Travel Expert Rick Steves Cautions Against Vacationing In The New Year

Virus Outbreak Travel — Employees wearing protective face masks unload a Delta plane at Minneapolis−Saint Paul International Airport, Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020, in St. Paul, Minn.

Hannah Uebele is a producer for Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and previously worked as associate producer for Boston Public Radio. She graduated from Tufts University with a B.S. in English and Environmental Studies. She's a proud Delawarean but has found herself saying "wicked" more and more often, so the Bostonian metamorphosis is well underway.Contact: hannah_uebele@wgbh.org

December 21, 2020

Updated August 07, 2023

Travel expert Rick Steves spoke with Boston Public Radio on Monday about the future of the travel business now that COVID-19 vaccines are available.

"Everyone's chomping at the bit to get going again, but I'm just not in that mood at all," he said. "We're so excited to get traveling again. It's going to happen. But it's just inefficient and emotional torture to be starting and stopping, and we've just got to get a grip on this pandemic."

Steves said his tour groups hope to start up again in late August of 2021, but that's if all goes well.

"Anybody who's booking tickets right now for next year, I wouldn't do it," he said. "It's not worth the emotional stress. I hope and pray we'll be traveling by the end of 2021, but in the meantime I'm just going to stay home and then travel with gusto once we're able to again."

Rick Steves is an author, television and radio host, and the owner of the Rick Steves' Europe tour group. You can catch his television show, "Rick Steves’ Europe" on weeknights at 7:30 p.m. on GBH 2 and his radio show, “Travel With Rick Steves,” Sundays at 4 p.m. on GBH.