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 Sytsma 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.
Barb Bumgardner enjoyed her work as a classroom teacher and school library media specialist in the Shoreline School District in Seattle, Washington, for many years. She is now excited to be working as a digital photo project consultant, inspiring adults to use their own photos to create cards, books, calendars, DVDs, websites and other creative projects. She loves to travel, and has presented educational technology seminars in cities all over the United States, as well as several international schools in Europe. Barb enjoys nature — whether it is the flowers in her own yard, or bicycling or volksmarching on a scenic trail along the Rhine River in Germany. She has a list of countries yet to explore around the world, and enjoys taking photos for her 
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. 
Debbie Dubrow writes the popular blog 
Since his first 3-month backpacking trip through Europe in 1998, Rich has kept right on traveling. He returns to Europe each summer, updating Rick's guidebooks, working as an assistant tour guide, and exploring on his own, adding to his ever expanding travel resume. Since his initial trip, he has traveled extensively throughout Europe and Latin America. He has lived and studied in both Costa Rica and Ecuador, and has degrees in both Spanish and Latin American Studies. When he's not traveling, Rich works in both the Rail and Consulting Departments at Europe Through the Back Door, helping travelers sort through the myriad of railpass options and helping them plan their own trips. 
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 
Sureyya Gokeri is from Turkey close to the Syrian border on the coast. She has teaching in her blood and a degree that she's kept in her closet for decades. She works for interfaith organizations, community support groups, and world peace. She believes that in today's global work environment, we need to build cross-cultural communication skills and see diversity as a strength in our community. She loves to talk about cultural differences and the needs of minorities which are very important in understanding each other. What can be more fun and fulfilling than teaching Islamic culture as well as Turkish culture, language and cooking? As a retail business owner (Istanbul Imports in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle) for 18 years, her heart finally found a new passion. She will be teaching her native language to travelers venturing to Turkey and introducing them to Turkish culture at Rick Steves Europe Through the Back Door. She is delighted to be part of the Rick Steves team. 
Andy Goulding draws as he travels, to capture, understand and recall picturesque images. An architect and Signage Consultant, Andy and his wife Barbara love traveling by bicycle, stopping often to draw and record their experiences. 
Margaret enjoys having a foothold on two continents, Europe and North America. A veteran lead guide of many Rick Steves' tours in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, she continues to travel throughout Europe playing "history detective" in regions both familiar and new to her. Lately, she has been diving into her family's past in Slovenia. Margaret lived and worked in Germany when the Berlin Wall fell and has witnessed the social and political changes in Central Europe especially since that time. These experiences motivate her teaching. On the fun side, she loves music, great food and wine and spontaneous encounters with European locals. In the past, she earned a doctorate in music, ran a foreign language department and sang for a living. At present, when not guiding, Margaret continues her musical activities in Seattle and savors time with friends and family on both sides of the ocean.
Cameron Hewitt grew up listening to the Polish nursery rhymes of his grandfather, Jan Pawel Dabrowski. Twenty years later, he took a trip to Eastern Europe — and he was hooked. Today Cameron is the co-author of three Rick Steves guidebooks (Eastern Europe, Croatia & Slovenia, and Budapest), and has researched and written about dozens of other European destinations. He has also led Rick Steves tours to the Best of Eastern Europe and the Best of the Adriatic. When he's not traveling, Cameron is a writer and lead editor at Rick Steves' home office in Edmonds, Washington. 
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 Paris and Provence, Heart of France, Best of London and Paris and Paris city 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 set off on her first big travel adventure in 1984, studying in Barcelona and backpacking through Western Europe. The following year, she journeyed through Mexico by bus and train, attempting to improve her Spanish while exploring small villages, ancient ruins and modern Mexican cities. Returning home three months later with a dusty backpack and plenty of happy memories, Colleen decided to make travel a top priority in her life. So she went to work for Rick Steves as a guide, travel advisor and Production Manager of the Marketing and Publications department. Now a well-seasoned guide, Colleen has taken hundreds of travelers to her favorite European destinations since 1992. Her passion for exploring new places has led her to adventures in more than 25 countries in Europe, Central America, South America, Africa and Asia. Colleen can be found leading tours through Greece, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands and doing a bit of globetrotting for 140 days each year. What gets Colleen jazzed about guiding? "Watching travelers stretch their comfort zones and open up to new places and ideas. Part of the fun of travel is experiencing how things are done differently in other cultures. It's the differences that make travel— and life — so fascinating." When she's not on the road, Colleen teaches travel and does consulting in the Seattle area, enjoys outdoor sports, live music, getting together with friends, people watching and taking long walks in the park with her dog, Darby.
Ann Neel constantly looks for ways to pack as simply and light-weight as possible. She has learned to carry less 'stuff' with every passing trip and shares those tips at our Packing Light & Right classes. While she has visited much of the United States, Ann didn't begin traveling internationally until her sons were grown. Ann joined ETBD as a Travel Advisor about eight years ago and has participated on 10 different Rick Steves tours. She continues to make up for lost travel-time with explorations throughout Western & Eastern Europe, Asia, Central & South America and Africa. 29 countries and counting! When she isn't traveling or working, Ann can be found 'rearranging' her half-acre garden, enjoying the grandchildren or dabbling in photography. 
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.
As a young girl growing up in Germany and Switzerland, it never occcured to me even try to find my way into the kitchen. To me "cook -ing" sounded more like a city in China. I was much more interested in books. Though I held many interesting jobs, such as an executive secretary, a retail store manager and even a teacher, cooking became my favorite.
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.
Renee Van Drent works in Europe as a Rick Steves tour guide — and in our Tour Operations department managing our Eastern European tours. Europe has always been in Renee's blood – literally, her parents are Dutch citizens and she has dual citizenship. Growing up, she spent each summer visiting Oma & Opa in Holland and tagging along on family caravan trips throughout Western Europe. In the winter of 1998, Renee moved to Ukraine to begin two years of service as a Business Volunteer for the Peace Corps. She was assigned to a town just 25 miles from the Russian border. So, Russian was the language of choice. She likes to say that she discovered Eastern Europe technically as Western Europe — traveling to Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia & Croatia while living in Ukraine made it the West. Always fascinated at how the arm of the Soviet Union once stretched throughout each country and interested in learning about their individual way of achieving independence, she is amazed now to see most of Eastern Europe embrace the EU after only being free from Communism for such a short time. The only wish she has is that the Russian and Dutch languages were a bit more similar!