A great book to travel through Europe, Central America, and the Middle East without leaving your couch. Steves takes you through some less than "safe" touristy places to reveal how travel can change a person's political and social beliefs - mainly by meeting people and talking about some perceptions one has about the place/people. Steves doesn't point fingers; he takes on the idea of travel as a political act by using himself as a guinea pig, in travels outside of those he does for his travel and tours business. Some of what is written here has shown up in two of Rick Steves' travel specials for PBS, but there is more behind the scenes of taping those shows in the book. The one thing about this book I didn't like was that he never wrote about East or South Asia or Latin America. He is an admitted Europhile, so a lot of time reading the book was set in Europe (I wonder what he thinks of the UK formally triggering Article 50 today).
All in all, I really loved his voice and his writing about the personal travel experience being a political act. I want to read more from him in the future.
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