Hi from Rick: Pack Light with the Best Bags
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| Pack lighter, live younger! |
Dear Traveler,
I'm on a mission: To encourage others to enjoy packing as light as I do. As I type this, I'm finishing up two months of lugging my gear across Europe...into 30 different hotels...onto the ferry to Morocco...aboard a tight flight connection in Milan (thanks to the fact I had no bags to check)...and climbing up and down the boats and bridges of Venice between the train and my hotel. When I landed in Paris the other day, I was told I'd have to wait 30 minutes for a taxi...so I simply ducked into the Métro with my bag on my back (saving money as well as time) and got to my hotel in a flash. Tonight, I'm staying in a rustic Istrian hill town in Croatia, quite a hike beyond where I could drive a car. As usual, I'm thankful to be packing light.
Sometimes I see a reflection of myself in a shop window — with my carry-on pack on my back — and wonder if I'm too old to be so footloose and fancy-free. No! Packing light keeps me young when I'm on the road. Less is more. Like a good fisherman who feels the fish better without a lot of flashers and weights, when I travel light I have nothing but pure 100% Europe on my line.
In this month's Travel News we'll celebrate close-to-the-locals travel, with articles on early-morning sightseeing, beachcombing in London, Swiss cow culture, Tuscan farm life, and more. This month, I'm also happy to announce the arrival of our latest generation of travel bags.
In our society, it's hard to resist "gilding the lily" (a lesson I enjoyed teaching our children). Buy more than you need and everybody makes more money, right? When I huddled with my luggage designer/builder a few months ago, she talked me into making our Rick Steves' Convertible Carry-On a little more upscale and comfortable. (The new version has just arrived in our Travel Store — for the same $99.95 price — and it's great.) But in our meeting, I asked her for a trade-off: Build a stripped-down, ultra-light "retro" version that we can sell for even less. The result is our new $79.95 Classic Back Door Bag. And for the right traveler, there is nothing better. Sling it onto your back, your hands are free...and you can feel Europe tugging on your line.
Happy travels,
Rick