Ditch Rick Steve’s “time=money” formula – your trip to Europe is much more than a cost per hour calculation
Written by Karen Bryan
I was horrified to read Rick Steves forumla for “time=money”, in his article “European travel is still within reach for the savvy“. To work our your trip cost per hour you divide the total cost of your trip by the number of waking hours you spend in Europe.
Crowds at The Louvre by jmacmullin
Now I’m all for getting the most from your budget when travelling in Europe by finding cheap flights, the lowest accommodation price, travelling off peak etc. However if you apply the “time=money” rationale, you’ll try to cram in far too much and ending up not really seeing anything properly. Why not stay up all night to save on the overnight accommodation, pack in even more and reduce your cost per hour?
To generalise, I think that most North American visitors to Europe already try to fit in far too much. In these days of economic downturn, it’s even more tempting to think if I’m in Europe anyway, I may as well see the whole place.
What’s your opinion? Do you adhere to Nick Steve’s time=money formula or do you believe in a more leisurely, holistic approach to travel in Europe?
Totally with you on this one Karen. Life is not just there to be lived at a million miles an hour. It needs to be savoured. Its not the continental way, look at the service in the restaurants, meals are things to take time over, and the cafe culture.
Clive – yes travel is something to be savoured, I love Jan Morris’s take on travel, “The best way to find out about a place is wander around. Wander around, alone, with all your antennae out thinking about what’s happening and what you see and what you feel.”
Now on a value driven, time=money trip you just wouldn’t have time for anything like that.
While I’m a slow kind of guy, I really cant’ find anything objectionable in the article you cited. Here’s the complete “time is money” paragraph:
When you travel, time really is money. (Divide the complete cost of your trip by your waking hours in Europe, and you’ll see what I mean. My cost: $15 per hour.) Don’t waste your valuable time in lines. I queue as little as possible. In Europe’s most crowded cities (especially Paris, Rome and Florence), easy-to-make reservations and museum passes, which pay for themselves in four visits, let you skirt the long ticket lines. If it costs $1 to use your cell phone to confirm museum times but it saves you trekking across town to discover the site is closed, that’s a buck very well spent. And sometimes, calculated “splurges” save both time and money: A taxi ride split by four people can cost less than four bus tickets.
Really, all those suggestions are good ones and they’re the kind of thing that I have to remind myself about sometimes. It really is worth a little extra to avoid lining up for three hours to get into a museum, or possibly even missing the museum entirely (assuming, of course, it’s a museum that you really want to see).
And Rick Steves tends to write for a different demographic than me and, I assume, you. He writes for people who are quite possibly going to make one two or three week trip to Europe in their lives.
I didn’t read his article as advocating wild dashing around. In fact, with his emphasis on keeping on eye out for “free” detours of interest it sounds like he’s advocating the kind of slower, unplanned travel that I prefer.
Larry – thanks for your comment. Yes Rick Steves does give some good advice but I just felt that the time is money formula just feeds into the “pack it all in” approach to “doing” Europe adopted by many North American travellers. There are so many articles at the moment saying you can still see Europe despite the recession and even more pressure to squeeze more value from the travel dollar.
I can see what Larry’s saying, it’s not all that offensive, but it still makes my skin crawl :-) I guess I’m just an idealistic, slow traveller who doesn’t like to consider too many aspects of travel in $ terms, and certainly not $/hr terms, it sounds way too business-like and travel should be the opposite of that.
Amanda – thanks for your comment. Yes I do consider the overall cost of a trip and strive for value for money because my travel budget is not umlimited. However the cost per waking hour is a step too far for me.
As someone who has been on Rick’s tours, met Rick, and disagreed with him on things, you truly need to understand his perspective on this. As part of his tours, there is built in time for every single city for people to do whatever they want. Not everything is an organized tour. He STRONGLY encourages people to explore on their own with no agenda from him whatsoever.
Connecting with people, going off on your own, and just exploring is not just an important aspect of his tours or guidebooks – it is ESSENTIAL for visiting Europe. Karen, Rick would agree with you completely. Travel is not about money but when you are traveling from the US, have to get an expensive flight, have very limited time, and this may be the only chance you ever have to see Europe, then the time and money factor is important.
All in all, I don’t think his travel philosophy is different than most of yours. However, for Americans, time and money is an important factor because our opportunities to travel to Europe are limited and expensive.
Karen,
Rick encourages getting lost and living like locals when possible. But in order for us to have time to do these things, Rick provides tips that help eliminate wasting “precious” time. Standing in line for tickets versus reserving them ahead of time or purchasing them at a stand only locals know about is smart and allows us to experience more authentic time with locals rather than lines with other tourists.
Many Americans only get 2 weeks each year for vacation AND sick time combined. 2 of those days are required to travel to and from Europe. 1 day is spent jet lagged, unpacking, packing, checking into hotels, getting our bearings, etc. 3 days down and thousands of dollars spent to experience Europe means we need to make the most of our time there.
If we could take weekend trips to Europe – then yes, time really wouldn’t be a factor. What we don’t see this trip, we’ll see next month. But for Americans, that means years away as time/money limit distance travel for many.
Rick Steves changes tourists into travelers and is passionate about his love for Europe. I spent an hour with him on his radio show and he genuinely cares about travelers respecting locals and experiencing Europe in the very little time that is reality for us. Seriously – Rick Steves is the opposite of shoving as much in just to say you’ve been there.
Read that article again- you might see a different side of it if you read it from an American perspective (who his audience is).
I hope this helps to understand him and his travel writing.