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Rick Steves Wants to Save the World, One Vacation at a Time
- rileyraver57 8y agoStep 1 - Have money
- JazCE 8y agoStep 2 - ?
- giancarlostoro 8y agoStep 3 - PROFIT! Joke aside, not everyone can afford time off vacationing from work, and even with PTO covering their time off.
- z2 8y agoI try to travel with friends each year, but the core issue for most of us is, even with PTO, a few weeks of overtime is needed before or after the trip because work can't wait, and our colleagues cannot absorb our work. Speaking of our colleagues, many haven't taken vacation in years and let their unused PTO roll over and eventually expire!
- ohjeez 8y agoEven with the seemingly-extra work (and overflowing email inboxes) I think it's important to walk away. You need to let the creative well refill, or you burn out.
- z2 8y agoStep 2 for people with passports issued by developing countries: Allocate a month to visa applications, interviews, biometric checks, gather documents and letters, then take a mini vacation to a city that has consulate services for the target country, to convince them you are not a liability or future illegal immigrant. More discussion on that here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17778108 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17778108
- 11thEarlOfMar 8y agoYes, you need to have some. But the barrier is getting lower by the year, even for International travel. For example: San Francisco <-> Milan, May 7 - May 20, Norwegian Air+Easy Jet: $598. Air Bnb for the duration: Central Loft, $70/night, 13 nights, $910. (you can find much lower as well, if you want to go for the minimum). Shop local, cook & eat in the apartment, $20/day? $280. Spend 13 days walking and exploring Milan for under $2,000. That's not a trivial amount, but it's not the $2,000 air fare and $150 night hotel and $50 day food type of money, either.
- crispyambulance 8y agoYou're right about those tips. It is totally possible to travel and keep the budget from getting crazy. That's the kind of stuff the wife and I do every year (BTW, I highly recommend Bologna). A lot of folks, however, aren't comfortable with putting themselves out there into an airbnb (or equivalent) and fending for themselves with local markets and transport. It's really not that hard (depending on where you go and your tolerance for embarrassment and alienation), but there's definitely a language and cultural barrier that needs to be overcome or worked around. I think that Rick Steves, in his unique way, makes a lot of people feel more comfortable with getting out there. It really is so much better to travel without a tour company mediating the experience.
- 11thEarlOfMar 8y agoAgreed. If you're American, maybe start with Vancouver or London so that there is no language issue, which can be the biggest issue. It's also not hard to get by in most places in Europe, particularly Scandanavia. Most folks there speak English, among other languages.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- jrjarrett 8y ago> San Francisco <-> Milan, May 7 - May 20, Norwegian Air+Easy Jet: $598. That's great if you are near a large city like San Francisco. However, Madison, WI <-> Milan, May 7 - May 20, United: $1304 economy, 21h travel time. It IS the $2000 airfare ( or approaching it). Now, ORD <-> MIL is $687, but MSN -> ORD is at least a 2 1/2 hour trip by car, longer by bus. It's a $60/rt ride from Madison to O'Hare on the Van Galder bus. If you drive, it's whatever cost to take your car plus at least $10/day at ORD.
- wyldfire 8y agoIt's certainly not inexpensive to do intercontinental travel, that's for sure. But Steves' thing is all about doing it more affordably. > Above all, Steves told us, do not be afraid. The people of the world are wonderful, and the planet we share is spectacular. I've done a small splash of international travel. But in my career I've been lucky enough to be exposed to people from lots of places in the world, and I've drawn the same conclusion. When people here in the US ruminate about global events and foreigners I wonder if they've ever really met any. Because you very quickly draw the conclusion -- "Hey, these people aren't very different at all -- they have family and friends and they go to work and care about their family and friends just like me!"
- ohjeez 8y agoI've traveled with money, and I've traveled when I'm broke. Both are enjoyable, but I got more "broadening" experiences by traveling when broke. For example, in the mid 90s we went to the Dominican Republic for a week, and we were oh-so-broke. We stayed in a hut (actual hut) behind a friend's house; we borrowed their bikes to go to town to buy groceries (including food items where I had no earthly idea what they were); we cooked on a tiny alcohol camp stove (and when it ran out, we discovered that the alcohol it used was a bottle of rum). We saw nothing that was a tourist destination; it was all "just folks." ...and we got a huge amount of understanding about what it meant to live in a poor country without resources. I've also stayed in 5-star hotels in Paris and indulged myself for a week falling into every tourist vortex. That's perfectly fine, too, because it's okay to appreciate beauty. However, you appreciate it _better_ when you know its context and history; I highly recommend Rick Steves _Europe Through The Back Door_ because it gives us Americans a better sense of European history, not to mention how it affected art, architecture, etc. Mind you, Steves' travel guides are rarely my favorites. He's not a foodie, and I regularly choose destinations based on what I can eat. And he's opinionated, which I appreciate, until we disagree on those opinions. (He's meh on the Black Forest, and it's one of my favorite places.) Then again, I'm not his target audience. I think he's a treasure nonetheless.
- Koshkin 8y ago> He's not a foodie You might enjoy watching Rudy Maxa's cheeks instead, then.
- glup 8y agoActually he's refreshingly frugal. Public transit + inns + hiking is cheaper per day than a lot of parts of the US, and competition among the low cost carriers means that you can find roundtrip tickets from some American cities for <$600 in the summer and <$300 in the winter (emphasis on some -- NY, SF, Newark, Fort Lauderdale).
- matwood 8y agoYou need some money, sure. But, it's not nearly as expensive as most people think. Rick Steves is also all about frugality where possible. His one exception is if spending money will save time, as time is the most valuable thing we have.
- temp129838 8y agoIf you live in the US, we are living just past the golden age of credit cards rewards...I've not paid for a personal trip (flight or hotel) for maybe 6 years and travel a lot.
- Mediterraneo10 8y ago> Step 1 - Have money One of the very best travel guide series is those books by Anton Krotov and friends written in Russian. While these travelers have gradually become pretty bourgeois and fans of posh train travel (which allows them to guide also ordinary holidaymakers), they spent many years traveling the world by hitchhiking, sleeping in mosques, etc. on absolutely tiny budgets (like 0–5€/day). Besides writing travel guides for the Russian-speaking market, they also do their fair share of public-speaking visits to small towns to encourage young people across the USSR and Eastern Europe to set out traveling even if they have little money. Today if you come into contact with shoestring travelers in South America or Africa, you find that a lot of them are Russians and Poles. Their comparative poverty didn’t stop them from traveling transcontinentally, and it has always puzzled me that some comparatively better off Americans complain they can’t indulge in their wanderlust dreams due to lack of money.
- myroon5 8y agoRelated thread about more efficient ways to broaden your horizons than traveling around the world for a week: https://twitter.com/juliagalef/status/885211413618212864 https://twitter.com/juliagalef/status/885211413618212864 She lists examples like reading and hanging out with different people, but I'd love to hear more alternatives. Trying new hobbies is another great one
- umeshunni 8y agoClassic gatekeeping tweet.
- smokeyj 8y agoI don't take it that way. In terms of "broadening your horizons" it's easy to travel and not connect with the local culture. You're just a tourist, window shopping into the lives of the local people. Strolling through with your selfie stick to earn social credibility on the Gram. That said, I think people who enjoy Rick Steves would also be the type to make an effort to get the authentic experience. Could be my own projection.
- oh_sigh 8y agoSo what if you don't connect with the local culture? What if that isn't your point of traveling?
- askafriend 8y agoYou don’t have to do anything. The tweet began with a premise. If the premise for travel is “broadening your horizons” then the assertion is that there are far cheaper, more accessible ways to do that than hopping on a transatlantic jet and spending a week in a foreign place. There is a real conversation to be had about the impact of tourism on local ways of life and local economies (both in good ways and bad). If the premise for travel is “because I want to”, then by all means go ahead... It’d be helpful if people thought a bit more about what other people are saying and were more charitable about interpretations instead of finding the first reason to get mad.
- llamataboot 8y agoI like travel. I like traveling outside of the US. It undoubtedly does all sort of great things. But first you have to realize, that paid vacation isn't even guaranteed in the US, at least 1/4 of all workers get no paid vacation, and of the ones that do the likelihood that it is enough time to get to another country and back is pretty slim. Edit: typos
- glup 8y agoI don't see this as a criticism of Rick Steves / traveling — this highlights the need for reforms in the American labor system. People do better work when they vacation, the hard part from an institutional perspective is compensating for the absence of critical contributors. But it can be done.
- jefe_ 8y agoWas able to get 6 nights in Japan on 4 vacation days by leveraging Thanksgiving. Told relatives I would miss Thanksgiving but attend Christmas, everyone thought that made sense. For those who celebrate and enjoy Christmas, I don't recommend missing Christmas for solo travel overseas, did that once and felt very isolated. People in the place I was visiting were celebrating their own Christmases and people I knew back home were celebrating Christmas and I wasn't there. With Thanksgiving it's likely not a holiday in the country you're visiting so everything is open and for me at least, I don't really care about missing Thanksgiving, a better version happens 1 month later.
- matwood 8y agoI prefer traveling over holidays, although I not alone since I'm with my wife. We have often seen places in their much more natural state. Plus, there is a whole host of other things to do since it's typically winter. Ice skating in Budapest and then going to a steam bath was a great experience. http://budapestchristmas.com/budapest-outdoor-ice-rink-in-the-city-park http://budapestchristmas.com/budapest-outdoor-ice-rink-in-th...
- thatfrenchguy 8y agoYeah and then you have to travel in November, which sucks. And it's only one week.
- NoblePublius 8y agoI volunteered at my local PBS station in high school during pledge drives. This was 2001. Rick was there once, talking about the DVDs of his show you would get if you donated. After his segment, he hung out and talked with every volunteer. None of the other hosts ever did that. Love him so much.
- rc_kas 8y agoI don't know how Rick Steves came to be, but he is a gem. His show is so ridiculously wholesome, it's a true joy to watch.
- bigfatfrock 8y agoHis energy and positivity are both refreshing.
- akeck 8y agoNothing like Rick Steves and Bob Ross episodes to take the edge of a day.
- glup 8y agoWeird fact: For the last ~10 years I have always watched Rick Steves' show while doing laundry (sorting and folding). The two are now inextricably linked in my head (thinking about folding socks makes me think about Barcelona), but I really look forward to doing laundry.
- simondedalus 8y agohaving caught his program on 13 several times, i would venture to assert that your association is about as apt one as could be. i associate rick steves with sick days, nick stellino, and pati jinich.
- hyperbovine 8y agoI grew up watching The Frugal Gourmet and Sesame Street on PBS. Jeff Smith is inextricably a part of my boyhood. Unfortunately, it is no longer politic to utter that sentence.
- squozzer 8y agoI appreciate Rick Steves and always enjoyed his shows. But reading recent posts on HN about how tourists are ruining Europe (and other places) makes me wonder if his message has become obsolete. After all, air travel contributes to climate change. And I for one do not relish jumping on the QM2 - which surely burns fossil fuels - to spend two weeks (one week each way) traversing the Atlantic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Queen_Mary_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Queen_Mary_2 Cheap airfares contribute to overtourism. Just ask Dubrovnik. AirBnB has priced locals out of their own housing markets. Just ask Venice. That said, I hope he continues doing his thing.
- reidjs 8y agoPerhaps ruining specific parts of Europe, but I think it’s unfair to say tourists have ever ruined an entire country or even city. Usually there’s just small easily avoidable areas if you don’t want to deal with crowds and overpriced food. That said I will never travel to Rome, the Bahamas, or Paris unless forced.
- Mediterraneo10 8y ago> Usually there’s just small easily avoidable areas if you don’t want to deal with crowds I recently visited Madrid, a city I lived in nearly 20 years ago. What struck me was not just the suffocating crowds of tourists in the very center of the city compared to back then. I also found that what used to be quiet residential neighborhoods (after all, they lack any particular sights) now had a distinct amount of tourists walking around with suitcases or backpacks – I assumed that AirBnB was now spreading tourists throughout the whole city.
- magduf 8y agoFor the ones in local neighborhoods, as long as they're not overcrowding the place, or committing crimes or something, you have to remember that all those tourists are pumping money into the local economy. They're eating food at the local eateries, they're paying for transport (probably helping fund the local public transit), they're giving money to local homeowners who then spend at least some of it locally and hopefully pay some extra taxes, etc. I fail to see how this is a problem, unless it's just too many of them of course.
- dashundchen 8y agoI wish we could decarbonize long distance travel. I would love to see more of the world but I can't justify contributing to climate change for such a trivial thing. I can limit emissions by doing smaller trips with bike, bus or train locally, but oceans present a problem. A round trip transatlantic flight from New York to Berlin emits 2.4 metric tons of CO2e per person. https://co2.myclimate.org/en/portfolios?calculation_id=1697638 https://co2.myclimate.org/en/portfolios?calculation_id=16976... The UN says global emissions per capita needs to drop to 1.5 metric tons/year by 2050 if we have any hope of keeping to a 2C temperature rise this century. I wonder if there's any hope of electric planes hitting the energy density needed for commercial airlines, or algae based plane fuel taking off. I would even use a slower or more expensive mean of travel if it meant the emissions were drastically reduced. https://www.treehugger.com/aviation/worlds-first-flight-powered-by-100-algae-biofuels-completed.html https://www.treehugger.com/aviation/worlds-first-flight-powe...
- superpermutat0r 8y agoStill, emissions from planes are a tiny percentage of global output. Individuals should not share the burden if it's a handful of companies polluting the Earth. You can also offset your footprint by buying land and planting trees. With some handkerchief math you'll be able to fly without any worries.
- sinemetu11 8y agoOr just not eating meat. :P
- superpermutat0r 8y agoFor a first world individual, highest impact is not heating/cooling or skipping on transcontinental flights. Meat production globally has a non trivial emissions output but for a first world individual, diet is maybe 10% of footprint. Without Hot Air book goes through these calculations. Still, planting 1000 trees and making sure they exist for 40 years makes your footprint invisible.
- mturmon 8y agoI read his book Europe through the back door before my second trip to Europe, around 1992. What a refreshing book, especially in a category that was (and is) dominated by publications and institutions that are invested in making you want expensive and exclusive accommodations and attractions. He has kind of a upright earnestness, combined with a sort of Germanic devotion to efficiency ("save money by sleeping on the train"; "plan a day's activity city-hopping by integrating a few key visits with the train schedule", "roll your trousers when packing"), that some nerds would generally find appealing. I've returned to that book several times over the years when I feel like I need an attitude adjustment about how I travel, because it's easy to fall into the habit of just booking expensive accommodations. The result can be one-dimensional.
- Mediterraneo10 8y ago> What a refreshing book, especially in a category that was (and is) dominated by publications and institutions that are invested in making you want expensive and exclusive accommodations and attractions. That was mainly a problem of the US market, though. In the 1990s the American travel guide market, i.e. the sort of guides you would find in any mall bookshop, was completely dominated by Fodors and Frommers, which aimed at those with rather high budgets. So, Rick Steves could offer an alternative to that within North America. Meanwhile, however, in the UK and Australia Lonely Planet and Rough Guides were more widely available. (Not to mention some of the travel guide series in the German- and French-speaking world). Those guides opened up travel to even lower budgets than Rick Steves could.
- mturmon 8y agoI agree with this. I found the Rough Guides another good antidote to Froddors/Michelin - and in fact, a better guidebook than ETTBD. I don't think I remember LP guides for Europe being helpful - I thought their main forte was Asia. Maybe that impression is mistaken. For me, the thing was that ETTBD presented, explicitly, a whole travel philosophy/attitude that I found inspiring at the time.
- javiramos 8y agoHow can I watch Rick Steves?
- dashundchen 8y agoI don't know if it's available outside the US, but PBS has some of the more recent episodes online for free: https://www.pbs.org/show/rick-steves-europe/ https://www.pbs.org/show/rick-steves-europe/
- javiramos 8y agoThank you!
- netsharc 8y agoThere are a lot of his videos on YouTube.
- jedberg 8y agoMy first intro to Rick Steves was when his soothing yet excited voice guided me through the Louvre via his iPhone app. Ever since then, and time I'm in a new place in Europe, I always look for one of his guides. He's helped me through places like Vienna and Budapest. I'm glad he exists.
- temp129838 8y agoWe live in a time where international air travel has become ridiculously cheap relative to domestic travel. I regularly see roundtrip flights between SFO and Singapore/HK for ~$600 and RT flights between US and Europe for ~$400 or so, but expect to pay at least $650 to go between SF<>NY and even $350 just to go between SF and LA sometimes. Point is, it's never been cheaper to travel internationally. Enjoy it while it's still true.
- magduf 8y agoIt's not just that: everything in the US is ridiculously expensive now, so it doesn't make sense to travel domestically at all for me any more. I can stay in very decent hotels in western Europe and Japan for $50/night, but paying that much in America would put me in a rat-trap. Eating out (hard to avoid when traveling) is much cheaper in Europe in my experience. And ground transport is far cheaper in other countries. America is just plain overpriced. The only thing that's harder about international travel is that so many people don't speak English in other countries, but that's also part of the fun of it.
- rconti 8y agoYup; I stayed in a rented room (AirBnB) in Vienna with a few software developers in their 20s, 25 euro a night. Their penthouse apartment directly overlooked the Danube. I couldn't believe what a deal I stumbled upon, but then I found some of the clean budget hotels (Ibis or similar) were like 45 euro a night. In a major European city!
- cageface 8y agoI did a ton of traveling last year all over the world and the conclusion I reached was that the popular destinations are completely overwhelmed. I guess it’s the combination of cheap flights and instagram but if you want to enjoy yourself then forget about Kyoto and Venice etc and look into some less popular and less well known places instead. And do the rest of us a favor and don’t location tag if you do discover something great.
- 11thEarlOfMar 8y agoRoger that. We visited Venice in October, off season. First night in the restaurant, 4 tables surrounding us... 3 were Americans and the 4th French. As noted elsewhere, the cost of Intercontinental travel is dropping and the primary tourist destinations are overwhelmed, even in off seasons.
- ohjeez 8y agoSome places are great enough to survive their hype. Not many.
- edaemon 8y agoI'm in Venice right now and while there are many tourists (this city survives entirely on tourism) it's far from overwhelmed. We haven't waited in any lines in Italy as a whole -- the only real line we encountered was at the Colosseum, and that took about 20 minutes. There are certainly places that are less busy but I wouldn't outright discourage anyone from traveling to the popular places. It's not that difficult to avoid the crowds and there are tons of things worth seeing.
- wil421 8y agoYou are still visiting in the off season transitioning to peak summer season with August being the worst. Go back when schools get out in North America, Europe, and Asia, then let us know how it compares. Try it again when Europe is on Holiday in August. I went in May when schools were getting out and I could tell the difference by the end of the week. Make appointments to the popular places to avoid the lines.
- ronyeh 8y agoVery well written and entertaining article. The best part is his journal called High Notes, in which he writes his deepest thoughts while being stoned. “Make a rug with vacuum marks, so it always looks freshly vacuumed.” The article also touches on how his obsessiveness has hurt his relationships. Including how he snapped at his children for not wanting to power-travel like he does.
- amanaplanacanal 8y agoLove Rick Steves, and used his resources to plan a 3 week vacation touring Italy almost 20 years ago now. It was an amazing trip. Rick has also been on the board of NORML forever. Warning: If you travel enough you might come down with "Cosmopolitan bias", which is evidently a bad thing in some circles.