Travel with Rick Steves

Rick celebrates Christmas with friends from near and far, hearing about holiday traditions from Holland and Hungary, Sicily and Scotland, learning about the unique ways people light up the season in Santa Fe, and discovering how scientists at a research station in Antarctica make merry, plus listeners share some of their favorite Christmas memories from holiday travels. For more information on Travel with Rick Steves - including episode descriptions, program archives and related details - visit www.ricksteves.com.

Rick is introduced to Santa's European relatives including Baba Noël, Grandfather Frost, Saint Nicholas, Krampus, and even Sammi Claus and Schwartzley. Also friends from Madrid, Rome, London and Lisbon discuss their cities' traditions for the Christmas season, and Rick learns how the holidays are celebrated in Bulgaria, the Swiss Alps, Austria and the Low Countries. For more information on Travel with Rick Steves - including episode descriptions, program archives and related details - visit www.ricksteves.com.

It's a tropical party town that hosted some of America's best known writers. William McKeen explains the appeal of Key West during its artistic heyday of the 1970s, and as a resort town today. We'll also explore the advantages of staying at a farmhouse "agriturismo" in Italy, as a relaxing alternative to the busy city scene. And Rick shares listener comments from recent shows. For more information on Travel with Rick Steves - including episode descriptions, program archives and related details - visit www.ricksteves.com.

Rick checks in with a Norwegian team skiing across Antarctica to commemorate the trek of countryman Roald Amundsen; plus, NPR's Steve Inskeep shares what he discovered in the urban muddle of Karachi, Pakistan, and a journalist from The Netherlands outlines political changes on the Dutch horizon. For more information on Travel with Rick Steves - including episode descriptions, program archives and related details - visit www.ricksteves.com.

Jane and Michael Stern share their findings on the best Road Food and authentic regional food specialties they've found around the country and Rick gets a view from the cockpit on ways to help reduce the stress factors associated with flying. For more information on Travel with Rick Steves - including episode descriptions, program archives and related details - visit www.ricksteves.com.

Rick explores the flavorful benefits of street food vendors and decidedly unfancy hang outs and checks in with listener travel reports from the tsunami zone in northeast Japan, as well as Mexico City and East Timor. For more information on Travel with Rick Steves - including episode descriptions, program archives and related details - visit www.ricksteves.com.

Rick checks in with Reverend Jim Wallis and with "The Darwinian Tourist" to discover what they've learned from their travels to far away lands; hears how life is changing for nomadic sheep herders in Turkey; and celebrates cyclist Willie Weir's birthday in Portugal. For more information on Travel with Rick Steves - including episode descriptions, program archives and related details - visit www.ricksteves.com.

Rick discovers the high form of art in Ireland, language, where the works of poets and playwrights add color to parks and pubs. Plus, he gets tips for enjoying speciality museums in Paris, and explores how growing up in Renaissance-era Florence shaped Michelangelo into one of the greatest artists of all time. For more information on Travel with Rick Steves - including episode descriptions, program archives and related details - visit www.ricksteves.com.

Rick learns about the extraordinary measures taken by the citizens of Paris in 1939 to protect thousands of priceless art treasures at the Louvre from the coming Nazi invaders and is introduced to the nation of Malta; listeners share stories about the haunted places they've visited in Europe. For more information on Travel with Rick Steves - including episode descriptions, program archives and related details - visit www.ricksteves.com.

Rick checks in with European tour guides on researching family history in Ireland; listeners discuss meeting relatives in Sweden and Lithuania; and Low Countries Belgium and the Netherlands, where cozy medieval cities or bike rides to the sea are just a short ride away, are examined. For more information on Travel with Rick Steves - including episode descriptions, program archives and related details - visit www.ricksteves.com.