Rick Steves's Blog, page 59

One of the highlights of our Best of Europe in 21 Days tour was our group hike. As this was pretty demanding–and there was a concern about snow on the trails this early in the season–only the fittest of our group participated.  For me, it was a joy not to be saddled with research chores but to simply enjoy half a day hiking in Switzerland with a wonderful group of traveling friends.

We started our day gazing down at this high alp–where the cows spend their summers Heidi-style–from the revolving restaurant capping the Schilthorn in Switzerland’s Berner Oberland. Looking down at these high meadows, I’m always tempted to actually hike through them. And that’s exactly what we did, taking the North Face Trail from Mürren under the Schilthorn. Coming upon this meadow, high above the tree line, was a delightful reward for the climb.

Assistant Tour Guide Trish and I both love our Sony RS100 cameras. With this angle, she captured how the alpine flowers were a big part of our experience.

(Many of the photos on this blog are shot by Trish Feaster. For more of her photos, as well as her take on this tour, check out her blog at The Travelphile.com.)

When hiking in the Alps, take layers of clothes, sunscreen, a mobile phone, appropriate shoes, and big smiles. These travelers, the most rugged third of our tour group, were great walkers.

The Swiss organize their firewood like they organize their populace: extremely tidy. It’s dangerous to generalize about different nationalities…but I love to. The Swiss are neatly stacked. How would you characterize the Swiss?

A highlight of our hike was venturing under this powerful waterfall called Sprutz.

Our hike had a happy ending, popping out in a flowery meadow at the tip-top of my favorite Swiss village–Gimmelwald. And, as he has for 30 years of visits, Walter Mittler was waiting at his Hotel Mittaghorn. Way back in my student days, I kept our groups in the rustic youth hostel here in Gimmelwald. Walter invited me to upgrade and keep my groups at his place, and I did. Walter symbolizes our leap from hostels to hotels, and the importance of personality-driven hotels and restaurants in our tour program. While we no longer sleep at Walter’s hotel, I always drop in to say hi to my old friend. He’s 90 years old now…and still going strong.

A beer hits the spot after a good hike. Here we sit, in front of Walter’s Hotel Mittaghorn, in Gimmelwald…high in the Swiss Alps. Many travelers have fond memories of a nice frosty (or whatever) treat after an exhilarating natural or cultural experience in Europe. How about you?

For over 30 years I’ve been taking groups into the gondolas high in the Alps. Whether filled with skiers in the winter or hikers in the summer, there’s a happy energy in that glass-and-steel bubble of mountain joy–especially when the Swiss Alps are out in all their glory. The Schilthornbahn takes us effortlessly (in four stages) to the 10,000-foot summit of the Schilthorn in the Berner Oberland. For about $50 per person (there’s a double discount for the group rate and for an early morning departure) we ride up and down. Sure that’s a lot of money. But when you’re surrounded by cut-glass peaks and breathing fresh mountain air, it’s one of Europe’s great deals. From a value point of view, remember that–all over the Alps–early lifts are discounted and, because of weather patterns, the early birds enjoy the crispest views. The lesson: Pay less and see more by ascending early.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

While my days are filled enjoying our Best of Europe in 21 Days tour, I’ve spent a couple nights writing this op-ed piece in my hotel room. I’m glad I was in Europe while I wrote this article because being away from home makes it clear to me: While we are a compassionate society, we can be oblivious to the consequences that some of our choices have on struggling people. When we travel, we see how relatively small, wonkish changes in U.S. policy can have serious consequences for struggling people outside our borders. I thought you might find this opinion piece interesting–and maybe you can even share it with your friends and let your legislator know your thoughts on this topic.

On our tours, we do whatever we can to save time. For example, room numbers are assigned on the bus as we approach our hotel. Today, we gave the mic to 12-year-old Annaleise who made sure each tour member knew exactly where they were sleeping.



On a Best of Europe in 21 Days tour, we get two days in the Swiss Alps–and the weather is critical. I remember in the early, youth-hostel days of our tour company, we’d wait until morning before deciding if we’d ride the expensive lift to the top of the Schilthorn in the Berner Oberland. It depended on the weather. I’d wake up at the crack of dawn. If it was cloudy, I’d go back to bed–and we’d all sleep in. If the weather was good, I’d wake everyone up, and we were off for the summit. Any guide knows it often clouds up by late morning. Today, we caught the early gondola, were blessed with glorious weather, and enjoyed this view from 10,000 feet.



Tour groups love group shots. I find the regimented “short people in front,” soccer-team-type photos boring. And, invariably, the stranger you pick to take the photograph frames it crazily, and the shot is too much feet and sky. Lately, my antidote to that is a group selfie. For some reason, as we all try to crowd into the shot (and I hold the camera high to make our chins seem nice and tight), everyone looks as happy as we are.

The Cinque Terre towns love their festivals, and we hit Monterosso during its lemon festival. The town was decked out in lemons and rather than sour, the mood was happy as can be.

Monterosso’s little main piazza was a multi-generational dance floor and, for me, this was a particularly happy moment as I thought about how the town has now fully recovered from the horrible flood of 2011.

Our group is really fond of our bus driver, Joe (center), who quietly and professionally gets us everywhere smoothly and safely. It was fun tonight (as he was completely off tomorrow) because everyone let their hair down together. Our groups always consider our driver as a friend and part of our traveling family.

A group of Norwegian girls (and one guy) had some fun with our Belgian driver.

For me, doing this tour was full of rich memories of the formative years of our tour company. Both tour guide Reid and bus driver Joe (seen with me above) have been around since the early ’90s–and as we followed our route, we enjoyed sharing lots of memories. Many of our drivers, such as Joe, essentially learned their English (which is quite good now) from years of talking with our tour groups.

Occasionally a publication wants to run an article about my work and they need a photo of me. While I always offer them fine shots from our press department, many have their own specs. I’ll be featured with some travel tips in July’s “AARP Bulletin,” and they hired a Danish camera crew to fly to Italy to take a few shots.

Having shot our new TV episode on the Cinque Terre just a month ago, I know exactly where the good spots are. But this spot is a morning shot and to shoot it in the afternoon, I get baked with their reflector.

After a day of hiking the Cinque Terre, enjoying endless Mediterranean vistas, we work up an appetite for the fruits of the sea. At Monterosso’s Ristorante Belevedere they cook up five or six ancient-style jugs (amphora) filled with today’s catch. It really is a grab bag of whatever the fisherman brought into port. But it’s always delicious.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

On our Rick Steves Best of Europe in 21 Days tour, the meat of the itinerary is the middle week when we visit Venice, Florence, and Rome in rapid succession. After that, we are ready for our treasured “vacation from our vacation” on the Italian Riviera. We are careful to thoroughly orient our groups upon arrival–because the next day is entirely free.

Walking our group to their “Welcome to the Riviera” dinner, we take time to be sure each tour member is comfortable with the local trains. To connect the five villages of the Cinque Terre you can hike, catch the boat, or hop on the train–which runs about hourly. Here I’m reminding people that, while the printed schedules are posted and helpful, only the monitors are up-to-the-minute on what’s running late. These can be your best friend in using your time smartly. The next day, each person in our group was well prepared to hang out on the beach, browse through the towns, or hike the dramatic trails–or all three.

Walking our group to their “Welcome to the Riviera” dinner, we take time to be sure each tour member is comfortable with the local trains. To connect the five villages of the Cinque Terre you can hike, catch the boat, or hop on the train–which runs about hourly. Here I’m reminding people that, while the printed schedules are posted and helpful, only the monitors are up-to-the-minute on what’s running late. These can be your best friend in using your time smartly. The next day, each person in our group was well prepared to hang out on the beach, browse through the towns, or hike the dramatic trails–or all three.

To take a Rick Steves tour you need to be mobile and pack light. That’s because many of our hotels are so remotely and beautifully situated that our buses can’t get to them. The classic example is our visit to the five dramatic villages of Italy’s Cinque Terre. We need to park our bus in the nearest big town and ride the train in. One of my favorite guiding moments is to be with our groups as we tunnel into the Riviera darkness–eyes periodically blasted by splashes of Cinque Terre brightness like this view of my favorite town in the region, Vernazza.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

On this trip, I’m grabbing extra time in Venice, Florence, and Rome to beef up our restaurant listings for our guidebooks. As things are in constant motion in Europe, it’s important to keep our recommendations both up-to-date and fresh. The big news in Rome is the emergence of the Monti neighborhood as a vibrant place for any visitor to consider. This shot is the central piazza of the zone which stretches (conveniently for travelers) between the Termini train station and the Colosseum. We found several good hotels and a slew of fun eateries of all kinds for the next edition of the guidebook. For 20 years I’ve been enthusiastic about the characteristic Trastevere neighborhood as a great place for a colorful dinner. Now, for the energy of a lively neighborhood, I prefer Monti. To be the first traveler on your block to have all my new Monti finds (which will be in the 2015 edition of our Rome guidebook), click here.