Travel expert Rick Steves has spent most of his life traveling the continent of Europe and sharing what he's learned with the rest of us.
He's informed, entertained and guided travelers to the best nooks and crannies in dozens of European cities – both big and small.
Steves joins All Sides today to talk about how to plan the perfect European getaway.
Guest:
- Rick Steves, travel expert, PBS host
Support WOSU 89.7 NPR News during our spring membership drive and you can receive a Rick Steves travel package as a thank-you gift.
Transcript
This transcript is generated with AI. To ensure its accuracy, review the audio file.
Amy Juravich: Welcome to All Sides with Amy Juravich. This is our membership drive. More about that in just a moment. Pack your bags, grab your passport, and get ready to travel. From the historic cobblestone streets of Rome to the sun-drenched beaches of the Mediterranean to hidden cafes of Paris. Today on All Sides, we have your ultimate boarding pass to the continent of culture, history, and adventure. And no one knows Europe better than Rick Steves.
Rick Steves is a renowned travel writer, author, and public television and public radio personality. He is known for promoting independent, culturally immersive European travel, and he is with us today. Welcome to All Sides Rick.
Rick Steves: Amy, nice to be with you.
Juravich: And we have two wonderful thank you gift packages to tell you about this hour. Plus we're gonna get some great tips from Rick along the way. I wanted to tell about those packages first for our membership drive. The first package is you can explore Europe through the eyes of Rick Steves with "For the Love of Europe," a collection of 100 of his favorite people, places, and stories from four decades of travel. You also get his content directory and the "Best Destinations" travel newsletter.
And you'll have a great amount of inspiration for your next trip. Start a sustaining gift of $8 a month right now at wosu.org. Our second thank you gift package is the perfect way to travel smarter and deeper with a collection of books from Rick Steves. You'll get a three book bundle, "Europe Through the Back Door," now in its 40th edition, Rick's adventure memoir "On the Hippie Trail," and the book "For the Love of Europe."
Plus with this package, you'll also get that full content directory, which is a complete guide to the free travel tools and resources available on the Rick Steves Europe website, and you'll get that 64 page "Best Destinations" newsletter. So start your monthly gift of $15 a month at wosu.org right now. And we are asking you to support this station. Choose to give monthly and keep this station strong and reliable and there for you.
When you join us as a sustainer, you become a part of what makes this all possible. Start your monthly give to wosu.org. Well, Rick, I'm so happy to have you here. And I wanted to start by asking about a change for travelers. It's Europe's new biometric border system. It is called the Entry-Exit System, or known as EES for short. And EES is replacing physical passport stamps. And it's now like a digital record of entry and exit. So Rick, what's your take on this new system?
Steves: You know, I don't give it a second thought, Amy. It's not a big deal. It sounds a big when you read it like that, but it's just a new way to digitize border crossings and to keep track of us. They've been saying they're gonna implement it for a long time. I believe it looks like it's gonna be implemented by the end of the year. They did it in Britain, I think last year, and I didn't worry about it there until it was a real thing.
And then I just went online, it took 10 minutes to get it, cost me 20 bucks, and now I've got it good for five or 10 years. So, you know, people tend to worry about things before they need to when it comes to travel. We sit at home in the kitchen thinking, what can I be anxiety-stricken with now? And I wouldn't worry about this at all. When it happens, you'll just, you can find out what the details are, but wait until it happens.
And then you'll have to go online, you'll fill out a form, and... You know, give them some money, and you've got this thing digital. It's nothing physical. It's not like getting a visa on your passport in the old days. So yeah, it's gonna happen, but they've said it's going to happen for a long time. I believe it will happen finally by the end of this year. But again, I've got 100 people on my staff. I'm taking 30,000 people to Europe on our tours this year, and we're not worrying about it until it happens.
Juravich: What about for those of people out there who love collecting passport stamps? Do they just have to they're just out of luck with 29 specific countries no more stamps?
Steves: You know, that is so sad. I love to collect stamps. For years, for 25 years, I was leading our tour busses around and at every border crossing, you know, we'd send the cutest girl on the bus out with all the passports just to sweet talk the border guard because it was a headache for them, you know. And they'd come back with the stamp, everybody get a stamp on their passport.
You can get stamps when you go to the little countries because that's why people go to little countries, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Andorra, Monaco. You can usually get a stamp there, sometimes they charge for it, but you can sort of say goodbye to the collecting of stamps in your passports, I think.
Juravich: And this system is supposed to automatically calculate whether there's non-EU visitors who breach the 90 days, every 180 days rule or something like that. Is that a big problem in Europe? Do people stay too long?
Steves: Well, yeah, if you do, I don't think anybody who's planning a trip is going to stay more than 90 days. But I've got people that work with in my company, and it's called the Schengen Agreement or the Schenken Treaty. And if you go to Schengken countries, you can only go 90 days out of 180. And you can't put 280s together and go 180, you know, and say, well, that was 90 days out of this, 180, 90 on that.
It's the worst scenario. So you... But if you're not spending more than three months in Schengen countries, it's not an issue for you. In the old days, it was kind of cat and mouse and most people didn't take it very seriously because border guards didn't really check. But now, bam, when you got this new digital system, if you are violating Schengens, it'll pop up and you'll be turned away.
I wanna remind you, there are countries that we think of as Europe that are not in Schengen. So it's, you know, if you're going to, I think it's Britain is the main thing. So if half your time's in Britain and half your times on the continent, you don't, you're Britain time will not add to the Schengen 90 days.
Juravich: You're listening to All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. This is our membership drive.
We're talking today with travel expert Rick Steves. More and more listeners are choosing to support us with a monthly gift because they want to keep the station strong and dependable and reliable. You could be a part of our community right now when you start your sustaining gift today at wosu.org. Make a gift and get a great package. This is the ultimate set for anyone who loves Europe or has dreams of going.
It's a three book bundle from Rick Steves. His trusted guide, "Europe Through the Back Door," his memoir, "On the Hippie Trail," and the highlights of "For the Love of Europe." And it's all here along with a content directory, an all-in-one directory of free travel content and planning tools found on Rick's website, and you'll get the "Best Destinations" newsletter. It is a great package. It is just $15 a month as a sustaining member right now at wosu.org.
This is a good time to support public radio. It is no secret that public radio has had some changes in the way we are funded, but guess what? We are still here. We are here thanks to listener support. So if you listen to All Sides every day, today is the perfect day to show your support of this show. The team at All Sides works hard to cover a diverse range of topics.
We cover the news of the day, we cover long-term trends, we cover national news with a central Ohio's perspective. Make a gift, get one of these great Rick Steves thank you gift packages, show your for the station right now while Rick is on the air with us. Give an amount that works for you, 866-897-9678, or wosu.org. So I wanted to ask a more day-to-day passport-type question because we were talking about not being able to get passport stamps anymore because of this new electronic system.
But with the passport itself, do you recommend that people carry their passports around with them all the time whenever they're traveling in Europe? Or do you recommended leaving them in your hotel room, like tucked away in a safe?
Steves: Well, I don't want to speak for lawyers or, you know, mothers and fathers or whatever. I just want to tell you what I do. I think technically you could say you're supposed to have your passport on you, with you when you're in a foreign country to prove who you are. Traveling in Europe, I've never done that. Well, I shouldn't say that. I wear a money belt when I feel like having my valuables with me.
If there's a reason you want to have valuables with you, I think you should have a moneybelt. Thieves target Americans, not because they're mean, but because they are smart. We're just the logical target. We don't know where to go, we're sloppy, we've got all the good stuff in our purses or wallets, and we're easy targets. You're not gonna get knifed or mugged, you're just gonna get petty purse snatched or pickpocketed.
All I need is a button or a zipper or a money belt and to be heads up. But remember, anytime there's a commotion, it's probably a fake commotion. If an old lady falls down an escalator. My first reaction is step back and be careful about my wallet, you know? If there's a pushing match on the main square in Madrid, it's two people in a team that are causing a commotion.
Everybody gathers around and other people are picking pockets. So if there's people doing that shell game on the street and people gather around, well, there's jostling, there is commotion, people are having their pockets picked. Last time I was in I thought, well, I've seen the changing of the guard before, you know, at the palace where the band marches and everything. I thought I'm going to step back and get the pickpockets view.
So I stepped back and I looked at 100 or 200 tourists' butts. And I thought okay, where do I see an iPhone? Where do I a wallet? Where do see an open purse? A pickpocket steps back. Everybody's looking at the marching band, and they can target whoever is sloppy. And then they run up there and they grab it. And they give it to their partner and then the partner's gone and somebody looks at them and they go, who me?
It's a real, we're at risk just for petty purse snatching and now phone snatching. You know, a lot of us are shooting photographs with our phone, holding our phone very delicately. Somebody swoops by on a bicycle and grabs your phone and they're off with it. So you need to be on guard that way. Now about your passport, yes, you wanna be very careful with your passport. I have, I leave my passport in the hotel room.
Because I think the most dangerous place for things is with me when I'm on the streets, you see, especially in a bag. If you've got things in a day bag, that's your most likely thing to get ripped off. So the last thing you want to do is put all your valuables in your day bag. There's all sorts of distractions and clever things going on in the streets. I've spent about 80 days a year for the last 50 years in Europe.
I've never had anything stolen out of my hotel. We take 30,000 people on Rick Steves bus tours every year. We would hear about it if that happens. It doesn't happen if you're staying in a reasonable hotel. And Amy, I have never used a hotel safe. I find them just annoying and stupid. I don't leave valuables on the bed because when the maid comes in during the day, they leave the door open and somebody could walk by and see that, but just put stuff in a drawer or out of sight and that's the safe place to leave your valuables.
Personally, I have a black in kind of clip. A security pouch in the inside of my suitcase. It's not a suitcase. It's a soft-sided rucksack that converts into a suitcase with heightable shoulder straps. And it's carry on the airplane size bag, nine by 22 by 14 inches. We designed it. It cost 100 bucks and it's my dream bag. And inside is what I've invented is a security punch. It's clipped in a very low key way so you can't even see it deep in that bag.
And that's where I... I want my stuff fixed, you know. I don't want it slipped somewhere or hiding behind something. I want it clipped in a place where I cannot forget it. And that would be in my bag, in the bottom of my bag. And that's where I put one of my credit cards and my passport. And I keep the other credit card with me that I can function with, because I don't want to lose them both at the same time.
But again, I've never used a hotel safe. I've ever had anything stolen from my room. And lately... I never ask for room service. In fact, we have a new policy with our tours. We have 40 different itineraries everywhere in Europe. And if you're just staying in a hotel for two or three days, I tell the reception, I don't want any room service, I put the sign on the door, no room service please, no disturb, and then I arrange the room the way I like it.
And I don't have a maid coming in and putting all the pillows back on the bed and changing all my toiletries around. And you know thinking I need a new towel when I don't need a new towel you know they'll say if you keep your towel hanging up we'll save the earth and we won't change it yes we're saving the earth yeah they do they change it and I just don't want people fiddling with my stuff so don't let mates come into your room unless you really need it uh don't leave your valuables laying around don't mess with these um the the safe and remember the your day bags the most dangerous thing and anything with you on the streets.
You're targeted as a tourist. It's not a physical danger, it's sport. You're rich, they're poor. Don't be sloppy or you're down one to nothing. Get your act together and get back out there. I bought my favorite traveling pants a couple months ago and I left it where I bought it and paid 10 bucks extra to get a button put onto that back pocket because all I need is a button and I'm good.
Juravich: Thank you to Christine, I am Marino from Dublin. Thank you for your gift of support. Christine writes, I'm so grateful to wake up with you every day and for everything you do. This donation is a little and it's so worth it. So thank you, Christine. Thank you, for your support. You could join Christine and make a gift right now and support All Sides and support 89.7 NPR News.
If you love travel or just dream of it, "For the Love of Europe" is a great book that brings together 100 unforgettable moments on Rick Steves' journeys across Europe. And along with it, you'll get a complete content directory and the 64-page "Best Destinations" newsletter, which is full of photos, stories, and travel ideas. Start your sustainer gift today of $8 a month, at wosu.org.
If $15 a month works for you, you can go behind the scenes of Rick Steves with a three-book bundle. This includes the classic handbook, "Europe Through the Back Door," and his personal story, "On the Hippie Trail," and also that book, "For the Love of Europe." Plus, you'll get that content directory and the Rick Steves "Best Destinations" newsletter to inspire your next trip. So start that gift at $15 a month right now and support public media. Your gift helps power public media, yes, Rick, go.
Steves: Let me just jump in here, because it's so fun to put these two packages together. And if I could just kind of explain a little bit different angle on it. Both of the packages, $8 a month and $15 a month, come with the newsletter. That's a 64-page collection of what I think are the most vivid experiences you could have. And then the content directory is a way to let people know all the free information on our website.
You could go to school on our website. There's all the TV shows I've ever produced. There's 30 hours of lectures. There's an archive of hundreds of hours of public radio shows and interviews we've done. And a lot of tours that are, we've got an app that gives you 65 free audio tours. And it's absolutely free, all this information. But it's hard to know all of it. So I produced this content directory that just gives you the key to this University of European travel at ricksteves.com.
And then so you get those two at both levels at the first level eight dollars you get my collection of my hundred favorite travel articles and it's sort of a guidebook in disguise because it gives you examples of what i find so magic about europe in hopes that it can inspire you to have that kind of sensibility as you travel and find your own magic and then at the fifteen dollar a month level there's three There's the book I just mentioned, a 400-page book.
There's my newest book, which is actually my oldest book, and that's the journal I wrote when I was 23 years old, before I was a travel writer, when I a piano teacher, taking the hippie trail, the ultimate road trip from Istanbul to Kathmandu, back when I was 23-years-old. I wrote a 60,000-word journal, and it's so vivid. And it's the only book I've ever written that has "New York Times" bestseller on the cover.
And then the main book is "Europe Through the Back Door." And that's an 800-page collection of all the most important travel tips. We were just talking about theft. You know, that's just straight out of this 800-paged collection of lessons I've learned from the School of Hard Knocks. We update this every year with lots of travel. It's been updated for 40 years in a row now.
And if you're dreaming about going to Europe, or if you have a loved one who's dreaming about going here safely and smartly and smoothly maximizing the experience and minimizing the mistakes, Learn from my mistakes with this book. So at that $15 a month level, you're supporting WOSU with a generous, sustaining membership pledge and you're getting this 1,500 pages of inspiring and practical information to help turn your dreams into smooth and affordable reality.
Juravich: And you can get that at wosu.org or you can call 866-897-9678. A great thing about this three book collection is you can keep one of the books for yourself and give a book to someone else if you know that they're traveling to Europe. There's a lot you can do with these books and if you love learning more about Rick Steves, you can read his memoir "On the Hippie Trail."
And you'll be supporting WOSU with that gift right now, $15 a month, 866 897 9678 or wosu.org. I know someone who was in Florence over spring break, and they bought tickets to the museum that had Michelangelo's "David" in it, but they bought them on a scam site by accident. Didn't know that it was a scam sight until they went up to the door of the museum and they were told the tickets were fake. How do you avoid accidentally buying scam tickets?
Steves: Well, that's an example of one of the things that would be covered in the "Europe Through the Back Door" book, you can imagine. And a lot of people are scamming tourists by making a fake landing page and selling their tickets. It's pretty clear if you go to the official site of that museum, they will connect you with the right places to get your ticket. But one takeaway from, I mean, I've never had that problem and we just don't have that problem because we just know that it's kind of common sense to go to the site of the museum and then buy the ticket from the organization that they recommend.
I would say that one of the takeaways from COVID is museums learn that they can control crowds. There used to be a mob scene outside of Anne Frank's, there used to be a mobs scene outside Leonardo's "Last Supper" in Milano. Now there's no mob scenes anymore because you can't buy tickets there. You have to buy tickets online and the ticket comes with a timed entry. So you have a half hour window when you can show up.
So at Anne Frank's now, three times an hour, 100 people show up and every 20 minutes they go in or whatever. And the same thing would be true at the Abbey in Milan where we've got Leonardo's "Last Supper." All over Europe, they're controlling the crowds that way. They like it. It's kind of a drag. I used to like to just show up and buy my ticket, but you can't complain about it. You just embrace it.
When I'm updating my guidebooks, we've got 60 guidebooks covering every corner of Europe. The new thing is, it's almost like we have a sidebar on the front page of every city chapter that says, and if you're going to Amsterdam with the typical interest of a tourist, you need to have these four reservations. You need to get a reservation to "Anne Frank's House," and a reservation at the "Van Gogh Museum," reservation to the "Rijksmuseum," if you wanna see the Rembrandts and the Dutch Masters.
And if you want to go to a fun, trendy, popular restaurant in the city center, you should have a reservation for that fine restaurant meal. So there's four things you need to reserve before you go to Amsterdam in peak season. And the flip side of that information is everything else is wide open. You don't need to be stressed about reservations everywhere. I've learned that a lot of people, they think if reservations are available, they should get them.
No, it's nice to have the freedom to pop in when you like. But there are major marquee sites, and these days, the trend, the dynamic is we Americans go to all the places that people talk about, that are number one on TripAdvisor, that everybody's doing their selfie in front of on Instagram, and we create these crowds, and then we go to these crowds because we're just inclined to, oh, there's a lot of people lined up, let's get in that line, and then, we wonder why are so many people lining up here?
Well, it's because people like you are part of the problem. You're just joining the crowd. You could take away all the crowded sites in Europe and Europe would still be an amazing place to go.
Juravich: You're listening to All Sides on 89.7 NPR News. This is our membership drive.
And whether you're planning a trip or you just love to explore from home, you can get this three book collection from Rick Steves and bring Europe a little closer. You'll get three books, "Europe Through the Back Door," you'll get Rick's memoir, "On the Hippie Trail," and you'll the book, "For the Love of Europe." Plus you'll his content directory and the "Best Destinations" travel newsletter.
You get all of those items plus you're supporting public radio and WOSU. This is a truly win-win situation. Start a monthly gift of $15 a month right now. And if you've been a member with us for $10 a month for quite some time, consider upgrading your sustaining membership to $15 a month. You could get this great thank you gift package that I was just talking about, and you'll be supporting all of the news you've depending on, especially recently.
If you've listening to this station to keep you up to date on recent events, we ask you to give a little something extra right now to support that coverage. So consider increasing your gift from $10 a month to $15 a month. You could get this great Rick Steves travel package and you'll be supporting your recent listening. Give at wosu.org or call 866-897-9678.
Steves: Hey Amy, here's an idea. People might be wondering what's in that "On the Hippie Trail" book that Rick wrote. If you pledge at $15 a month, you're gonna get that. And here's just a few words from it. I was leaving Afghanistan, going over the Khyber Pass. This was 1978. The last year hippies could go across this thing because the next year the Shah was deposed and Ayatollah was put into Iran and it became the Islamic Republic.
And the next the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and became a war zone. But we were going over the Khyber Pass. This is where you've got the tectonic plates of Islam and Hindustan coming together. All of the arid land we had covered since Istanbul was giving way to the lush monsoon-drenched Indian subcontinent. And I had long dreamed of crossing the Khyber Pass. So this is just what I wrote, as I think I was waiting at the border.
Crossing the Khyber Pass has long been my dream. And this morning, we would do it. We swallowed our malaria pills with black tea and toast and packed into our kinky, old, brightly but badly painted bus to Pakistan. Our seats were big and high with open windows that let me lean out. Except for a little smear of yesterday's vomit still dried to the outside of the bus below my window, this was exactly the way I wanted to do the Khyber Pass.
Juravich: Wow, yummy. What a vivid description there, Rick.
Steves: Though, just reading that reminds me what a trip that was. Oh my goodness.
Juravich: Oh my goodness. Well, that kind of leads me to my next question, because, you know, based on your memoir, you talk a lot about travel as a political act. What advice do you give to people when there are conflicts around the world, in the Middle East, for example, when they feel a little bit nervous about traveling overseas? How do you calm their about world conflicts.
Steves: That's a good question. It doesn't occur to me very much, to be honest. I go to Europe every year many times. My son's in Europe right now leading a tour around. We've got 50 busses on the road right now in Europe, filled with people, what we call PBS demographics. I'm going to Europe, Greece, on May 1st. I'll be there for 50 days. I haven't thought about any safety issues.
We've got tours in Turkey right now, and I'm not thinking about safety issues. There's 400 million people in Europe. There's been 400 million in Europe for a long time. None of them are being killed in a war unless you go far east to Iraq or not Iraq, Ukraine. But people are nervous, and I guess it's understandable, but fear is for people who don't get out very much. The flip side of fear is understanding, and we gain understanding when we travel.
This is really important to divide fear and risk. You can be fearful, but you can also look at it cerebrally or logically and think, but there is no risk. We've got tourism Poland right now. It borders Ukraine. There's really no risk, I mean, you've got a risk when you go buy your It's safer to go to Europe than to stay here in the United States. I mean, that's, Europeans laugh out loud when they hear that Americans are staying home for safety reasons.
We live in a dangerous land. Their governments are giving advisories about coming here. So, you know, your loved ones will worry about you when you're in Europe because if a bomb goes off in Turkey, they're gonna think you might be hit by some shrapnel. Istanbul is a city of 20 million people. 20 million people. There'll be a bomb in Istanbul sometime in the next year. Does that mean you won't go to Istanbul?
Well, I hope not. And if you really care about peace, the most important thing we can do these days as Americans is travel. I mean, we've got to get out there and get to know the other 96% of humanity. And we've actually got a political environment right now that is encouraging us to build walls and scaring us and using fear against us. You know, we used to respect a guy named Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
He's out of vogue now considering who's running our country. And he famously said, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. But back then, people said bon voyage. And today people say have a safe trip. When somebody tells me have a save trip, I'm inclined to say, well, you have a stay at home. Because where I'm going statistically, and I know statistics are optional these days, but where I am going statistically is safer than where you're staying.
If you understood the risk, and you loved your kids, you'd take them to Europe tomorrow. That's how we sell tours. So I'm not worried about that. I mean, if there's a war in, if all of a sudden there's bombs falling in Italy, okay, I'll worry about it, but am I gonna stay home in case that happens? Hell no. I wanna get out there. We've gotta get out and join the world. What I don't like about this, what our administration's doing is now we're, We're We're withdrawing from the world.
The world needs us. There's only one way to make America great. And that's not to pull out of everything and build walls and tariff everything. It's to engage. The opposite of walls is bridges. If you look at the currency in Europe, Amy, imagine you have one currency, one paper money for 18 or 20 countries. Whose president are you gonna put on the currency? Whose national bird are you going to put on currency?
Well, that's a quandary. What do you put on there that everybody can embrace? Bridges, that's what decorates every European paper bill. Bridges and traveling is all about bridges and I'm sort of evangelical about the value of travel these days. So that's why I'm really, really thankful to help out and support public broadcasting right now. You know, why does our president target NPR and why does he target PBS?
Because this is where an electorate develops some savvy. Where we can be critical thinkers, where we cant be duped and dumbed down. And every wannabe autocrat wants easy to dupe and a fearful electorate. And this is patriotic. This is not America bashing. This is America loving. When we talk about how do we have a stronger, smarter, more thoughtful society. And it's nothing new to think that travel is something that makes us safer.
Mohammed 1,400 years ago said don't tell me how much, don't me how educated you are, tell me much you've traveled. I just love that idea that if we all traveled, the world would be a safer and more stable place. And if we had public broadcasting that was strong, we would have an electorate that could understand the complexities of this planet with a attention span that was bigger than a bumper sticker.
Juravich: Well, I want to thank a couple of people who are keeping public radio strong here in central Ohio. Thank you, Tyler Benek from Columbus, and thank you, Jessica Underwood from Columbus. Thank you so much for your support this hour. You can join them right now and make a gift. Support public radio today at wosu.org or call 866-897-9678.