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Rick Steves Is Making One Major Change to His European Guidebooks This Year — for an Important Reason

The newest edition of Rick Steves Eastern Europe is getting a new name.

The guidebook formerly known as “Rick Steves Eastern Europe” will have a new title when the next edition is published later this year.

Rick Steves’ Europe is changing “Eastern Europe” across the brand to “Central Europe,” to better reflect a more geographically accurate name for the region.

Courtesy of Rick Steves' Europe 

When the 11th edition is published, the guidebook will switch over to “Central Europe” as the identifier for the area that includes countries like the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, and Croatia. The change was announced in February and will roll out across the company’s guidebooks, website, and tour itineraries. 

In a recent interview with Travel + Leisure, founder Rick Steves explained why he thought the switch was long overdue.

“From a marketing, publishing, and tourism point of view, we call Central Europe ‘Eastern Europe’ and that’s a hangover from the Cold War,” he said. “That was a 50-year anomaly. Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic got filed away in our minds as Eastern Europe, but that’s really Central Europe.”

In a post announcing the change, guidebook co-author Cameron Hewitt wrote that “Eastern” Europe should really be considered countries like Georgia, Ukraine, and Russia. Prague, often the showcase city of “Eastern” European tours, is actually located to the west of cities like Vienna, Stockholm, and even parts of Italy. 

“The political divide of Europe has changed, of course, and it’s high time guidebooks and tour itineraries do, too,” Hewitt wrote.

The zone is also down in tourism this year, Steves said, because people are worried about the ongoing war in Ukraine. Rick Steves’ Europe is continuing to operate tours in the region as long as it remains safe to do so, and Steves said he plans to film with his TV crew in Poland later this year. 

“It’s unfortunate that people are penalizing the countries that are farther east,” Steves said. “Their economy is hurting because people are staying away.”

While the change might result in some confusion for travelers looking to visit Poland but still searching for “Eastern” Europe trips and tips, Hewitt and those at Rick Steves’ Europe believe the change is worth the risk that come with rebranding. 

Hewitt wrote: “We’ve learned that Rick Steves travelers are savvy, open-minded, and curious enough about our world to hop on board when we lead them toward new places and new ideas.”

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Eastern Europe Tour

We are seriously considering the Eastern Europe tour in 2015. Does anyone have any advice on flights from NY to Prague and back from Ljubljana ? From what I can find, it doesn't look like an easy trek. Looking at late May or June.

You can fly EWR or JFK to Prauge via LHR (British Airways) or FRA (Luftantha) multiple times a day with ease, returning back via Adria toBrussels, and then to EWR or JFK (via Brussles, United, or Delta)

You should seriously consider it! We just returned from this tour 3 weeks ago, and it was excellent!

I did this tour a few years ago. Flew Swiss Air JFK to Zurich, Zurich to Prague then a van, arranged after arrival, into Prague. Return was a shared shuttle from Lake Bled to Ljubljana then Swiss Air to Zurich, Zurich to JFK. Tranfers in Zurich were no problem, airport well signed and easy to follow.

You may have to spend time determining the feasibility of various scenarios. One would be an open jaw into Prague, and returning from say CDG airport or other large airport in Europe that has reasonably priced one-way non-stop flights from Ljubljana. Check the airport and Skyscanner.com to learn of these flights. Perhaps check Adria airlines as well.

We took this tour almost 2 years ago and thought it was great. We flew on frequent flyer miles into Prague and since we couldn't get ff miles out of Slovenia, we took a train to Munich for 3 nights to see the sights there and got our mileage ticket from Munich. I bought the train tickets ahead of time and got a good deal, so it was just an extension of the vacation. Many of the people on our tour took trains to other European cities for a day or so and then flew from there.

Have a great trip! Mimi

Thank you all for the helpful tips. We are working on it.

You may have already booked, but when we went on the tour, we flew with Norwegian air to London (200 dollars) then caught Easy jet to Prague. (saved us tons of money :) Then from Ljubljana we flew Adria air to Frankfurt, then Frankfurt home on Condor air. But Norwegian Air goes to JFK, so you are so lucky!!! Please let me know if you have any questions, that tour is fantastic!!! Nicole

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