On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer

by Rick Steves

Stow away with Rick Steves for a glimpse into the unforgettable moments, misadventures, and memories of his 1978 journey on the legendary Hippie Trail.

In the 1970s, the ultimate trip for any backpacker was the storied “Hippie Trail” from Istanbul to Kathmandu. A 23-year-old Rick Steves made the trek, and like a travel writer in training, he documented everything along the way. From taking wild bus rides through Turkey to enduring monsoons in India, the experience ignited his love of travel and forever broadened his perspective on the world.
 
On the Hippie Trail contains Rick's journals from 1978—the last year the trip was possible—and full-color travel photos from this trek of a lifetime through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal, plus a brand-new preface and afterword reflecting on the historic context of the moment and how the journey changed his life.

You know Rick Steves. Now discover the adventure that made him the travel writer he is today.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Memoir, Audiobook, India, Biography, Adventure

256 pages, Hardcover

First published February 4, 2025

About the author

Rick Steves is an American travel writer, television personality, and activist known for encouraging meaningful travel that emphasizes cultural immersion and thoughtful global citizenship. Born in California and raised in Edmonds, Washington, he began traveling in his teens, inspired by a family trip to Europe. After graduating from the University of Washington with a degree in European history and business, Steves started teaching travel classes, which led to his first guidebook, Europe Through the Back Door, self-published in 1980.
Steves built his Edmonds-based travel company on the idea that travelers should explore less-touristy areas and engage with local cultures. He gained national prominence as host and producer of Rick Steves' Europe, which has aired on public television since 2000. He also hosts a weekly public radio show, Travel with Rick Steves, and has authored dozens of popular guidebooks, including bestselling titles on Italy and Europe at large.
Beyond travel, Steves is an outspoken advocate for drug policy reform, environmental sustainability, and social justice. He supports marijuana legalization and chairs the board of NORML. He has funded housing for homeless families and donates to anti-hunger and arts organizations. In 2019, he pledged $1 million annually to offset the carbon emissions of his tour groups.
Steves is a practicing Lutheran with Norwegian ancestry and continues to live in Edmonds. He has two adult children and is in a relationship with Reverend Shelley Bryan Wee. Despite health challenges, including a prostate cancer diagnosis in 2024, Steves remains committed to his mission of helping Americans travel with greater purpose, empathy, and understanding of the world. His work reflects a belief that travel, done right, can be both transformative and a force for peace.

Reviews

[Sarah Gorman · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was personally very important for me to know about the first time rick steve’s got high

[Jess the Shelf-Declared Bibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written from a longlost notebook he penned in his 20s, the adaptation to today's language was easy, compelling and riveting. The changes in decades past were made negligible, in order to focus more on the experience of the moment. I honestly doubt the described locations have even changed that much! I grew up watching Rick Steves (and being jealous of him) at an early age on PBS, but this was my first venture into his written works, and I can say it will not be my last!

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Visas and tickets bought at the border. A transcontinental journey with almost no planning on a shoestring budget. Reviews nothing more than a rumour passed on at a bus station. Rick Steves' largely unedited journal is a gem and a voice from an age of travel likely never to be seen again.

[Keri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is what I want my travel books to be. Reading this was like watching some of the travel bloggers I watch on YouTube. I love it.

[Shiloah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rick’s cheerful view of the world makes every place sound absolutely lovely.

[Kerry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review soon. I got the audio through LIbby and can not get the PDF to open. I found it but it keeps refusing to open. I am blaming that for my lack of enjoyment of this book as I think the map and pictures that Rick says this PDF contains would add much.

Rick Steves has always been a visual travel guide for me. In the early days of the internet his guide books were an essential part of each trip I took to Europe. So I came to this with an expectation for an interesting ride. Unfortunately it was a bit of a disappointment as far as the text. Rick takes his old journal, written on this overland trip in 1978 and uses it almost exclusively to tell of this early journey on buses and trains from Istanbul to India and Nepal. There was much about bugs, dirt, lousy accommodations, toilets that don't work or are not present. Little or less about what was seen and brought insight. I did not find what I have come to love about Rick Steves love for and knowledge of what travel can offer.

Rick reads the audio himself and does a good job but his voice was thin at times. I had also hoped for more about his journey to being the travel expert and writer I know him to be. That was more of the story I was hoping for. Perhaps he will give us that journey in his next book, it is not to be found in these pages.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

An easy read by Rick Steves --an interesting travel journal from his diary of the 1978 trip on the Hippie Trail. It is like seeing the Silk Road through the eyes of a 23-year-old vagabond adventurer.
 
“I believe that if more people could have such a transformative experience-especially in their youth- our world would be a more just and stable place. Traveler understand that the big challenges of the future will be blind to borders, and we'll need to tackle them together- as global citizen and as a family of nations.”

“Most fundamentally, travelers know that the world is a welcoming place filled with joy, love and good people. Young or old, rich or poor, backpack or rolling suitcase, the best way to understand this is to experience it firsthand. To get out there and get to know our neighbors. To build not walls, but bridges.”

[CHAD HADEN · Rating 5 out of 5]

The world needs more people like Rick Steves

[CatReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rick Steves is an American travel writer who's authored a number of travel guidebooks and who's hosted a PBS travel show called Rick Steves' Europe since 2000. His 2025 book On the Hippie Trail is drawn closely from a journal he kept in the summer of 1978, when he was 23 years old and traveling the Hippie trail overland from Turkey to Nepal on a shoestring budget with his good friend Gene.

Importantly (as some reviewers here seemed to miss), Steves makes a point at the beginning to say that he purposely hasn't retrospectively edited his writing to make himself sound less naïve, ignorant or culturally insensitive -- he wanted to present this work as a time capsule of 1978 and how he genuinely perceived the world at that era and in his early 20s. While far from perfect, I do think his younger self came across as exuberant, curious, indefatigably good-natured, and starry-eyed, especially when considering the often stark photos he and Gene took on the trip. I found this book quite charming overall -- definitely evocative of an era that's long-dead (Steves notes that 1978 was the last full year of the Hippie trail, as changing political climates in many of the countries along the trail in the late 1970s closed off much of the contiguous route by the end of that decade).

My statistics:
Book 140 for 2025
Book 2066 cumulatively

[Barb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Give this book all the stars and then some!! OK, so Rick is my "travel guru" and I'm totally a fangirl, but this is fun and interesting for all. This is when you need the actual book and not an audiobook because the photos are fabulous. (ahh, the Taj Mahal). Rick was very meticulous in writing everything down, sometimes even descriptions of bodily functions--pretty funny for two 23 year old guys. This was his actual trip diary. He showed great compassion for and interest in people, which we all know has grown as he's aged. He wrote about building bridges and not walls between countries and was appalled at how women were treated in some of those countries. He smoked his very first hashish and marijuana on this trip and the funniest part for me was how into shopping he was. He brought home a lot of touristy and strange junk, which I doubt he no longer even looks at. Just a really great book, especially for those of us who love travel and enjoy a very good travel journal.

[Anna Wood-Gaines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn’t completely enjoy reading this, but I think that was more due to my grumpy mood than the contents of this book/journal. There were aspects to this journey that felt insensitive and very “American tourist” although I appreciate the forward of the book from modern day apologizing for certain actions or ignorant judgments. I have to give Rick some grace as he was just a bit of an idiot twenty year old at times (I think I may have found certain actions so cringe because I could see myself at twenty years traveling around and not being as appreciative and empathic as I could have been). Oh well, a lot of travel comes with a lot of personal growth. Also some of things Rick and his friend got up to were absolutely bonkers - talk about carpe diem!

Part of me read this tale with a lot of jealousy - not only because as a woman this journey would have been exponentially more dangerous, but the fact that you can no longer take this same path due to intense political conflicts makes me so sad to miss out (although I’m about 50 years too late so I’ll have to let that go). At the same time this book gives a unique window to a bygone era of traveling, and more importantly a glimpse at countries and cultures that most of us will never get the opportunity to travel to. I wish I had the chance to talk to my Gran about this and her time traveling to some of these countries back in the 50s.

As always, in Rick We Trust, with his tried and true travel recommendations ❤️

[Sam · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is the worst travel book I’ve ever read in my life and it frankly isn’t close. It’s definitely written from the perspective of a 23 year old who has absolutely zero intellectual or social curiosity and that means to call it derivative and surface-level would be to compliment it. This is precisely why most young writers don’t publish their journals from that age, because they’re actually bad writers. I’ve never read any of Steves’ later books so given his fame I can only assume he got better, but this book is just…woof. Reads like something a Paul brother would have written 40 years ago. No wonder another review paid it the compliment of sounding like their favorite YouTube Vlogger.

If you’re looking for anything with even an ounce more charm or intellectual curiosity go read Bill Bryson or Colin Thubron who could actually write. I’m sure Rick is a good guy but this book was hot garbage and the first time I have regretted spending money on something to read in quite a while.

[Niki · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a little time capsule of a time gone by and something not really accessible anymore (or even back then- Rick Steves says it himself on the afterword, just 1 year after his trip Iran and Afghanistan were off the table), it works perfectly.

As anything else.... meh. Young white dudes with money going around poor places and thinking they had an "authentic experience" because they went to a residential neighborhood for 1 hour... and then went right back to their hotel room to get high and be served (by literal servants at one point, something they very much enjoyed). I also really hated all the little jabs about locals having or not having "a sense of humor", because that stunk of Rick and Gene being assholes and calling it "joking around", like in that anecdote about having rice with sugar or whatever tf that was.

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you for the palate cleanser, Mr. Steves!

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rec. by: The man and his empire; MCL
Rec. for: Stay-at-homes

On the Hippie Trail is the origin story of a Pacific Northwest icon—transcribed directly from Rick Steves' journal, handwritten in 1978, when he was a 23-year-old piano teacher who pivoted, successfully parlaying his experiences into a massive, multifaceted, yet still deeply personal travel business. Rick Steves is, now, an instantly-recognizable TV star, writer of guidebooks, and the active head of Rick Steves' Europe... which is why it's funny to see him tell us in his Preface that

Europe is the wading pool for world exploration{...}
—p.1

My wife and I have dipped our toes into that pool ourselves. In the spring of 2022, just as the global COVID-19 pandemic had begun to wane and tourism was beginning to rebound, we booked a Rick Steves tour of Rome, Florence and Tuscany, and the Cinque Terre coastal region of Liguria—a delayed anniversary celebration.

That tour was amazing, not least because of just how happy the guides and hosts of the Rick Steves organization were to see tourists again! And, after the official end of the tour, Roberta and I even felt confident enough to go off on our own, taking the train south from Florence to Naples and Pompeii for several days of self-guided tourism. In our experience, the organization's claim about Rick that he "empowers Americans to have European trips that are fun, affordable, and culturally broadening" turns out to be entirely accurate. (And yes, this is an unsolicited and uncompensated endorsement.)

The book On the Hippie Trail is quite a bit rougher than the current smoothly-operating Rick Steves machine, though. His use of tenses is often fluid—Steves was writing his journal in the present tense, mostly, or with the immediacy of recent experience, and this transcription is only lightly edited to smooth out those changes. Steves notes later in his Preface that he and his traveling and writing partner Gene Openshaw

are determined to share a candid, unvarnished snapshot of our trip, and we've been careful not to make me sound older, wiser, or more culturally sensitive than I was at the time.
—p.3

For one mild example, take this paragraph from the "Pakistan to India" leg of their trip:

I picked up Gene and we headed back to the station. All the way I was busy counseling our rickshaw boy—a curious and very eager-to-learn Sikh—on how to hustle American girls. By the time we got to the station, he learned to say, "How's it goin', baby?"
—p.114

Shades of Mr. Microphone (another product of 1978)!

Oh, and there are snapshots, too, lots of 'em—although Steves had to hold himself to a strict film budget of no more than nine photographs per day, many of the gorgeous photographs he took are reproduced throughout On the Hippie Trail.

Now, I don't know about you, but when I hear the phrase "on a hippie trail" my mind autocompletes it with the rest of the line, "head full of zombie," from the inescapable Men at Work song "Down Under" (1981). And, indeed, On the Hippie Trail recounts Steves' first experience with cannabis—hashish, which he smokes first in Afghanistan (p.79). The experiment, it turns out, was a success.

As is the book itself. On the Hippie Trail is a lively and intimate work, vividly describing an international itinerary that is no longer traversable (Steves notes that 1978 was the last year in which their overland trip from Istanbul to Kathmandu would be possible). It's also inspiring; Steves' Postscript states—and I don't doubt that he's writing from the heart here—

I believe that if more people could have such a transformative experience—especially in their youth—our world would be a more just and stable place.
—p.247

I believe that too, Rick.

[Charlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Rick Steves — have used his guidebooks, heard him speak once at a library conference and have watched many of his PBS shows. So this audio listen of him reading a book based on a handwritten journal that he kept as a 23 year old, making the adventurous overland bus, train, hitchhiking overland trip from Istanbul to Kalamundo, along what was known as the hippie trail. At this time, Iran was still ruled by the Shah and political rest & Soviet interference was just beginning in Afghanistan. Rick was accompanied on this trip by his friend, Gene, who had been his companion on a 3 month backpacking trip through Europe 5 years before, the summer after they graduated from high school. And Gene went on to co-write many of the Europe guidebooks and also edited this book — nice to know that this friendship is still going strong after nearly 50 years.

Travel was slow so there was time spent along the way but the real goal of trip was to visit India and Nepal; this is where most of their time was spent. There’s a lovely description of the Taj Mahal and a memorable description of their visit to the Ganges River during a major religious festival. They seemed to enjoy their time in Nepal the most; they were sometimes the only Westerners in places they were visiting. Interesting light hearted look at travel in the past before the Internet and so many political upheavals.

[KaylaJo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Based on the cover and title, I went in to this book expecting lovely, wholesome messages. In reality, there were very few of those. When I wasn’t bored, I was annoyed. I totally respect that the author wrote this as a travel journal when he was 23 and didn’t go back and change things before publishing to make it sound like he was a better person than he was, and I think that’s neat in principal. But it led the book to read like a travel journal written by an ethnocentric, egocentric guy. Constantly descriptions of women as “pancake-breasted” or “day breasted,” descriptions of people as fat, or “pock faced half-wits.” Describing animals as “gross pigs” and “stupid ants.” I struggled to find any desire to continue reading the book at several points.
I hope that the author’s mind has opened more since returning from this trip. It was not the hippie adventure I had in mind.

[Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rick never fails to impress. Meeting his 23 y.o. self and the beginnings of a lifetime devoted to cultural curiousity and ethical travel felt like a homecoming in its own right. Highly recommend for anyone with a taste of the world and especially those who are cautious about really experiencing it (and not just "doing it for the 'Gram").

[Craig Barner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Among his followers, Rick Steves is more than a guru of international travel. He has attained the stature of political analyst, epicurean philosopher and sage. Those who have attended his lectures know his gusto, humor and sagacity are as core to the travel writer as his passport, train ticket and backpack.

Those characteristics were already bubbling in 1978, when Steves – then only 23 years old and fresh out of university – and travel companion Gene Openshaw commenced an epic six-country journey across a wide swath of Asia, starting in Turkey and ending in Nepal with stops in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India in between, including a backtrack to India from Nepal. It was a 3,500-mile, two-month-long trek along what was called the Hippie Trail, a route that was once as popular among young travelers as visits to Europe are today.

During the trip, Steves wrote a 60,000-word journal that he recently released in book form with only minimal edits as On the Hippie Trail from Istanbul to Kathmandu. Now readers can join him in the bazaars and temples and on the elephant and rickshaw rides of Asia.

As Steves begins his trip, he already possesses the high of a long-time traveler who is seeking greater adventure, enlightenment and knowledge.

In Nepal, he attains a Zen-like nirvana amid the lush mountains, valleys and rivers. (Sadly, Steves and Openshaw endured constant clouds, preventing them from enjoying majestic views of the Himalayan mountains.) And he makes a revelation about marijuana that his long-time readers will find startling.

“Before I always shunned pot as a token of my self-discipline,” he says. “Now I smoke it as a token of self-control and to widen my view of the world.” It will be a revelation to his readers as Steves has long advocated for the legalization of weed.

“I could never conceive of philosophers doubting reality or pondering another reality,” he says. “Now I can see that much more exists than meets the eye (or the straight brain).”

The beauty and religious awe of Buddhist and Hindu mystics in Nepal also awaken his wonder. The exotic overload generates his lust for new experiences.

Steves sees the Kumari Devi, the “living virgin goddess” at the Royal Palace in Kathmandu, whom with characteristic humor he describes as “a young girl without zits and blemishes.” The divinity locks eyes with pilgrim from Seattle before she vanishes.

Later the same day, Steves spots King Birendra, who drives into Kathmandu, but this encounter is different from the one with the virgin goddess. The monarch rushes into the city to worship at a temple and then rushes out without waving to the adoring crowds.

Despite this disappointment, Steves’s enthusiasm for Asia is infectious. Earlier in the trip, after he had crossed the Khyber Pass in Pakistan, Steves is overwhelmed with delight: “Words cannot explain my joy as I stepped across that happy tree-lined border.”

Steves is always moving. He paddles a canoe and rents bicycles in Nepal, goes to markets in India, visits a university in Afghanistan, hails rickshaws, wanders along side streets of big cities and ventures into small towns. He helps Afghan farmers thresh wheat and Indian women carry baskets of grass.

Steves’s well-known heartiness is in full swing. He is frequently up before the dawn so that he has enough time to cram as many sites as possible. In Varanasi, India, he is up at 4:30 a.m. to tour the Ganges River, a pilgrimage site for the Hindu faithful. He gets on a boat, tours a market, visits several temples and witnesses cremations. The same day, he visits Sarnath, where Buddha gave his first sermon, to see a stupa (monument). He walks through a museum. Back in Varanasi, he visits a fort. And that night he has dinner with an Australian tourist studying Indian music.

The next morning, Steves is up at 4:30 a.m. again to take another boat ride on the Ganges, prowl the back streets and go to a bazaar.

The book also proves that Steves, the most avid of travelers, is as down to Earth as anyone. He resents Indian hotel staff “hopelessly and universally afflicted with dollar signs in their eyes”. In Srinagar, India, where Steves stays on a houseboat, he feels the effects of his ethnocentrism. His servants initially treat him as an honored guest, but the quality of their service evaporates as Steves prepares to depart.

“It’s funny, when you’re treated like a king you begin to expect it and when the servants let you down, it takes a little bit of adjusting,” he says.

Amazingly, Steves expresses a feeling that all veteran travelers know: He briefly wonders if he should have taken the journey at all. In Afghanistan, he looks longingly back at Europe where he could be having fun.

“It’s kind of sad, but I realized today that I tend to build a wall between me and any potential friends in this beyond-Europe part of the world,” he says. “In Europe I love to talk with people and make friends.” He wants to go back to Seattle.

These are momentary lapses as Steves goes to Asia as the journeyman traveler and emerges as the master he is today.

“Good trip – that’s all I got to say,” he says.

Sadly, the overland path in Asia came to an end not long after Steves took his trip mostly because of events the following year. The Iranian Revolution and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan put an end to westerners traveling the route.

Always the optimist, Steves urges young and old travelers alike to find new Hippie Trails. They’re always beckoning.

[Chrissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LOVE RICK!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love travel memoirs and of course, one written by the guru of travel, Rick Steves, is bound to be good. And it was! Maybe a bit politically incorrect but given that it was based on his journal of travel from 1978, not completely unexpected or unacceptable.

[Samantha Husted · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. I’m glad people do really hard travel and write books about it lol sad that no one else can do the Hippie Trail anymore

[Marcus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rick continues to be one of the most fascinating and educational people I’ve ever encountered. Being able to read his “beginnings” was so fantastic and I’m grateful he shared it with us!

[Wendelle]

Before he became known as America's genteel, dependable guide to Europe's most jetsetting vacation locations, Rick Steves had a storied past and a Bee Gees' Barry Gibbs' mane. He was a backpacker weathering the rough-and-tumble life with the most adventurous and daring of travelers, as revealed in this publication of the journals of his youth. In this book he crosses overland from Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal with a pinchful of dollars as his pocket budget for each day, a rough idea of how to get through each country, and certainly no Google Maps or book guides to ease the way for him. Bus schedules becoming hobbled, daily rations of hardboiled eggs or melons, dusty rooms with no working lights, the company of cockroaches, 60-hour shifts on unfolding bus seats, haggling in markets, and visiting locales few other Westerners have witnessed during that era, fill this book. The prose here is more straightforward in contrast to the descriptive travel guides he's become known for, which are often distinguished by extensive dives into art, culture, or architecture. But what's apparently remained steady throughout time is his upbeat, friendly, curious and respectful stance that's appreciative of other cultures and individuals he meets in his journeys.

[Maggie Doyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm so glad 23 year old Rick Steves wrote in his diary about doing drugs for the first time in Afghanistan in the 70s. A testament to moral beauty that Rick Steves was just as quaint, humble and lighthearted even in his 20s. Also just so interesting to read about the Middle East the year before the Soviet Union invaded. It's also a picture book (the film photos of Kashmir are amazing), which is fun. Not enough picture books these days.

[Marian Kvamme · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rick Steve's sense of wonder inspires me and makes me want to book a trip!

[Jennifer Koenig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy read. Reminded me of how I looked at the world at 23.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quintessential Rick Steves sharing the journals from the trip that changed his life. Rick Steves fans will love this—he has been who he is his whole life—but I also think anyone can stand to learn something about the benefits from and value of travel from this book. Rick says it best: "There’s so much fear these days. But the flipside of fear is understanding, and we gain understanding through travel." Keep on travelin'!

[Edie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of course I adore Rick Steves. Getting to meet young Rick in this travel memoir is such a TREAT. I imagine the urge to edit & revise was difficult to resist but I’m so glad he let us read it as-is, warts and all. I can see this becoming my go-to graduation gift for years to come. May we all say yes when adventure calls. And may we see the adventure in every day.

[Nancycampbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tagging along with a 23 year old Rick Steves and his buddy Gene as they travel the "Hippie Trail" from Istanbul to Kathmandu is pure vicarious joy. Taken from the travel journal Rick wrote 42 years ago, "On the Hippie Trail" feels fresh and in-the-moment. The clear take away is the transformative power of travel to broaden us and see ourselves as members of a global family. The book itself is wonderful: high quality paper, beautiful photos, and a big fold out map to refer to over and over. A pleasure to read and touch.