Oh, baby…it’s cold outside! Days like this are the perfect time to start dreaming about your next trip. We research, write, and lovingly update Rick Steves guidebooks for destinations across Europe: www.ricksteves.com/guidebooks. These give you everything you need to know to be your own guide and have an efficient, economical, and vivid experience. Today, I’m thinking about Ireland — how about you?
BTW, these guidebooks originated back in the 1980s as handbooks for our European tour program that weren’t available for purchase. I’d have them out in my classes, hoping people would page through them during the break, like what they saw, and take one of my tours. Time and time again, people would thumb through the handbooks, like what they saw…and take the book! I didn’t blame the petty criminals. In fact, it occurred to me that these little manuals were driving decent people to theft, and they should be available for sale. So, I took the hint and set about to putting everything I knew about leading our tours into these books, in hopes that people who wanted to could buy the book and do my tours on their own. The guidebooks were a hit, and America’s leading series of European travel guidebooks was born.
Today, we have over 50 titles covering destinations across Europe. They typically outsell their competition…and in many cases, they outsell all the competition combined. Yes, I guess I am bragging a bit. I’m proud of the work my staff and I do, powered by a passion for helping Americans enjoy the best possible European trips. And I love the thought that we scratch your travel itch in many ways: You can take our tours, grab a guidebook and be your own guide, or even settle into your couch and enjoy us on TV. However you do it…happy travels!
