JOHN YANG: Millions of Americans are expected to go on a European vacation this summer.

And many of those going for the first time are likely to be following the advice of travel writer Rick Steves.

He's the host of "Rick Steves' Europe" on PBS stations.

I traveled to Washington State to sit down with him for our weekend spotlight.

You've got gargoyles.

RICK STEVES: We've got these, I think are the only functioning gargoyles this side of the Mississippi.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): These stone carvings would fit right in on Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

But this is Rick Steves multimillion dollar travel company in Edmonds, Washington, a Seattle suburb.

RICK STEVES: You know, gargoyles do two things.

They, they scare away the evil spirits.

JOHN YANG: Of course.

RICK STEVES: And they also provide a storm drain for when it really rains hard and on a good rainy day, the water comes and the Notre Dame in Paris.

JOHN YANG: Yeah, yeah.

RICK STEVES: At Rick Steves Europe, JOHN YANG (voice-over): Steves researches some of his guidebooks himself.

He spends three months every year in Europe filling notebooks with his observations.

What to see, where to eat, where to stay.

RICK STEVES: So this would have been 2016 and I did Florence, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Venice.

And so I would go and my responsibility was to visit the places in the book with other people helping.

And I would always have my mole scheme and I would jot all my notes and I still, I can't begin to read that now, but I can read my writing for 24 hours and then it expires because I can read that short handy.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): Here in Edmonds, a staff of about 100 works on his best selling guidebooks aimed at first time travelers.

RICK STEVES: Up next, we're going to the Italian Riviera.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): On his podcasts.

RICK STEVES: This is Travel with Rick Steves.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): And on his long running TV series on PBS stations nationwide.

RICK STEVES: Here in Iceland, we experience both the power of nature and the beauty of nature.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): In Europe about 240 guides lead dozens of bus tours each year.

Steve said he discovered the transformative power of travel in 1978, when he was 23.

That summer, he and a friend spent six weeks going from Turkey to Nepal, the storied hippie trail.

RICK STEVES: It was the epic road trip, Istanbul to Kathmandu.

The Beatles were hanging out with the Maharashi India, you know, and it was a perfect time in my life.

I remember this is the last year people could do the hippie trail, 1978.

The next year, the Shah fell and Ayatollah Khomeini turned Iran into a theocracy.

The next year, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.

And as a war zone, you couldn't travel through that, so there's no more hippie trail.

JOHN YANG: But you didn't know that at the time.

RICK STEVES: I didn't know that at the time.

In fact, I was clueless about everything political at the time.

I was just a 23-year-old looking for adventure in the world.

And it was my coming of age trip.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): He kept a journal on that trip and put it away years ago.

But he dug it out during the pandemic.

and I read it and it was vivid, it was candid, it was raw.

It was before I was a travel writer.

And every day, every moment, I'd be capturing vivid details.

To me, it was like somebody nets butterflies as they flitter by.

You know, these when you're traveling, when you're far from home and something really cool happens, you go, this is what just makes my trip sparkle.

But it's gone and there's another one.

And what I wanted to do, I felt this need to write it down so I could save it.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): It was published in February, "On The Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer" made it to the New York Times bestseller list.

RICK STEVES: I have strong mission in my teaching.

I have strong ideas of what carbonates your travel experience.

How can an American best broaden their perspective through travel?

And when I look at this journal, I can see the roots of that passion.

It's a fascinating experience to have written a journal like that and discovered it 45 years later.

This has been Main Street for me ever since I was in seventh grade.

And I don't know when you travel.

It's easy to travel when you know where your home is.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): His family moved to this quiet city on Puget Sound when he was 12.

It's where he practices his own brand of philanthropy and activism.

RICK STEVES: We'll just go out there until the police tell us we can't do it anymore.

But this is -- JOHN YANG: You're not allowed to sit here.

RICK STEVES: Well, we will be allowed to sit here when this is a traffic free piazza in the center of our beautiful little town.

JOHN YANG: So we're engaging in a little civil disobedience.

RICK STEVES: Civil disobedience.

So every once in a while.

Hello.

Every once in a while I like to just sit here and imagine it was traffic free.

Yeah, this is.

I call it the piazza.

You know, in America we need the piazza.

Why is Italy my favorite country?

In one word, piazza.

Communities coming together.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): For Steve's that's the power of travel and his message to encourage it.

RICK STEVES: When you travel, you realize how much we have in common with people.

People across this globe love their gelato.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): He makes numerous public appearances like this one in Bellevue, Washington.

RICK STEVES: We have the American dream.

Not everybody has our dream.

I used to think that would be insulting to us, but it's not.

Sri Lankans have the Sri Lankan dream.

Canadians have the Canadian dream.

And it is not joining us.

JOHN YANG: We also talk about the difference between a tourist and a traveler.

RICK STEVES: A tourist to me is got a bucket list.

You're checking off things, you're getting nice selfies, you're having some great time on the beach, you're hanging out with your own friends, you're changing the weather, but you're not changing your culture.

You see, that's a legitimate kind of travel, but you've got a pretty low bar if that's why you're traveling.

As a teacher, I want to embrace culture shock as a good and constructive thing.

Not something to avoid, but something that is valuable.

Product of thoughtful travel.

It's the growing pains of a broadening perspective.

I just love this notion, John, that you can learn a lot about your home by leaving it and looking at it from a distance.

JOHN YANG: There's a moment in the journal we describe a serendipitous event in India and you say that this is the moment, sort of moment that makes you choose travel.

Can you read that?

RICK STEVES: Yes.

This is really a moment.

On the road out of town, we came upon four beautiful women carrying huge baskets of grass on their heads.

I goofed around with them a bit, discovering that they had a sense of humor.

And then I made my move.

Crouching under the giant hat of hay, I looked a woman right in the eye, sharing the shade of all that hay.

So suddenly, so close together from opposite worlds, yet sharing the same planet with our noses just inches apart.

It was the kind of moment that makes me choose travel.

JOHN YANG: Choose travel?

RICK STEVES: Yeah, choose travel.

Well, that's the kind of moment that travel should be.

It's getting up and close.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): Even then, his breezy writing and keen observations were evident.

There were other dusty journals he hadn't looked at in years.

We asked him to read a page from one of them.

RICK STEVES: I mean, this is my journal from the year before the hippie trail.

July 27, Cairo.

We spent two hours poking in and out of markets, stealing photographs, ignoring what time is it now?

What is your name?

And constant hellos.

After a while, we tended to forget that we had everyone's attention, and even distant honks, screams and hellos were directed at us.

If being famous is like this, I'm glad I'm obscure.

That's a good line.

If being famous, I'm glad I'm obscure.

This is good.

I've never looked at this either, honestly.

Wow.

Wow.

So maybe there's another book there.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): In August 2024, Steve set out on an unexpected journey.

He was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

It's something he talks about openly.

RICK STEVES: My personality, I guess, is to try to look on the bright side of things.

And I thought, I don't know the language.

This is all new to me.

I'm going to learn, I'm going to be okay.

And if I'm not, I've had a good life, you know?

JOHN YANG (voice-over): He was declared cancer free in February just as his book was published.

RICK STEVES: The ships that go out here.

Next stop, Tokyo.

You know, I just love that it's a reminder of a big world.

JOHN YANG (voice-over): From his home overlooking Puget Sound, Steve says he'll continue to preach his message that travel is more than just bucket lists and selfies.

RICK STEVES: You got to get out of your comfort zone.

You got to create a situation where serendipity is constantly knocking on your door.

And then you got to say, yes, come on in.

That's where you get those travel experiences.

That's the best souvenir.

It stays with you for the rest of your life.

It stays with you for the rest of your life.