Rick Steves (b.1955,) fully Richard John Steves Jr., is an American travel writer, media personality, tourism entrepreneur, and activist. He is the host of several travel shows on public television and radio.
Born in Barstow, California, Steves grew up in Edmonds, Washington, north of Seattle. At age 14, he first accompanied his father, a piano businessperson, to piano factories in Europe. At 18, he started traveling to Europe on his own and opened his Rick Steves’ Europe tour company to organize escorted European trips. He wrote the first edition of Europe Through the Back Door (1979,) a wide-ranging guide on how to travel in Europe.
Steves’s well-liked radio and television programs, guidebooks, newsletters, media columns, blogs, and social media posts have opened up Europe to American travelers and raised an understanding of diverse cultures and people. Steves’s enthusiastic “back door” travel philosophy inspires travelers to experience zealously the places they visit on their voyages of discovery.
Steves is the host of the popular television shows Travels in Europe With Rick Steves (1991–88) and Rick Steves’ Europe (2000–,) as well as the radio show Travel with Rick Steves (2006–.) His popular European travel guidebooks include Rick Steves’ Italy (updated yearly,) the top-selling travel guide in America, and many travel-related books including Rick Steves’ The Travel Skills Handbook (2017.)
Besides travel, Steves has made television specials on subjects such as European Easter, Martin Luther and the European Reformation. He is also an activist focused on economic and social justice, drug policy reform, and ending hunger.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Rick Steves
Globetrotting destroys ethnocentricity, helping us understand and appreciate other cultures. Rather than fear the diversity on this planet, celebrate it. Among your most prized souvenirs will be the strands of different cultures you choose to knit into your own character. The world is a cultural yarn shop, and “back door” travelers are weaving the ultimate tapestry.
—Rick Steves
the most grandiose result of the photographic enterprise is to give us the sense that we can hold the whole world in our heads—as an anthology of images
—Rick Steves
Topics: Photography
Ideally, travel broadens our perspectives personally, culturally, and politically. Suddenly, the palette with which we paint the story of our lives has more colors.
—Rick Steves
Regardless of your journey, you can put a little pilgrim in your travels and find your own personal jubilation.
—Rick Steves
Travel is rich with learning opportunities, and the ultimate souvenir is a broader perspective.
—Rick Steves
Look through the unfinished entrance facade, note blue sky where the stained-glass windows would have been, and ponder the struggles, triumphs, and failures of the human spirit.
—Rick Steves
Be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic. If something is not to your liking, change your liking.
—Rick Steves
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Walt Disney American Entrepreneur
Art Linkletter Canadian-born American Radio Personality
Peter McWilliams American Author
Lowell Thomas American Writer
Alexander Woollcott American Critic
Martha Stewart American Businesswoman
Ronald Reagan American Head of State
Bob Hope British-born American Comedian, Film Actor
Groucho Marx American Actor
Thomas Edison American Inventor