Rick Steves only shared his best advice for young tourists

Don’t let Rick Steves’s gentle attitude deceive you. He is a decisive man -especially if something is curious, which is a great thing for all of us.

In the mid-70s, while sitting in a classroom at the University of Washington, Steves listened to his professor’s lecture on his experience along the Hippie Trail, a land route connecting Europe to Asia. Depressed, Steves began asking questions after a question. The only problem is not the professor or the handbook at that time has any answers.

“I am very influenced by him,” Steves shared with Travel + free timeHe added that he was disappointed that the man had no information he was looking for. “He dropped the ball.”

Fortunately, Steves dared to be there to pick up.

In 1978, he left for the first of many big adventures, crossed the hippie trail and wrote every experience in his journal along the way. “I wrote 60,000 words when I was 23,” Steves said.

And now, we can all see a glance in personal thinking, as Steves turns the journal a new book, “In Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the manufacture of a travel writer. “

“It’s just my journal -it’s a cool thing about it,” Steves said of the book “very bright, very unknown”. “And that’s what I want to do. I write a book for me.”

This personal returns on the younger days, more free, Steves said, like peeking into who he was as a man, as a traveler, and as a writer. “When I see it now, it is a note writer in training,” he said. “When I read the book, I saw a small seed of everything I had dedicated since.”

His career has included decades to help people less afraid of the world around them and to depart and explore everything through his tourist company, HandbookAnd television shows, so they can also learn all the most important lessons. Because according to Steves, travel is actually a low political act.

“Fear needs to be considered,” he said. “Fear is rampant in our society today.

For Steves, even the language we use to talk about the journey needs to change.

“In ancient times, people said, ‘Bon voyage -has a good journey.’ Now, what are they saying? “When someone tells me, ‘have a safe trip,’ I tend to say, ‘Okay, you have a goodbye at home.'”

And through this book -and the whole career, true -Steves want us all to remember the journey is not only safe, but it is also good for the soul.

“It’s safe to travel, nothing scary, nothing is dangerous, if you care about your children and you understand the statistics, you will take them to Europe tomorrow,” he said. “If you really want to be safe, you don’t need a wall. You need a bridge.”

But Steves offers more advice than just going to the place. Instead, he said, it is important to participate in new destinations.

“I don’t care about your bucket list, I don’t care how many countries you’ve done,” he said. “I wonder -how much experience you have. That’s what we are looking for -the opportunity to be a temporary locals.”

This means that it includes cultural differences, even in a small way. “When I cross the border, I like to be like a culture. Suddenly, I became brown because I was in Belgium. Suddenly I became whiskey because I was in Scotland. Suddenly, I became a full red wine because I was in Tuscany.

And a journey like Steves has merged for both people who follow him and Steves himself. “We took 30,000 people on our visit last year,” he said.

However, after years of these years Shared his wise travel adviceThe new book is just its biggest inspirational message for young tourists.

“The Takeaway of ‘On the Hippie Trail’ was not in 1978, a 23 -year -old vagabond named Rick Steves performed a hippie trail with all other hippies who went from Istanbul to Kathmandu and wrote a journal, I mean, it was a cold, but what it meant today,” he said. “[It’s about] Someone who comes from age and stay away from home without a security net and see the world, travel by leaving. “And that, he added with his signature laugh,” is a good thing to do before you settle and you become opposite to the hippie. ”

Rick Steves fast travel tips

Always light pack: “Nothing [of our guests] allowed to check any luggage. You are limited to 9 to 22 to 14 inches. “

Embracing cultural shock: “A good approach to travel is to recognize cultural shock is not something to avoid.

Step out of your comfort zone: “If you want to have a transformation experience, you need to get out of your comfort zone. You need to be a cultural bunglon, and you have to work to go home with the most beautiful souvenirs.”

Do your homework: “Equip yourself with good information. That’s very important. If you do your homework, you can be your own guide.”

Knowing fear is the opposite of understanding: “Fear is rampant in our society today … The side of fear is understanding, and we have an understanding as we travel.”