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Just did a 30 second search on Kayak and I dunno about $144, but I did a search and found one for $208 after taxes. So $500 is definitely wrong.
Well $208 is not common, must be going cheap for a reason. I am pretty sure about 80% of the time a flight from California to Chicago and vice versa is at the very least $300. I have flown out there 5 times and each time it was over $300. Might have to do with the time of the year too. Point being a flight from Chicago to California for $208 is very uncommon.
When I was in the military I got 30 days of paid leave a year. Took advantage of that fact and went to New Zealand a few years ago. I spent about $3000 on the trip (very reasonable but still a pretty considerable chunk of change), but of course it was cheaper because I went with a buddy who had relatives there, which cheapened things considerably.
My wife and I planned a trip to Italy for our honeymoon, and that was right around 8 or 9 thousand dollars for a week. Whoever said that going abroad is cheap is high. The vast, vast, vast majority of Americans, believe it or not, are not made of money. 8 or 9 thousand dollars is about 20-25% of most peoples' yearly salaries and since health care, living expenses, and even domestic transportation is sky-high (say what you will about American gas prices, the fact is Americans drive TONS more than almost any other nation on this planet and therefore spend more on transportation, we don't exactly have the greatest public transportation system since everything is all spread out)... on top of that not everyone is in the military so if anyone gets 30 days of paid time off they are very lucky. Most get about half that. We're limited to weekend getaways 4-5 hours away, or what is becoming increasingly more common, stay-cations.
which is false. it's not hard or expensive for americans to travel abroad.
No, it's not false. What people are saying is that it's not as quick/convenient/cheap to go to several other countries from the US as it is from most European or Asian countries. If someone lives in London or Paris they have MANY other countries they can get to within a 2 hour flight. Where can you get on a two hour flight from American cities? From many cities that wouldn't even get you into Canada or Mexico! From Seattle it takes me several hours just to travel back home to the Midwest, a flight to New York would be around 5 hours. To go to Asia would be 12-15 hours, to go to Europe would be at least 8 or 9 hours. So how in the world is that similar to the access Europeans or many Asians have to other countries? Along with those longer travel times are higher costs. That 5 or so hour flight to New York would maybe be $400 or $500, I'd pay double that to go to most places in Europe or Asia (more than double to Asia, as I have gone to China a few times and had to pay around $1100 each time).
And someone mentioned all of the countries in North America, disputing what someone else said about only two other countries. What was stated was that the US BORDERED two LARGE countries, so sure we have those two we can go to, but to get beyond those to other countries is a long distance- again unlike the situation in Europe where countries are small, so travelling a distance of 500-1000 miles can usually get you into many different countries.
And someone mentioned all the cities in the US being the same, if you've seen one you've seen them all. That person must not have gotten out much because that is so completely false. Each city has so much of its own flavor, so many cities have things to see that can't be found in other cities. The tropical beaches of Miami are in no way similar to the snow-capped mountains and cool evergreen forests we have up here in Seattle, you have completely different weather, scenery, tourist activities, and cultures in those two places.
No, it's not false. What people are saying is that it's not as quick/convenient/cheap to go to several other countries from the US as it is from most European or Asian countries. If someone lives in London or Paris they have MANY other countries they can get to within a 2 hour flight. Where can you get on a two hour flight from American cities? From many cities that wouldn't even get you into Canada or Mexico! From Seattle it takes me several hours just to travel back home to the Midwest, a flight to New York would be around 5 hours. To go to Asia would be 12-15 hours, to go to Europe would be at least 8 or 9 hours. So how in the world is that similar to the access Europeans or many Asians have to other countries? Along with those longer travel times are higher costs. That 5 or so hour flight to New York would maybe be $400 or $500, I'd pay double that to go to most places in Europe or Asia (more than double to Asia, as I have gone to China a few times and had to pay around $1100 each time).
And someone mentioned all of the countries in North America, disputing what someone else said about only two other countries. What was stated was that the US BORDERED two LARGE countries, so sure we have those two we can go to, but to get beyond those to other countries is a long distance- again unlike the situation in Europe where countries are small, so travelling a distance of 500-1000 miles can usually get you into many different countries.
And someone mentioned all the cities in the US being the same, if you've seen one you've seen them all. That person must not have gotten out much because that is so completely false. Each city has so much of its own flavor, so many cities have things to see that can't be found in other cities. The tropical beaches of Miami are in no way similar to the snow-capped mountains and cool evergreen forests we have up here in Seattle, you have completely different weather, scenery, tourist activities, and cultures in those two places.
According to this, the top destination for American residents is Mexico. But the devil is in the details. Of course, everybody knows that the U.S. has a very large latino population. So, what percentage of these people traveling to Mexico are Mexican/Latino Americans or even illegal immigrants?
A significant number of the other top desinations shown are in Europe. Plus, people visit where they are able to afford to. So, choices have to be made and that skews the numbers. Western Europe is extremely expensive for Americans to travel to, especially since the value of the dollar has fallen so much against European currencies.
Last edited by BigCityDreamer; 04-26-2013 at 09:18 AM..
The United States government do not mandate any paid or unpaid days off from work. Each company decides how many paid/unpaid day off they will give for employees. This does not mean that only Americans get 2 weeks off.
Most people working in 9-5 jobs or non-retail sector gets anywhere between 3 - 5 weeks off + paid holidays.
the U.S. is the size of Europe if not bigger. Not all Europeans have been outside of Europe either.
Very, very few people work "9 to 5" - that is a holdover from the corporate and upper-level white collar jobs. My father worked 9 to 5 at his salaried executive job in NYC, with the long martini-swilling lunch. Most full timers put in at least 9 working hours on the job, plus lunch on their own dime, plus
I don't know where the "3-5 weeks a year comes from:
Quote:
What's more, that sacrifice comes from a smaller overall pool of days. In 2012, Americans reported receiving 12 days of vacation, compared with 14 days last year. Of those 12, they're expected to take only 10 this year, according to Expedia's annual Vacation Deprivation study.
When both my husband and I worked full-time, his (more generous) job gave him 15 days, mine gave me 10 (after 10 years). Between teacher-in-service-days, school holidays, sick days, etc, that usually left us with about an actual week of true family vacation. Since we are on the west coast of the US and it is 12 hours in the air (on a direct flight) to get to Europe, we didn't go very often.
Look at a map. There are 10, plus the Caribbean islands (one of which we're not technically allowed to travel to). And most of them are actually quite expensive to travel to.
That being said most Americans actually travel to the Caribbean. If I had to guesstimate I would say somewhere between 50-60% of Americans make it at least once in their lifetime to the Caribbean.
Very, very few people work "9 to 5" - that is a holdover from the corporate and upper-level white collar jobs. My father worked 9 to 5 at his salaried executive job in NYC, with the long martini-swilling lunch. Most full timers put in at least 9 working hours on the job, plus lunch on their own dime, plus
I don't know where the "3-5 weeks a year comes from:
When both my husband and I worked full-time, his (more generous) job gave him 15 days, mine gave me 10 (after 10 years). Between teacher-in-service-days, school holidays, sick days, etc, that usually left us with about an actual week of true family vacation. Since we are on the west coast of the US and it is 12 hours in the air (on a direct flight) to get to Europe, we didn't go very often.
It really depends what you work in though. I get 20 PTO days and 21 holidays. If you are a teacher you practically get all of summer off. It really is a mixed bag.
The amount of PTO varies a lot by the company and many places are flexible about giving unpaid time off. I personally would never work for a company that gives less than 20 PTO days per year to start. I've quit jobs to go traveling too, when I was younger. Plenty of people will take a few months off here and there and find a new job when they come back (of course, it's not wise to do this without a decent amount of savings). I also lived and worked in Germany for several years and used my vacation time there to see many other countries. If you really want to travel and make it a priority, it can be done.
I think the main reason is that most americans have little desire to leave the country and are generally frightened by others. Many that do actually travel abroad go to all inclusive resorts in Caribbean locations where everyone speaks English. It's rather sad.
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