Rick Steves: Paris and Belize

By Joshua | June 23rd, 2005 | 2 Comments »

My guidebooks at the moment? Rick Steves Paris and Moon Metro Paris have accompanied Tay and I on our daily forays. The Moon Metro guide is mainly useful for its detailed and discreet maps, but for solid, up-to-date dirt and creative, realistic walking tours, Rick, and co-authors Steve Smith and Gene Openshaw, have been wonderful companions. It’s also been interesting to actually use one of these books after hearing so much hype about about the man and his travel empire.

Rick and I share the same publisher and have met several times over the last few months. First was when he interviewed me on his new radio show; I served as a Belize expert and it was smooth (I’ll be sure to announce when the show airs, probably sometime this fall). A few weeks after the interview, our publicist took us out to dinner in SoHo, a fun, wine-fueled evening described here by fellow author, Jen Leo.

Back to Rick Steves Paris; although some of the jokes are hokey, some of the information lacking in depth, the reader is always aware of Rick’s attitude of traveling and it is, needless to say, muy tranquilo:

“Travel,” he writes, “is freedom… one of the last great sources of legal adventure. Travel is intensified living, with maximum thrills per minute. It’s recess, and we need it… If you don’t enjoy a place, maybe you don’t know enough about it. Seek the truth… Globetrotting destroys ethnocentricity. It helps you understand and appreciate different cultures. Travel changes people. It broadens perspectives and teaches new ways to measure quality of life.”
(from Rick’s Travel Philosophy)