Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
What's wrong with us? Fear? Lack of education? Lack of curiosity? Spending money on fancy cars, houses, whatever, and that's it?
Baloney.
1. Americans get fewer vacation days than just about anyone else on earth. I know plenty of people who've worked for years and still only get 2 weeks for vacation. Daughter works for one of those huge entertainment companies with parks (the one with ears) and has to work to earn points for days off. And woe be if you buy a cruise or tickets for something with specific dates, because you could request that time off and get it approved, but the company can come back and say no, you can't go, we need you. And they'll fire you if you go anyway.
2. To go overseas or to a foreign country takes a lot more effort and money. The USA is a huge country, which means it takes a longer time to travel outside its borders...and takes more money to travel that distance.
3. Few of us can speak another language. I'd love to learn to speak another language well enough to travel, but even though I took 5 years of Spanish, I rarely get the chance to use it. We don't have that many Latino visitors, and when they're here, they want to practice their English rather that speak Spanish with me.
4. "Fancy cars?" In most places in the US, you need a car to get around, buy groceries, go to work. There is either poor public transportation or none at all. You HAVE to have a car, so there goes a chunk of travel budget.
5 This is a big country, with lots to see. Canada and Mexico aren't that far away. So going any farther is going to take a lot of effort and money, and we can see some pretty great things just staying on this continent.
I agree that it's a shame that Americans don't travel more and farther, but it's not because we all want to stick with Disneyland/World. Lord knows that takes a pile of money, too. But many of us just don't have the money or time to cross the borders.
'Third-world people' are incredible! This is a really closed-minded thing to say. They are some of the nicest, kindest people I have ever come across and many of them have literally nothing but they would share with you what they have, moreso than most Americans I've met.
My experiences with third-world Americans haven't been very positive.
Cost of travel, cost of living here and lack of vacation time.
For many Americans, it is simply a struggle just to get by.
Some of the alleged reasons are nonsense. For example, it is supposedly shameful that we spend much of our income on housing. So...do you think housing is cheap? Or this just a bull**** reason you made up so you can feel superior to uncultured Americans?
Last edited by Tim Randal Walker; 04-02-2019 at 04:27 PM..
Some disparage the rural people of America for not traveling and yet tout the accolades of the third-world people for being visited in the same thread. So weird...
Personally I have little desire to travel over seas. I do love exploring America's parks, mountains and beaches. Exploring Americas history is of great interest so we hit a lot of those places. Paradise to me is sitting on the beaches of OBX for a week and doing nothing. If that supposedly makes me some sort of less cultured inbred then so be it... I guess. But it's is exactly what me and my family enjoy. Not sure why that is so wrong...
Now that's a vacation! We do the same in Wildwood Crest, NJ and love it.
Traveling to a foreign land to take in the sights, people, food and culture is an adventure, not a vacation.
Different cultures. From my travels abroad talking to people from New Zealand and especially Australia, I was told they are encouraged to travel and see the world from a young age, since they are relatively "remote", it's not uncommon for someone to take a gap year or travel for 2 years, because most places (except for Asia) are far from where they live. So if you're going to take a trip, might as well make it a long one!
Just look at the United States and the different cultures here with respect to traveling. I'm a huge National Park Service nerd and have been to 260 out of the 419 different units and do you know how often I seen a black person or Hispanic person visiting those units, not a lot, it's like seeing a unicorn and I've been doing it for over 20 years. Sure people will talk about cost and having a good enough vehicle to get to those places, but the National Park Service is one of the cheaper things one can do, relative to Disney and other resorts.
We've traveled to several of the National Parks also. We were surprised to find a majority of the other visitors were not American.
I've been to Mexico, but that's it for out of country experience. Cost was the biggest factor when I was younger. Now there are a lot of places I would like to go, but wouldn't feel safe. My husband and I may do a Europe trip some time. That's after the kids are gone. I think I've been to 23 states and my kids have been to almost that many. We try new things wherever we are. That's good enough for us.
Some disparage the rural people of America for not traveling and yet tout the accolades of the third-world people for being visited in the same thread. So weird...
Personally I have little desire to travel over seas. I do love exploring America's parks, mountains and beaches. Exploring Americas history is of great interest so we hit a lot of those places. Paradise to me is sitting on the beaches of OBX for a week and doing nothing. If that supposedly makes me some sort of less cultured inbred then so be it... I guess. But it's is exactly what me and my family enjoy. Not sure why that is so wrong...
It’s not wrong at all. Different people have different ideas on what makes a great vacation.
Sitting for a week on beach doing nothing would drive me nuts, but that just me. Fortunately there are lots of options out there for spending leisure time.
Americans do travel overseas, in abundance. OP you are simply incorrect, perhaps due to the fact that YOU don't travel overseas and see all the Americans.
How many times does this topic need to come up in the travel forum by the way?
Baloney.
1. Americans get fewer vacation days than just about anyone else on earth. I know plenty of people who've worked for years and still only get 2 weeks for vacation. Daughter works for one of those huge entertainment companies with parks (the one with ears) and has to work to earn points for days off. And woe be if you buy a cruise or tickets for something with specific dates, because you could request that time off and get it approved, but the company can come back and say no, you can't go, we need you. And they'll fire you if you go anyway.
2. To go overseas or to a foreign country takes a lot more effort and money. The USA is a huge country, which means it takes a longer time to travel outside its borders...and takes more money to travel that distance.
3. Few of us can speak another language. I'd love to learn to speak another language well enough to travel, but even though I took 5 years of Spanish, I rarely get the chance to use it. We don't have that many Latino visitors, and when they're here, they want to practice their English rather that speak Spanish with me.
4. "Fancy cars?" In most places in the US, you need a car to get around, buy groceries, go to work. There is either poor public transportation or none at all. You HAVE to have a car, so there goes a chunk of travel budget.
5 This is a big country, with lots to see. Canada and Mexico aren't that far away. So going any farther is going to take a lot of effort and money, and we can see some pretty great things just staying on this continent.
I agree that it's a shame that Americans don't travel more and farther, but it's not because we all want to stick with Disneyland/World. Lord knows that takes a pile of money, too. But many of us just don't have the money or time to cross the borders.
OP's premise was way overstated, but elsewhere on CD somebody tossed out a statistic that 64% of Americans don't have passports....
assuming that's true, it is perhaps lower than for most other industrialized countries.
Southlander has got some plausible reasons:
The US is a very big country -- there's so much one can see w/o leaving US borders (NY, LA, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, etc.
-- people come from all over the world to visit these places -- and of course there are countless other destinations not so famous but worth seeing).
US employers are Scrooges about vacation time -- they'll give you just enough (maybe) to decompress, then they want you back on the job,
as if work was all there was to life.
And as SL said most Americans have to buy cars (not so in nations with better transit). I would add that most Americans are paying
(perhaps paying a lot) for health care, which would be free in some other countries. The same for college. So many Americans likely
haven't got the time or the budget to go to faraway places.
The US has a hell of a lot to see on its own, but still is only a very small proportion of what the whole world has to offer and experiencing things outside your comfort zone is always a good thing to do if you can imo.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Why don't Americans travel overseas?
