Rick Steves, travel guru, to appear at Kane
October 28, 2004
When planning a trip to Europe on a shoestring budget, Rick Steves advises you to pack light and fly "open-jawed."
The nationally renowned travel writer and television host has been dispensing frugal wisdom for the European-bound traveler for the past 25 years. Tonight, however, the travel expert won't be sharing tips on experiencing Paris without breaking the bank; rather he will discuss the importance of traveling abroad at 7 p.m. in Kane 120.
"Globetrotting destroys ethnocentricity. It helps you understand and appreciate different cultures. Travel changes people. It broadens perspectives and teaches new ways to measure quality of life," wrote Steves on his Web site.
Steves is scheduled to focus on current issues in the relationship between the United States and Europe and implications for Americans traveling abroad. According to Steves, travel brings mutual understanding among different people.
Organizers of the event, the Center for West European studies, hope that the talk will peak people's interest in European politics and culture.
"We hope that the audience will enjoy the opportunity to hear Rick Steves discussing some of the broader themes relating to the travel experience and its benefits for better understanding between Europeans and Americans," said Dean LaRue, an outreach assistant for the group.
Steves, a 1978 history graduate of UW, has parlayed his enthusiasm for travel into a tourism empire. He has written 30 books and hosted more than 100 travel shows on public television.
Steves will debut episodes of his show Rick Steves' Europe this fall. Along with the media exposure, his touring company, Europe Through the Back Door, takes 6,000 Americans to Europe each year.
While wide gapes will definitely get you noticed at airports, they won't get you deals on airfare, he said. Steves said the economical way to fly Europe was to plan a detailed itinerary and buy "open-jaw," or one-way tickets, to your destinations.
He said that returning to America from Amsterdam is $200 cheaper than it would be from Istanbul. So traveling by train from Istanbul to Amsterdam and taking a flight home would be more economical than flying to the U.S. from the Turkish capital. Planning airline travel in this fashion can make seeing the European continent quicker.
"Open-jaw is cheapest when the same airline covers each segment of the round-trip journey," Steves wrote on his Web site.
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