Summary

If you've spent enough time watching PBS or browsing through a travel section in a bookstore, you've probably come across Rick Steves. He writes books and makes television shows advocating travel in Europe, from 3-day British outings to 6-week "whirlwind tours."

Outline

This write-up is divided into five parts.

  1. Summary
  2. Outline
  3. Creative Works
  4. Important Dates
  5. Miscellanea

Creative Works

Rick Steves writes yearly guides to the Continent, including Europe Through the Back Door and Best of Europe. More recent additions to his collection include Europe 101 and Mona Winks. Additionally, he writes city guides and phrasebooks.

Two major PBS series have been produced by Rick Steves. His first series, Travels in Europe with Rick Steves, was co-produced with an independent company, Small World Productions. In 2000, his own company, Europe Through the Back Door, began airing a new series on PBS, Rick Steves' Europe.

Important Dates

1969: Rick visits Europe for first time (visits piano factories)
1976: Europe Through the Back Door founded
1980: First edition of Europe Through the Back Door publisehd.
1985: First editions of Europe 101 and Europe in 22 Days published.
1993: Despite being a monoglot, first edition of "Rick Steves" brand phrasebooks published

Miscellanea

All material here is my own, but most of this information comes from ricksteves.com. Because E2 is ever growing, some links (such as "piano factories") may not be live as of this writing. If there are any errors, mispellings, or serious ommissions here, please /msg me.