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Rick has made a real investment in both his travel team and making sure to neutralize his carbon footprint. He has kept his local guides on payroll and continued to donate to the organizations his team has selected to help mitigate their carbon footprint despite not having traveled now with his business for over a year. His passion for travel has also made him a dedicated citizen of the world.

He believes that “Travel makes it harder for propaganda to dehumanize others.”

Once we relate to others through exploring their communities and getting to know them we can see a more human side to people and issues. He thinks that by learning together and exploring communities and cultures we can have a greater impact.

“Travel can be a force for peace.”

For those planning their next big travel experience when it is safe and possible his greatest advice is:

“Embrace the local tempo.”

He believes we truly travel and explore a place through getting involved in local customs, daily life, and experiences, whether that is a nip of whiskey at the end of the night in Scotland, or watching the sunset with the local liquor, ouzo, in Greece. Rick thinks travelers should strive to find what is meaningful in each country to experience and truly live. Every country for him has a local tradition and ritual that he truly believes brings it to life. Small things that he doesn’t do at home, but always does there.

For example, “[In Greece] every sunset is a devotional.”

For those looking to travel a bit more like Rick he has a couple key recommendations:

1. Value Your Time: If possible value your time traveling over savings.  We have so little time to really travel. Rather than saving 5 dollars but spending an extra 2 hours to go by train rather than rent a car, plan to splurge a bit on your next trip. Most importantly value your time!
   
2. Hire A Local Guide: Rick thinks local guides are well worth the price. They allow travelers to really experience the culture and explore, especially in less touristic places or where you may not speak the same language. Joining together with other travelers to offset the costs of local guides can be a great way to get a local experience for a great price!
   
3. Travel For People: Who makes all the difference in travel is who you know, not always what you see. People are the experiences we tend to remember from a trip so take the opportunities to really learn from the local people. That’s what will make the most meaningful memories.

Not everyone has as much experience meeting people as Rick Steves so he offered some advice to those traveling who want to get to know locals.

“Sit at the bar. They will know you are there to talk.”

In many countries he notes that the bar is a local community center. People tend to leave you alone if you grab a table but understand that you are open to talk if you are at the bar. This can be a great way to get to know people.

To learn more sign up for GetSetUp to see a rerun of the chat on GetSetUp TV.

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Rick loved the great questions from GetSetUp learners and stayed an extra half an hour chatting with Co-Founder Lawrence and Virtual Front Row Participants.

This month we have a special travel theme every day with a new topic each week. You can see the curated classes at https://www.getsetup.io/series/travel