In the 1970s, the ultimate trip for any backpacker was the fabled “Hippie Trail” from Istanbul to Kathmandu.
In his latest book, On the Hippie Trail, legendary travel writer Rick Steves tells the story of his own trek as a 23-year old, funded by giving piano lessons. Like a travel writer in training, Steves documented everything along the way: jumping off a moving train, making friends in Tehran, getting lost in Lahore, getting high for the first time in Herat, battling leeches in Pokhara, and much more. The experience ignited his love of travel and forever broadened his perspective on the world.
Rick Steves is one of America’s leading authorities on European travel. His business, Rick Steves’ Europe, has grown from a one-man operation in 1976 to a company with a staff of 100 full-time employees at his headquarters in Washington state. He’s published more than 50 guidebooks on European travel, hosts America's most popular travel series on public television, as well as a weekly hour-long national public radio show and a weekly syndicated column.
