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Destination: Spain

Granada’s alhambra.

For me, one of the great joys of travel is having in-person encounters with great art and architecture — which I’ve collected in a book called Europe’s Top 100 Masterpieces . Here’s one of my favorites:   

Nowhere else does the splendor of Moorish civilization shine so beautifully than at the Alhambra — this last and greatest Moorish palace in Europe.  

For seven centuries (711–1492), much of Spain was Muslim, ruled by the Islamic Moors from North Africa. While the rest of Europe was slumbering through the Dark Ages, Spain blossomed under Moorish rule. The culmination was the Alhambra — a sprawling complex of palaces and gardens atop a hill in Granada. And the highlight is the exquisite Palacios Nazaríes, where the sultans and their families lived, worked, and held court.   

You enter through the fragrant Court of the Myrtles, into a world of ornately decorated rooms, stucco “stalactites,” filigreed windows, and bubbling fountains. Water — so rare and precious in the Islamic world — was the purest symbol of life. The Alhambra is decorated with water, water everywhere: standing still, cascading, masking secret conversations, and drip-dropping playfully.  

As you explore the labyrinth of rooms, you can easily imagine sultans smoking hookahs, lounging on pillows and Persian carpets, with heavy curtains on the windows and incense burning from the lamps. Walls and ceilings are covered with intricate patterns carved in wood and stucco. (If the Alhambra’s interweaving patterns look Escheresque, you’ve got it backward: The artist M. C. Escher was inspired by the Alhambra.) Because Muslim artists avoided making images of living creatures, they ornamented with calligraphy — by carving swoopy letters in Arabic, quoting poetry and verses from the Quran. One phrase — “only Allah is victorious” — is repeated 9,000 times.   

The Generalife gardens — with manicured hedges, reflecting pools, playful fountains, and a breezy summer palace — is where sultans took a break from palace life. Its architect, in a way, was the Quran, which says that heaven is like a lush oasis, and that “those who believe and do good, will enter gardens through which rivers flow” (Quran 22.23).  

The Alhambra’s much-photographed Courtyard of the Lions is named for its fountain of 12 marble lions. Four channels carry water outward — figuratively to the corners of the earth and literally to the sultan’s private apartments. As a poem carved onto the Alhambra wall says, the fountain gushes “crystal-clear water” like “the full moon pouring light from an unclouded sky.”   

The palace’s largest room is the ornate throne room — the Grand Hall of the Ambassadors. Here the sultan, seated on his throne beneath a domed ceiling of stars, received visitors. The ceiling, made from 8,017 inlaid pieces of wood (like a giant jigsaw puzzle), suggests the complexity of Allah’s infinite universe.   

The throne room represents the passing of the torch in Spanish history. It was here in the year 1492 that the last Moorish king surrendered to the Christians. And it was here that the new monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, said “Sí, señor” to Christopher Columbus, launching his voyage to the New World that would make Spain rich. But the glory of the Alhambra lived on, adding an elegance and grace to Spanish art for centuries to come.   

Today, the Alhambra stands as a thought-provoking reminder of a graceful Moorish world that might have flowered throughout all of Europe — but didn’t.  

Daily Dose of Europe: El Greco’s “Burial of Count Orgaz”

As our passports gather dust, our leaders bicker over conspiracy theories, and people struggle to arrange a vaccination, I believe a daily dose of travel dreaming can be good medicine. And for me, one of the great joys of travel is having in-person encounters with great art — which I’ve collected in my book called Europe’s Top 100 Masterpieces . And “Burial of Count Orgaz” is one of my favorites.  

It just feels right to see a painting in the same church where the artist placed it 400 years ago. This 15-foot-tall masterpiece, painted at the height of El Greco’s powers, is the culmination of his unique style.   

The year is 1323. Count Don Gonzalo Ruiz of Orgaz, the mayor of Toledo, has died. You’re at his funeral, where he’s being buried right here in the chapel that he himself had ordered built. The good count was so holy, even saints Augustine and Stephen have come down from heaven to be here. Toledo’s most distinguished citizens are also in attendance. The two saints, wearing rich robes, bend over to place Count Orgaz, dressed in his knight’s armor, into the tomb. (Count Orgaz’s actual granite tombstone was just below the painting.) Meanwhile, above, the saints in heaven wait to receive his blessed soul.  

The detail work is El Greco at his best. Each nobleman’s face is a distinct portrait, capturing a different aspect of sorrow or contemplation. The saints’ robes are intricately brocaded and have portraits of saints on them. Orgaz’s body is perfectly foreshortened, sticking out toward us. The officiating priest wears a wispy, transparent white robe. Look closely. Orgaz’s armor is so shiny, you can actually see St. Stephen’s reflection on his chest.  

The serene line of noble faces divides the painting into two realms: heaven above and earth below. Above the faces, the count’s soul, symbolized by a little baby, rises up through a mystical birth canal to be reborn in heaven, where he’s greeted by Jesus, Mary, and all the saints. A spiritual wind blows through as colors change and shapes stretch. With its metallic colors, wavelike clouds, embryonic cherubs, and elongated forms, heaven is as surreal as the earth is sober. But the two realms are united by the cross at right.  

El Greco considered this to be one of his greatest works. It’s a virtual catalog of his trademark techniques: elongated bodies, elegant hand gestures, realistic faces, voluminous robes, and an ethereal mix of heaven and earth. He captures a moment of epiphany with bright, almost fluorescent colors that give these otherwise ordinary humans a heavenly aura.  

The boy in the foreground points to the two saints as if to say, “One’s from the first century, the other’s from the fourth…it’s a miracle!” The boy is El Greco’s own son. On the handkerchief in the boy’s pocket is El Greco’s signature, written in Greek. One guy (seventh from the l eft) in this whole scene doesn’t seem to be completely engaged in the burial. Looking directly out at the viewer is the painter, El Greco himself.  

This little moment from Europe — a sampling of how we share our love of art and history in our tours — is an excerpt from the full-color coffee-table book I wrote with Gene Openshaw, Europe’s Top 100 Masterpieces . Please support local businesses in your community by picking up a copy from your favorite bookstore, or you can find it in my online Travel Store .

P.S. – Be sure to check out Rick Steves Classroom Europe — my free collection of 500+ teachable video clips. Search “El Greco” for a closer look at the Greek-born artist who painted for a Spanish king, adopted Toledo as his hometown, and conveyed religious themes in a memorable, mystical way.  

Daily Dose of Europe: Gaudí’s Sagrada Família

Antoni Gaudí’s most awe-inspiring work is this unfinished, super-sized basilica. With its cake-in-the-rain facade and otherworldly spires, the basilica has become the icon of Barcelona.

As America continues to suffer crisis upon crisis, it has never been more important to broaden our perspectives and learn about the people and places that shape our world. And for me, one of the great joys of travel is seeing art masterpieces in person. Learning the stories behind great art can shed new light on our lives today. Here’s one of my favorites.

Construction on the Sagrada Família began over a century ago (1883) and is still ongoing. The only section finished by Gaudí himself is the Nativity Facade. The four 330-foot towers soar upward, morph into round honeycomb spires, and taper to a point, tipped with colorful ceramic “stars.”

Gaudí’s Nativity Facade gives a glimpse at how grand this structure will be. The four spires are just a fraction of this mega-church. When finished, the church will have four similar towers on each side, plus five taller towers dedicated to the Evangelists and Mary. And in the very center will stand the 560-foot Jesus tower — the tallest in the world — topped with an electric cross shining like a spiritual lighthouse. The grand Nativity Facade (where tourists enter today) will become a mere side entrance. The huge church will accommodate 8,000 worshippers surrounded by a forest of sequoia-sized columns. With light filtering in, dappling the nave with stained-glass color, a thousand choristers will sing.

The Nativity Facade exemplifies Gaudí’s unmistakable style. It’s incredibly ornate, made from stone that ripples like frosting, blurring the architectural lines. The sculpted surface is crawling with life: people, animals, birds, trees, and weird bugs. Two massive columns flanking the entrance playfully rest on the backs of two cute little turtles. Gaudí’s religious vision was infused with a love of nature. “Nothing is invented,” he said, “it’s written in nature.” The church grows organically from the ground, blossoming to heaven.

As a deeply religious man, Gaudí’s architectural starting point was Gothic: spires, “flamboyant” ornamentation, pointed arches, and Christian themes.

The Nativity Facade, dedicated to Christ’s birth, features statues of Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus — the “Holy Family” (or Sagrada Família) for whom the church is named.

Gaudí mixed in his trademark “Modernist” (or Art Nouveau) elements: color, curves, and a clip-art collage of fanciful symbols celebrating Barcelona’s glorious history. He pioneered many of the latest high-tech construction techniques, including parabolic arches, like those spanning the facade’s midsection. He molded concrete to ripple like waves and enlivened it with glass and tile. His vision: a church that would be both practical and beautiful.

Gaudí labored over Sagrada Família for 43 years. As with Gothic cathedrals of old, he knew it would require many generations to complete. The Nativity Facade was Gaudí’s template to guide future architects. But he also encouraged his successors to follow their own muses. After Gaudí’s death, construction continued in fits and starts, halted by war and stagnation.

Today, the project enjoys renewed life. The site — funded in part by admissions from daily hordes of visitors — bristles with cranking cranes, prickly rebar, scaffolding, and engineers from around the world, trained in the latest technology. More than a century after Gaudí began, they’re still at it. It’s a testament to the generations of architects, sculptors, stonecutters, fundraisers, and donors who became captivated by Gaudí’s astonishing vision, and are determined to incarnate it in stone.

The hoped-for date of completion? The centenary of Gaudí’s death: 2026. I’ll be there.

This art moment — a sampling of how we share our love of art in our tours — is an excerpt from the new, full-color coffee-table book Europe’s Top 100 Masterpieces by Rick Steves and Gene Openshaw. Please support local businesses in your community by picking up a copy from your favorite bookstore, or you can find it at my online Travel Store . To enhance your art experience, you can find a clip related to this artwork at Rick Steves Classroom Europe ; just search for Gaudi.

Daily Dose of Europe: Velázquez’s Las Meninas

Diego Velázquez spent 30 years painting formal portraits of the Spanish king. Then, deciding to switch things up, he painted his most famous and greatest painting. Instead of showing the king, Las Meninas captures the behind-the-scenes action as the king’s portrait is being painted.

Velázquez stands at his easel, flicks his Dalí moustache, raises his brush, and looks directly out toward the people he’s painting — the king and queen. They’d be standing right where the viewer stands. In fact, you can even see the royal couple reflected in the mirror on the back wall. We’re seeing what the king and queen would have seen: their little blonde-haired daughter Margarita and her “maids,” or meninas , who’ve gathered to watch the sitting.

Velázquez (1599–1660) was a master of candid snapshots. Trained in the unflinching realism of his hometown of Seville, he’d made his name painting wrinkled old men and grimy workers in blue-collar bars.

Here, he catches the maids in an unguarded moment. Margarita is eyeing her parents, while a maid kneels to offer her a drink and another curtsies. To the right is one of the court dwarves, and a little boy playfully pokes the family dog. Just at that moment, in the background, a man pauses at a doorway to look in on the scene. The moment is frozen, but you can easily imagine what these people were doing 30 seconds before or 30 seconds later.

This seemingly simple painting was revolutionary in many ways. Velázquez enjoyed capturing light, and capturing the moment, just as the Impressionists would two centuries later. Also, if you look close, you’ll see that the girls’ seemingly detailed dresses are nothing but a few messy splotches of paint — the proto-Impressionist use of paints that Velázquez helped pioneer.

Velázquez creates a kind of 3-D dollhouse world and induces you to step inside. The figures are almost life-size, and the frame extends the viewer’s reality. The eye unconsciously follows the receding lines of the wall on the right to the far wall, and the painting’s vanishing point — the lighted doorway. The painting’s world stretches from there all the way back to the imaginary space where the king and queen (and the viewer) would be standing. And you are part of the scene, seemingly able to walk around, behind, and among the characters. Considered by many to be the greatest painting ever, this is art come to life.

This art moment — a sampling of how we share our love of art in our tours — is an excerpt from the new, full-color coffee-table book Europe’s Top 100 Masterpieces by Rick Steves and Gene Openshaw. Please support local businesses in your community by picking up a copy from your favorite bookstore, or you can find it at our online Travel Store . To enhance your art experience, you can find clips related to this artwork at Rick Steves Classroom Europe ; just search for Prado.

Daily Dose of Europe: Pamplona — Feeling the Breath of the Bull on Your Pants

This summer, every big European festival is cancelled — including Pamplona’s famous Running of the Bulls, which was slated to begin today. Instead, I’m reliving my memories of the time I had a front-row view of the action.

Even though we’re not visiting Europe right now, I believe a daily dose of travel dreaming can be good medicine. I just published a collection of my favorite stories from a lifetime of European travels. My new book is called “For the Love of Europe” — and this story is just one of its 100 travel tales.

Perched on the top timber of the inner of two fences (in the prime area reserved for press), I wait for the 8:00 rocket. I’m thinking this is early…but for the mob scene craning their necks for the view behind me, it’s late. They’ve been up all night.

Cameras are everywhere — on remote-controlled robotic arms, vice-gripped to windowsills, hovering overhead on cranes, and in the hands of nearly every spectator that makes up the wall of bodies pressed against the thick timber fence behind me.

The street fills with runners. While you can wear anything, nearly everyone is wearing the traditional white pants, white shirt, and red bandana. The scene evokes some kind of cultish clan and a ritual sacrifice. This is the Festival of San Fermín. Fermín was beheaded by the Romans 2,000 years ago, martyred for his faith. The red bandanas evoke his bloody end.

It’s three minutes to eight, and the energy surges. The street is so full that if everyone suddenly ran, you’d think they’d simply trip over each other and all stack up, waiting to be minced by angry bulls. The energy continues to build. There are frat-boy runners — courage stoked by booze and by the girls they’re determined to impress. And there are serious mozos — famous locally for their runs, who’ve made this scene annually for as long as people can remember. They’ve surveyed the photos and stats (printed in yesterday’s paper) of the six bulls about to be turned loose. They know the quirks of the bulls and have chosen their favorite stretch of the half-mile run. While others are hung over, these mozos got a good, solid night’s sleep, and are now stretching and prepping mentally.

For serious runners, this is like surfing…you hope to catch a good wave and ride it. A good run lasts only 15 or 20 seconds. You know you’re really running with the bull when you feel its breath on your pants.

Mozos respect the bull. It represents power, life, and the great wild. Hemingway, who first came to the festival in 1923, understood. He wrote that he enjoyed watching two wild animals run together — one on two legs, the other on four.

It’s 8:00 and the sound of the rocket indicates that the bulls are running. The entire scramble takes about two and a half minutes. The adrenaline surges in the crowded street. Everyone wants to run — but not too early. Suddenly, it’s as if I’m standing before hundreds of red-and-white human pogo sticks. The sea of people spontaneously begins jumping up and down — trying to see the rampaging bulls to time their flight.

We’ve chosen to be near the end of the run — 200 yards from the arena, where, later today, these bulls will meet their matador. One advantage of a spot near the end is that the bulls should be more spread out, so we can see six go by individually rather than as a herd. But today, they stay together and make the fastest run of the nine-day festival: 2 minutes and 11 seconds.

The bulls rush through, creating pandemonium — a freak wave of humanity pummels the barrier. Panicky boys — no longer macho men — press against my stretch of fence. It’s a red-and-white cauldron of desperation: big eyes, scrambling bodies, the ground quaking, someone oozing under the bottom rail.

Then, suddenly, the bulls are gone. People pick themselves up, and it’s over. Boarded-up shops reopen, and the timber fences are taken down and stacked. As is the ritual, participants drop into a bar immediately after the running, have breakfast, and together watch the rerun of the entire spectacle on TV — all 131 seconds of it.

While only 15 runners have been killed by bulls over the last century, each year, dozens of people are gored, trampled, or otherwise injured during the event. A mozo who falls knows to stay down — it’s better to be trampled by six bulls than to be gored by one.

A bull becomes most dangerous when separated from the herd. For this reason, a few steer — castrated bulls that are calmer and slower — are released with the bulls. (There’s no greater embarrassment in this machismo culture than to think you’ve run with a bull, only to realize later that you actually ran with a steer.)

After the last bulls run, the rollicking festival concludes at midnight on July 14. Pamplona’s townspeople congregate in front of City Hall, light candles, and sing their sad song, “Pobre de Mí”: “Poor me, the Fiesta de San Fermín has ended.” They tuck away their red bandanas…until next year on July 6.

(This story appears in my newest book, For the Love of Europe — collecting 100 of my favorite memories from a lifetime of European travel. Please support local businesses in your community by picking up a copy from your favorite bookstore tomorrow, July 7th. Or you can pre-order For the Love of Europe online .  You can also find clips related to this story at Rick Steves Classroom Europe ; just search for Pamplona.)

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A weekly one-hour conversation with guest experts and callers about travel, cultures, people, and the things we find around the world that give life its extra sparkle. Rick Steves is America's leading authority on travel to Europe and beyond. Host and writer of over a hundred public television travel shows and author of 30 best-selling guidebooks, Rick now brings his passion for exploring and understanding our world to public radio. Related travel information and message boards on www.ricksteves.com.

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Rick Steves Spain (Travel Guide) Paperback – Folded Map, October 11, 2022

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• Fully updated, comprehensive coverage for planning a multi-week trip to Spain
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rick Steves; 18th edition (October 11, 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 1032 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1641714654
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• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.63 x 1.25 x 8 inches
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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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Help with Spain/Portugal itinerary April 2024

My husband and I are retiring in April 2024 and so excited to be planning our celebration tour to Spain and Portugal! Our tentative itinerary is as follows. We will be traveling from Seattle WA, have up to 20 days to play with, want to see lots but also make sure we are not spreading ourselves to thin. Any advise is greatly appreciated in advance!! Barcelona 5 days arrive mid morning from Seattle * Excited for the regular touristy attractions but also an added cooking class, and a day relaxing at the beach and riding bikes Grenada 2 days having arrived by one way rental car from Barcelona * Excited for Flemenco show in cave bar, Moorish tea house and Alhambra Seville 4 days having arrived by high speed train from Grenada * Excited to be there on Sunday April 14 for first day of the April Fesitval. Lisbon 3 days having arrived by high speed train from Seville * What to do? Porto 4 days having arrived by high speed train from Lisbon and flying home AM last day to Seattle. **Excited for a day long boat/wine tour of the Duoro Valley, the wine museum and possibly a tour of Sardine plant?

I can add a little about Lisbon and Braga.

Lisbon is fabulous. I was there four days and it was not enough. While I saw a lot, I still missed seeing so much.

If possible, try to get to Sintra and Belem. Both are wonderful, beautiful, fascinating and interesting.

If possible, try to see the different neighborhoods of Lisbon. I only experienced the Baixa neighborhood.

There are four hop on hop off buses and each one costs something like 22 euros.

I was on a cruise and we ported in Porto

I opted for an excursion to Braga. It is very beautiful with many amazing churches, Braga has 80 churches. If you wanted to, you could easily get to Braga from Porto for a day of sightseeing.

Best of luck on your retirement and enjoy your celebration vacation.

Kathryn, you need three nights for Barcelona. Why are you renting a car when you can fly nonstop from Barcelona to Granada on Vueling.com for less than $100? You need four nights for Lisbon and that’s for Lisbon only. If you want to add day trips from Lisbon i.e., Belem and Sintra add a night per trip.

Lisbon 3 days having arrived by high speed train from Seville

In case you have not discovered this yet, there is no high speed train between Seville and Lisbon. The route requires transfers, the quickest way probably a combination of bus/train at over 7 hours or just by bus a bit less than 7 hours. So connecting this portion of the trip would most likely be best by plane.

Try to fit in Cordoba, the Mezquita is magnificent.

Here's my recent trip report that might be helpful https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/trip-report-spain-november-2023

I disagree that 3 nights is enough for Barcelona. That would be seriously short. Five nights in this context (as the first stop) is only four full days, and you may still be somewhat jetlagged on your first full day in Spain.

The temperature in Barcelona will probably be pleasant, but I'd be very surprised if the water is warm enough for swimming.

Granada is 530 miles from Barcelona. The drive would take all of a long day, and at least the first part of it (to Valencia) would probably have heavy traffic. Google Maps estimates at least 8 hr. 11 min., and that would be without any stops, traffic, meal breaks, etc. The train can take as little as 6 hr. 38 min., with no need to stop traveling for meals. Flying, as already mentioned, is also an option. I'd never opt to make that trip by car unless I had extra days and was going to make several stops along the way.

While in Porto, consider going up the Douro River Valley. The train runs along the north bank of the river. Go to Regua at a minimum.

If you take a short day cruise up the river, you will get to see some scenic areas, but the more scenic part of the river valley is farther inland.

In response to your question about what to do in Lisbon- we were just there in October. We spent four days and it wasn’t enough for us. We did spend a good chunk of one day in Belem but didn’t have enough time for Sintra.

If you’re interested in food and. Culinary history I would recommend a food tour with Culinary Backstreets. We also love walking tours to get oriented to a place. There are a number of walking tour options- some listed in RS guide. We weren’t planning on visiting museums but on a day of torrential rain it was the best option. We went to the Gulbenkian Museum and loved the very unique collection.

Lisbon has many distinct neighborhoods. A walking tour is a good way to get oriented and then come back to focus on the neighborhood(s) that you have the most interest in. We also booked a trip about the history of Portugal’s role in slavery but unfortunately we’re rained out. Most of the standard tours don’t bring this part of Portugal’s history into their content. We appreciate having the full history of the places we visit and were sorry to miss that. We also enjoyed the Museum of Resistance and Freedom.

Also recommend Culinary Backstreets for a food tour in Porto. We enjoyed a walking tour there as well. We were there for four days and didn’t have enough time to enjoy Porto and day trips/ Douro trip. With more time I would have added a couple of day trips.

Enjoy retirement and this fabulous trip to kick it off!

While you are in Barcelona, I highly recommend going to see Montserrat Abbey. It is a short ride from Barcelona, and then a tram. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

Rick lists his top sightseeing suggestions in many major cities right on this website.

Go here: Explore Europe Choose the country Choose the major city from among the Places listed. If there's an "At a Glance" link, click on it. (That will only be available for some cities.)

WoW! I can't believe all the very helpful suggestions! I can't wait to go back to the drawing board, tweek this and ask again. Thank you everyone for all the help - much better than any travel agent I've found :)

Congratulations on your upcoming retirement.

You could easily spend 20 days in Spain alone. Portugal has a lot to offer and 2 weeks there is not enough. In other words, unless you are planning to return to both countries in the next year or two, consider focusing on Spain now and Portugal next time.

Count nights, not days. You'll have X full days for every X+1 nights. You lose half a day or more each time you change places - packing/unpacking, checking in/out, getting to/from train station or airport (and you need to allow enough lead time at both). Plus you need a little time at each new location to get oriented to the local surroundings and transportation.

Barcelona If 5 nights, then you have 4 full days - enough to see a lot of sights. Remember that you may have jetlag/sleep issues on your second day. In April the Med is too cold for bathing and it is even likely to be too cold to bask on the beach.

Granada You need at least 2 nights. The Alhambra can take up most of a day - there's a lot to see and the campus is very big, so lots of walking between sights. I went to a cave flamenco show and it was super touristy. On the other hand you can see really good flamenco performances in Sevilla (Casa de Flamenco was my favorite). I don't know why you are considering renting a car. Google maps shows driving time of at least 8 hours, most of it on highways which may not be at all scenic. Consider 3 nights. It's out of the way so on a return trip to Spain (like Italy, no one goes only once :-), it is unlikely that you'll want to fit it in again. Be sure to get Alhambra tickets before you commit to stopping there.

Sevilla Allow one full day for a day trip to Cordoba. The Mezquita is unique and the Jewish Quarter is one of the best preserved medieval city centers in Spain. You'll want 2 full days for sightseeing - one for the Feria and one for the top sights which will all probably be very crowded during Feria.

What is the April Festival you mentioned in Grenada? I can’t find mention of it anywhere.

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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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Rick Steves' Genius Tips For Traveling Through Europe With Kids

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Traveling with kids to Europe can create long-lasting memories and bring the family closer together, but it can also be tricky for youngsters to connect with the culture in the same way you do. Luckily, travel expert, author, and TV host Rick Steves has a few tips to make the trip more enjoyable for everyone via his website . His first suggestion is to start bridging cultural connections well before you actually go abroad.

For example, if your family is visiting Italy in the near future, show them pictures of the Colosseum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the Piazza del Popolo. To bring history to life, Steves has a video library called Classroom Europe with an array of three to five-minute segments on destinations and points of interest. You could also watch kid's movies set in the region you're visiting, like "Luca" for Italy or "Ratatouille" for France.

Of course, let's not forget about food. Take the time to visit new restaurants or learn to cook a few of the country's staples at your home. While you can't introduce your kids to everything before the big trip — and where's the fun in that? — it doesn't hurt to ease them into international travel with a few foreign dishes. You could also see if there are local events related to your destination, like a St. Patrick's Day festival for Ireland .

Read more: How To Create Your Own Travel Capsule Wardrobe To Make Packing Easier

Help Kids Interpret Their Experience

Once abroad, purchase a journal or sketchbook at your first stop, according to Rick Steves' Europe. Not only will this help your kids enjoy the vacation , it will be something sentimental to revisit in the future. Use the journal to have your kids write down their thoughts, favorite smells or tastes, and cultural observations, says Steves. Invite them to get creative and draw a favorite landmark. You could also collect airplane boarding passes, train stubs, entrance tickets to museums and galleries, maps, and wristbands and glue them inside the journal. Perhaps stop inside photo booths for some silly family snapshots and add them to the collection.

That said, you could also print a few coloring pages of iconic landmarks from  Supercoloring.com , a free database of over 10,000 printable designs. Then, be sure to visit the locations the kids are coloring in. Continuing with the Italy theme, you could bring a Kids' Travel Guide with fun facts about the country or an Italian Picture Dictionary Coloring Book  with different phrases so they can master a few basics, like hello, goodbye, please, and thank you. In other words, anything to encourage children to connect the dots.

Give Them Breaks Between Tours

Museum after museum, gallery after gallery, it can be tough for kids to be immersed in "serious" activities all day. Therefore, be sure to incorporate plenty of breaks and let them partake in their favorite activities from home. In fact, on warm afternoons, you'll often find European families with children hanging out in the local town square or plaza, as per Rick Steves' Europe. This is a great opportunity to bring your kids for playtime and interactions with the locals. Look up parks, playgrounds, toy stores, theme parks , and kids' museums in the area to pique their interest.

If your kids say they are bored during the trip, don't fret, says Steves via Rick Steves' Europe. Even if they are homesick, chances are, they'll look back on this adventure with fondness. In fact, years from now, they might recall more about the trip than you realize and shock you with their knowledge about a place and culture. Think of your family trip as an investment; put in the time now, and you'll see the returns later in the form of your child's appreciation for this big, beautiful world.

Read the original article on Explore .