Meet Our Speakers
Rick Steves
Rick Steves advocates smart, independent travel. As host of the public television series, "Rick Steves' Europe," and author of 30 European travel books, he encourages Americans to dive deep into Europe and become "temporary locals." With 25 years of travel experience, Rick gives lectures that are vital to every European traveler. Participants of his lectures will discover not just great cities, but cozy "Back Door" villages away from the tourist-trampled routes. He helps American travelers connect more intimately with the Europeans — often for a fraction of what mainstream tourists pay. To find out where Rick is right now, check out his calendar. To check Rick's availability for your speaking engagement, please contact Ashley Southwick at 425/608-4293.
The Speakers Bureau
Our European travel experts are available to present programs on a wide array of topics. If your group is interested in coming to our Travel Center for a presentation, or if you'd like to have one of our speakers come to you, please contact Julie Coen at (425) 771-8303 ext. 250 or email julie@ricksteves.com.
Since her first visit to Europe years ago, Mary Ann Cameron has developed an avid interest in traveling and the people of the world. She's been associated with ETBD since its early days in a variety of capacities, and currently focuses her attention on projects associated with ETBD's marketing initiatives. Mary Ann has been an ETBD tour guide since 1998, and has accompanied travelers to many countries, especially Turkey, as well as the places covered by ETBD Britain, Eastern Europe, Europe, Ireland, and Spain/Portugal tours. She has presented travel-related classes at ETBD and other places as well. Mary Ann and her travel partner/husband, Cliff, are proud parents of Ben, another Rick Steves' guide, who spends a good portion of his year leading happy travelers throughout Europe. 
When Julie Coen joined the staff at Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door years ago, she fulfilled a dream to combine work with her passion for travel. She caught the travel bug as a high school exchange student in Germany and became a Jane-of-all-trades (photographer, aerobic instructor, designer, and waitress) to finance her many journeys. Her thirst to see the world has taken her from Europe to the Middle East, Africa, India,and Asia. She currently works in the ETBD office in Consulting and as the Special Events Coordinator and occasionally dabbles in photography and writing for the books and website. Exploring Europe has become a family adventure with her tour guide husband and their young daughter.
Reid Coen is a seasoned tour guide for Europe Through the Back Door. He has a background in history and education, having earned a BA and MA in history and a Washington state teaching certificate. His enthusiasm for travel was kindled by a year of study in Germany at age twenty. Since then he has traveled extensively in Europe as well as Africa, Asia, and Central America. Reid considers travel to be much more than a recreational pursuit, but rather a life-changing experience. Travel has provided him a new and ever expanding frame of reference for understanding both foreign and American cultures and also for gauging his own values. The opportunity to impart his passions to others through guiding and speaking provides a great deal of personal fulfillment and pleasure. In recent years, travel adventures have been shared with his wife and fellow ETBD guide, Julie and their young daughter, Maia.
Robin Dority is known for her true gypsy spirit. She spends 17 to 20 weeks each year in Europe. She's one of Rick Steves' most seasoned tour guides and works as a travel consultant at Rick's Edmonds, Washington, Travel Center. Robin got her start after attending one of Rick's travel classes at the University of Washington before venturing off on an independent trip to Europe. She has been a devotee of Rick's travel philosophy ever since. Robin began working for ETBD in early 1993, and has assisted numerous free-spirited travelers in planning and realizing their travel dreams. She leads Ireland, Italy, and Best of Europe tours. She has traveled all over Europe (and many other parts of the world) and loves to find new places to experience and explore with her camera. 
The aptly named Lisa Friend first traveled to Europe to visit with friends in a small town in Northern Germany. Diving right into the culture with home-stays and visiting real "Back Door" towns, Lisa fell in love with the rhythm of European life: shopping in outdoor markets, talking about current events in cafés, and celebrating the seasons with spring and harvest festivals. Lisa spends several months every year in Europe both traveling solo and guiding our Best of Europe tours. Traveling to Europe almost annually for the last ten years, Lisa enjoys sharing her love of Europe and the Rick Steves' philosophy of traveling as a "temporary European" with both tour members and the independent travelers who take her popular "Women Traveling Solo" class.
Dave Fox is an award-winning travel and humor author and a veteran Rick Steves tour guide. In 2004, he won the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop Book Proposal Contest for his book, Getting Lost: Mishaps of an Accidental Nomad, a collection of humorous tales about things that have gone wrong in his international wanderings. His second book, Globejotting: How to Write Extraordinary Travel Journals (And Still Have Time to Enjoy Your Trip), will be published in the summer of 2008 by Inkwater Press. Dave has lived in Norway, Turkey, and England, and traveled in nearly 40 countries. He has been an opening speaker for Princess Martha Louise of Norway, and has been featured on the History Channel for his radical views on why Norwegian-Americans do not have to eat lutefisk. For information on his books, writing classes, and more, please visit 
Cameron Hewitt grew up listening to the Polish nursery rhymes of his grandfather, Jan Pavel Dabrowski. Twenty years later, he took a trip to Eastern Europe — and he was hooked. Today Cameron guides Eastern Europe tours for Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door. Besides traveling in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Croatia, and — his favorite — Slovenia, Cameron enjoys spending time in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. When he's not on the road, Cameron is a guidebook editor at Rick's home office in Edmonds, Washington. His most recent project: co-authoring the new Rick Steves' Best of Eastern Europe guidebook.
Margaret Hemmen fell in love with Europe while living and working in Germany as a classical singer and language instructor during the late 80's and early 90's. She holds a doctorate in music and an MA in folklore and mythology. Over the years she has visited nineteen European countries. She has experienced both the joys and the pitfalls of being abroad, more often as a traveler but also as an expatriate. Because she had time to savor life in Europe in several distinct areas, she is intrigued with the interrelationship between the history and the artistic/cultural heritage of any region. She is also fascinated with local customs as they relate to culinary traditions. Margaret has been leading tours for ETBD in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, since 2001. Recently she expanded her guiding field to include several great Central European cities: Vienna, Prague, Budapest and Berlin. While at home in Seattle, Margaret teaches singing to students of all ages and enjoys the outdoors in the Pacific Northwest. 
Dave Hoerlein's user-friendly maps in Rick Steves' guidebooks have led hundreds of thousands of travelers through Europe's most popular destinations. He spent many years in the Consulting Department at Rick Steves' Europe, teaching thousands of customers how to save time and money on their trips to Europe. He is one of Europe Through the Back Door's most seasoned tour guides, with 20 years of experience leading tours through virtually every country in Europe. When he's not mapping or guiding, he loves to explore Europe with his Danish wife, Jane, a former ETBD tour guide. Dave teaches European travel classes at Rick Steves' Travel Center and throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Michaelanne Jerome has lived and studied in Provence and Brittany, and now manages operations for Rick Steves' Best of France, Paris, Paris-Provence, and Paris-Loire-Normandy tours. She also works as a Rick Steves tour guide, spending two months a year in France, falling in love all over again with the French language and lifestyle…the formality, the food, and the savor-the-moment pace of life. 
Darbi Macy spends several months a year traveling through Britain and Ireland doing book research, guiding tours, and searching for the perfect piece of banoffee pie. She has lived in Ireland and traveled through most of Europe as well as to Africa and South America, but her passion lies with the more Celtic areas of the British Isles, specifically Ireland and Scotland. She has given up on learning Irish dancing but has been studying Irish Gaelic for the last three years.
Colleen Murphy embarked on her first big travel adventure in 1984, living and studying in Barcelona, Spain and backpacking throughout Europe and Mexico. Since then her passion for exploring new places has taken her to more than 20 countries in Europe, Central America, Africa and Asia. Colleen joined the staff at Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door in 1992; where she has worked as a tour guide, travel adviser and Production Manager of the Marketing and Publications department. She now spends 120 days each year traveling and leading tours through Greece, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. When she's not on the road, Colleen teaches travel classes in the Seattle area.
Pat O'Connor took his first trip to Europe in 1981 using Rick Steves' first edition of Europe Through the Back Door. He's been hooked on travel ever since. After several return trips studying and backpacking in Europe, Pat joined the ETBD staff in 1997. He leads tours annually in Germany/Austria/Switzerland as well as in Ireland, where he teams up each year with Rick Steves to co-author the "Rick Steves' Ireland" guidebook. When not on the road, Pat can usually be found assisting travel dreamers at Rick Steves' European Travel Center in Edmonds, Washington.
Gene Openshaw is an author, composer, tour guide, and lecturer on art and history. His infamous travels through Europe with Rick Steves, both before and after graduating from Stanford University, are documented in Rick's memoir Postcards from Europe. Gene went on to co-author several books with Rick, including Mona Winks: Self-Guided Tours of Europe's Top Museums and Europe 101: History and Art for the Traveler, both of which make Europe's cultural sights fun and easy to understand. Gene is also co-author of Rick Steves' city guidebooks on London, Paris, Amsterdam, Venice, Florence, and Rome. His passion for Europe and his ability to bring art and history alive are well known by those who have used his books or attended his lectures.
Paul Orcutt loves the experience of going to a new place. He has traveled in virtually every European country and has made good friends around the globe, but France and Italy are his favorite spots. (Perhaps not coincidentally, he's also Rick Steves' resident wine expert.) Whether he's leading travelers through Europe or helping people plan individual trips, Paul loves working with people. He spent 20 years teaching in public schools. These days he teaches travel at ETBD's Travel Center and throughout the Pacific Northwest. 
Heidi Sewell guides the Best of Italy, Village Italy and Italian city tours, is an ace guidebook researcher, and during the off season, works in the Tour department at Europe Through the Back Door. Heidi lived in Italy for two years, attending local schools in both Siena and a village near Milan. During school breaks there, Heidi traveled extensively throughout the country, learning first-hand the travel skills and money saving tips that she now shares with her fellow travelers. She speaks fluent Italian, can roll her own pasta and drives like a native Italian.
Steve Smith is best known as Rick Steves' France tour guide in several episodes of Travels in Europe on public television, and as the co-author of Rick's France and Paris guidebooks. His love for the farmhouse he and his wife renovated in Burgundy-where he lived for several years-is rivaled only by his passion for Volkswagen Westphalia campers. Steve spends his summers leading tours and researching guidebooks for Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door. When he's in the US, Steve heads up Rick's Tour Operations department, sending thousands of happy travelers to Europe each year. 
Gretchen Strauch didn't ease into travel — her first overseas trip was a year long, spent studying philosophy in St. Andrews, Scotland and taking in as much of Europe as she could. It wasn’t enough — a few years later she moved to southern Germany, where she stayed for three years. So far, she's traveled to 22 European countries, mostly on her own, by train, bus, and boat. She now works as a Rick Steves guidebook editor and travels to Europe each year, updating guidebooks, helping out on tours, and doing her part for the European gelato industry.
In Laura Terrenzio's solo travels, she has ridden the rails and buses of 19 countries and has driven 23,000 kilometers across 13 countries, amassing an impressive collection of ticket stubs and gasoline receipts. Laura manages the busiest rail department in the USA and is an assistant guide for ETBD tours. Each winter she sorts through a mountain of railpass options to ensure that Rick Steves' Guide to European Railpasses remains the indispensable planning tool that travelers have come to rely on. Laura always enjoys visiting new places and fondly remembers her six months living in Fes, Morocco.