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I don't know why many people here are mentioning airfare to Europe as an excuse to not travel overseas. There are many cheaper destinations in Mexico and Central America and even Colombia which are not only less expensive than the US but are also within an easy reach of the US and have multiple flight options.
Evidently most people here can't think outside the box.
Maybe I could, by myself. However, add my wife into the mix and now it's two tickets... add into the mix the fact that she's delightfully wide and as such would probably need two coach seats or a first class seat (which would mean I'd fly first class also), now we're around $3,000+ for the airfare alone. $50 a day? You can't even do that in America unless you're camping! Where would you stay? Where and what would you eat? Are you saying that you can find three meals and a hotel room in most decent European locations for less than $50 US per day?
The topic is about young Americans, and I was responding to a young American who would travel solo. You can get an international youth hostel pass, and you can get your food from grocery stores. People do it all the time. My comments weren't addressed to families, double-wide or other special-needs individuals, or people who want medium- to-upscale accommodations. It was aimed at typical college students and other 20-somethings. I did Europe on 5$/day or less in my time, I figure $50 should be plenty in today's dollars.
And don't forget Eastern Europe; Slovenia is the Alpine region's bargain basement. Get yourself to Slovenia, Croatia, and Montenegro, and you can get some of the world's most spectacular scenery at a small fraction of the cost of travel in Europe.
I don't know why many people here are mentioning airfare to Europe as an excuse to not travel overseas. There are many cheaper destinations in Mexico and Central America and even Colombia which are not only less expensive than the US but are also within an easy reach of the US and have multiple flight options.
Evidently most people here can't think outside the box.
You missed those posts. People have mentioned Mexico and Central America. But it's not clear as to whether those qualify as "overseas", since you don't need to fly over a sea to get there.
I'm a young(ish) American.... I'm in my 20s and have done a bit of traveling overseas, but not nearly as much as I would like. I've been to Australia, NZ, Tahiti, Caribbean, and Greece. That's all i've been able to afford. I have a full time job now, and I dont get much time off. It kinda sucks, cuz I'd like nothing more than to travel the world.
I noticed when I did travel tho.... I was always the only American in the group, it was so annoying because all the questions about politics and the US and the jokes always fell upon me.... At one point a couple of ozzies who were drunk were getting really pissed off and serious about stuff the US government had done and essentially took their anger out on me.... because I was the lone American. (woe is me, I know lol) but still.... I always found that Canadians would meet other Canadians....Germans would meet other Germans, ozzies would meet other ozzies, etc.... I rarely met other Americans.
There's just not this travel culture in the US. People dont talk about traveling much...or wanting to travel. It seems the masses rather have the latest iPhone or the biggest flat screen TV or newest car rather than travel. I dunno, I can't say all Americans are like that as many do travel, but it's not like on the national level... theres no "gap years" and young ppl dont aspire to travel abroad. They go to school, they get a job, they married, have kids, bam...stuck
This is what people have been telling the OP pretty much since page 1. Just because Americans aren't showing up in NZ doesn't mean Americans aren't traveling abroad. And just because they're not in the backpackers' hostels in NZ, doesn't mean there are no Americans in NZ. I know Americans who go to New Zealand every couple of years. But they don't stay in hotels or backpackers' places. Their Maori hosts put them up. OP is missing a significant part of the action by focussing on backpackers' places.
Interesting as I'm Maori, arer you trying to tell me that some iwi (tribe) puts up only Americans on the Marae (meeting place ?
Care to tell me which of our iwi takes care of so many Americans ?
Still waiting for the source for the made up argument that young Americans don't travel overseas????
Well it is true if you look at the overall numbers and compare it with other nationalities especially Australians, British, Scandinavians, Germany, etc who seem to travel abroad in greater numbers. Granted a lot of it is because employers in the US are not as generous in giving out vacation time as in Europe or elsewhere in addition to other items such as student loans. If college in the US was not so expensive with rising tuition costs and employers were a bit more lenient in giving out vacation time then this could possibly change, however in my experience most Americans seem to prefer having more material goods over travelling overseas even if given a choice.
Well it is true if you look at the overall numbers and compare it with other nationalities especially Australians, British, Scandinavians, Germany, etc who seem to travel abroad in greater numbers. Granted a lot of it is because employers in the US are not as generous in giving out vacation time as in Europe or elsewhere in addition to other items such as student loans. If college in the US was not so expensive with rising tuition costs and employers were a bit more lenient in giving out vacation time then this could possibly change, however in my experience most Americans seem to prefer having more material goods over travelling overseas even if given a choice.
Ive never seen any numbers, people are just making up things about us and complaining about it lol.
Americans don't really care about oversees traveling, we have a pretty great country to explore, get over it.
Ive never seen any numbers, people are just making up things about us and complaining about it lol.
Americans don't really care about oversees traveling, we have a pretty great country to explore, get over it.
Well then, where's your stats about all Americans feeling like they don't need to travel overseas because they have a great country to explore instead? Now you're making up stuff. By the way, that's not even an argument. There's a ton of countries with extremely diverse natural geography. It's so incredibly arrogant to make it sound like nothing else is important enough to see.
And it's about 35% of Americans who have passports.
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