Rick Steves Just Shared His Best Advice for Young Travelers

Don’t let Rick Steves’ gentle demeanor fool you. He’s one determined man—especially if something piques his curiosity, 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 intently to his professor lecture about his experience along the Hippie Trail, an overland route connecting Europe to Asia. Enthralled, Steves began asking question after question. The only problem was neither his professor nor the guidebooks at the time had any answers. 

“I was just so impacted by that,” Steves shared with Travel + Leisure, adding that he was disappointed this man didn’t have the information he was seeking. “He dropped the ball.” 

Luckily, an intrepid Steves was there to pick up.

In 1978, he set off on the first of many big adventures, traversing the Hippie Trail and writing down every experience in his journal along the way. “I wrote 60,000 words when I was 23 years old,” Steves shared. 

And now, we can all get a glimpse inside those personal thoughts, as Steves turned that journal into a new book, “On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer.”

“It’s just my journal—that’s the cool thing about it,” Steves explained about his “very candid, very unguarded” book. “And that’s what I really wanted to do. I wrote the book for me.” 

This personal look back at his younger, freer days, Steves said, is like an “anthropological” peek into who he was as a man, as a traveler, and as a writer. “When I look at it now, it was the notes of a travel writer in training,” he said. “As I read the book, I’m seeing the little seeds of everything I’ve dedicated my career to ever since.” 

His career has included decades of helping people be less afraid of the world around them and to set off and explore it all through his tour company, guidebooks, and television show, so they, too, can learn all of life’s most important lessons. Because according to Steves, travel is actually a low-key political act. 

“Fear needs to be considered,” he said. “Fear is rampant in our society now. Autocrats—whether they’re left-wing or right-wing—will use fear to shape the electorate, to derail a democracy. The flip side of fear is understanding. And we gain understanding when we travel.”

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

“In the old days, people said, ‘Bon voyage—have a good trip.’ Now, what do they say? ‘Have a safe trip. Are you sure you want to go over there, considering all that’s happening?’” he said. “When somebody tells me, ‘Have a safe trip,’ I’m inclined to say, ‘Well, you have a safe stay at home.’”

And through this book—and his entire career, really—Steves wants us all to remember travel is not just safe, but it’s good for the soul, too. 

“It’s safe to travel. There’s nothing scary about it. There’s nothing dangerous about it. If you care about your kids and you understand the statistics, you’ll take them to Europe tomorrow,” he said. “If you really want to be safe, you don’t need walls. You need bridges.”

But Steves offers even deeper advice than to just go places. Instead, he says, it’s critical to fully immerse yourself in a new destination.

“I don’t care about your bucket list. I don’t care how many countries you’ve been to,” he said. “I wonder how many experiences you’ve had. That’s what we look for—opportunities to become temporary locals.”

This means embracing cultural differences, even in small ways. “When I cross the border, I like to be like a cultural chameleon. Suddenly, I’m into chocolate because I’m in Belgium. Suddenly, I’m into whiskey because I’m in Scotland. Suddenly, I’m into full-bodied red wine because I’m in Tuscany. Suddenly, I’m into pilsner beer because I’m in the Czech Republic.”

And traveling like Steves has paid off for both the people who follow him and Steves himself. “We took 30,000 people on our tours last year,” he noted. 

Still, after all these years of sharing his sage travel advice, the new book may just be his greatest inspirational message yet for young travelers. 

“The takeaway from ‘On the Hippie Trail’ is not that in 1978, a 23-year-old vagabond named Rick Steves did the Hippie Trail with all the other hippies going from Istanbul to Kathmandu and wrote a journal. I mean, that’s kind of cool, but what does that mean today,” he said. “[It’s about] a person coming of age and getting away from home without a safety net and seeing the world, traveling with abandon.” And that, he added with his signature laugh, is “a good thing to do before you settle down and you become the opposite of a hippie.” 

Rick Steves Quick Travel Tips

Always pack light: “None [of our guests] are allowed to check any luggage. You’re limited to 9 by 22 by 14 inches.” 

Embrace culture shock: “A good approach to travel is to recognize culture shock is not something to avoid. It’s a constructive thing. It’s the growing pains of a broadening perspective, and it needs to be curated.”

Step outside your comfort zone: “If you want to have a transformational experience, you have to get out of your comfort zone. You have to be a cultural chameleon, and you have to work to go home with the most beautiful souvenir.” 

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

Recognize fear is the opposite of understanding: “Fear is rampant in our society now … The flip side of fear is understanding, and we gain understanding when we travel.”