Rick Steves and the closing of the travel frontier

Rick Steves and the closing of the travel frontier

For Americans of a certain age and income bracket, Europe is synonymous with Rick Steves, a one-man travel impresario whose guidebooks and tour groups have introduced the continent to thousands of newcomers. Before he became his own brand, Steves was just another scruffy backpacker abroad, an experience he recounts in On the Hippie Trail, a new book that follows his travels across India and Central Asia in the 1970s.  Most youthful trips start w…