Travel Guru Rick Steves

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Rick Steves like you’ve never heard him before– on the piano and on the Hippie Trail. He’s now the definitive go-to guide for Europe – but he actually found his calling on the way to Kathmandu. Listen to his hit and miss journey to success that includes a whole lot of mistakes, multiple brushes with death, and the loss of his marijuana virginity in Afghanistan.

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Rick Steves on the Hippie Trail: his life-changing trip in 1978 (Rick Steves)

Rick Steves: I’m feeling good, baby!

THAT ENTHUSIASM FROM RICK STEVES PROPELS PEOPLE TO EXPLORE—

TO MAKE TRAVEL - ADVENTURE.

BUT FEW COULD STOMACH THE TRIP – 47 YEARS AGO-- THAT STARTED IT ALL.

Rick Steves: this is day two on our trip, and we’re already almost dead.

A HARROWING TRIP—

THAT RE-TUNED A YOUNG PIANO TEACHER

((nats piano))

WHO WOULD – AFTER MANY MILES - BECOME AMERICA’S TRAVEL GURU.

BUT IT COULD HAVE EASILY DERAILED. [HE COULD HAVE FALLEN OFF THE MAP]

Mml there were all these warning signs everywhere about what would happen if you got caught with drugs. And that’s where you decided to get high for the first time?? Rick Steves: Yeah. MML What were you thinking?!

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LOTS OF HIGHS … AND LOWS … FOR THE YOUNG RICK STEVES.

Rick Steves: Well, it was riddled with mistakes.

AND FOR THE WISER ONE WHO SPEAKS NOW.

AN EXPERT GUIDE … WHO’S ALSO BEEN LOST.

MML: It also sounds like it came with a price? // Rick Steves: Yeah, it comes with a huge price. it ruined my marriage.

AND HE’S JUST FINISHED HIS TOUGHEST JOURNEY--

CONFRONTING A LIFELONG MISTAKE THAT HAD HIM STARING DOWN THE END OF THE ROAD.

Rick Steves: i thought back – because , you know, what if I died?

If you have ever gone to Europe, you have probably taken Rick Steves with you.

He’s published 100 guidebooks --including 40 editions of his best-selling Europe through the Back Door.

And he’s about to host his 13th season of “Rick Steves’ Europe” for American Public Television.

Personally, I have him to thank for my husband. Kind of.

When we were still dating more than 10 years ago, we used his travel center in Edmonds to plan a trip to Turkey. And because of their expert guidance, one night, several days into our trip,

we were on a chartered boat.

Gorgeous tranquil waters.

A place called English Bay–

The captain of the boat – a kind, generous guy named Ramazan—

Who dove with a spear to catch our dinner that night.

The sun was setting. It was perfect.

And Jamie pulled out the ring. Couldn’t have been better.

It was the first Middle Eastern country we’d been to, and Rick Steves’ information helped us understand, appreciate, and honor another culture. To this day, it remains the best trip we’ve ever taken – and not just because of the engagement.

We’re just two of millions whose world has gotten bigger because of Rick Steves. In addition to his guidebooks, his tours lead 30,000 through Europe every year.

But *his longest journey came recently.

And it happened when he was stranded, like all of us, during the pandemic.

He couldn’t go anywhere—a whole spring and summer of travel canceled.

He was left to the world under his own roof.

He found a box.

When he opened it, he took a trip he never expected:

Time travel—

guided by a young version of himself:

That box had the journal and pictures he took in 1978.

He was on a trip with a friend.

Turkey to Nepal … 3,000 miles.

He shares his longhand notes and photographs in a great read -- his new book, “On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu”.

The subtitle is “The Making of a Travel Writer” – because that trip is what made him walk away from a piano and take his first steps toward becoming America’s go-to travel guide.

There was a lot to reflect on in our conversation: his undeniable success … but also missteps.

A journey that includes ego, dissent, and divorce … and a sobering confrontation with his own mortality.

But first, to a 23-year old Rick Steves— taking on the great unknown.

Taking off for the Hippie Trail. No phone, no internet -- just a map, a dream, and a determination to lose his marijuana virginity.

Monique The hippie trail, the 3000 miles from Istanbul to Kathmandu and India was really where you wanted to go, right? That was that was your bullseye.

Rick India had an allure to me. You know, the Beatles were going to see them on Hiroshima. And I was fully aware that I was pretty ethnocentric and privileged and sheltered and I wanted to get out. And when I read back on it again, this is done by a 23 year old kid just having graduated from the University of Washington. I don’t know how politically astute I was or how much I knew about sociology or anything like that, but I was learning and I was absorbing and I was developing this in the sense that you can learn more about your home sometimes by leaving it and looking at it from a distance. Interesting. Exactly what I was doing. //////

Monique can you talk about even finding the material for this was kind of a happy mistake, right? It was during the pandemic. //////

Rick Steves: I, for some crazy reason, was super diligent and disciplined about writing a journal. I wrote a 60,000 word journal. I bought a hardback empty book, and I filled it up lovingly and I actually illustrated it with photographs. And then when I got home, I just kind of forgot about it. I put it in a box. 40 years later during Covid, you know, I got an idea to get a look at this, this journal I wrote. I wrote it for me. I didn’t write it for anybody else. And it occurred to me, this is like a anthropological dig. A 23 year old guy named Rick. Steve? Yeah. When I was a piano teacher, I didn’t aspire to be a travel writer at all. And I thought, Man, this is pretty vivid writing. And it was a coming of age trip. And it really is kind of a miraculously preserved, epic sort of road trip from a guy who did become a pretty well-established and well-known travel writer a few years later.

Monique Yeah, slightly So. LAUGHS//////

Rick if you’ve got travel experience, you’ve learned from a firsthand experience. You almost have a moral obligation to share it. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the rest of my life with Europe as my beat. Yeah. On this particular trip, I had already done the Best of Europe with my buddy, and a few years earlier I was getting tired of Europe and I wanted to break out of that. And we did this classic road trip, Istanbul, to Katmandu with all the backpackers and hippies were doing.

Monique When you went back and you read through your journal, did you recognize that Rick Steves or did you have to be reintroduced to him?

Rick It’s a good question. What I didn’t know was what was my mindset? What was my awareness at the time? It amazes me that I could. Back in my 20s, I could go to a place that was rife with political complexity. I would love to go there today with that, with the awareness and the education and the political savvy that I’d got to go to these places and explore with that in mind. ~~/////~~

Rick I mean, it was lovingly written. Yeah. You cannot write a good journal without taking time right there. It should have bugs squished on the pages. I mean, it’s immersed in the immediacy of the moment, and it is candid. It’s unguarded. It’s very, very. Honest is political correctness here. This is who I was as I was debating whether or not I should lose my marijuana virginity in Afghanistan. You know, wondering, this is a lot of work. Should we go back to Greece and hang out with the kids?

Monique Right.

Rick You know, no, we’re going to we’re hell bent on getting to Kathmandu.

HELL BENT IS AN APT TERM –

PARTS OF THE TRIP WERE HELLISH, ESPECIALLY FROM TURKEY TO INDIA:

LONG STRETCHES ON A BUS WITH INEXPLICABLE DELAYS .. AT THE WHIM OF A SURLY DRIVER.

BOUNCING ALONG WITH BOUTS OF DIARRHEA.

FENDING OFF ATTEMPTS TO RIP THEM OFF.

AT MANY POINTS, MANY PEOPLE WOULD DECIDE, THIS IS A MISTAKE, AND CALL IT QUITS.

OR AT LEAST, MAKE IT EASIER.

Monique Well, let me ask you that. Why didn’t you just fly into India? Because the trip was pretty harrowing, especially for your friend who was sick for so much of it. Instead of sitting on in these busses where the the seat doesn’t recline and all of this stuff, why didn’t you just fly there?

Rick Well, it was pretty miserable. You know, And at the same time, it was. Ecstatically wonderful. I mean, it was we were wanting to get away from comfortable Western materialism, I think. Well, you did. We did it. And I mean, I think people on the hippie trail, they were celebrating their poverty. We were we were on the ground. We didn’t know where we were going to sleep tomorrow. We were sick. We didn’t know if we could drink that water. We didn’t know when we changed money, if this money was still current. There was different money every year in some of these countries and green naive backpackers, they don’t know. Every time we crossed the border, we were we were nervous that somebody would plant something in our bags and we’d get arrested and have to bribe our way out. Right. This was an adventure. I remember when we headed east from Istanbul, it occurred to me, I do not know a single soul between here and Seattle. And not a single soul knows me. And we’re going that way. We’re leaving the comfortable Europe. We’re leaving Western civilization. And there was no good information available at the time. There was certainly no Internet, no way to be in touch with loved ones back home, no safety net. It’s just all of our money was in a money belt tied under our pants and we were out there having the time of our lives. 1 10 20 ////////////////////////////////////

Monique This journey, you were risking a mistake every hour, every day. What was your favorite mistake from that trip, if you have one.

Rick Well, it was just riddled with mistakes. We jumped out of the moving train in Belgrade because we thought we were sleeping on a train that we just found a train station on a track that was going nowhere. And, it’s a pretty place to sleep. And then we were sound asleep. And then 2:00 in the morning, it jolts into action. And we’re heading through the darkness of Yugoslavia. Going. We jumped off the train when it slowed down at a suburban station and we tumbled onto the platform with our bag. And it was a chilling experience because had we jumped out early or later, we would have hit a pillar and been thrown back onto the train and probably died. Stupid, you know? Yes, We just kind of so we got to be really careful. This is day two on our trip and we’re already almost dead. Later on, when we bought the three day trip from Istanbul to Tehran, a bus ride. We had seat numbers on the bus. Everybody at the bus station is stampeding Iran on this bus. We are. What are these crazy people doing? We’re just going to waltz out and grab a seat and then we walk and we realize numbered seats and nothing to do with where you’re going to see that anywhere. And we’re the last people on the bus. So we got the after thought seats that collapse over the stairwell in the back of the bus. The only seats in the bus that didn’t recline with our feet on the hot engine. And for three days, that was our home for three days.

Monique Yeah, for three days. My goodness.

Rick All these mistakes. And it was it was kind of fun. As long as we didn’t get hurt. It was fun to make these mistakes and laugh at ourselves and be on this. This adventure. Always heading east, always getting closer to Kathmandu.

Monique Speaking of mistakes. And you brought it up already. You were talking about losing your pot virginity. Now you were heading into Afghanistan. There were warning signs everywhere about what would happen if you got caught with drugs. And that’s where you decided to get high for the first time.

Rick Yeah. What were you.

Monique Thinking?

Rick Well, when I think back on it, I didn’t. I never smoked pot. When I was at the University of Washington, I. I was like, this kid that doesn’t just want to throw away his virginity. He wants to do it thoughtfully, you know? And and I wanted to do it where it felt. Right. And that’s a cultural thing. And smoking marijuana felt right in Afghanistan. It felt very right in India and it felt divine in Nepal. And that’s where I got high for my first time. And I can hardly explain to you how much I enjoyed it. And in fact, when I read the Journal, sometimes I honestly I look at it now when I’m three times as old. I’m 69. I was 23 then. And I wonder now, that sounds almost too good to be true. Was I high when I was writing that? Was that a recounting experience? When I was high, you know, these demonic black leeches are coming after me. Slow motion, head over tail. I step back and they keep doggedly coming, wanting to suck my blood. That was just a little moment. Underneath the herbal essence waterfall in a jungle somewhere. And I was probably high at the moment, so that scared me. But, you know, it was just the trip is not about getting high. The trip is about being free.

We were surrounded by fascinating people from all over the world who were philosophers and poets and musicians. And it was just. And in monkeys where loitering above us in the branches ready to leap down and grab our glasses because they like anything shiny. I mean, it was everything was very poignant and sparkly. Yeah. And and that was travel and it it was a great trip.

A REAL TRIP –

IN EVERY WAY.

AND IT CONVERTED HIM.

MADE HIM DISCOVER A NEW PURPOSE—

TO BECOME A MISSIONARY – AN EVANGELIST OF SORTS –

ABOUT OPENING UP TO THE REST OF THE WORLD.

NOT TO INFLUENCE TOURISTS .. BUT TO GUIDE *TRAVELERS.

Good travel is recognizing that culture shock is a good thing. It’s not something you try to avoid. It’s the growing pains of a broadening perspective and it just needs to be curated. meeting people, carbonates the experience. And it’s just really fun to recognize that the world is not a pyramid. United States on top and everybody else trying to figure it out. Yeah. This liberation of diversity and I just I’m sad for people whose worldview is shaped by commercial news media who don’t have a passport. And for them, travel is going to Disney World or going to Vegas You can you can just you can get this kind of hippie trail and experience just in in our country or just south of the border. And it it really broadens your perspective and it gives you an appreciation of what a wonderful world we live in. And the result is you are not so afraid. 1 17 37 /////////////////////

Monique You mentioned that that trip changed your life. Literally, you came back and you changed your career and your whole trajectory and your career was born, if you will, or that career was born. ////////

Rick I believe, the last words in the book were I went home, gave away my piano students and started a small travel business. ////////////////

BUT FOR HIM BEING “HOME” IS A LITTLE TRICKY.

HE LIVES IN THE SAME EDMONDS COMMUNITY WHERE HE GREW UP. HE CAN SEE HIS MIDDLE SCHOOL FROM HIS OWN WINDOW.

BUT HIS VIEW OF THE WORLD KEPT EXPLANDING.

AS HE SAID, SOMETIMES YOU LEARN MORE ABOUT YOUR HOME WHEN YOU LEAVE IT.

AND SOMETIMES YOU DON’T LIKE WHAT YOU LEARN.

Rick But on future trips, that’s why I started to do reality travel and was aware of la la la la land travel versus reality travel. And I would in the 80s, I would go down to Central America on educational tours of Nicaragua and El Salvador. That’s what politicized me. And I learned what is the real impact of America’s power imperialism at the border. And I’m also a capitalist. I’m a pragmatic, practical sort of person. And I’m Christian. So you put all of that together. It is a fun mix. So then spending a hundred days a year in Europe for the last 30, 40 years, I’m over it for being exposed to people who find different truths to be self-evident and God given. And I love the the different cultures struggle with the same challenges and they have different solutions. We can learn from each other. We can compare notes I’m like the medieval jester. Why did the king, the medieval gesture, to be annoying? His job was to go into the barrios outside of the protection of the castle, learn about the jokes that the peasants were saying about the king, and then come into the court and tell the king, what people were thinking. And the king needed it. You know, when I travel, I’m doing that right now because I care about our country. Some people say it’s America bashing. I think it’s America loving.

IT’S TOUGH LOVE.

AND IT’S BEEN TOUGH ON LOVE:

THIS CONVICTION HE HAS ABOUT HIS OWN RESPONSIBILITY –

TO WALK IN THE WORLD – AND INFLUENCE IT.

Monique days a year -- You’re in Europe? That that that sounds wonderful. And it sounds like that comes with a price. And I don’t mean a monetary price. I’m sure that has been difficult for your relationships at home.

Rick Yeah, it comes with a huge price. And I’ve had to make a choice. You know, it it. It ruined my marriage. I was married 25 years to a wonderful person. Wow. And but I just was not a good husband. My laptop was the mistress. I nicknamed my. My laptop lady laptop. And my heart was stolen by this opportunity to Help America get out and celebrate the world in all its diversity. But you can’t do that on the side. I mean, you can, but if you. I was maybe intoxicated by the celebrity or the power or the the ego of writing a book and having people read it, you know. But I’m mission driven.

And I love the thought that people who take a Rick Steves Europe come home with a better appreciation of our world and happier to be Americans. But they now have a dual citizenship. They are Americans and they have a global citizenship. And when they step into the voting booth, the privacy, the voting booth, they don’t just vote for what’s best for them. They vote for what’s best for us. And when you say us, what does that mean? Well, if you believe in God, you know that we’re all children of God or some heavenly creator. And that means we’re all brothers and sisters. And that means love. Thy neighbor has nothing to do with proximity, love, pain, need suffering, joy. It’s just as real across the street as it is across the sea.

THAT LOVE, PAIN, NEED, SUFFERING, AND JOY – GOT INTENSELY REAL FOR HIM IN AUGUST.

GOD TAPPED HIM ON THE SHOULDER—

AND MADE HIS WORLD A LITTLE SMALLER.

Monique you were diagnosed with cancer. Can you tell me a little bit about that, about how you found out and how you grappled with that? ~~/////~~

Rick Ah, I’ll tell you the story. Six months ago, I changed doctors, and the first thing my new doctor said is. Well, you should get a blood test. I said, All right. And a couple of days later, he said, Sit down. I got something serious to talk to you about. You’ve got a PSA of 55. I didn’t know what a PSA was. But PSA, if you know cancer is your number in your blood of how much it’s fighting cancer, indicating you’ve got cancer raging in your body. And I said, Whoa. So now I had never spent a night in a hospital. I was kind of thinking, I’m 69 years old and my number is going to get up pretty soon. I’m going to have some serious medical problems ahead of me in this had happened right away, I felt. I was. I was. I was thankful that I lived here, that I had found this. I felt ready for the challenge and I felt grateful that we had such good technology right here in our neighborhood for Fred Hutchison and so on. And I just slipped into gear and I decided, I’m going to tackle this just like a good traveler. That positive attitude, a curiosity and learn about it. Yes, it’s a foreign language. I walked down the hallway at the hospital and I don’t know what this is. It’s a different land, but it’s a journey and. And I felt like it was a journey. And I’m in rough seas here. And the boat was the hospital and the whole medical industry. The captain was my surgeon and the sails were filled. By that tangible force that prayers and good wishes take on when all your loved ones and friends they were thinking about you were praying for it. That filled the sails and I was able to cruise through the storm and get out of it.

Monique Now, when you were confronted with your own mortality like that did it make you reflect more on your career or how you’ve lived your life? ///////////////

Rick And I thought back, you know, because, you know what? If I died, what I, what would I regret? And. I’m very thankful to have found my niche and then thankful for all the hard work I’ve done and I’m thankful to have really great people to collaborate with that have helped me along the way. And so, you know, life is a series of choices. And the most important choices for me have been the way I’ve built my life, both personally and with my career. And I’m looking ahead now, knowing that, you know. Life is a blessing. Community is so important, and especially for those of us who are blessed as I am, privileged as I am. Good communities. Good families don’t just happen, you know, you invest in them. So that’s my going forward. It’s just embrace life. Enjoy every day and keep on traveling.

Monique Did you examine or rethink any mistakes that you’ve made in the past?

Rick Well, from a health point of view, I should have paid attention to my blood more. I should have been more tuned in to my own family history because they had family members who had had prostate cancer that they didn’t know until I got diagnosed by it. And that’s the kind of people when I when I went public, that’s the kind of people that I can help by not being shy about it and not being private about it. So that’s an immediate. Positive result of this cancer that I have been dealing with in other ways. As far as my life goes, I, you know, you want to do as much as you can to to have a balanced life and at the same time you want to contribute. And how we do that takes thoughtfulness and hard decisions. There’s just a lot of life to embrace. And and I I’m just thankful that I never get bored. I’m thankful that I’ve got wonderful family around me and I’ve got wonderful friends and colleagues, and I’m really thankful to live where I live. I mean, it’s it’s great to be. Part of this community right here in Greater Seattle.

HIS LATEST BLOOD RESULTS – TERRIFIC…

ESSENTIALLY CANCER FREE.

And I’m feeling good, baby. Fantastic.////////////////////////////

THIS SPRING, RICK STEVES IS BACK—

HEADING TO ROME AND ISTANBUL TO SHOOT MORE TV SHOWS, THEN BARCELONA, PRAGUE, AND LONDON, TO UPDATE GUIDEBOOKS.

IN HIS LIFE, LINES ARE BLURRED

HIS RETURN MEANS HIS DEPARTURE.

HIS HOME IS ON THE ROAD

AND HIS WORK IS HIS PLAY

Rick So I’ll have five hours with my daytime guide and hours with my evening guide. These are wonderful individuals, you know, independent guides from every place in Europe. And they want to help me. They’re my friends on my TV show. When I say this is my friend and fellow tour guide, Alfio or Christina or Marian, you know, I’ve got friends everywhere, it seems like, but I’m just paying them to be my friend. LAUGHS.

But every day I’ve got a buddy and I just pretend they really just want to hang out with me. But, you know, it’s their income and we’re together having a great time. And I’m learning a lot. And at the same time, I’m producing a lot and I get to eat a lot of good food. Yeah. I have a network of friends around Europe.

IT’S THE LIFE HE’S CHOSEN –

THE ONE HE’S MADE –

CREATING COMMUNITY ALL OVER THE WORLD.

AND SOMETIMES HE HAS TO RETURN HOME TO GET LOST AGAIN.

Monique Let me turn you into a guide for the Puget Sound area quickly. If someone were coming to the Seattle area for three days, what would you tell them they could not miss?

Rick You know, I honestly don’t know. That’s a funny question. You’d think I would know. But I am so one minded about being a smart traveler in that hemisphere and in this hemisphere. I’m just clueless. I get lost. I can drive around Copenhagen. Fine. I still get lost in Seattle. So what I’d have the the the typical things that anybody would say, I’ve got nothing special about Seattle except, you know, go get a good guidebook.

Monique Any mistakes made on your guidebooks that you went back and you went, I’ve got to redo this because I didn’t get it right the first time.

Rick My guidebooks are filled with mistakes. I have once I listed a restaurant by the name that was above the restaurant, and the name was for a dental clinic. And it said something like, you know, get your teeth cleaned here. And I just wrote it down as the name of the restaurant. That’s embarrassing. I, I, I misspelled the boat jello in Florence, the wonderful best collection of statues from the Renaissance. I called it the bordello. No.

Monique You didn’t.

Rick Know? No guidebook? No. There’s been an I can tell you embarrassing things that have snuck during the guidebooks, you know, And our TV show people love our bloopers. Yeah. Because the cameras rolling when I screw up and then I laugh at it. It’s funny that you could also have bloopers in the guidebooks. But we learn from our mistakes. In fact, that’s my whole theme. When I’m doing my work, I go over there to make mistakes.

AND SO THAT’S BEEN HIS OWN GUIDE—

SINCE HE STOPPED TEACHING PIANO

I’m not much of a piano player anymore. But I can.do you want me to just take you there and I can play you something

would you ? I would love that.

Let’s see, umm [starts playing]

YOU HAVE TO EXPERIMENT A LITTLE

[piano]

ALSO TAKE SOME RISKS

and then other times, i just kind of improvise on the mood.

[piano – playing blues, and keep music going under track and bite, until the end]

AND KEEP EXPANDING YOUR HORIZONS

and i’m just one thankful traveler. i know it’s keep on traveling. That’s what it is right now.