Travel guidebook guru Steves touring Europe on the cheap

WASHINGTON — Guidebook czar Rick Steves never met a European country he didn't like.

No mere itinerary planner, Steves sees travel as a political act, using his "Europe Through the Back Door" empire — guidebook series, PBS travelogues, blog, newsletter, radio show — to spread his gospel of global awareness. He was in Washington recently to speak before Congress on behalf of Bread for the World, a nonprofit organization working to end world hunger and homelessness. We caught up with him on Capitol Hill, where he talked about his mission to change the world, one traveler at a time.

Q: I love that you're wearing a backpack.

A: This is my briefcase. I'm visiting all the congresspeople with my little nonpetroleum-product backpack. Actually, I'm on the road from Rome. I haven't even been home yet.

Q: We joke in the office about the Rick Steves phenomenon, where people read your guidebooks and go to all the cool "back door" places, only to find a bunch of tourists all toting the same Rick Steves guidebooks. Do you ever feel like you're ruining all the good places?

A: Yeah, I'm aware of this problem. You know the Cinque Terre, in Italy? Everybody wants to go there. It's got a lot of tourists, but everybody is having a great time. But if you want the offbeat Cinque Terre, you've got to put in a few more miles. I tell people, if you hike up here and go to this town, you won't find any tourists. I'm sort of like the whaler who screams, "Quick, harpoon it before it's extinct." I need to stay one step ahead.

Q: Do you take freebies when you review a place?

A: No, but I'll sleep in a hotel without paying for it, because I've known them for years and I send them a third of their business. ... The irony is that if somebody puts me up in their hotel for free, they're more likely to fall out of the book next year because I know there's a disco downstairs at 2 o'clock in the morning. See, I'm the hired hand of my readers. I've got a responsibility here. ...

I'm an odd duck: I'm not impressed by a fancy hotel. I'm honestly not corruptible that way, because I don't need to be on the take. I've never paid to go different than economy, just because I want to fly economy. People say you must go first class or business class. No, just give me good noise-reduction headphones and a laptop battery, and I'm happy as a clam in Seat 30C.

Q: So what's your favorite country in Europe?

A: Italy, because it's the closest thing to India in the way it re- arranges your cultural furniture. I mean, in Italy, slow service is good service. A lot of Americans get really mad: "I couldn't get the bill, what's going on, they don't respect us." No! They're respecting you because they want you to stay all night. And if Americans could just realize there are different standards, you know?

Italians want to pay more for the pecorino cheese because they want to buy it from somebody who knew the sheep. That's pretty cool.

Q: Why all Europe, all the time? Why not "South America Through the Back Door" ?

A: Europe is my roots. I just have this hunger to learn more about my roots. And I love the good living of Europe. I'm just a Europhile. There's nothing wrong with South America. ... But my job is to be the travel teacher for Americans in what I consider the wading pool for world exploration: Europe. That's where you go first.

Q: What would you tell someone who says 'I can't go to Europe because I can't afford it'?

A: I don't find Europe that much more expensive than traveling in the United States, if you know how to do it smartly. A lot of people will ask me, what's a cheap destination? And I say, well, if I told you Poland was the cheapest destination, and your travel dreams are taking you to Ireland, the best value for you is to go to Ireland and travel smartly there.

So the dollar's in the dumps. People ask me, should I wait? And I say, you may be dead.

The key is to order lower on the menu. Instead of taking the taxi in from the airport for $80 like I'd like to, I take the shuttle for $15. Instead of going to a three-star hotel for $350, I'll go to a one-star hotel, like I did last week in Rome, for $150.

Q: What about people who already travel like that? Where should they go to make their dollar go furthest?

A: Eastern Europe is cheap, except for hotels. Hotels there are essentially the same as in the West. If you can get these funky little zimmers, you know, bed-and-breakfasts, they're a good value. And more important than that, they're a rich experience, because you're staying with a Slovenian, or you're staying with a Bosnian.