My Love Hate Relationship With Rick Steves

Okay, so maybe I’m picking on Rick Steves a bit much here.

And perhaps hate is too strong of a word.

But I do have a love/not-like-so-much relationship with Rick Steves, Lonely Planet, Frommers, Fodors, tourism boards and any other travel guidebook out there.

Why?

Well it’s about overtourism and responsible travel.

And sometimes I think Rick Steves and the rest of the gang are creating too much tourism for certain destinations.

For those of you who don’t know Rick Steves, I’ll fill you in.

He’s a baby boomer who has been teaching people how to travel to Europe for decades and he’s über popular with many Americans. He has both a public radio travel show and a public television show. Rick is a bit nerdy, but he loves Europe. And I do respect and appreciate all that he does and has done for getting Americans to travel to Europe.

So why do I love him?

And why do I not like him?

Let me explain.

What I love about Rick Steves and the rest of the gang

There are a few things that I really do love about Rick Steves, Lonely Planet and Rough Guides.

I mean, after all, I do use these guides to help plan client trips as well as my own. So it’s not all bad.

And full disclosure, I’m an affiliate of Lonely Planet, so I do endorse their products.

You can travel to Europe on a budget

One of the best things Rick Steves has going for him is that he puts a strong emphasis on being able to travel on a budget.

It’s how he started his business as a young man, backpacking around Europe.

He’s excellent at teaching people how to travel inexpensively.

Lonely Planet is the same way, although maybe a bit less so now that Tony Wheeler — the founder of Lonely Planet — is no longer at the helm.

But they still do a good job of educating folks on ways to travel on a budget.

This is my philosophy as well, so I love that these big names are touting the same viewpoint — that you can travel to Europe without having a lot of money.

Being able to find safe, clean, comfy and inexpensive accommodation is very possible in Europe.

Good, accurate information

Rick Steves also provides accurate, up-to-date information on the destinations he includes in his guides.

I always say, “What he covers, he covers well.”

He just doesn’t include as much as I’d like.

I’ll come back to this in the next section.

But Rick Steves and his minions visit the destinations in his guides each year so they can make updates.

So if a guesthouse has closed, it can be excluded in the next edition of the guide.

Or if a restaurant is no longer as good as it once was, they can choose not to include it.

Lonely Planet used to be a bit better at this than they are now.

However, I believe they do a decent job of maintaining accurate information given the fact that they don’t update their guides every year like Rick Steves.

Casa Sèlita is one of the places Rick Steves recommends for your stay in Orvieto. It’s a wonderful spot and Rick’s information is spot on about it.

Travel philosophy

I think my favorite thing about Rick Steves and Lonely Planet and the British company, Rough Guides, is that these folks all believe in the power of travel.

They believe that travel breaks down barriers.

Rick Steves extols the virtues of slowing down and connecting with the locals — music to my ears.

He sees the sameness in every human despite our differences in language, religion or traditions.

I truly love this about him and so many travel companies out there.

Some of the local people I got to meet while traveling in Bozuburn, Turkey.

What I don’t like about Rick Steves and the rest of the gang

With all the good does come the bad — those things I ‘hate’ about Rick Steves and the rest.

Leaving so many destinations out

I get that you can’t cover every little place in any given country.

However Rick Steves leaves so many amazing destinations out of his guides.

Lonely Planet does cover more. I’ve found a few special spots in their sidebar sections.

But that’s just it. It’s in a sidebar so there’s very little information — just a short blurb on the place.

I find that I have to use a few different guides as well as tourism board websites and even posts from travel bloggers to find information on the lesser visited destinations I’m interested in traveling to or that my clients want to visit.

I’ll say this again — what Rick Steves covers, he covers well.

But I get frustrated that he doesn’t cover some areas and concentrates so much on the popular destinations which leads to…

I found the Renvyle Peninsula in a sidebar in Lonely Planet’s Ireland guidebook. What a beautiful find! But there wasn’t much information on it and I wish I could have a bit more.

Beltany Stone Circle is one of the sites I found just by learning about the stone circles of Ireland. I don’t think I found it any guidebook. And when I visited, I was the only one there.

Overtourism

So this is the part that brings on the ‘hate’ the most.

I really think that Rick Steves has ruined some destinations.

Okay.

A bit harsh and unfair because it’s not just him.

It’s the other guidebook companies and the hot tourism board campaigns like the Wild Atlantic Way in Ireland.

But I do blame Rick Steves a bit.

He raves about certain destinations like Doolin or Dingle in Ireland.

And I’ve seen these places change.

In fact, my B&B host in Doolin — a local woman — commented about how Doolin can’t handle the big motor coaches coming through.

Americans who love Rick Steves will flock to the places he recommends, overrunning them with too damn many Americans.

I’m sorry (okay, not really), but I want to travel to other countries to experience other countries — not hang out with my fellow country people. Not that I’m opposed to meeting my fellow Americans. I just don’t want to be surrounded by them.

Dingle Town and the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland are still lovely.

But I think the magic is gone.

And yes, I blame Rick Steves and the way he gushes over it AND I blame the Irish Tourism Board and their Wild Atlantic Way campaign.

Effective? Yes.

But at what cost?

Because Rick Steves only covers certain destinations in his guides, do Americans think these are the be all and end all of destinations in that region or country?

And if so, then we are all converging on those handful of places and ignoring so many other great spots that are equally — if not more — amazing but with a fraction of the tourists.

So overtourism happens in Dingle, Ireland and Cinque Terre, Italy.

Think outside the Rick Steves box and use multiple sources to find the right places for you to visit in your country or countries of choice.

And if you miss something that Rick Steves tells you is the best in all of Germany?

No big deal. You’ve still visited Germany.

You just visited your Germany and not Rick Steves’ Germany.

So all these tourists descending on these small places leads me to wonder about this…

The Dingle Peninsula drive in 2007 was quiet and peaceful.

While this image doesn’t show it, there were far more people when I visited the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland in 2018. The parking lot that was to my right was full, and then some. There are far more cars and people visiting. Not necessarily a good thing in this case. What’s the impact?

Lack of responsibility in travel

I want to be clear: I am not saying that Rick Steves or the Irish Tourism Board or anyone else is being irresponsible.

But this concern has come up in some travel blogging groups lately — the issue of being a responsible traveler and travel promoter.

When you talk up these wonderful destinations that are already so popular is this okay? Is it being responsible?

What about places we promote that don’t have the infrastructure to handle the masses of humanity and all their “stuff”, is that being responsible?

So many places I’ve visited are small and have a certain amount of charm because they are wee, quaint and quiet with mostly locals.

And if all these cars, motor coaches and people start to visit, well, it just wouldn’t be the same and it would also not be good for the locals.

Yes, from an economic standpoint, tourism can be a good thing.

But if there aren’t wide enough roads, enough shops and folks working the shops, places to stay, etc., then that particular spot is not ready.

So as Rick Steves talked up Doolin 12 years ago, was it irresponsible?

Maybe a bit.

Doolin is a small collection of villages with Fisher Street being just a little over 1 car width. And I saw motor coaches going through in 2018 which I didn’t see in 2007! There’s only a few places to eat and a handful of shops. I don’t believe it’s meant to have all this tourism. It’s just a bit much.

As travel planners, promoters, writers and photographers we do need to not only travel responsibly ourselves, but we also need to be sure we don’t over promote destinations that can’t handle the tourism — that we teach others to travel responsibly.

This small town in southwest Turkey would not be able to handle a lot of tourism. So please, don’t flock here. But it’s a wonderful destination. Thankfully, it’s not easy to get to!!

Final thoughts on it all

I hope you all don’t think I truly hate Rick Steves or anyone else.

Because I don’t.

Rick Steves has taught so many Americans that they too can travel to Europe — no matter what.

He has a wonderful philosophy about travel in general and I love him for this.

But I think all of us in the travel industry just need to step back and be sure that we aren’t contributing to the problem of overtourism in places that are on the verge of being forever ruined by mass tourism.

And we need to be careful with promoting “hidden gems” so that they don’t end up with an overtourism problem 10-20 years down the road.

There are so many wonderful and beautiful places on this planet to visit.

No one place is right or wrong.

You don’t need to follow someone else’s itinerary.

Use any and all resources to create your own trip.

Find a destination that’s not in any guidebook or that maybe just gets a sentence or 2.

Yes. Places that are heavily touristed are that way for a reason — they’re pretty cool and perhaps worthy of a bit of time.

But there is so much more to Paris than the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre.

Be sure you wander YOUR way …

Do you have thoughts on this?

Please leave me a comment as I’d love to hear from you.