The man who built a business empire encouraging Americans to visit Europe is embracing a new concept: Stay at home. The continent has remained on his mind, though, especially while recording the audio version of his recently released book "For the Love of Europe," which is filled with favorite travel moments. Rick Steves — guidebook author, television personality and small-group tour entrepreneur — is bullish on the future, even if he can't predict exactly when he will travel again. This conversation has been edited. Read a more complete version at startribune.com/travel.
Q: How are you adjusting to staying at home?
A: I am trying to employ my traveler's curiosity, wanderlust, open mind and positive energy here at home. We have to recognize that this pandemic is much more important than my travel dreams and my particular bottom line as a businessman. This is a crisis that is hitting everybody: rich and poor, north and south, people with passports and people with no passports. We need to come together as a society, embrace science, be patient, care about each other and look out for people who are getting hit the hardest by this so we can come out of it. When that happens, travel will spring back, and Europe will be more welcoming than ever.
Q: What's your threshold for traveling again?
A: The Rick Steves style of travel is getting your cheeks kissed in Paris and crowding onto the piazza in Rome. I am not interested in traveling and keeping my distance from everybody. It's a good time right now to enjoy our travel memories and to plan for and dream for future travels, but I am not going to be the first one out of the gate.
Q: Waiting for a vaccine?
A: I am waiting for an age when people can travel across borders with no stress. I am waiting for a time when my country is welcome in other countries. I don't want to go into a country that has done a good job of handling the virus and threaten that because I come from a country that is not doing as well in that regard. I think we will come out of this incrementally. People are traveling locally; in France, it will be the French people going to the French Riviera. Then adventurous individuals will get out there. After that, it will be organized tourism, bus tours and so on.
Q: How can we find authentic experiences post-pandemic?
