We chose to travel with Rick Steves for Greece very intentionally – and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Why you ask? Let me tell you!
We wanted an active trip – while we are still active.
This wasn’t a “see it from the bus window” kind of journey. It was walking through cities, climbing ruins, wandering archaeological sites, and earning every meal. I averaged 18,000–24,000 steps a day (since I did every side trip I could), and that felt awesome. I wanted to experience Greece with my whole body, not just from a window and certainly not from a single viewpoint of a parking lot. I know there will be a time when that pace won’t be realistic, and I wanted to say yes to it now. Rick Steves tours don’t apologize for the steep pitch of the cobbled streets, nor to the stairs to your room – they prepare you.
We are busy people.
Scott owns a tax preparation business with employees, I’m a web developer, we own a distillery with two other friends, we have a dog, aging parents, and responsibilities …you get it. We love planning travel, but we no longer have the luxury of evenings spent comparing ferry schedules, hotel locations, and museum hours, or weekends to research all the activities, make the reservations etc. Greece has a lot of moving parts – literally and figuratively. Handing the logistics to professionals freed us up to focus on being present, curious, and well-rested enough to actually enjoy it all.
International travel can be challenging. Double the people? That’s … a lot of logistics.
Coordinating flights, arrival times, accommodations, daily plans, dining, and expectations across multiple people can quietly turn into a full-time job. Traveling with Rick Steves removed the friction. Everyone knew where to be, when, and why. We had a plan for meals, entertainment, lodging and great ideas from our guide where to go and what to do if we wanted to explore independently. That structure allowed us to relax into the experience and enjoy each other’s company – without the stress that can sneak in when too many decisions, or unknowns are left hanging.
Because history matters – and the right guides matter even more.
Ever been on a trip where you hired a guide online and they dutifully mumbled their way through a memorized script? Yep. Same. Disappointing doesn’t even begin to cover it. Greece is layered, complex, and astonishingly old. Walking through Delphi, Olympia, or the Acropolis without context would’ve been like skimming the first page of a great book and calling it done. Our guides didn’t just tell us what we were looking at – they explained why it mattered. In some cases, they didn’t just know the material… they literally wrote the book on it. They answered questions we didn’t even know how to ask yet, connected dots I didn’t realize were connectable, and suddenly the ruins weren’t just old buildings. They were stories. Alive & memorable. The kind you can’t wait to retell – and get other people excited about too.
Because Rick Steves travel favors understanding over spectacle.
From what we read and from what our friends had experienced, Rick’s style of travel prioritizes local culture, regional food, walkable cities, and human-scale experiences. It’s not about checking boxes, but about noticing details. Sitting in a town square, or understanding why place looks the way it does.
It’s also about context – like grasping how a culture that hasn’t trusted its government for centuries (and hasn’t always been trusted by it) shapes politics, daily life, and even the small interactions between people. That kind of layered understanding matters to me. At this point in my life, that approach – curious, thoughtful, and grounded – aligns exactly with how I want to travel and make sense of the world.
Because small groups change everything.
Fewer people meant easier movement through crowded places (Athens, I’m talking about you!) better conversations, and more flexibility. It felt personal, not packaged. Our group could debark from our bus on a city street at our destination, instead of having to park and walk an extra mile to and from a parking lot. It meant being able to dine at mom and pop restaurants, not just ones set up for commercial experiences. It meant staying at boutique hotels in central locations that have 30 rooms, not 200. It allowed our guide to take us places, and do things that just wouldn’t work with a larger group.
Because we didn’t want to work at “making it work” – we wanted to experience a vacation
Once we arrived, all we had to do was show up with good shoes, curiosity, and an open mind. The mental load was gone. And that’s a gift when daily life already demands so much attention and decision-making.
The Food
Rick Steves tours won me over on food alone. Eating like a local isn’t a slogan here – it’s the point. That meant meals in small, family-run restaurants serving authentic, regional dishes, not tourist stand-ins. We shared group dinners in thoughtfully chosen spots and, more than once, completely took over a restaurant for the night. It felt intimate, personal, and was incredibly delicious.
The focus was always on fresh, local ingredients: simple salads, just-caught fish when we were near the sea, heartier comfort food in the mountains, and dips, honeys, and breads I’m still thinking about. One of the unexpected bonuses was how much we learned about ordering on our own. After falling hard for a roe-based bread dip at a group dinner, we confidently ordered it every chance we got afterward. (Taramosalata – 10/10, and Greek Orthodox Lenten-friendly to boot.)
Meals on these tours aren’t just about fuel; they’re mini cultural lessons. Victor, our guide, explained what we were eating, why it mattered, how it fit into local traditions – and yes, often chimed in about what we were drinking, too.
Breakfast, of course, is part of the Rick Steves philosophy. You eat well, learn something along the way, and start each day fueled and ready to go. For me and my friends, that’s exactly how travel should taste.
In the end, traveling with Rick Steves gave us exactly what we were hoping for: a physically engaging, intellectually rich, thoughtfully planned experience – one that respected both the destination and the stage of life we’re in right now.