Rick Steves Best of Travels in Europe - Collector’s Case
Beloved PBS personality Rick Steves takes you on a guided tour of Europe and the Mediterranean:
Disc 1: British Isles - North Wales, Edinburgh, Scotland, Dublin and Belfast, Western Ireland, London, Cotswold Villages, and Bath. Extra Features: London Day Trips, Blenheim Palace, Rick’s Back Door Travel Tips.
Disc 2: France - Burgundy, Provence, The Loire Valley, The French Riviera, Paris, The Dordogne, Normandy, Brittany. Extra Features: Paris Day Trips, Limous Wine Festival, Rick’s Back Door Travel Tips.
Disc 3: Spain & Portugal - Madrid and Toledo, Seville and Andalusia, Barcelona to Segovia, Grenada to Tangier, Costa del Sol, Lisbon, Portugal’s Southern Coast, Cape Sagres and Lagos. Extra Features: Alcoy’s Moors and Christians Festival, Gibraltar, Cordoba, Rick’s Back Door Travel Tips.
Disc 4: Germany, Austria & Switzerland - Munich and Bavaria; Berlin and Potsdam; Vienna and the Danube; Salzburg; Austrian Lakes District; Swiss Alps; Western Switzerland; Bern, Murten and Gruyere. Extra Features: Munich’s Oktoberfest; Austrian Christmas Festival; Switzerland’s Fasnacht Festival; and Rick’s Back Door Travel Tips.
Disc 5: Italy - Rome, Naples, The Amalfi Coast, Venice, Florence, Hill Towns of Tuscany, The Italian Riviera, and more. Extra Features: Venice Regatta, Lake Como, Milan, and Rick’s Back Door Travel Tips.
Disc 6: Greece, Turkey, Israel & Egypt - Athens and the Acropolis; The Peloponnese and the Mycenae Palace; The Greek Islands; Central Turkey, Ankara and Cappadocia; Turkish West Coast, Kusadasi and Ephesus; Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and Kibbutz Ein Gedi; Cairo to Luxor; The Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. Extra Features : Gates of Jerusalem; Thessalonika and Greek Monasteries; Istanbul; and Rick’s Back Door Travel Tips.
Rick Steves is the #1 TV Travel Personality in the U.S. and Canada. He has become the acknowledged expert on independent, lower cost travel that purposely wanders off the beaten path. He’s hosted 50 episodes of the popular PBS TV series Travels in Europe, and has written 12 best-selling travel guides, including Europe Through the Back Door.
Customer Review:
My wife and I are very familiar with this series: we watched and taped many of the episodes on cable TV; we used the travel tips and “back door” attractions to plan our own travels and we revisit our tapes frequently, using them a souvenirs. The entire series is friendly, factual, educational and features fine cinematography. All of these virtues have been transferred to the digital medium and…no commercials or breaks for public television fund-raisers! The travel tips, culture, art and history, architecture and scenery are fine, just like the first time around! This time, you can stop the action and still get crisp images of art and architecture.
Questar adds a minimum of “packaging.” The slip case holding the set is flimsy weight paperboard and they have “pumped up” the musical entry to each disk, but inside this wrapper, all is as it should be. Questar includes “special features”: Rick’s “travel tips” segment from the first series is repeated on each disk; a couple of “extras” are not from the Rick Steves series but are well-narrated and very finely photographed items from a generic series. Most “extra” segments are ones that were originally included in the main programs from each series but no harm is done–Questar’s order of presenting the material is logical.
Each destination is given high-quality treatment: there are no “lesser” destinations since Rick selects ones he has visited and revisited…and continues to enjoy. The material on Turkey, for example, was a real surprise–we discovered a rich and varied set of attractions beginning with Greco-Roman remnants. The scenery is spectacular.
Rick and fellow travel-writer, Steve Smith, provide thoughtful, well-written commentary and the whole series illustrates the educational value of open-minded travel to a variety of cultures.
You get 20 hours of quality programming (discounting repeats of the travel tips), so the pricing is still reasonable, just as entertainment. If you make use of Rick’s insights and tips on places to stay, the set is invaluable.
Customer Review: Rick Steves Best of Travels in Europe
What can I say, if Rick’s syle and mode of travel meets your needs, then he is the one to follow.