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Rick Steves
Rick Steves at the Mountain Hostel in Gimmelwald, Switzerland
Born	May 10, 1955 Edmonds, Washington
Occupation	Writer; television & radio host
Known for	Travel guides

Richard "Rick" Steves (born May 10, 1955 in Edmonds, Washington) is an American author and historian,^[1] and television personality on European travel. He is the host of a public television series, ^[2] and a public radio travel show, ^[3] and the author of many travel guidebooks and autobiographies.^[4]

Career

Rick Steves started his career in travel by teaching travel classes at the University of Washington in Seattle and working as a tour leader in the summer. At the time, he also worked as a piano teacher (his father had owned a piano store).

In 1979, based on his travel classes, he wrote the first edition of Europe Through the Back Door, a general guide on how to travel in Europe. Unlike most guidebook entrepreneurs, he opened a storefront business, which at first was both travel center and piano teaching studio. He held travel classes and slide shows, did travel consulting, organized a few group tours per year, and updated his books. He did not provide ticket booking or other standard travel agency services. He incorporated his business as "Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door." The store was in Steves' hometown of Edmonds, Washington (a city north of Seattle). The company's headquarters are still there.

During the 1980s, his business (informally known as Europe Through the Back Door or ETBD) grew slowly but steadily. He brought out more guidebooks, published by the alternative publisher John Muir (Volkswagen) Press, under the label "2 to 22 Days in...." His group tours competed more on sincerity, small group size, and service than on price. He sold railpasses and travel gear in his store and eventually by mail order, ran a trip consulting service, and held slideshows and lectures. Gene Openshaw, a childhood friend of Steves', wrote most of the history and art material in his books. Dave Hoerlein, an architect by training, drew maps for the guidebooks and became a popular tour leader.

During these years, Steves' guidebooks and tours had a generous readership. They emphasized authentic experiences and value for money. The books do cover mainstream sights such as the Colosseum and Tower of London, but they also try to point to "back doors" with lower prices that are not in the business of staging cultural experiences for tourists.

In 1991, the company had approximately five employees. That year, Steves began producing TV shows about European destinations. These shows were produced with his own funding and given to public television stations for free. The TV shows made him a nationwide figure, and his tour, guidebook, and merchandise businesses boomed. An important factor in the company's success was the information exchange possible between the various parts of the business. The tour business benefitted from the yearly guidebook updating and his trip consulting businesses and vice versa. The company is privately held by Steves.

Current activities

Rick Steves' corporate headquarters in Edmonds, Washington.

Steves advocates independent travel. His books, radio and television shows deal with travel mainly, though not exclusively, in Europe, and are directed at an American audience. As host, writer and producer of the popular and long running Oregon Public Broadcasting television series Rick Steves' Europe, and through his travel books, he encourages Americans to become what he calls "temporary locals." He encourages his readers and viewers to discover not only major cities, but also cozy villages away from popular tourist routes.

Steves' relationship with public television began with his first series, Travels in Europe with Rick Steves. Since then, he has become one of public television's top pledge drive hosts, raising millions of dollars annually for stations across the U.S.^{[citation needed]} Steves writes and co-produces his television programs through his company, Back Door Productions. Steves' television series, guidebooks, and his company's European escorted bus tours attract fans known as "Rickniks".^[5] Steves lives in his hometown of Edmonds, Washington with his wife Anne. They've been married and traveling together for 25 years, along with their two children, Andy and Jackie, who attend out-of-state universities.

Tourists of Italy encounter Rick Steves on a backstreet, using his book as a guide.

In 2005, Steves launched a weekly public radio program, Travel with Rick Steves. Focusing on world travel, each program has a guest travel expert for interviews, followed by call-ins with questions and comments. Steves self-published the first edition of his travel skills book, Europe Through the Back Door, in 1980. He has also written country guidebooks, city and regional guides, phrase books, and co-authored Europe 101: History and Art for Travelers. His guidebook to Italy has been the bestselling international guidebook in the U.S. In 1999, he started writing in a new genre of travel writing with his anecdotal Postcards from Europe, recounting his favorite moments from his many years of travel. Steves' books are published by Avalon Travel Publishing, a member of the Perseus Books Group. In addition to his guidebooks, Rick is a syndicated newspaper columnist with the Tribune Media Services^[6].

Rick Steves' Travel as a Political Act was published in 2009.

Steves "support[s] the decriminalization of marijuana among responsible adult users in the USA."^[7] According to Steves, "Like most of Europe, I believe marijuana is a soft drug (like alcohol and tobacco), not a hard drug. Like alcohol and tobacco, there is no reason why it shouldn’t be taxed and regulated. Crime should only enter the equation if it is abused to the point where innocent people are harmed." Steves is currently on the Advisory Board of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws^[8], or NORML, and recently hosted an ACLU-sponsored educational program broadcast in Washington called "Marijuana: It's Time for a Conversation". Steves discusses his views on marijuana decriminalization at his official Web site, where he says "The propaganda war our government wages against the use of marijuana is not only expensive in terms of money but it erodes its credibility among young people in regards to other more serious drugs."^[9]

Trivia

• Steves took his first trip to Europe in 1969, visiting piano factories in Germany with his father, a piano importer. By the time he reached 18, he jokes, "I realized I didn't need my parents to travel!" He began traveling on his own, funding his trips by teaching piano lessons.

• In 2005 Rick and Anne Steves purchased a 24-unit apartment complex in Lynnwood, Washington and fixed it up to serve as transitional housing for homeless mothers and their children. The Steves invested much of their retirement nest egg and are allowing free use of the complex for 15 years--leaving management responsibilities to the local YWCA Pathways for Women, while Rotarians in the Edmonds Noontime Rotary Club help maintain the buildings, do grounds upkeep, and provide everything from the furniture to the flowers. In addition, the club raised USD $30,000 in donations to build a play structure for the children of Trinity Place. About 100 mothers are expected to ultimately live there.

• Steves is an active Lutheran, and has written and hosted educational videos on subjects such as Martin Luther and the European Reformation of the Church. He also raises funds for Bread for the World. Notwithstanding this, Steves is the brother-in-law of current Notre Dame President, the Rev. John I. Jenkins, CSC, a Roman Catholic priest. Jenkins' sister Anne is Steves' wife.

• Steves is also an alumnus of the University of Washington and played the sousaphone as a member of the UW Marching Band.

• In 2008, Rick donated funds to his daughter's high school radio station. In exchange, the station plays a rap song Steves composed, which can be heard on his blog

Personal Quotations

• "I would like travelers, especially American travelers, to travel in a way that broadens their perspective, because I think Americans tend to be some of the most ethnocentric people on the planet. It's not just Americans, it's the big countries. It's the biggest countries that tend to be ethnocentric or ugly. There are ugly Russians, ugly Germans, ugly Japanese and ugly Americans. You don't find ugly Belgians or ugly Bulgarians, they're just too small to think their world is the norm."

• "We can travel in a way that exacerbates the problems between us and the rest of the world, or in a way that connects us with the rest of the world. I do not want to encourage and enable Americans to travel in a way that makes the problem worse, and a lot of people do travel in a way that makes the problem worse. My travelers, I think — I'd like to think — travel in a way that connects them with the rest of the world and when they come home they are changed Americans. They are more likely to understand what the family of nations is all about."

• "Travel, like the world, is a series of hills and valleys. If something's not to your liking, change your liking. Travel is addicting. It can make you a happier American, as well as a citizen of the world. Our Earth is home to nearly six billion equally important people. It's humbling to travel and find that people don't envy Americans. They like us, but with all due respect, they wouldn't trade passports."

• "It's never too late to have a happy childhood, and age only matters if you're a cheese."

• "Until next time, keep on traveling! Cheerio."

• "Hi, I'm Rick Steves, your globe-trotting guinea pig!"

• " The responsible, recreational adult use of marijuana is a civil liberty." ^[10]

References

External links

• Official site of "Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door"
• Rick Steves on ABCNews.com
• Rick Steves interview - KCTS9-TV PBS Seattle
• Back Door Travel: Rick Steves Teaches How to Do It
• Interview with Rick Steves
• Travel Writers: Rick Steves
• Rick Steves: A guru's guide to Western Europe
• Rick Steves on Budget Travel in Europe in a Culturally Sensitive Way
• Interview: Rick Steves on Guided Tours
• Interview: Rick Steves on Baby Boomer Travel Trends
• Rick Steves at the Internet Movie Database
• Rick talks about his politics and travel ethics on KUOW radio program Speakers Forum.