Rick Steves' Favorite State In America For River Rafting Adventures

We all think we know Rick Steves. He's been dispensing some of the most admired and well-researched European travel advice and information for nearly 50 years. He's gone out of his way to provide his audience with top travel tips, from telling us how to get organized to advice for living in Europe like a temporary local. Yet, while our European vacations benefit from his advice, Steves prefers to do his vacationing at home in the U.S. In an interview with Travel and Leisure, he mentions that one of his favorite things to do is river rafting in Idaho.

River rafting is far removed from Steves' normal "day job," which is why he finds the sport so enjoyable. And it's not just the rivers Steves loves about Idaho. In a blog entry, Steves praises the family-friendly city of Boise (the unofficial foodie capital of the Northwest), saying, "There are so many active things to do here, from skiing to river rafting."

Steves, who is a resident of Washington State and has a cabin in the Cascade Mountains, is no stranger to the great outdoors. His domestic travel series on Whatcom County, Washington, shows an outdoorsy side to Steves that longtime viewers rarely get to see. So, is it any wonder that this European travel guru likes to take to the rapids every once in a while?

Idaho has no shortage of rivers that contain world-class whitewater rapids. The Snake River, which flows from Washington into Idaho, is one of the most famous rafting and angling rivers in the northwest. It includes iconic rapids like Hells Canyon, Granite Rapids, and Wild Sheep Rapids, which waffle between Class IV and V depending on the season and water flow. The Snake River connects with another exciting waterway, the Salmon River. This winding watercourse passes through the little-known city of Salmon, with outdoor thrills and a thriving downtown, and is the longest free-flowing river in the contiguous U.S. at 425 miles long.

On an episode of his podcast and radio show, Rick Steves shares his favorite rafting outfitter, River Odysseys West, also called ROW. The company offers multi-day rafting trips down the Snake, Salmon, Rouge, and Deschutes Rivers. The trips vary from family-friendly adventures on lower-class rapids to intense treks down the higher-class flows. Prices for trips vary depending on length, but you can expect to pay around $1,000 to get into one of ROW's rafts. It's a steep fee, but considering the length of the trips, insurance costs, and intensity of the waters, their prices are more than fair.

So, if you're ever in Idaho for a rafting trip with ROW, maybe you'll get lucky and run into Rick Steves. Then you can ask him about his favorite and least favorite places in Europe. But you might be having too much fun on the rapids to be worrying about that.