1:18:29 but what is best for the world, what's best for poor people,

1:18:33 what's best for people who are not as privileged as me,

1:18:36 and what's best for the future, what's best for the environment.

1:18:38 This is what I vote for.

1:18:40 And to me, that's the an enlightened

1:18:43 citizen who's traveled and thought about things.

1:18:46 A person who believes in God,

1:18:48 and if you believe in God, we're all children of God.

1:18:51 That means we're all brothers and sisters.

1:18:54 And when you travel, you get to know the family.

1:18:56 And when you travel,

1:18:57 you realize love thy neighbor has nothing to do with proximity.

1:19:00 So, forgive me for getting a little bit on a pulpit there.

1:19:03 But I love the thought that um we can get to know the neighbors by traveling.

1:19:08 Uh is it dangerous?

1:19:12 I don't think I don't think about that.

1:19:15 It hasn't occurred to me.

1:19:16 I'm going to Europe in 2 weeks and I'll be there for 50 days.

1:19:20 My son's over there right now.

1:19:22 It's We took 30 thou 35,000 people to Europe last year.

1:19:26 People who travel No, it's not dangerous.

1:19:30 People who don't travel tend to be more afraid.

1:19:33 You know, I've been thinking a lot about this.

1:19:35 Fear is for people who don't get out very much.

1:19:37 The flip side of fear is understanding.

1:19:39 We gain understanding when we travel.

1:19:42 I'm so sad about the end of the days when people said bon voyage.

1:19:48 I grew up when people said bon voyage.

1:19:50 I'm going to your bon voyage now.

1:19:52 Have a safe trip.

1:19:53 We'll pray for you.

1:19:56 When somebody tells me have a safe trip, don't tell me to have a safe trip.

1:19:59 I'm sorry.

1:19:59 If you tell me to have a safe trip, I'm going to say,

1:20:01 well, you have a safe stay at home because actually statistically,

1:20:06 and I know statistics are optional these days,

1:20:08 but statistically where I'm going is safer than where you're staying.

1:20:12 Europeans laugh out loud when they hear

1:20:14 that Americans are staying home for safety reasons.

1:20:17 If you knew the statistics and if you loved your kids,

1:20:19 you would take them to Europe tomorrow.

1:20:22 It's just safer.

1:20:24 This is how we sell tours.

1:20:26 Um um it's just honestly if it was dangerous we wouldn't be doing this.

1:20:33 We're not we're not going to we don't need to take risks.

1:20:35 Um but there's statistically there's there's there's 400 million Europeans.

1:20:41 There's people living along the border of Ukraine.

1:20:43 We have got tours.

1:20:44 The hottest part of our tour program these days.

1:20:47 The first tour we sold central Europe.

1:20:48 It was going to Poland.

1:20:50 um you know we don't we don't lose sleep over the fact

1:20:54 that the world becomes a safer place a more peaceful place

1:21:00 America becomes a better global citizen a better better player within

1:21:05 the family of nations when we travel we need to travel is

1:21:09 a good thing and I've never met anybody who had a good

1:21:12 trip in Europe and then regretted it how do you have

1:21:15 a good trip in Europe well I think taking a Rick Steves

1:21:18 pretty much guarantee you're going to have a good trip in Europe,

1:21:21 but if you have a good trip in Europe,

1:21:23 it's going to be time and money well spent.

1:21:27 And Rick, kind of piggybacking off of some of the comments that you've made,

1:21:31 we do have some travelers these days that are asking,

1:21:34 "Are we Americans still welcome in Europe at a time when

1:21:37 our administration is being much more

1:21:39 antagonistic towards our European allies?" Um,

1:21:44 have you experienced any shifts in European

1:21:47 attitudes towards Americans these past couple years?

1:21:50 You know, Gabe, we've tuned into that.

1:21:52 Um, because that's a very reasonable concern,

1:21:55 and you would think that a lot of people

1:21:57 would just be pissed off at our country.

1:22:00 We're already the richest country around, the most powerful country around.

1:22:03 We want to be richer and more powerful yet.

1:22:05 Um, we're the most aggressive country in so many ways.

1:22:08 We're we're good in a lot of ways,

1:22:11 but now we just want to be stronger and richer.

1:22:14 We have a president who you can't mince words.

1:22:18 He's a bully.

1:22:19 He he he he's got more more power.

1:22:21 He's got more lawyers.

1:22:22 He's got more money.

1:22:24 And he thinks he can just take it.

1:22:26 And we've had these beautiful relationships, these friendships,

1:22:29 these alliances that he's turned his back on.

1:22:32 And how are we received as Americans when we go over there?

1:22:36 Europeans understand that you cannot judge a populace by their president.

1:22:43 They can they wrote the book on somehow getting crazy presidents.

1:22:47 Um Hitler was elected to his party was got the the majority

1:22:53 in their parliament and he was the leader of that party.

1:22:56 So he was the the like the prime minister or the chancellor.

1:22:59 I don't quite understand it all, but the point is he was legally elected.

1:23:02 And then in 18 months, Hitler turned that democracy into a total dictatorship

1:23:08 using the same playbook that dictators use today, wannabe autocrats use today.

1:23:12 And we're having that playbook played against us.

1:23:15 It's happening in Turkey.

1:23:16 It was happening in Hungary, but Hungary's turned the table on it.

1:23:20 So, it's a very interesting time to be traveling.

1:23:22 Europeans are disillusioned.

1:23:24 They're disappointed.

1:23:26 They're saddened.

1:23:28 They're they're confused and they need America

1:23:32 at the table for good stuff to happen.

1:23:34 We say we appreciate the ideals of America,

1:23:38 but if we're not at the table, it's going to be the ideals of China.

1:23:42 And what America is doing is pulling back and building walls.

1:23:46 And we need to be at the table to lead

1:23:48 the world with the ideals of America in mind.

1:23:51 I don't want voice of voice of China.

1:23:53 I want voice of America, you know, and so does Europe.

1:23:56 So, um, when we go to Europe,

1:23:59 if there was any backlash against Americans, we would hear about it.

1:24:02 Now, if you go over there with an angry red hat that says us first,

1:24:06 well, you're going to have trouble.

1:24:07 They're not going to like you.

1:24:09 So, if you got one of those hats,

1:24:10 don't wear it over there and just don't talk politics.

1:24:13 You'll be fine.

1:24:14 But if you're typical PBS demographics that you know that that is curious about

1:24:20 the world and wants to go over there and learn and have a good time,

1:24:24 you're going to be welcomed with with open arms.

1:24:26 And uh uh I find we would know it if

1:24:30 there's any problem because last year we took 35,000 people.

1:24:32 Not a hint of any feeling that we were mistreated.

1:24:36 Our guides I was just with 120 of them here in Edmonds for a week.

1:24:39 We talked about this.

1:24:40 We're learning how to how to make sure that there's a comfortable environment

1:24:45 on our bus because we'll have right-wingers

1:24:47 and left-wingers on our bus and and we're in tight quarters and it's a very

1:24:52 important opportunity to live together and to learn

1:24:54 about each other's life stories and understand why we think the way we do.

1:24:59 This is a beautiful thing.

1:25:00 Uh but when we go to Europe, we'll find a a warm welcome in the one

1:25:05 silver lining I can think of for this pickle

1:25:09 that we're in right now is we are more interesting than we were 10 years ago.

1:25:14 Europeans want to talk to us and you should travel ready to talk.

1:25:17 Have a nice tight definition of the electoral college.

1:25:21 That's a fun thing to try to explain.

1:25:24 All right, Rick.

1:25:25 Well, thank you for um taking us on this best of Europe tour and for sharing all

1:25:32 of these thoughts on what we can expect when we

1:25:34 go to Europe uh on a Rick Steve's Europe tour.

1:25:37 We have one final question um that some people have been asking.

1:25:43 You mentioned that you pop up on tours.

1:25:45 How do people know if you're going to pop up on their tour, Rick?

1:25:49 Guides don't know a Rick tracker.

1:25:51 There's a there's a there's a guide tracker.

1:25:53 Actually, our guides know where they all are cuz they like to get together when

1:25:56 they've got a free hour uh at a favorite little pub or something like that.

1:26:00 Uh but I I just when I come into town, I find out if there's any tours in town.

1:26:06 I don't think about it until I'm in that town.

1:26:08 And then I just I I just send an email to somebody that says, "Oh,

1:26:11 so and so is with this tour over there." And so

1:26:13 and and if I can work it into my my schedule,

1:26:16 I'll pop in at dinner time and I surprise them at dinner.

1:26:20 A lot of times I'll actually start serving them their dessert.

1:26:24 I've done that many times where I just go

1:26:25 into the kitchen and I I'm just I I'll bring

1:26:28 out the desserts and I bring the I I

1:26:30 bring out the the slices of of cake to everybody.

1:26:33 U but it's always fun to see the groups.

1:26:35 I just love doing it each night when I'm in Europe.

1:26:38 I have a guide.

1:26:39 I'm just I'm just um finishing off my my 50-day itinerary.

1:26:43 And if you look at this itinerary uh for every day, it says G8, no G10 and G6.

1:26:52 That means there's a guide at 10 and a guide at six.

1:26:54 A guide at 10 and a guide at six.

1:26:55 So I'm running around there with local guides learning,

1:26:58 contributing to our books, uh thinking about new TV shows and making sure we

1:27:03 know what there is to know for our tour program.

1:27:05 And um but in the evening with my guide,

1:27:07 if I'm running around looking at hotels, restaurants,

1:27:09 I mean, it's always fun to interrupt my work

1:27:12 by visiting with one of our tours over there.

1:27:15 It's a lot of fun because it makes me happy.

1:27:17 People wanted to take a Rick Steve's tour and they're they've got

1:27:20 Alfie or they've got Christina or they've got Itelica or or they've got,

1:27:25 you know, Rod Roy or whatever.

1:27:28 Um I see what a great job our guys are doing and I'm just so so thankful for it.

1:27:34 Hey, I think we're out of time.

1:27:35 I just want to thank everybody for joining us.

1:27:37 Uh, thanks to Keith and Wendy to be uh answering everybody's questions.

1:27:42 Gabe, thank you and the Monday night travel crew

1:27:44 for doing such a great job of connecting us with people.

1:27:46 Thanks to the wonders of these uh webinars.

1:27:49 And again, to all of you, happy travels.

1:27:52 And we hope that if you are looking for a tour

1:27:54 company that you will trust us with your precious upcoming European vacation.

1:28:00 Ciao.