rick steves travel in germany

Rick Steves’ Europe: Munich: Germany's biggest village

F or a while now, I’ve marveled at how Berlin has eclipsed Munich in urban energy. Bavaria's capital seems to be comfortable just being itself rather than trying to keep up with Berlin or Hamburg, its big sisters to the north. It’s a city that celebrates its past while looking energetically into the future.

Despite its population of 1.5 million, Munich (or “München,” as it’s called in German) feels small. This big-city elegance is possible because of its determination to be pedestrian – and bike-friendly, and because of a law that allows buildings taller than the cathedral’s towers only in the city’s outskirts. Even Oktoberfest, the world’s biggest beer party, is not corporate run but city run – leaving it free, easygoing, and hell-bent on having fun rather than making money.

I like to start my visits in the sunlit main square called Marienplatz (“Mary’s Square”), which gives you a fine look at the glory of Munich. I love to take in the ornate facades of the gray, pointy Old Town Hall and the Neo-Gothic New Town Hall, with its beloved glockenspiel – only a century or so old – that recreates a royal wedding from the 16th century. At outdoor cafés, people linger, sharing the square with the birds and the breeze.

The oldest church in town, St. Peter’s, is a few steps from Marienplatz. Along with much of Munich, it was badly damaged in World War II. As part of the soul of the city (according to a popular song, “Munich is not Munich without St. Peter’s”), the church was lovingly rebuilt – half with Augustiner beer money – and the altar and ceiling frescoes were marvelously restored.

After the war, people who lived in Germany's heavily bombed cities debated how they'd rebuild. Should they reconstruct the old towns, or bulldoze and start over from scratch? Frankfurt voted to go modern with a grid street plan (and is today nicknamed "Germany's Manhattan"), but the people of Munich rebuilt their old town center.

City leaders took care to preserve Munich’s original street plan and re-create the medieval steeples, Neo-Gothic facades, and Neoclassical buildings. They blocked off the city center to cars, built the people-friendly U-Bahn (subway) system, and opened up Europe’s first great pedestrian-only zone (Kaufingerstrasse).

Just behind the rebuilt St. Peter’s, you can experience small-town Munich at the Viktualienmarkt, long a favorite with locals for fresh produce and friendly service. While this most expensive real estate in town could have been overrun by fast-food places, Munich keeps the rent low so these old-time shops can carry on.

Browse your way through the stalls and pavilions as you make your way to the market’s main landmark, the white-and-blue-striped maypole. Munich has been a market town since its earliest days as a stop on the salt-trade crossroads. By the 1400s, the market bustled, most likely beneath a traditional maypole, just like you can see today.

As was standard in any village, the decorations that line each side of the pole tell you which merchants are doing business in the market. Munich’s maypole gives prominence to a horse-drawn wagon bringing in beer barrels. And you can’t have a kegger without coopers – on the maypole are four cute guys dancing: the merry barrel makers.

Besides salt, Munich gained a reputation for beer. By the 15th century, more than 30 breweries pumped out the golden liquid, brewed by monks, who were licensed to sell it. They stored their beer in cellars under courtyards kept cool by the shade of bushy chestnut trees – a tradition Munich’s breweries still stick to.

Today, the Viktualienmarkt’s centerpiece seems to be its beer garden. Its picnic tables are filled with hungry and thirsty locals, all in the shade of those traditional chestnut trees.

Wherever you walk, you’ll see the twin onion domes of the Frauenkirche, Munich’s iconic cathedral. Some say Crusaders, inspired by the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, brought home the idea. Others say these domes are the inspiration for the characteristic domed church spires marking villages throughout Bavaria. Although much of the church was destroyed during World War II, the towers survived, and the rest has been gloriously restored. If you visit, look for a plaque over the last pew on the left that recalls the life story of Joseph Ratzinger. He occupied the archbishop’s seat in this very church from 1977 until 1982, when he moved into the Vatican, and ultimately became Pope Benedict XVI.

Walking through Munich, you’ll understand why it is consistently voted one of Germany’s most livable cities – safe, clean, cultured, a university town, built on a people scale, and close to the beauties of nature. Though it’s the capital of Bavaria and a major metropolis, Munich’s low-key atmosphere has led Germans to dub it “Millionendorf” – the “village of a million people.”

(Rick Steves ( www.ricksteves.com ) writes European guidebooks, hosts travel shows on public TV and radio, and organizes European tours. This column revisits some of Rick's favorite places over the past two decades. You can email Rick at [email protected] and follow his blog on Facebook.)

©2024 Rick Steves. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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Rick Steves' Europe

Rick steves’ europe: munich: germany's biggest village.

For a while now, I’ve marveled at how Berlin has eclipsed Munich in urban energy. Bavaria's capital seems to be comfortable just being itself rather than trying to keep up with Berlin or Hamburg, its big sisters to the north. It’s a city that celebrates its past while looking energetically into the future.

Despite its population of 1.5 million, Munich (or “München,” as it’s called in German) feels small. This big-city elegance is possible because of its determination to be pedestrian – and bike-friendly, and because of a law that allows buildings taller than the cathedral’s towers only in the city’s outskirts. Even Oktoberfest, the world’s biggest beer party, is not corporate run but city run – leaving it free, easygoing, and hell-bent on having fun rather than making money.

I like to start my visits in the sunlit main square called Marienplatz (“Mary’s Square”), which gives you a fine look at the glory of Munich. I love to take in the ornate facades of the gray, pointy Old Town Hall and the Neo-Gothic New Town Hall, with its beloved glockenspiel – only a century or so old – that recreates a royal wedding from the 16th century. At outdoor cafés, people linger, sharing the square with the birds and the breeze.

The oldest church in town, St. Peter’s, is a few steps from Marienplatz. Along with much of Munich, it was badly damaged in World War II. As part of the soul of the city (according to a popular song, “Munich is not Munich without St. Peter’s”), the church was lovingly rebuilt – half with Augustiner beer money – and the altar and ceiling frescoes were marvelously restored.

After the war, people who lived in Germany's heavily bombed cities debated how they'd rebuild. Should they reconstruct the old towns, or bulldoze and start over from scratch? Frankfurt voted to go modern with a grid street plan (and is today nicknamed "Germany's Manhattan"), but the people of Munich rebuilt their old town center.

City leaders took care to preserve Munich’s original street plan and re-create the medieval steeples, Neo-Gothic facades, and Neoclassical buildings. They blocked off the city center to cars, built the people-friendly U-Bahn (subway) system, and opened up Europe’s first great pedestrian-only zone (Kaufingerstrasse).

Just behind the rebuilt St. Peter’s, you can experience small-town Munich at the Viktualienmarkt, long a favorite with locals for fresh produce and friendly service. While this most expensive real estate in town could have been overrun by fast-food places, Munich keeps the rent low so these old-time shops can carry on.

Browse your way through the stalls and pavilions as you make your way to the market’s main landmark, the white-and-blue-striped maypole. Munich has been a market town since its earliest days as a stop on the salt-trade crossroads. By the 1400s, the market bustled, most likely beneath a traditional maypole, just like you can see today.

As was standard in any village, the decorations that line each side of the pole tell you which merchants are doing business in the market. Munich’s maypole gives prominence to a horse-drawn wagon bringing in beer barrels. And you can’t have a kegger without coopers – on the maypole are four cute guys dancing: the merry barrel makers.

Besides salt, Munich gained a reputation for beer. By the 15th century, more than 30 breweries pumped out the golden liquid, brewed by monks, who were licensed to sell it. They stored their beer in cellars under courtyards kept cool by the shade of bushy chestnut trees – a tradition Munich’s breweries still stick to.

Today, the Viktualienmarkt’s centerpiece seems to be its beer garden. Its picnic tables are filled with hungry and thirsty locals, all in the shade of those traditional chestnut trees.

Wherever you walk, you’ll see the twin onion domes of the Frauenkirche, Munich’s iconic cathedral. Some say Crusaders, inspired by the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, brought home the idea. Others say these domes are the inspiration for the characteristic domed church spires marking villages throughout Bavaria. Although much of the church was destroyed during World War II, the towers survived, and the rest has been gloriously restored. If you visit, look for a plaque over the last pew on the left that recalls the life story of Joseph Ratzinger. He occupied the archbishop’s seat in this very church from 1977 until 1982, when he moved into the Vatican, and ultimately became Pope Benedict XVI.

Walking through Munich, you’ll understand why it is consistently voted one of Germany’s most livable cities – safe, clean, cultured, a university town, built on a people scale, and close to the beauties of nature. Though it’s the capital of Bavaria and a major metropolis, Munich’s low-key atmosphere has led Germans to dub it “Millionendorf” – the “village of a million people.”

(Rick Steves ( www.ricksteves.com ) writes European guidebooks, hosts travel shows on public TV and radio, and organizes European tours. This column revisits some of Rick's favorite places over the past two decades. You can email Rick at [email protected] and follow his blog on Facebook.)

©2024 Rick Steves. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

(c)2024 RICK STEVES DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

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Rick Steves Germany (Travel Guide) Paperback – December 20, 2022

Purchase options and add-ons.

• Fully updated, comprehensive coverage for planning a multi-week trip through Germany
• Rick's strategic advice on how to get the most out of your time and money, with rankings of his must-see favorites
• Top sights and hidden gems, from the towering Zugspitze and jagged Alps to rustic villages and delicious strudel
• How to connect with local culture: Stroll through a Cristkindlemarkt around Christmas, chat with fans about the latest fussball match, or kick back in a biergarten
• Beat the crowds, skip the lines, and avoid tourist traps with Rick's candid, humorous insight
• The best places to eat, sleep, and relax with a Berliner Weisse in hand
• Self-guided walking tours of lively neighborhoods and incredible museums
• Vital trip-planning tools, like how to link destinations, build your itinerary, and get from place to place
• Detailed maps, including a fold-out map for exploring on the go
• Over 1,000 bible-thin pages include everything worth seeing without weighing you down
• Coverage of Munich, Bavaria, Tirol, Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, Baden-Baden, the Black Forest, Rothenburg, Würzburg, Frankfurt, Rhine Valley, Mosel Valley, Trier, Cologne, Nürnburg, Lutherland, Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg, and more
• Print length 1032 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Rick Steves
• Publication date December 20, 2022
• Dimensions 4.55 x 1.95 x 8.05 inches
• ISBN-10 1641714638
• ISBN-13 978-1641714631
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A personal and experienced take - Rick Steves has spent over 40 years traveling Europe and he shares his favorite spots and essential travel strategies with you.

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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rick Steves; 14th edition (December 20, 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 1032 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1641714638
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1641714631
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• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.55 x 1.95 x 8.05 inches
• #4 in Hotels & Inns Travel Reference (Books)
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Guidebook author and travel TV host Rick Steves is America's most respected authority on European travel. Rick took his first trip to Europe in 1969, visiting piano factories with his father, a piano importer. As an 18-year-old, Rick began traveling on his own, funding his trips by teaching piano lessons. In 1976, he started his business, Rick Steves' Europe, which has grown from a one-man operation to a company with a staff of 100 full-time, well-travelled employees at his headquarters in Washington state. There he produces more than 50 guidebooks on European travel, America's most popular travel series on public television, a weekly hour-long national public radio show, a weekly syndicated column, and free travel information available through his travel center and ricksteves.com. Rick Steves' Europe also runs a successful European tour program. Rick Steves lives and works in his hometown of Edmonds, Washington. His office window overlooks his old junior high school.

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Destination: Munich

Daily dose of europe: munich — where thirst is worse than homesickness .

Our “social distancing” times have me especially nostalgic for some of Europe’s great gatherings: the Italian piazza…the Spanish paseo…and the German beer hall.

Because of the coronavirus, Europe is effectively off-limits to American travelers for the next few weeks (and likely longer). But travel dreams are immune to any virus. During these challenging times, I believe a daily dose of travel dreaming can actually be good medicine. Here’s another one of my very favorite travel dreams-come-true…a reminder of what’s waiting for you in Europe on the other end of this crisis.

Heading for the Hofbräuhaus in Munich, I mention to my Bavarian friend, Friedrich, that I’d love to give this venerable beer hall some significance in my guidebook description. Unconvinced that “significance” is worth seeking at a beer hall, he quotes Freud: “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”

Stepping through its stubby stone arcade, we wade through the commotion of a thousand people — eating, drinking, yelling, and laughing — down a long corridor to the center of the cavernous hall.

The smoke-stained ceiling painting, repaired after WWII bomb damage, is an evocative mesh of 1950s German mod: Bavarian colors, cheery chestnuts, and old-time food, drink, and music. A slogan arcing across the ceiling above the oompah band reads,  “Durst ist schlimmer als Heimweh”  (“Thirst is worse than homesickness”). Friedrich explains: “Drink a beer, and you worry no more.”

Many of my most vivid, if still a bit fuzzy, Munich memories are set in beer halls. Locals always seem up for a visit. And for traditional Bavarian fun, nothing beats this scene, complete with rivers of beer, cheap food, noisy fun, and oompah music.

The music is loud. The musicians’ shiny lederhosen accentuate huge bellies, which in turn accentuate bird-like legs. With knowing smirks, they conduct a musical liturgy from the stage. The boisterous crowd rises to its feet in well-practiced unison for the beer hall anthem,  “Eins, zwei, zuffa.”  (“One, two, drink.”) This is followed by a ritual of clinking and drinking. The hefty glass mugs clink solidly, encouraging that very Teutonic sport of toasting.

Friedrich and I settle in at a long table and survey the chaos. Apart from the “under 35” party tour groups, it’s a three-generations-together scene. Kids build houses out of beer coasters while moms sip Radlers, a nearly dainty mix of beer and lemonade, and old-timers sport felt hats festooned with pins and feathers.

Beer halls give you what you need. If you don’t have a partner, you can talk to yourself. One guy tries doggedly to hold his head up. His neighbor peers down at his spiral-carved radish as if he dropped a thought into it. Another man, with a mouthful of pretzel, really believes the band is following his dramatic conducting.

I ask Friedrich if they sell half-liters. He says, “This is a  Biergarten , not a kindergarten.” Soon a busy beer maid brings us each the standard full Mass, or liter glass (about a quart, nearly what we’d call  ein  pitcher). She scurries between tables, plopping down dinners and garnishing them with mustard packets pulled from her cleavage. I look over at Friedrich. Finishing a giant swig from his giant beer and licking the foam from his upper lip, he says, “Only in Bavaria.”

Beer halls are craziest during Oktoberfest, but you can dance to raucous bands, munch massive pretzels, and hone your stein-hoisting skills any time of year.

Beer halls always impress me with their long ranks of urinals. Often, life-size posters of dirndl-clad maidens are hung from high on the walls, pointing down and laughing at the men with their zippers down.

Watching the legions of happy beer-drinkers, it occurs to me that, unlike with wine, more money doesn’t get you a better beer. Beer is truly a people’s drink — and you’ll get the very best here in Munich. Each connoisseur has a favorite brew and doesn’t have to pay more to get it…they simply go to the beer hall that serves it.

Many beer halls have a big wooden keg out on display, but these days most draw beer from huge stainless-steel dispensers. If you’re at a beer hall that uses classic old wooden kegs, your evening comes with a happy soundtrack: Every few minutes you’ll hear a loud  whop!  as they tap a new keg. Hearing this, every German there knows they’re in for a good, fresh mug.

Gemütlich  is the perfect word for Bavaria’s special coziness. It’s a knack for savoring the moment. A beer hall is a classic  gemütlich  scene. Spend an evening clinking mugs with new friends, immersed in this boisterous and belching Bavarian atmosphere. The warm and frothy memories are yours for the taking.

(This story is excerpted from my upcoming book, For the Love of Europe — collecting 100 of my favorite memories from a lifetime of European travel, coming out in July. It’s available for pre-order . And you can also watch a video clip related to this story: Just visit Rick Steves Classroom Europe and search for Munich).

The Story of Fascism: The Holocaust

The evils of fascism were incremental. Small evils became big evils. At first, concentration camps contained people who didn’t conform. Then, they became forced labor camps. Eventually, the Nazis built death camps — and the entire Jewish population was targeted for extermination.

https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves/videos/280704329428357/

This clip is excerpted from my new one-hour special “ Rick Steves’ The Story of Fascism in Europe .” Check your local listings for air times — and if you don’t see it, please ask your public television station to add it to their schedule.

The Story of Fascism: Hitler’s Anti-Intellectualism

Hitler systematically silenced the free press, intellectuals, and universities. He called complicated modern art “degenerate,” and he banned all books that questioned his agenda — as well as the writings of psychologists, left-wing thinkers, and Jewish authors.

https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves/videos/658572091192753/

The Story of Fascism: Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”

In 1923, Hitler attempted to stage a coup…and failed. He was arrested and sent to prison, where he wrote a manifesto — filled with grammatical errors — about how he could unify Germany and restore it to its pre-WWI glory days.

https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves/videos/324436951638528/

Video: Munich’s Oktoberfest

If Germany’s on your list, consider timing your trip around one of Europe’s biggest parties: Munich’s Oktoberfest . I’ve been in Munich for each of the last two Oktoberfests, and I’m so impressed by the simple Bavarian joy of the party. For a visitor, there’s no better place to see (and join) Germans at play. Inside huge beer-hall tents, you’ll find a slap-happy world of lederhosen, dirndls, fancy hats, and maidens with flowers in their hair. Join the party with me in this clip from my new, one-hour Rick Steves’ European Festivals public television special.

And if you’re heading to Germany, the Rick Steves Germany 2018 guidebook just hit the shelves. Happy travels!

The Rick Steves guide to life

Travel mogul. Philanthropist. Legal weed champion. The real Rick Steves is so much more complex than who you see on TV.

EDMONDS, Wash. — At first glance, it is hard to tell that Rick Steves is protesting.

In the center of his hometown, America’s favorite travel host is perched on the edge of a fountain roundabout engaging in some friendly civil disobedience. As cars circle the intersection, Steves smiles and waves, looking more like an Elf on a Shelf than an angry picketer. This is his way of reminding people he wishes they’d stop driving here.

Steves’s family moved to Edmonds when he was 12, and the 68-year-old is still happy to call it home. Rather than relocate to his beloved Europe, he dreams of bringing some European sensibilities to the edge of the Puget Sound, less than 20 miles north of Seattle.

When he’s not traveling around Europe, writing about Europe or running his multimillion-dollar European tour company, the prolific TV host and author likes to squeeze in some local activism. The roundabout routine is his push to block off Edmonds’s very American Main Street for pedestrians. If you squint at it, you can see what Steves sees: This would be the perfect place for a lively town square.

“I like a lot of things about Europe, but I love the urban energy of Europe. I love the piazza,” Steves said in a wistful tone you might recognize from PBS. “We don’t have a piazza.”

Unfortunately for Steves, the voting majority of the city does not love the idea of parking their SUVs farther away to shop. So despite his Boy Scout enthusiasm, the most famous man in Edmonds must keep up the perch-and-wave. This is not his only crusade.

Spend any amount of time with Steves, and you’ll encounter a total ham who loves a zany bit. But if you ask him about serious issues such as car-free zones, he’ll bring up other causes that are dear to him: affordable housing, supporting the arts, creating senior centers for the elderly to age with dignity.

He’s anti-Trump and pro-cannabis. He does not care if that is bad for business.

The average Rick Steves fan has probably missed this side of him. On TV, they see an always-sunny history lover who makes going abroad feel approachable for the average American. That’s an incomplete picture, like thinking you know Paris because you’ve seen the Eiffel Tower on YouTube.

Meet him in Edmonds, and he’ll fill in the rest.

It may look like a lot of gallivanting, but being Rick Steves takes a lot of work.

He spends three months of the year overseas, researching, writing, recording, refining tours, updating guidebooks. If he’s not planning or producing content, he’s often doing promotional events across the United States. This year, Steves is celebrating the 40th edition of his first book, “Europe Through the Back Door.” Over the course of his career, he has built a privately held company that generates $120 million in revenue a year, published 110 books, filmed 12 seasons of “Rick Steves’ Europe” and produced more than 750 podcast episodes.

“It’s just like coordinating a three-ring circus,” Steves said.

That is: really fun, sort of exhilarating and extremely complicated. To pull this off, Steves does not observe the French 35-hour workweek. He’s a workhorse with a reputation for keeping a frenetic pace year-round.

“It’s more of an American work culture,” Amy Duncan, Steves’s communications director, told me. “He’s an unapologetic capitalist, but he is also a socialist.”

He makes enough money to fly first class, but he sits in only economy, claiming that he doesn’t mind being cramped.

“It never occurred to me that I’m suffering,” he said. “As long as I’ve got an aisle and a seat that reclines, I’m happy.”

Actually, Steves believes airlines should have only one class. It’s part of his egalitarian worldview. He’s also anti-points and anti-miles, refusing to sign up for airline loyalty programs because he believes that they bully us into complicating our lives.

Steves also enforces a self-imposed “ carbon tax ” on his tour company, which takes more than 30,000 people to Europe annually. For every customer, Steves invests $30 to atone for emissions created by their flights between the United States and Europe. Last year, that added up to $1 million donated to a portfolio of organizations, Steves said.

“I don’t need to be a slave to the quarterly profit statement. I want to be around and profitable in 10 years from now in a world that you can travel in that’s stable,” Steves said. “This is a smart investment, and it’s an ethical expense that I should pay for.”

Rick Steves will tell you he’s motivated by making money; the more he can earn, the more good he can do with it.

“Vicarious consumption, that’s one of my things,” Steves said.

After amassing a windfall from the 2001 George W. Bush tax cuts for high earners, Steves donated $1 million to support the local symphony and performing arts center. In 2005, he used retirement savings to buy a 24-unit apartment complex for the local YWCA’s use as transitional housing for women and children. He figured he’d eventually sell the complex and live on the earnings. About a decade later, he changed his mind and donated the complex valued at $4 million.

He also gave more than $4 million to help build the Edmonds Waterfront Center, a vibrant gathering place for seniors where his daughter had her wedding in 2021. And he gave another $2 million for a similar center in the nearby city of Lynnwood, which broke ground in mid-April .

“Rick puts his money where his mouth is,” said Nancy Leson, a former Seattle Times food critic who used to let Steves’s daughter babysit her son. She has appreciated his regular presence in the community, which has entailed hosting events for local politics at his house and shopping at the farmers market .

“He changed travel,” local resident Karen Howe said on her way into the Waterfront Center with a friend. She has used Steves’s guidebooks for years. “He’s introduced us to places that most of us would never think of going.”

Steves hasn’t won his piazza battle, but he has brought European touches to Edmonds. At the Rick Steves’ Europe headquarters, there’s an E.U. flag hanging from the mocha brick facade. And gargoyles that drain rainwater, just like at the Notre Dame cathedral.

“Gargoyles scare away evil spirits,” Steves points out, unable to suppress his inner tour guide.

Here Steves employs more than 100 people: editors, audio producers, tour specialists and cartographers such as Dave Hoerlein, his first employee. That’s excluding the fleet of guides and drivers he contracts across the pond to shepherd tour customers.

Inside, he bounds through a maze of cubicles, his neck craned forward, always at an eager pace. His 6-foot frame appears leaner than in previous seasons of his life, but his signature look is familiar. No, not khakis and a button-down. That’s vintage Rick. These days, he wears dark jeans and a button-down, plus a thin scarf and leather sneakers.

During a day of meetings, Steves’s fjord-blue eyes lit up at the minutia of the business. He went over new maps with Hoerlein. He and longtime co-author Cameron Hewitt addressed problems such as finding a “less glitzy” stop on the Amalfi Coast that’s not Sorrento. They discussed whether a place is worth visiting after it’s gotten too popular, and Steves indulged in some gallows humor.

“It’s going to be like holding the corpse of a loved one who just died,” he said.

His critics argue that the “Rick Steves Effect” can turn a charming village, restaurant or museum into a tourist magnet. Matthew Kepnes, the travel writer behind the blog Nomadic Matt , points to the Swiss town Zermatt, which he says Steves put on the map, and has since dealt with overtourism . You’re bound to bump into groups with Rick Steves guidebooks in Italy’s increasingly crowded Cinque Terre.

Whether Steves is actually to blame for changing a place is up for debate. There are plenty of destinations he’s covered that haven’t been inundated with swarms of Americans (see also: Gdańsk).

Steves says he assesses whether a place wants tourism, if it can handle it gracefully. If it doesn’t or can’t, he may mention it but not promote it.

He has faith — maybe too much — that his clients share his values.

“Does [my work] change the personality of a town? It can. Am I a dramatic impact on Europe? No,” he said.

“There’s a handful of places I really promote aggressively that I’ve had a serious impact on, but otherwise ... my travelers are the kind of people that take only pictures and leave only footprints. ... They’re good travelers.”

You don’t have to spend much time in Edmonds to see why Steves never considered leaving.

The city — population roughly 42,000 — sits on a majestic inlet. You can get to a major international airport in about an hour. The community is so courteous, it has an “umbrella share” program in case people forget their own on a rainy day. As Steves walks around town, he greets people by name. He lives within walking distance to both his favorite diner and a pétanque court, the French answer to Italian bocce. He plays bongos at his church on Sundays.

In 1967, Richard “Dick” Steves moved the family here because he was worried about Rick Junior.

“I was hanging out with dangerous kids and going down the wrong trail,” Steves said. Seriously.

His dad, an Army veteran, got by in the upscale suburb as a piano technician and importer. When Steves was 14, his parents dragged him on a work trip to Europe to visit piano factories; it was a radical experience that sparked his lifelong passion for travel.

Back in Edmonds, Steves started teaching piano, eventually turning his savings into trips abroad of his own — not only to Europe, but also to Turkey, Nepal, Afghanistan. He went to college nearby, earning degrees in European history and business from the University of Washington, where he played in the Husky Marching Band.

After graduating, Steves figured he could keep up his routine: give piano lessons during the school year, then travel during the summer. He started teaching travel classes in the same recital hall where his piano students performed. This was back when there was no internet and there were few guidebooks to consult for trip planning.

The classes were a hit. At 25, Steves turned his lecture materials into a 180-page book, and self-published “Europe Through the Back Door,” in 1980.

Four years later, he hosted his first European minibus tour group, serving as both bus driver and guide.

His businesses have evolved; his bus tours now take up to 28 travelers, a number Steves says is a sweet spot between making the tour more affordable yet enjoyable for customers and profitable for the company. But his mission has remained the same: to be the best resource for European travel and help Americans travel better.

“I just focus on that and I love it,” he said. “It takes my life out of balance — which is not good — but it lets me do a lot of stuff that I believe in and that’s good.”

Steves has been open about the challenges of being a travel mogul. As he built his empire, he was also raising a family. Being “married” to both took a toll. In 2010, Steves and his wife, Anne, divorced after 25 years of marriage.

Up the hill from his junior high, Rick Steves’s modest beige home offers a window into his many lives. There are family photos on the walls, from older relatives to his baby grandson, Atlas. He hosts political fundraisers on the sprawling deck. A painting of Kerala, India, nods to one of his favorite countries. (People forget that Steves did four editions of “Asia Through the Back Door.”)

Next to his grand piano, there’s a stuffed creature that Steves calls his “Silver Fox” baring its teeth and wearing novelty sunglasses with cannabis leaves on the lenses — a nod to two of his interests: taxidermy and marijuana activism.

“It’s the civil liberties. … It’s the racism. … Everything about it is wrong,” he said of keeping weed illegal.

As for the toothy fox, Steves doesn’t do typical souvenirs anymore, but he makes an exception for stuffed animals.

“The wooden shoes and the pewter Viking ships are so obvious,” he said. “I like to do something a little more organic and a little more striking, and it takes me back there — I like it.”

He’s a very good piano player. He can also play the sousaphone and the trumpet — which he did regularly during the pandemic, performing taps for his neighbors at sunset.

The coronavirus was a nightmare for the travel business, but a miracle for Steves’s love life.

After running in the same social circles for years, he and Shelley Bryan Wee, a prominent local bishop, started dating at the end of 2019. They had a lot in common. Both are progressive Lutherans. Both are divorced with adult children. But neither worked a typical 9-to-5, and one of them spent three months of the year in Europe.

Then shutdowns happened. Steves, who couldn’t remember whether he’d ever had dinner in the same place 10 nights in a row, spent 100 nights at the same table with Wee. It solidified their relationship.

“Shelley is a constant,” Steves said. He still struggles with the balancing act between work and love.

When the stars align and they’re both in Edmonds, Wee cooks, and Steves plays sous-chef. They walk Jackson, Wee’s labradoodle, creating their own version of the passeggiata, Italy’s traditional evening stroll. They play table tennis before dinner.

When the world reopened, they started traveling together. They’ve made time for a few big vacations: a trip to Morocco, where they were caught in a windstorm that blew the windows out of their car; a luxury barge cruise through Burgundy, France, “that was embarrassingly expensive,” Steves confessed, followed by a week hiking in the Swiss Alps; and another hiking trip between remote lodges on Mont Blanc.

Before their first trip, Steves edited the contents of Wee’s suitcase, because packing light is part of his philosophy.

“What do you say?” she asked. “You’re talking to Rick Steves.”

Editing by Gabe Hiatt. Additional editing by Amanda Finnegan. Design editing by Christine Ashack. Photo editing by Lauren Bulbin. Videos by Monica Rodman. Senior video producer: Nicki DeMarco. Design by Katty Huertas. Copy editing by Jamie Zega.

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