Rick Steves' Great Britain 2002 [Paperback]

Rick Steves (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 10, 2001 | Series: Rick Steves' Great Britain, 2002

Rick Steves doesn't just list where to travel in Europe, he leads travellers through the "back door", revealing how to give every journey an extra, more authentic dimension. He shows travellers how to delve into European culture, and experience each region's natural wonders - economically and hassle-free. Rick Steves' television series Travels in Europe with Rick Steves is seen on more than 200 public tv channels in the US and Canada

Editorial Reviews

Review

Today's tourists are as likely to be toting Rick Steves as Giorgio Armani, tasting the good life without burning through the Kids' college fund. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 410 pages
• Publisher: Avalon Travel Pub; Revised edition (December 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566913624
• ISBN-13: 978-1566913621
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,996,603 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rick Steves advocates smart, affordable, perspective-broadening travel. As host and writer of the popular public television series Rick Steves' Europe, and best-selling author of 40 European travel books, he encourages Americans to travel as "temporary locals." He helps American travelers connect much more intimately and authentically with Europe -- and Europeans -- for a fraction of what mainstream tourists pay.

Over the past 20 years, Rick has hosted over 100 travel shows for public television, and numerous pledge specials (raising millions of dollars for local stations). His Rick Steves' Europe TV series is carried by over 300 stations, reaching 95 percent of U.S. markets. Rick has also created two award-winning specials for public television: Rick Steves' European Christmas and the ground-breaking Rick Steves' Iran. Rick writes and co-produces his television programs through his company, Back Door Productions.

Rick Steves also hosts a weekly public radio program, Travel with Rick Steves. With a broader approach to travel everywhere, in each hour-long program Rick interviews guest travel expert, followed by listener call-ins. Travel with Rick Steves airs across the country and has spawned a popular podcast. Rick has also created a series of audio walking tour podcasts for museums and neighborhoods in Paris, Rome, Florence and Venice (with more tours, including London, coming in 2010).

Rick self-published the first edition of his travel skills book, Europe Through the Back Door (now updated annually), in 1980. He has also written more than 40 other country, city and regional guidebooks, phrase books, and "snapshot" guides. For several years, Rick Steves' Italy has been the bestselling international guidebook sold in the U.S. In 2009, Rick tackled a new genre of travel writing with Travel as a Political Act, reflecting on how a life of travel has broadened his own perspectives, and travel can be a significant force for peace and understanding in the world. Rick's books are published by Avalon Travel, a member of the Perseus Books Group.

In addition to his guidebooks, TV and radio work, Rick is a syndicated newspaper columnist with the Tribune Media Services. He appears frequently on television, radio, and online as the leading authority on European travel.

Rick took his first trip to Europe in 1969, visiting piano factories with his father, a piano importer. By the time he reached 18, Rick jokes, "I realized I didn't need my parents to travel!" He began traveling on his own, funding his trips by teaching piano lessons. In 1976, he started Europe Through the Back Door (ETBD), a business which has grown from a one-man operation to a company with a well-traveled staff of 70 full-time employees. ETBD offers free travel information through its travel center, website (www.ricksteves.com), European Railpass Guide, and free travel newsletters. ETBD also runs a successful European tour program with more than 300 departures -- attracting around 10,000 travelers -- annually.

Rick is outspoken on the need for Americans to fit better into our planet by broadening their perspectives through travel. He is also committed to his own neighborhood. He's an active member of the Lutheran church (and has hosted the ELCA's national video productions). He's a board member of NORML (working to reform marijuana laws in the USA). And Rick has provided his local YWCA with a 24-unit apartment building with which to house homeless mothers.

Rick Steves spends about a third of every year in Europe, researching guidebooks, filming TV shows, and making new discoveries for travelers. He lives and works in his hometown of Edmonds, Washington, where his office window overlooks his old junior high school.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great guidebook! Don't leave home without it!, April 26, 2002

By 

Steven Dennis (Reston, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rick Steves' Great Britain 2002 (Paperback)

Rick Steves' travel philosophy is to travel better by traveling cheaper and closer to the people. If your idea of a dream vacation is sleeping on the eighth floor of a high-rise hotel for a fortune every night, this is the wrong book for you. If your idea of wonderful is to sleep in an exquisite four-poster bed at a Scottish B&B owned by a pleasant old lady who will talk to you for hours, all for about fifty bucks a night -- buy this book. Steves has three big strengths, which are all at work in this book: The most important, by far, is the accomodations. Steves consistently finds amazingly good buys among centrally located B&Bs with friendly owners. The only problem is that everybody knows this, so getting a room on short notice in the summer at one of his spots can be dicey. The second big strength is the practical guides to sights, which include lots of interesting little details that you won't find elsewhere while telling you in no-uncertain terms which sights are must sees and which ones you should skip. Over time, his picks may not always coincide with yours -- but I almost always found his stuff on-target. The third big-strength is Steves' travel philosophy, which is especially helpful to first-time travelers (or those venturing away from the Hilton for the first time). I highly recommend that you also check out Europe Through the Back Door, Steves' classic magnum opus, now in its 19th Edition.

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very comprehensive, shoots from the hip, January 29, 2002

By 

Todd Post (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Rick Steves' Great Britain 2002 (Paperback)

I actually got this book because I am going on a Rick Steves' "Best of London" tour later this year. We booked a couple of days before and after the tour to do some stuff on our own in England, and after browsing several books (Fodor's, Lonely Planet, etc.) in bookstores, I settled on Rick's book.

My reasoning wasn't that I was going on one of his tours, it truly was the best book I saw on the shelves. The book isn't dominated by details on London, exactly what I wanted. In fact, Rick suggests you make London the last part of your tour. Why is this a good thing? There are plenty of books that focus on London itself, in fact every tour book I listed before has one. It would be like a foriegn traveler coming to the United States for a couple of weeks and only getting a book on Washington DC.

Being that I've never been out of the United States before, I'm a little wary of making reservations and plans without seeing what I'm getting into first. So not only do you get candid reviews on the sites (rated "must see", "try to see", "see if you can", "worth noting"...and sections on what is a waste of time), information on how to get there, where to eat, but most importantly web pages to check out before hand.

What's best is that Rick Steves is frank...doesn't sugar coat what is good and what is bad, what is a must see and what is a must avoid. I feel more confident making reservations and plans with this book than I would have with others.

41 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for beginners, March 25, 2002

By 

sootica "sootica" (Encinitas, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rick Steves' Great Britain 2002 (Paperback)

I'll be going on my second trip to England this summer, and I thought that I would use this book a lot. I had used the London guide two years ago and was very happy with it. But I bought the book a few weeks ago, and I'm kind of disappointed. Since I've already been to England, and know some of what I want to see, this book isn't all that helpful. I don't need just a list of the normal tourist stuff in Edinburgh, or Bath. I think that Rick Steves is great at helping people try to travel on their own, without a tour group, but I don't think that his choice of places to visit are particularly original, or complete. He seems to really like Bath and Blackpool, but totally ignores some of my favorite places in England, such as Canterbury Cathedral. Also, although his directions to finding places in London are great, and he does give some information about each site, he doesn't give nearly enough background information about places to suit me. His directions to places outside of London are not nearly as helpful. If you're an experienced traveler in England, this book is not for you. If you're going for the first time, I'd buy this book for the directions to places and accomodations lists, and to help narrow down choices of places to visit, and then I'd look at other guidebooks to get more in-depth information for specific sites. I'd recommend the Dorling-Kindersley guide to London for starters. His sense of humor is terrific, and I appreciate his honesty about some of the things that he doesn't like, but I need more information than is available here. Spend some time on the internet, looking up things you're interested in, and researching, along with another guidebook or two, and you'll be much happier with your trip to England than you would be if you just relied on this book.