Rick Steves Europe Through the Back Door 2012

• Provides current, first-hand recommendations
• Immerses readers in local culture
• Offers the independent traveler organized freedom

Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2012 is a guide to truly experiencing Europe, the way Europeans do, and will guide you through every major country, allowing you to experience Rick Steves' favorite destinations.

Rick Steves' philosophy is that most people go to Europe through the front door, where they're "greeted with cash registers cocked, $5 cups of coffee, and service with a purchased smile." But Steves doesn't want you to have to travel that way. He'd prefer you go in through the back door, where "a warm, relaxed, personable Europe welcomes us as friends." He wants to let you learn from his mistakes instead of your own as you attempt to experience the "real" Europe.

The first half of the book is filled with travel tips on planning your trip, finding local transportation, local money and your budget, sleeping and eating, city skills, women traveling alone, families traveling and seniors and disabled persons traveling. In the second half of Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2012, Rick goes through each country and gives the scoop on his favorite places to go.

Sections of Europe covered in Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2012 include: Italy, Portugal and Spain, Morrocco, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Eastern Europe, Great Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia, Throughout Europe, and the East Mediterranean.