How do Americans travel abroad with such little vacation days from work? (school, disposal)
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Does that mean Americans never take vacations abroad any longer than 13 days??
Basically, you are correct. I believe that lack of vacation days is the greatest reason why Americans do not travel abroad in great numbers.
For nearly 20 years my wife and I were unable to take ANY vacations together with the children that were longer than 3 or 4 days, due to lack of vacation time and inability to sync days off between school, her job, and my job. It wasn't until she lost her job that we were able to take full 2 week vacation trips (in our case 1 trip East Coast US and Canada, 1 trip Pacific Northwest). Our European trip is still pending.
Does that mean Americans never take vacations abroad any longer than 13 days??
lol, what? This is ridiculous. Each company and job is different.. I know people who have 35 days vacation from work. Personally I have 20 and it'll increase to 25 within a few years and 30 after that. I just got back from a vacation abroad where I took off 14 days of work. Where does the 13 figure come from anyway?
I'm guessing 13 is the US average? It varies though. I've always worked in retail and I've had a situation where I can take off probably up to 25 days off a year as long as they're not all in a row. The most I've taken off in a row was probably 2 weeks. As a musician I save most of my days off for playing shows out of town.
13 might be the average, but an average "white collar" job usually offers more than that. To answer the question in general though - because it's expensive. It's easier when you live in Europe and you can hop on a train between a few countries for a small amount of money and it's easier when you have no kids too, or have a lot of money at your disposal.
If you're a family of 4 and want to go to Spain let's say...it's probably a MINIMUM of $700 round trip per ticket unless you get a great deal. That in itself is almost $3000 USD. Not to mention lodging, transportation, food costs abroad. A lot of people simply cannot afford this. Most families can't even afford the plane tickets for a family alone with all the other stuff they have to deal with.
Since living in the U.S., I've always taken my paid leave in conjunction with unpaid leave in order to take 4-6 week vacations. My jobs have never had an issue with me doing that as long as I give plenty of notice.
One company I worked for gave you an extra week vacation for every 10 years you worked there (a fair few employees had a full 4 weeks paid leave). Obviously I wasn't there that long though to take advantage of that!
Yea, if I had endless money I'd travel the world but I don't and there's plenty in the U.S to keep my occupied as long as I remain in my current economic class.
First of all there are so many large cities and places to see here within the U.S.
Most people die in the U.S. without seeing all the major/most popular cities.
Also there is a big difference in travel costs going to Italy from the U.K. compared to the U.S.
I think most Americans would love to travel more, but it becomes really expensive because the U.S. is huge and we are borderd by two oceans, and on top of that we are bordered by TWO large countries.
The U.S. is not in close proximity to many countries as compared to countries in Asia, Africa or Europe.
lol, what? This is ridiculous. Each company and job is different.. I know people who have 35 days vacation from work. Personally I have 20 and it'll increase to 25 within a few years and 30 after that. I just got back from a vacation abroad where I took off 14 days of work. Where does the 13 figure come from anyway?
You are naive. There are a lot of companies that only give 2-3 weeks of paid vacation. I get 20 days and I've been with my company for six years; we top out at 25 weeks. My husband is an engineer at a huge company, and gets 13 days now that he's been there for seven years. So, say you get 15 days of vacation per year, and want to take the week off between Christmas and New Year's - as a lot of people do - that leaves you with two additional weeks of vacation to take throughout the year (10 paid days). You can take one 12-14 day vacation, or you can spread it out a little more. You have a very generous vacation policy that most Americans do NOT have.
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