The Massive Difference Between A 'Tourist' And A 'Traveler,' Per Rick Steves

Rick Steves told the The New York Times that one can travel like a tourist, a traveler, or a pilgrim. The tourist typically seeks relaxation, entertainment, and escape from the routines of daily life through superficiality and, sometimes, frivolity. They prioritize fun over deeper connection and may depend on curated tours or package vacations to see the best beaches, landmarks, and restaurants that get overexposed not just in guidebooks, but on travel blogs and on social media feeds. "There's this sort of spirit of crowdsourcing: I just want to know what everybody's doing, and then that's what I'm going to do," Steves said. Often, tourists are "people who blitz in by cruise ships or tour buses, that stay in a big, modern hotel outside of the city, and the people don't leave anything in the town except their congestion."

Travelers, by contrast, are in search of more thoughtful experiences. "Most travelers I know, they're proud to be known as a traveler as opposed to a tourist: 'I'm more thoughtful — I'm not just here to shop and get a selfie. I'm here to immerse myself in the culture and learn,'" Steves said. In short, it is the traveler's goal to become a "temporary local" and experience real people, real food, and real culture. Travelers gladly eschew comfort for authenticity and want to live in the culture they're exploring. One tip that makes a good traveler, Steves says, is meeting the people whose culture you're experiencing.

There is a third and less common type of traveler that Steves talks about: the pilgrim. "A pilgrim learns about themselves, and you learn about yourself by leaving your home and looking at it from a distance," he said. To travel as a pilgrim, Steves explained, you try to get closer to God through your travels.

In his interview with The New York Times, Rick Steves discussed his 2025 book "On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer." The book is adapted from a journal Steves wrote when he embarked on an epic journey in 1978 at the age of 23. Young Steves hit the "hippie trail," traveling by bus from Istanbul to Kathmandu. Steves was a piano teacher at the time, but that started to change as he wrote a 60,000-word journal during the trip. After that, the young man began his life as a "travel teacher."

Steves said his challenge as a writer and broadcaster is to inspire people to be thoughtful. He said he wants to get people out into the world and let it impact them. In other words, Steves is trying to make travelers, not tourists, and he has invested considerable knowledge to achieve that. That's why Rick Steves' tours focus so much on local, authentic experiences and why the most luxurious thing he thinks you should splurge for on vacation isn't a fancy hotel or first-class airfare, but a knowledgeable tour guide.

If you want to try and be a traveler and avoid being an "ugly tourist," leave the selfie sticks at home — or, better yet, don't buy one at all. Respect local customs, too, from adjusting your volume in public to wearing appropriate clothes in sacred buildings. Try to meet the people in the cultures you're traveling through, try to speak their language, and don't just go see things because they're popular. "The Colosseum in Rome is chaos," Steves said. "A 15-minute walk away, the Baths of Caracalla are just as an impressive example of Roman engineering. A beautiful, peaceful place, never crowded at all."