Right now is a profoundly unhappy working day. Russia’s aggressive motion is heartbreaking for the dying, suffering, and financial turmoil it will bring about in Ukraine and, indirectly at minimum, further than. Listed here at Rick Steves’ Europe, we hope that a diplomatic solution can be found and peace will return to that fragile and extended-suffering aspect of our earth.
Our mission at RSE is to help Americans far better know and comprehend our neighbors as a result of vacation. But when we convey tourists to an additional place, we also carry their bucks — pounds that would aid Putin’s aggression. Hence, as of currently, we have canceled all 2022 tours that include things like a end in Russia.
Of class, we will retain a shut eye on unfolding functions and watch any vacation impacts through the relaxation of Europe. But it is important to hold geographic realities in head and remember that a war in Ukraine is as considerably from our European holiday goals as a war in Guatemala would be from Texas or Florida. For 40 a long time now, we have lived, worked, and traveled by means of many intervals of tragic warfare in lands much from in which we direct our excursions (and some nearer). And at this time, we see no cause to adjust the relaxation of our travel and touring strategies.
The tragic actuality unfolding in Ukraine only reminds me how crucial it is for People to continue to keep on traveling and to do so in a way that helps make us far better and much more engaged citizens of our planet. I’m traveling to Europe up coming month for a 40-day trip by way of a dozen good towns from London to Athens — and I’m very pleased that 1000’s of my fellow travelers will experience the European trip of their goals although possessing prosperous studying activities considerably from residence on a 2022 Rick Steves tour.
In the meantime, let us be thankful for our blessings, assist our nation’s leaders as they do their very best to navigate this disaster, and preserve the troubled corners of our earth (Ukraine, Russia, Afghanistan, and far more) in our feelings and prayers.
—Rick
