Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2006: The Travel Skills Handbook [Paperback]

Rick Steves (Author)

Book Description

Series: Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door | Publication Date: September 2005

Offering a charming introduction to European travel based on the popular PBS travel series, these entertaining travel guides provide inside information on where to visit, what to see and do, where to stay, great places to eat, and how to get around quickly and economically, along with a close-up look at local culture, self-guided walking tours, fun

Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing; Revised edition (September 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566917212
• ISBN-13: 978-1566917216
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,204,785 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A liberating travel philosophy, January 20, 2006

By 

Philip Bewley (San Francisco, ca. United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2006: The Travel Skills Handbook (Paperback)

This book makes you want to go to Europe.Now.Just get on the plane and GO!
I wish I had read this eleven years ago on our first trip to Italy.Since that time I have travelled to Europe on business many times and I have to agree with Rick Steves that no one ever says " every time I go to Europe I pack more".
His travel philosopy addresses peoples fears and insecurities when they are travel..."I won't have a certain piece of clothing,object when I might want it...better take it just in case" or "a less expensive hotel may be dirty ,unsafe...I know this luxury hotel will bust the bank, but its worth it for piece of mind." That kind of thing.Rick Steeves describes clean,charming hotels and pensiones which are centrally located and much less expensive than "luxury" properties. his restaurants are not dives, but great trattorias,atmospheric ristorantes popular with the locals.He is wonderfully opinionated about what to see,when to go...like having a best friend who lives there. No guidebook( and I have read them all) combines such practical advice with a travel philosophy which is positively liberating.This is especially true for older travellers who do not want to backpack,hostel, and who thought they had to stay in the "best" places, and wear a different outfit everyday. Our next trip to Italy will be with one carry-on bag each, staying in Rick Steves suggested family run pensiones and hopping on and off trains between destinations. We feel 20 years younger(and we will be 20 pounds lighter,too)

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn to be cultured... the fun and easy way, December 11, 2005

By 

Ramulin (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2006: The Travel Skills Handbook (Paperback)

When I first read the 2001 edition of this book, it made the trip of my dreams possible. Like many, I had thought about a planning a trip to Europe on my own, but it seemed a bit scary, foreign and incomprehensible. Bus tours were one alternative, but I didn't want the crass commercialism and quick pace of the "checklist tourism" that one usually gets on bus tours (German castle "check!", French wine "check!", picture with Leaning Tower of Pisa "check!", saw the Mona Lisa "check!", ok, vacation was good).

This book showed me that it is not only possible, but easy to put together a fun, safe and relatively inexpensive vacation on my own that would allow me to choose things I found most interesting and to experience the most remarkable aspect of travel: the people.

While it's validating to take your picture in front of the Eiffel Tower (to prove you've been there...), or see famous works of art... what does it really mean?

To me, travel is about experiencing something that's different from my everyday life. It's about drinking a stein of good German beer in a Munich brew-house while talking with a local about what their life is like; it's about dancing with a French woman at a small tango dance on the shore of the Seine... while tourist boats go by, thinking how happy I am to be here rather than on a tourist boat.

When you travel this way, you get to know how other people think. You may realize the same two things I did: that people in other countries are more like us than we realize, and at the same time, our way of doing things isn't the only way.

Reading this book will open up an understand of the world that would be difficult to get any other way. I highly recommend this as a graduation gift and for your own personal reading.

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I happen to disagree with the other reviewer. While Rick Steve draws many contrasts between his style of tourism (individuals becoming "temporary locals" in a foreign country), I never got the sense he was as critical of Americans as this other reviewer suggests. If this reviewer is one of those Americans who goes to Europe complaining that it's hard to find a McDonald's or that things are different from their home town ... he's missing a key point of travel: to go someplace different!

As a reader, and hopefully a new world traveller, you will find, though, that as you develop an awareness of alternatives through travel abroad, you may find things you like about the way people in other countries live, adding them to your life when you return home. This is the lasting reward that good travel will give you.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful, December 18, 2005

By 

N. Broodie - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2006: The Travel Skills Handbook (Paperback)

Absolutely fantastic book. It goes over everything associated with travel, like how to avoid getting sick, how to plan the best trip, and whether to fly or take the train. I first checked it out at my library but there was so much useful information I'm now buying one off amazon. It doesn't have pictures though just so you know. I highly recommend this reading this book before departure.