Review of “On the Hippie Trail” by Rick Steves

If you’ve been a regular leisure traveller to Europe since 1980, you’ve probably encountered a Rick Steves travel guide. While he has built his travel guru reputation on his vast experience of European travel, he was once a 23-year-old piano teacher with a yearning to make the journey along the so-called “Hippie Trail” – a route starting in Istanbul and traversing Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Nepal.

It was 1978, and Rick Steves decided that if he didn’t embark on this particular adventure, he would likely live to regret it. His timing was fortunate, as the very next year, political upheaval engulfed Iran and Afghanistan, and the Hippie Trail was no more. But for nearly two months in mid-78, he and his good friend, Gene, backpacked their way from start to finish, with Rick writing in his journals and taking photos the old-fashioned way. Forty-five years later, he decided to share the pivotal experience that took his career path from music teacher to travel expert.

Edited versions of his journals form the basis of the book and guide you along the Hippie Trail through the lens of a curious and questioning young American. Transport options included overcrowded, beat-up old buses (goats welcome too!), overnight trains that defied sleep, bicycles, and sometimes a lift with an obliging local. Accommodation came in the form of hostels, houseboats and hotels they could afford. India in the monsoon season may not be everyone’s idea of fun, but for Steves, it was part of the magic, as was discovering something off the usual tourist track. His original photographs are striking and used liberally throughout the book to illustrate the people and places that caught his eye.

The enduring message at the end of his book is that good travel is more than bucket lists and selfies. In his words, people need to “get their fingers dirty in other cultures, wallop their ethnocentrism and come home with the most valuable souvenir: a broader perspective.”