Last week on the PBS program Amanpour & Co., travel writer Rick Steves discussed his experiences hiking through Eastern Europe in the 70’s. He’s promoting a new book called On The Hippie Trail, but his primary theme in both the book and this interview is that travel can be a force for peace in this world.

And because of that experience, I have always believed that it is a beautiful thing to get out there and get to know the world. That’s so fundamental.

I have been aware that we in the United States are about 4% of humanity. 96% is out there. And with that perspective, I have built my career as a travel writer and tour organizer and TV host on Public Television.

And I’ve got a mission. And my mission is to equip and inspire Americans to venture beyond Orlando.

Steves goes on to say the real value in travel comes from “getting away from home and looking at it from a distance”. People who are afraid of visiting unfamiliar places need to realize that most of the world is “no more dangerous than when we stay home”.

“Fear is for people who don’t get out very much.”

The interviewer pushes back by noting that overseas travel by Americans has been way up in the past twenty or thirty years. Yet it doesn’t seem to help since there has also been a “wellspring of nationalism going on” in the US and Western Europe.

Steves correctly points out “it depends on how you travel”.

If somebody is just jetting around going to golf courses and going to casinos and resorts on the beach, they’re not having a transformational experience.

It occurred to me there is a hierarchy of travel needs.

And lately I’ve realized that the pinnacle of that Maslow’s hierarchy of travel needs is what I call travel as a political act. Intentionally getting out of your comfort zone, intentionally encountering culture shock.

I think it’s wrong to try to avoid culture shock. Culture shock to me is a constructive thing. It is the growing pains of a broadening perspective, and it needs to be curated.

Culture shock is not joining the mobs around sights you’ve probably already seen. The Eiffel Tower, Buckingham Palace, The Colosseum.

Anyway, there is much more to the interview and it’s well worth 18 minutes of your time.

As to Steves’ new book, I haven’t read it yet.¹ I can, however, highly recommend his 2018 book “Travel as a Political Act: A Radical Guide to Meaningful Travel”. It is very unlike Steves’ guides and PBS shows with which most people are familiar.

Reading it would likely offend a whole lot of the isolationists and anti-foreigner crowd we currently have screwing up the country.

But maybe – just maybe – a few might gain a little insight on why connecting with even a small part of the other 96% of the world might be good for everyone. Especially them. 

1. I have downloaded the free sample from Amazon. But if/when I decide to buy, it will be through an independent bookseller. We are fortunate to have several in the DC area that are also nice places to just hang out, and they deserve the business far more than that online behemoth.