Welcome!! We can’t wait to show you how wonderful our Rick Steves' Best of Europe was!!!
We are newly retired and finally able to take a 3 week vacation. We have some experience with touring in Europe. In the past several years we took a bus tour of Italy and a cruise on the Mediterranean, both were fun but we knew we wanted something different, something spectacular. We’re big fans of all of the Rick Steves' PBS programming and love to follow Rick’s blog so we were familiar with Rick's travel philosophy and knew that the 21 Day Best of Europe would be the trip for us. We are interested in history, photography and art and this seemed to be the perfect way to put the three together into an unforgettable experience. Most of all we wanted to have fun!
Some of our friends asked “Why choose a Rick Steves' tour"? We thought about it and put together the answer based on our previous tour experiences:
On our return through customs, the officer looked at the list of places we had visited and asked if it was possible to see so much well in such a short time.
Of course it is, if you pick the right tour!
Some of our friends asked “Why choose a Rick Steves' tour"? We thought about it and put together the answer based on our previous tour experiences:
- Rick Steves' tour groups are smaller than those we’ve experienced before. This meant that we would get to know our fellow tourists, the bus would be much less crowded and the guide easier to hear and to access with questions.
- Rick Steves' tours stay overnight (usually 2 nights) in each location. This allows you to meet the locals and do the all important early morning and late evening photography. It’s how you really get the flavor of a place. We wanted the experience of small, locally owned hotels instead of big chain hotels on the outskirts of a city.
- Watching the PBS “Travel Festivals” assured us that there would be great guides, fellow travelers would share in the “no grump” philosophy of travel and we would have a great mix of free time and tour time. The tour would be an active one that matched our lifestyle and the locations selected for the tour are Rick’s personal favorites so how could we miss?
On our return through customs, the officer looked at the list of places we had visited and asked if it was possible to see so much well in such a short time.
Of course it is, if you pick the right tour!
This was a dream trip for us and we wanted to capture as much of it as possible in as many ways as possible. A new camera with amazing low light and video capabilities, would allow us to capture high quality photos and videos of most of the tour. Pam has been brushing up on her sketching and painting skills and was eager to sketch many of the scheduled venues.
We've designed this site to reveal the spirit of a Rick Steves' Tour as we experienced it. We saw it as the best in travel but also as a kind of "Time Travel" moving, for example, from a modern Metro station back in time to the world of the Caesars. In order to take visitors along with us to see the tour through our eyes we've designed this website to follow our trip itinerary. We've included a header page for each country or group of countries and a detail page for each of the 21 tour days. We took all of the modern photos, historical photos came from public domain sites and all artwork is original and made for this website.
We've designed this site to reveal the spirit of a Rick Steves' Tour as we experienced it. We saw it as the best in travel but also as a kind of "Time Travel" moving, for example, from a modern Metro station back in time to the world of the Caesars. In order to take visitors along with us to see the tour through our eyes we've designed this website to follow our trip itinerary. We've included a header page for each country or group of countries and a detail page for each of the 21 tour days. We took all of the modern photos, historical photos came from public domain sites and all artwork is original and made for this website.
Features you'll find throughout the site:
Daily Briefings: This is our "diary" of each day's activities. We have included a look at the things we did and saw along the way as well as some information on the day's activity levels. It's a "snapshot" of our day.
Daily Photo Gallery: Chronicle of the day in photos. Press play on the upper left of the large first picture to view as a slideshow, press arrows on upper right to page through the pictures or click on individual thumbnails to enlarge and view single photos
Special Features: The features shown below appear throughout the site, most on "Daily Pages" In addition to Daily Pages, there is a page for each county that contains the Time Machine and a Travel Poster for each country. See below for information on other features that help us tell the story of our adventure in words and pictures.
Daily Briefings: This is our "diary" of each day's activities. We have included a look at the things we did and saw along the way as well as some information on the day's activity levels. It's a "snapshot" of our day.
Daily Photo Gallery: Chronicle of the day in photos. Press play on the upper left of the large first picture to view as a slideshow, press arrows on upper right to page through the pictures or click on individual thumbnails to enlarge and view single photos
Special Features: The features shown below appear throughout the site, most on "Daily Pages" In addition to Daily Pages, there is a page for each county that contains the Time Machine and a Travel Poster for each country. See below for information on other features that help us tell the story of our adventure in words and pictures.
Watch Our Exciting Tour Videos
We've included four exciting tour videos. Each or these videos captures in a unique way the sense of adventure that pervaded our Best of Europe Tour. The Luge Ride video can be found under the Day 7 tab and captures a wild ride on an Austrian luge. The Beer video, also found on Day 7, shows some of the fun we had exploring the Ehrenberg Castle near Reutte. The Sprutz Falls video, found on Day 17, captures part of our exciting adventure in the Swiss Alps and our Three Days in Three Minutes video, found under Final Thoughts, summarizes the fun we had on the entire tour. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did making them.