Rick Steves Alternatives
 

Does anyone have any good alternatives to Rick Steves when looking to watch travel videos to get a feel for various areas? We are finding him so dull, and quite frankly getting turned off every area he highlights - not because we're uninterested in traveling there, but because he makes it seem awfully boring to visit.

Any other tried and true travel vloggers that will actually inspire us? (We're looking at France, mostly, but were trying to explore some other Western Europe areas as well)

Agree that Steeeves is fatal. He is rally aimed primarily at people who have never traveled before and spend a lot of time on 1) basics of international travel and 2) touting specific shopkeepers and restaurants (as if there are no cheese shops or whatever in the rest of the world).

I must admit that I don;t find any videos very useful. We use a lot of different guidebooks, some of them pictorial, since that does provide some perspective. But we really prefer the in-depth books with more background into on sight - and tripadvisor for hotel and restaurant info - as well as what we find ourselves form local recos on the ground.

Rudy Maxa?
http://rudymaxa.com

There are any number of interesting videos about Paris -- and of course a much bigger quantity of mind-numbing trash on YouTube.

I myself made a series of 15 little videos which explain absolutely nothing but which are basically mood pieces about the streets of Paris, usually far from the monuments (but not always).

Here is an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3hU0hPqSEM

I kind of like watching Rick Steves videos, but as a rabid non-drinker and a fussy eater, I am put off by the stress on wine, beer and other types of alcohol. I know I am in a minority, but I'm interested in the history, architecture and culture of these cities and countries, not in the food and drink.

We enjoy watching Rick Steves aimlessly I suppose, but now that we are trying to decide which region of France to visit, finding him utterly useless - and yes, Peg, we LOVE wine and food but 10 minutes in EACH episode devoted to some type of winery is really a waste of time to watch.

The Amsterdam episode where 5 full minutes were spent debating which canal was best was the final straw for us.

I don't mind Rick and I also like Rudy Maxa, Samantha Brown, and a British prof who did an interesting archeology program on Herculaneum & Paestum.Would you consider this? Watching an educational video on a place that interests you, such as a course on say architecture, or art? We did that last year before going to Pompeii...we watched a series of lectures on Roman architecture from Yale on You Tube. Very informative and increased our interest. So, for France, how about watching classes on Roman ruins in France, or whatever subject moves you.

Movies, and historical novels help, too.

The only problem is that you'll find more and more places you'll want to visit.

Rick Stein. He's primarily a foodie/chef but works in a lot of information about each location.

Lonely Planet is another good travel series on TV. It airs on PBS round these parts. They do shows all over the world so it does not focus on Europe.

I find Rick Steves's videos extremely helpful in getting a basic feel for what a place is like. I'm not interested in wine or specific shops, either, but I can ignore all of that. I use his videos only as a starting point, not as a way to try to plan anything - to me, that means reading and research, once I've decided an area looks appealing to me or not.

have you seen this guy? https://www.youtube.com/user/woltersworld

Kerouac, love your videos!

Me too!

I really have to laugh every time I see Rick Steve's name come up on this board because I know there are going to be a bunch of post from folks belittling both Rick and folks who enjoy his books, or in this case, videos. It's regular as clockwork.

Rick has never claimed to be the authoritative guide on anything--his books are aimed a folks who have a certain amount of time and generally want to get good value for their money (as opposed to folks who think that spending money is part of the joy of travelling).

Personally, I think I wouldn't care for the guy if I ever met him in person, but anyone who thinks he doesn't provide useful information is just silly. Is he misguided and wrong at times? Yes, but so is every other travel source I have ever used. The trick to getting it right is to use multiple source, and glean the truly useful information from each.

I wouldn't say that I rely upon Rick to decide what areas I'm interested in seeing, but I do find his advice useful when it comes to what I can practically do on a given trip. For example, my next trip is to Switzerland, and as with a lot of places, Rick overhypes one place for some reason (in Switzerland, it's Gimmelwald; in Paris, it's Rue Cler, in Italy, it's Cinque Terre, etc.), but once you get past that, he has a lot of practical logistical suggestions that I'm using for my trip. I've gotten other ideas from the Eyewitness guide, from Rudy Maxa's videos, TripAdvisor, and other sources--even You Tube videos from ordinary travelers. You just have to cull through a bunch of sources and find what you like, and ignore the rest.

I must admit that I have never found value to ANY travel videos.

Even without any videos, my list of places I want to see in this world is SO long that I won't be able to see them all until I'm 105 -- and that's if I take a month-long trip every year until then. Not likely!!!

So the help I need is in how to pare things. For my purposes, I turn to guidebooks: For inspiration and high quality photographs, I check Eyewitness or Insight or National Geographic Traveller. I check Fodor's or Frommer's or the Michelin Green Guide for prioritizing my options. I usek the Rough Guide or Lonely Planet to get nitty gritty details.

Thanks to those who provided some alternatives! We like videos, obviously, but it's fine that some of you don't. It's also fine that some people like him, his books etc. Just wanted some other video suggestions as on a chilly, rainy weekend it's fun to watch together to get some ideas before delving into guidebooks and the like.

I've been watching a PBS series, I'll Have What Phil's Having. It's interesting and very funny... mostly related to food experiences. He takes such great joy in his experiences. I really love this show.

There have been episodes set in Florence/Umbria and also Paris. Barcelona is tomorrow. (Also Toyko and Hong Kong.)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/what-phils-having/

Kathy

I like the PBS series, "Globetrekker" and the host, Brianna Barnes.

I'm with Cathinjoetown: I loved Rick Stein's French Odyssey. For countries other than France, BBC2 did a series called "Italy Unpacked" hosted by chef Giorgio Locatelli and art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon. It was a lovely travelogue, a combination of food and cultural/historical immersion.

Thanks KathyWood! Had somehow missed that PBS Show but I'll watch tonite as he is in Barcelona - a fabulous city!

There's lots of good suggestions here. Some of them do not air on TV much anymore (like Rudy Maxa) but you can get the entire shows on youtube.

I agree with everything twk just said - especially about using multiple sources and also about Rick Steves. What he is trying to do is show people that there's more to visiting a place than going to the monuments and museums listed in most travel guide books. By filming the cheese and wine shops, etc he's saying 'sample the local cuisine and culture'. Meet the locals. Frankly I find those parts of his videos the most boring so just ignore them. I also think the average person is not really going to meet many locals on a typical trip - other than a five minute conversation with a shop owner who may be a nice person but is really talking to you, not because you are interesting, but because he wants to sell you something. But the whole 'meet the locals, get to know the culture' is a big thing here on this forum so I don't get why people don't like Rick Steves as that's what he's doing.

Must be cultural I guess.
Nobody I know in Europe would watch a video about a country to be visited.
Or maybe it is nobody of my age :-)

As for Rick, nobody knows him outside US (or English ?) speaking, so I ahve no idea how good/bad he is.
Only thing I ever saw for myself is the rue Cler, that all US visitors seems to want to visit in Paris because of him.
Is the rue Cler such a must ? (hint : took me 20 years to see it).

Mvg.

These days, you'd have to be a moron, or an absolute non-traveler, to not know either.

Nobody has heard of it who is not english speaking.
That 's waht I wrote, albeit you dropped out half of my sentence.

But I'm glad you find me a moron, I reached the same conclusion about you long ago.

You think us frenchspeaking need to know about RS to travel ? Typical...

:-)

<i>Does anyone have any good alternatives to Rick Steves when looking to watch travel videos to get a feel for various areas? </i>

Aside from straight up documentaries?

Lonely Planet's stuff (especially the stuff with Ian Wright) used to be quite good but I have not checked it out in recent years. Ian has gone on to do other shows.

Then there's the always entertaining Anthony Bourdain.

I doubt it is still on but 3 Sheets was pretty good.

I thought that BBC 2's Rick Stein: From Venice to Istanbul was really good. Yes, it is very much centered around food but there's a fair bit of history there as well.

Stephen Fry in Central America is also quite good but then again, I would watch anything with Stephen Fry in it.

Ewan McGregor's Long Way Round is a bit dated now but still great. Because Ewan McGregor.

I agree with Pariswat regarding Rick Steves. I've seen Italian editions of other non-Italian guide books (Lonely Planet, for example) in Italian book stores, but never Rick Steves. I believe they publish only in English. However, the same is true for Fodors.

Due to his tours, I imagine Rick Steves IS well-known within the European travel industry.

In the 6+ years I lived in France, just ended, I never heard his name mentioned once among the fairly well-traveled friends we had (French, Dutch, English, Belgian, etc.), never saw his books for sale, never saw his program on French or English television.

So, much as you both will hate this, imo, you're both correct.

Check out the documentaries and travel videos produced by the city and national government agencies of countries like Italy and Spain (I don't know about France). The directorate of the Alhambra, for example, has produced a very fine historical video about the Alhambra, with special emphasis on the Nasrid Palace, in Spanish. It's a great way to prepare for the visit and also a good way to practice your Spanish.

Another excellent example is an Italian video produced for Orvieto (don't remember the Italian agency which produced it).

The city government of Cordoba has created a beautiful video about the city, showing not only the major sights but also a brief musical interlude by an outstanding local flamenco singer.

You could also try Burt Wolf Travels and Traditions. He is food centric, but you can also get a nice feel for the places he visits. I usually find the show on PBS, but you could also look at Burtwolf.com.

I also like Samantha Brown, Rudy Maxa, Globe Trekker with host Justine Shapiro, and Anthony Bourdain. Try Bourdain's No Reservations series.

And this is kind of a funny idea, but look online for episodes of a TV show called House Hunters International. It offers snippets of how locals might live.

As a couple people said above, watching movies SET somewhere gives one a feel for the place. Heck, my kids were totally primed for Europe just by watching Audrey Hepburn movies :)

From the EU Tourism Link Consortium:

<i>"Tourism is a key sector of the European economy. It generates more than 5% of the EU GDP, with about 1.8 million enterprises employing around 5.2% of the total labor force."</i>

The English language is spoken by millions of people who live and work in the EU. The percentages of native English speakers living in the EU are much higher than one might think.

Spain, France, and Italy are the three top destinations among EU travelers, in that order. Rick Steves' travel books are sold on amazon.es, amazon.fr. and amazon.it, respectively.

While Rick Steves' Europe is a privately owned company, based in the USA, and mostly caters to an American audience, millions of English-speaking people around the world are capable of enjoying the product that Rick Steves creates. For business reasons, I have personally spoken to several EU residents who were traveling, using Rick Steves' guide books.

Rick Steves happens to employ some of the best cameramen in the business for his wildly popular PBS TV show, "Rick Steves' Europe." There are ways to see PBS and specifically Rick's shows outside of the U.S. Since pictures speak a thousand words, great pictures even more so, Rick's TV show is a great way for anyone, English-speakers or not, to be completely seduced and enticed by some glorious visuals of travel.

Fodor's is an American publisher. This board is based in America, catering to English-only speakers. Are the habits of non-English speaking travelers even relevant here? If an American publisher publishes a book in English only, is it not OBVIOUS that a non-English speaker is probably not going to know the book's author?

Some people have nothing better to do than sit at their computers and listen to themselves talk.

NYCFoodSnob : <i>Rick Steves happens to employ some of the best cameramen in the business for his wildly popular PBS TV show, "Rick Steves' Europe." There are ways to see PBS and specifically Rick's shows outside of the U.S.</i>

Yes - dozens of his Europe TVws sho are available for free on YouTube.com presumably to anyone in the world with internet access.

The down and dirty on the popularity of Rick Steves in Switzerland:

None of the locals have heard of him and only a few have heard of Gimmelwald.

I know because I've asked around including asking the locals in Berner Oberland.

So to sum it up: the tourist industry knows him but no one else does.

Who cares?

Jaakko Keso is a Finnish man who has a Vlog on YouTube related to travel. I find them quite educational, especially the one about Swakopmund. There aren't many videos but I think they are worth checking out.


Little Germany in the Middle of Desert (this is the video I discovered his channel with): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lNUxeYUHFo

This is Helsinki: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8K7JbUcYaQ

Roma People of Helsinki: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5nTT4ym02o

Travel Shows Lie to You: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq7hC5GRCFc

Another vote for just cruising youtube (although you will have to supply keywords for the areas you want to research.) A word of warning: the quality of the videos can vary depending on who made the video, so some patience is called for in the search.

I found out about the shimanami kaido bikeway in Japan when I searched for and viewed youtube videos on Onomichi.

Also another vote for films set in the country of interest. I loved, loved the Talented Mr. Ripley - who wouldn't want to take an extended vacation in a seaside Italian villa, complete with a sailboat to cruise as Jude Law's character gets to do. It's set in the 50s, if that is an era of interest to you.

'Are the habits of non-English speaking travelers even relevant here? If an American publisher publishes a book in English only, is it not OBVIOUS that a non-English speaker is probably not going to know the book's author?

You are really an incredible arrogant guy.

There are people who live outside US and whether FODORS is US owned is irrelevant towards being allowed to post on it or is it ? Can you please report me as abusive since I'm not US speaking ??? So you can stay with your own, but it will become a very small world, since a lot of US people are normal and nice.

And you'll wonder why some people don't like US ?

Isabel wrote: "But the whole 'meet the locals, get to know the culture' is a big thing here on this forum so I don't get why people don't like Rick Steves as that's what he's doing."

I've never thought "meet the locals" a "big thing" on THIS forum. If anything, I would have said that the very idea that one could do so has been downplayed by this forum! I could easily be wrong. but after nearly 10 years on this forum, I think some people have been quite clear in saying that one can't expect to "meet the locals" in any meaningful way in a trip of less than months and months and months.

I don't like RS because I've found his coverage to be superficial, patronizing, and presumptuous. JMO.

@ Isabel -- sorry to post such a contrary opinion! I'm glad that Fodorites have access to both our views.

<i>Fodor's is an American publisher.</i>

Fodor's has been owned by a German publisher for years.