Rick Steves has spent 100 days every year since 1973 exploring Europe. Rick produces a public television series (Rick Steves' Europe), a public radio show (Travel with Rick Steves), and an app and podcast (Rick Steves Audio Europe); writes a bestselling series of guidebooks and a nationally syndicated newspaper column; organizes guided tours that take thousands of travelers to Europe annually; and offers an information-packed website (www.ricksteves.com). With the help of his hardworking staff of 80 at Europe Through the Back Door—in Edmonds, Washington, just north of Seattle—Rick's mission is to make European travel fun, affordable, and culturally broadening for Americans.

» Author’s Website

Steve Smith manages tour logistics for Rick Steves’ Europe Through the Back Door and has been researching guidebooks with Rick for almost two decades. Fluent in French, he’s lived in France on several occasions starting when he was seven, and has traveled there annually for the last 22 years. Steve’s wife, Karen Lewis Smith, who’s an expert on French cuisine and wine, provides invaluable contributions to his books, as do his two children.

Gene Openshaw is a writer, composer, tour guide, and lecturer on art and history. Specializing in writing walking tours of Europe’s cultural sights, Gene has co-authored eight of Rick Steves’s books and contributes to Rick’s public television series. As a composer, Gene has written a full-length opera (Matter), a violin sonata, and dozens of songs. He lives near Seattle with his wife and daughter, and roots for the Mariners in good times and bad.