Rick Steves

Rick Steves is a popular public television host, a best-selling guidebook author, and a passionate speaker who encourages Americans to broaden their perspectives through travel. For 100 days each year, Steves hits and misses his way across Europe, bringing home the hits and teaching in hopes that others can learn from his experiences to enjoy smoother, smarter, and more impactful trips. He taught his first travel class at his college campus in the mid-1970s—and now, more than 40 years later, he continues to teach audiences around the country the skills needed to get the most out of their upcoming travels.

Widely considered America's leading authority on European travel, Steves has traversed the country speaking at major lecture series, corporate events, and globally minded universities to share the transformative power of travel and the skills needed to access it. Smart travel begins with the fundamentals, and Steves alleviates travelers’ anxieties by teaching them how to plan an itinerary, pack light and right, stay safe abroad, select excellent places to eat and sleep, and connect meaningfully with local people. Most of all, Steves draws on stories from a lifetime of travel—from thin-air thrills tight-roping on alpine ridges, to fierce backgammon battles with playful Turks, to marveling with teary-eyed Germans at the blessing of democracy atop their new parliament building in Berlin. Steves understands what we can learn about our home by leaving it, and he makes it his teaching mission “to equip and inspire Americans to venture beyond Orlando.”

When he’s not on stage, Steves produces a best-selling series of guidebooks, hosts public television and radio shows that air across the nation, and works closely with advocacy groups and organizations whose missions fit his own, ranging from Bread for the World to NORML to his local YWCA.

Steves is the founder and owner of Rick Steves' Europe (RSE), a travel business with more than 100 full-time employees. RSE operates a successful small-group tour program which brings more than 30,000 people to Europe annually. Each year, Steves contributes over a million dollars to a portfolio of climate-smart nonprofits, essentially paying a self-imposed carbon tax.

Steves spends about three months a year in Europe researching guidebooks, fine-tuning his tour program, filming his TV show, and making new discoveries for travelers. To recharge, he plays piano, relaxes at his family cabin in the Cascade mountains, and spends time with his son Andy and daughter Jackie. He lives and works in his hometown of Edmonds, Washington, where his office window overlooks his old junior high school.