Rick Steves at GPB

rick steves - 20 mar 2012

Tonight, Camille and I drove over to GPB by Georgia Tech to hear Rick Steves talk about travel in Europe. People kept asking Camille, the only kid there, if she was planning a trip to Europe. Not knowing how to say “I’ve been a dozen times.” she shyly shrugged and said she was there at the lecture with her mom. In fact, most of those in attendance were of my parents’ age, though there were a few young couples there.

I’ve watched Rick Steves’ videos for years and have owned a few of his travel books. I like a number of things about his travel style, though it doesn’t quite match ours. He advocates practices in traveling that we subscribe to such as packing light, making time to simply walk around out the beaten path, and so forth.

Overall, the talk was mostly a two-hour informercial for his books and tours. He did answer some questions from the audience and did give quite a number of travel tips for people who don’t want to take tours, such as how wonderful many of the hostels in Europe are these days.

When asked about taking kids to Europe, he said “Drop them at Grandma’s house on the way to the airport.”, and my jaw dropped. He went on to say that 12 or 13 is when kids should first go to Europe. Humpf. We are by no means rich, but we have found ways to get our kids to Europe/Asia a dozen times (Chloe a few less, since she hasn’t been given the chance to catch up…), and we’ve found it to be well worth it. And grandma’s come with us too … It has given then encounters and practice that will last a lifetime. On our drive home from the talk, Camille talked about a number of the things she’s happy that she’s had the chance to experience.

Someone else asked about taking your kids, and the people around me said they’d be crazy to try. WHY WHY WHY? Sure, it makes some parts of a trip more complex. But it isn’t crazy. And you do NOT need to haul tons of crap. A carrier (stroller or backpack) and a car seat. You don’t need to bring the kitchen sink. Here I felt like I do when people talk about how low the bar is in kids’ music …. How can we get people to understand that there is great kids’ music and also that travel with kids is not only possible but fun … ??

As an aside, I found him to bit a bit too callous about the lives lost to terrorism, though Camille and I both understood the point he was trying to make.

Rick’s travel style seems to be directed at “touring”, whereas we’ve always enjoyed our “home-base” style of travel. Rent a place for a week and take day trips in the area. Cheaper, more relaxing and gets you a little further into the culture since you have to hit the markets and stores in one neighborhood a number of times…

The lecture was well-worth taking Camille too, even if we did get home quite late. I think she’s inspired to travel more, er, keep traveling. And she knows she can get a lot out of a 3-hour lecture aimed at adults.