Interesting (and downright quirky) Facts About Rick Steves
Number of beds Rick Steves reserves for his tour participants each year: 117,000 (7800 participants times 15 nights average per tour).
Tour growth since Rick's "Europe through the Gutter" start:
1976: A long-haired and bearded Rick drives a minibus of four tours with eight participants on each.32 tourists.
2005: 311 tours, 7,800 tourists.
Number of books Rick has sold:
In its first edition (1980), Europe through the Back Door sold 2,000 copies (a station wagon full).
In its 24th edition (2005) it sold 50,000 copies.
Today Rick has 30 guidebooks out and sells about 500,000 a year.
His Italy guidebook was the best selling travel guide book in the USA last year. His Rick Steves phrase books now outsell Berlitz in bookstores.
Small guerilla business tactics: Rick has personally sold more than 75,000 books out of his trunk at slideshow lectures (And he still does).
TV shows: 95 episodes produced and still airing nationally on public television (13 shows every two years since 1990). Rick spends six days per episode shooting in Europe, so he's lived 630 days worrying about not spilling on his wardrobe or nicking himself shaving.
Number of shirts Rick packs for filming: one per episode (he wears the same shirt for each six-day shoot so all footage will match).
Number of airline miles traveled: This very frequent flier has a philosophical problem with frequent flier programs. He thinks all the added complexity produces nothing for society — so why encourage it. Therefore Rick has no idea how many miles he's flown. And he has no favorite airline (he likes them all).
Days a year Rick spends in Europe: He says 100. Rick's wife reports closer to 130. Whatever the case, he hasn't spent a summer in Seattle since 1972 (although he's heard it's beautiful when the sun shines).
Memorable encounter with a fan: Woman who met Rick in St. Peter's who said: "I'm going to call home and tell everyone, 'I went to the Vatican to see the Pope, but guess what? I got to see Rick Steves instead.'"
Strangest Honor bestowed on Rick: Having a hotel room named after him (Rick Steves Periodista Turistico Americano) with much ceremony in Arcos in Spain. Second place: The Swiss village restaurant with the "Rick Steves burger" on its menu.
Rick's top safety tip for travelers: Assume beggars are fast-fingered pickpockets. Wear a moneybelt. Then, having a Gypsy's hand slide slowly into your pocket is just one more interesting cultural experience.
Closest encounter with an actual terrorist incident: A year before 9/11, Rick stayed in the Rome hotel where an American Airlines flight crew was robbed of their uniforms and identity cards. While hardly noticed at the time, this could have played a role on that terrible day.
Rick's favorite money-saving tips: Think of guidebooks as $20 tools for $3,000 experiences. Equip yourself with good information, expect to travel smart…and you will.
Money-saving tips not recommended (from personal experience): Avoiding hotel costs by sleeping on train cars parked unused in stations. (They often jolt into action in the wee hours.) Traveling all summer on bread, jam, and Coke (survivable only when you're 18).
Cheapest trip: 80 days in Europe on $700, including airfare in the summer of 1973.
Stupidest mistake: Sleeping through the Denmark stop on the Norway-to-Denmark ferry and sailing back to Norway. Waking up and finding his car the only one facing south out of several hundred on the car deck, Rick lost a full day of his trip and endured a stern lecture from the captain.
Stinkiest souvenir: Rotting bullhorns, hacked from a bull killed in a Spanish bullfight. For the first week they were fine. For the second week, they functioned only to keep other travelers out of his compartment on overnight trains. After three weeks, Rick reluctantly abandoned them on the rooftop of a hotel.
Best tip for avoiding jet lag: Switch your wristwatch (and your mind) to European time as you touch down. Upon arrival, get out and walk. Jet lag hates bright light, fresh air, and exercise.
Dirty secret: Rick admits that the Starbucks at Heathrow is a godsend for fighting jet lag.
Rick's all-time favorite restaurant experience in Europe: The Stand-up Progressive Venetian Pub Crawl Dinner. Rick visits a series of bars on the back streets of Venice, munching creatures from the lagoon on toothpicks and washing it all down with local wine.
Favorite Pub: The Felon's Bar in Belfast (one year in prison on a political offense is required to be a member).
Favorite café: Helsinki's Café Kappeli. Long the hangout of local artists and intellectuals, this art nouveau-ish gazebo is filled with fine Finnish pastries, hot drinks, and cool customers.
Place Rick's visited most: London — you can never get enough. Paris — the more you know it, the greater it gets. Rome — a steaming compost pile of Western Civilization.
Number of different showers Rick has used in last 25 years barefoot and never picked up a fungus: 1284 (on average a new hotel every two nights for a hundred nights a year for a quarter of a century).
Rick's best advice in two words: Pack light (or maybe it's "buy guidebooks").
Oddest travel item he always packs: a stapler. Rick can't relax if pages (scripts, feedback, research) he's working with aren't attached.
Another life: If he wasn't in the travel biz, Rick would probably be a piano teacher. He had 40 piano students through college to help pay for his education and travels.
Over-used phrases Rick's staff wishes he would forget: Maximum travel thrills per mile, minute, and dollar. Nine by twenty-two by fourteen-inch carry-on-the-plane sized bag. Oooo, this cheese smells like zee feet of angels. Bed and Breakfasts offer double the cultural intimacy for half the price of hotels. Raise your travel dreams to their upright and locked positions.
Press kit available at www.ricksteves.com/pressroom or contact Ashley Sytsma at Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door, 130 Fourth Avenue North, Edmonds, WA 98020, Tel: 425/608-4233 / Fax: 425/771-0833.