Best-selling travel writer thinks people should travel more: “The most frightened people are the people with no passports”
Travel writer and TV personality Rick Steves believes that more Americans should broaden their horizons with greater travel.
If you’ve ever contemplated a trip to Europe, there’s a very good chance that you will have come across some advice from Rick Steves.
He is one of the most well-known, widely-trusted American experts on travel and he has authored countless guides for travelers. The 70-year-old Californian has fond memories of travel from his childhood and he documented one memorable trip to Europe with a series of postcards.
He is a big proponent of travel, believing that it can help to broaden experiences and open people up to new ideas. In a recent interview with BBC, Steves insisted that travel is increasingly important in the modern world.
He said: “It’s more important for Americans to travel right now than it ever has been. We’re a frightened society and the most frightened people are the people with no passports, whose worldview is shaped by fear-mongering commercial TV news.”
His first television show 'Travels in Europe with Rick Steves’ first aired in 1991 and ran until 1998. That was then followed by 'Rick Steves’ Europe’, which enjoyed an incredible stretch from 2000 to 2023.
Alongside those TV shows, Steves has also written and published a number of travel books. His relentless work rate is nothing new and his love for travel has been with him throughout his adult life.
He explained: “As a traveler, I have spent 100 days a year ever since I was a kid overseas and working on my travel writing. I know that the flip side of fear is understanding.”
“We gain understanding when we travel. If everybody traveled before they voted, the United States would be in a much different situation right now.”
Steves said: “If more people traveled, we’d understand that everybody’s had their challenges and we can just realize the world’s filled with good people. It’s filled with joy and love. There’s a few bad apples and a few complicated things and there’s some serious problems, but we can aspire to get to know people instead of building a wall and hiding behind it.”
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