The Bottom Line
Smithsonian Presents Travels with Rick Steves is a cultural look at Europe's top destinations through the eyes of travel writer Rick Steves, filtered through the editors of Smithsonian magazine. It's a great introduction to experiential travel.
Pros
- Great exposure to Europe's prime destination
- How does a travel writer travel? Well, you'll find a good example in this issue of the magazine
- Lavish photography
Cons
- With such a narrow range of destinations, can Rick Steves keep this thing going?
Description
- The Summer 2010 Premiere issue of Travels with Rick Steves is a slick magazine with sparse advertising and 104 pages.
- Smithsonian Presents Travels with Rick Steves is written by Rick Steves and edited by Smithsonian editors.
- A lavishly illustrated travel magazine that's not a guidebook, but which offers ideas of how travel can be cultural and fun.
Guide Review - Smithsonian Presents Travels with Rick Steves - a Review
I like contrarians. They seem to always make out well in every market. While everyone is abandoning print, Rick Steves and Smithsonian have joined together to bring you a new, slick publication called Smithsonian Presents Travels With Rick Steves.
The premiere issue, available now on newsstands, is written entirely by Rick Steves and edited by Smithsonian editors. If you're a fan of Rick Steves' videos and public television marathons, you won't be surprised by the destinations covered--it's Europe's Top 20 Destinations. You know, the Cinque Terre and the Cotswolds, those sort of places.
What's different about the magazine? Well, we're into the age of experiential travel. You don't just drop your bags at the hotel and take off with a list of museums with boxes you tick off so you can assure your friends you've seen everything worth seeing. The travel according to Rick Steves gospel means getting to the (sometimes political) heart of things.
In his editorial "When in Rome..." Steves expounds on his travel behavior:
"When I'm in Europe, I try to be the best German or Spaniard of Italian I can be. I drink coffee in the United States, but after a long day of sightseeing in England, 'a spot of tea' feels just right."
Steves moves from his behavior to yours in a couple of paragraphs, encouraging you to wedge your way inside a culture so you can enjoy life like a local.
The magazine isn't a guidebook. In "Taking the Waters" Mr. Steves describes the feeling of being an American in the baths of Baden-Baden, of his reluctant nudism and his tension relieving massage--but you'll find no "When You Go" sidebar to go for the facts of how you can play Rick Steves for a day. You'll have to thumb through a guidebook for that.
There are gems here of cultural revolt against the nasty bits of modern life. Steves tells how the long standing mayor of the seventh district saved the Rue Clare in Paris from large scale development, "Because of him, the seventh is a delight." Hurray!
Take a look at Smithsonian Presents Travels with Rick Steves at your local newsstand if you still have one. It's a nice piece of work.
