Travel virgins, Rick Steves wants to deflower you. The travel expert will foot the bill of your very first passport, which usually goes for $135, to get you to go overseas.

Steves wants to encourage first-time jet-setters to go outside of America's borders, boasting the "life-changing, perspective-broadening value of travel" on his website. Of course, he isn't just going to fork over the money. The deal is only good for those who take one of Steves' 2011 tours. The tours, which attract 10,000 travelers a year, schlep all over Europe, including Scandinavia, Russia, Spain, England, Germany, Greece and Italy.]]> Jennifer Kester 2011-03-08T09:01:38-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2011/3/3/3115/32001

Travel junkies can hang with their more-well-known peers, like Samantha Brown, Arthur Frommer and Rick Steves at the 13th annual Los Angeles Times Travel & Adventure Show. The globetrotting group will gather at the Los Angeles Convention Center on March 19 and 20 for the biggest travel show in the West, with more than 20,000 expected to attend.

Among the headliners, Frommer will chat about "Thinking Outside the Suitcase—Injecting New Life Into Your Vacation Plans," Brown will impart "Lessons from the Road & a Life on the Go" and Steves will give budget travel tips in Europe (of course he will).]]> Jennifer Kester 2011-03-03T09:21:35-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/10/3/153627/150

One of my favorite travel-related novels is Graham Greene's 1939 murder mystery Brighton Rock, because Greene summarizes better than any other writer why people go through the trouble of traveling. In its first pages, he describes the difficulties lower-class Londoners went through for a day at the beach, standing in packed carriages from Victoria and returning home in the bleary hours of morning.

In one of the most beautiful sentences I've read, he explains why they do it:

"With immense labour and immense patience they extricated from the long day the grain of pleasure: this sun, this music, the rattle of the miniature cars, the ghost train diving between the grinning skeletons under the Aquarium promenade, the sticks of Brighton rock, the paper sailors' caps." ]]> Victor Ozols 2009-10-03T15:36:27-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/3/21/143657/392

After I graduated from college in 1992, I moved to Latvia for a couple of years to do the expat thing. As I criss-crossed the continent in search of further adventures, I held my trusty copy of Let's Go: Europe close, relying on it to point me toward the best hostels, museums, and cheap restaurants. Let's Go served me well, and I won't speak ill of it, but when a fellow backpacker shared with me an early copy of Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door, I never looked back. I felt Steves' Back Door guides not only contained better practical information, but helped me become a better traveler myself. ]]> Victor Ozols 2009-03-21T14:36:57-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/2/8/231035/6097

The New York Times held their annual travel show at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City this weekend. The show caters to both travel professionals and those looking for a deal on their next vacation. Booking stations throughout the exhibition floor let travelers book cruises, international tours or a spa vacation.

The show also lets the novice traveler learn form the best in private seminars hosted by Rick Steves, Arthur Frommer and Samantha Brown. Most of the destinations represented also showcase their unique cultural through food, dancing or everyone’s favorite, freebies.

Walking the floor of the NYT Travel Show it became clear that this year’s political message of taking personal responsibility is being reflected in the year’s travel trends too. Philanthropic Travel, Eco-Travel and given the status of today's economy, less expensive local journeys all took center stage at this year’s show. ]]> cmb 2009-02-09T09:01:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/8/18/13500/9208

Guidebook guru and pot promoter Rick Steves just left the Netherlands, and he's got a substantial update on the marijuana scene in Amsterdam. First things first: Don't bother calling an ambulance after smoking too much because the EMTs will just tell you to walk it off!

But the big news is what's changed thanks to a new smoking ban--that prohibits indoor tobacco smoking but gives marijuana puffers a pass:

The Dutch, like the rest of Europe, mix their marijuana with tobacco. It might seem strange to an American, but if a coffeeshop is busted--it's busted for tobacco. Shops are mixing a kind of herb tea as a tobacco substitute for joints. Coffeeshops with a few outdoor seats have a huge advantage as their local customers can light up outside....

Many local smokers would rather get their pot to go than smoke it without tobacco at their neighborhood coffeeshop.

Thank heavens for American vice tourists then!

Related Stories:
· Lessons Learned in an Amsterdam Coffee Shop [Rick Steves]
· No Impulse Buying Magic Mushrooms [Jaunted]
· Drug Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: jlantzy]]]> pbb 2008-08-18T14:05:12-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2007/8/24/12166/6757 This quick hit list is all about pop culture travel trends in real-time. Six bits of travel pressed, dry candy pixels for you to digest weekly.

Fame
	Comedy Central Airs Colbert-Branson Water War
	Rick Steves: Legalize It!
	Google Cracks Open the Space Travel Market

Lame
	China Airlines Photoshopping Real Life
	Spirit Airlines Still Figuring Out Email
	Puffer Fish Masquerading as Salmon

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