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I've traveled all over the US and love the diversity of culture and geography. I still have 6 states that I haven't got to visit, yet (Oregon, Idaho, Montana, the Dakotas, and Wisconsin). There are very few rivals to the US in terms of cross country driving experiences. I look forward to returning to the US to revisit many places and to visit some that I've yet to visit.
I've lived overseas for 31 years in Asia and have traveled here extensively. Yes, there are amazing and exotic sights to see. Europe too is a blast.
But, you shouldn't sell the US short on interesting and amazing sights and activities.
Location: Born & Raised DC > Carolinas > Seattle > Denver
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You have to remember that most European countries are tiny compared to the USA. All their best attractions are within a few hours of each other. The US is enormous in comparison, and there is a ton of natural beauty here. Not to mention that LA and NYC are the most important cities in the world when it comes to music, film, and fashion. More so than Paris, Moscow, Seoul, Beijing, etc.
I've never left the U.S. in my life and I'm 27 years old. Hopefully someday I can visit other countries. I just watched tons of tour videos of other countries across the world, and I beg to ask the following: Is it just me, or does the U.S. seem very bland and boring compared to numerous other countries?
Other countries, such as France, Italy, China, Egypt, etc, have unparallelled scenic/natural beauty with stunning architecture that nothing in the U.S. can compare. But the U.S. seems to severely lack in these things.
Are you serious?
Why don't you travel in the U.S. I bet you haven't seen 95% of this country.
I've never left the U.S. in my life and I'm 27 years old. Hopefully someday I can visit other countries. I just watched tons of tour videos of other countries across the world, and I beg to ask the following: Is it just me, or does the U.S. seem very bland and boring compared to numerous other countries?
I think you are being a but silly here. The USA often tends to be too exceptional.
The US does not have enough historical sites. There are no Great Wall like in China, no Pyramids like Egypt, etc. It's a young nation, what it does have that other countries don't is Hollywood. The US has the largest movie industry in the world. Overall I think America is very bland other than coastal states majority of the inner states are not interesting.
Certainly America has a lot of natural wonders to see but the same can be said about the rest of the world.
It does, but they're under the radar. There are several major ancient city sites in the SW, of monumental architecture from around 1500 years ago, believed to be the northernmost extension of the great Mesoamerican civilizations. There are the ancient mounds, some in pyramidal form, one in the form of a giant serpent miles long, belonging to the Mississippian culture, of similar antiquity to the "Great Houses" of the southwest. These stretch all the way to Florida, IIRC. They don't get the publicity Egypt and the Great Wall get, possibly because they're not as spectacular.
Is there truth to this assertion? Hopefully someone who has traveled to other countries can confirm or deny this for me.
But, but we have the internet & 50,000 cable channels! What more do you want??
I've been to several places around the world & just about every where here in the U.S. We live in a beautiful country while not perfect it is beautiful. Same with the rest of the world there are places that will take your breath away & then places that are down right plain.
First a strong recommendation for reading about travels: An award-winning book by a Chinese author about travelling around China. It's categorized as fiction, but it's semi-autobiographical. It's not a short read, but if you can make it past the first 50 pages, I think you'll find it an amazing book. Soul Mountain, by Gao Xingjian (who won the Nobel Prize for Literature)
I've travelled a fair bit both in the US and abroad. Internationally across at least 15 different trips spanning 25 years since my first international trip, I've been to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Paris, London, Stockholm, Lyon, Oslo, Geneva, Haugesund, Hefei, Nanjing, Mexico City, Beijing, Toronto, Istanbul, Madrid, Khabarovsk, Barcelona, Tver, Hangzhou, Panama City (Panama), San Juan (PR), Veliky Novgorod, Cancun, Andorra, Ponce (PR), Maastrict, Vienna, Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Shanghai, Helsinki and Bergen. In the US I've lived in Portland, Boise, Chicago, near DC, Minneapolis, near Indianapolis, and Boston. I've spent a good amount of time in New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Saint Louis and San Diego. I've visited many other cities include Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Orlando, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Madison, Salem, Eugene, Vancouver (WA), Punxatawny, Huntsville, and many other small places. Many of those cities, domestic and international, I've also visited the environs and not just the city proper.
Travel has absolutely opened my eyes to the world in ways that even watching many videos and reading many books wouldn't. But it has also made me appreciate what we do have in the U.S., too. Just the fact that we can have a discussion comparing this one country to the rest of the entire world speaks volumes about how much America does have to offer.
The US really only suffers when it comes to length of history. I mean we've only had non-native people here for 500 years. We've only been a country for half that time. And our system of government means we'll rarely have the kinds of amazing-to-look at, top-down created cities some places do. But even with those constraints, the US can hold its own in my opinion.
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Originally Posted by nep321
Then howcome it seems like foreigners rarely visit the U.S. for vacation or tourism? I hear more about Americans traveling to other countries than non-Americans coming to America for leisure and travel.
I run an Airbnb listng in my home. About half of my visitors are international, and about half of them are on extended trips through the US. Now, I'm in downtown Chicago, walking distance to both the central business district and North Michigan Avenue, one of the world's great shopping destinations. I hear plenty of foreign visitors just walking around.
One thing to consider, too, is that it's generally easier for Americans to travel abroad than for the average world citizen to travel to the U.S. This is partly because Americans are, on average, rich by global standards, and also because of our visa agreements. An American can get a tourist visa to almost any country in the world with minimal trouble. That's simply not true coming the other way. For example, Americans easily get tourist visas to China and India, but tourist visas for Chinese or Indian citizens coming to the US require jumping through many more hoops. Even most Latin American citizens have a lot more trouble coming to the US than the other way around. For example, last weekend I decided at the last minute to visit Mexico City from Chicago. I bought a plane ticket, got my passport out of my file cabinet, and within 24 hours I was in Mexico City, no visa required. If I were a Mexican citizen wanting to make the reverse trip I'd have to undertake a process that takes a minimum of 2-3 weeks and which the US State Department advises Mexican nationals to budget 2-3 MONTHS for just to be certain they have enough time. That's a huge deterrent for prospective tourists from countries we don't have visa waiver treaties with. In places like China and India even getting a passport isn't always possible because of their political systems - that means something like nearly 40% of the world population may not be able to visit the US even if they have the money. And if you're from a predominantly Muslim country, forget about it. It can take years to get clearance to visit the US. So, practically, there's something like 60% of the world population living in places from which it's extremely difficult to visit the US, versus maybe 5% of the world where it's extremely difficult (though rarely impossible) for US citizens to visit.
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Originally Posted by 18Montclair
Yawns.
Our money sure as hell isn't bland and boring.
Swiss currency is, in my opinion, the coolest looking currency in the world.
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Originally Posted by tom77falcons
...
The Rocky Mountains are no match for the European Alps in terms of steep scarped out valleys and soaring snow capped mountains. The Rockies tend to be much more rounded than the Alps and simply not as scenic.
On the other hand, there is really no comparison to the Rockies in Europe, except perhaps some of the mountains in central to central-north Norway.
A better visual comparison to the Alps would be the Sawtooths in Eastern Idaho or the Tetons mostly in western Wyoming, both of which have a lot of exposed rock like the Alps do. The Alps are bigger and taller, but visibly there are a lot of similarities. The biggest practical difference, really, is that there is far, far more population near the Alps than near most American ranges, so you get quaint mountain towns with centuries of history in the Alps and in the US all you get is the raw natural beauty. You can get to the Alps via frequent train service, but really can only drive to most of the similar ranges in the US.
But, yeah, there are also so many other mountain ranges beyond just the Rockies in the US that have incredible beauty if you're looking for mountain beauty, especially the Cascades and the Sierras, and many others even beyond the Sawtooths and Tetons. And that's not even getting into Alaska, which probably has a lot more similarities to eastern Russia than most of Europe, geographically.
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Originally Posted by tom77falcons
The US may be more wild in terms of natural elements, but is certainly not the most scenic nation on earth. Americans tend to be very biased, and the US media hardly portrays beautiful areas in other countries. People in Europe tend to know just about any beautiful place on the planet. Americans tend to know only about US places. Hence they have an inflated sense of the US over the rest of the world.
I think there is some truth in this, however I do think that the US has a lot of natural beauty that doesn't even get publicized, even within the US. Part of the strength of the US is that the country spans an enormous geographic area so it's obviously going to beat out most smaller countries in any sort of listing of spectacular natural features. China, India and perhaps Russia, Brazil, Chile and Argentina can compete in many ways, but otherwise the sheer size of the US makes it hard to compare.
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Originally Posted by tom77falcons
Read loads of travel blogs from Europeans, Canadians, and others from around the world that travel thru numerous countries, and many times they talk about the most beautiful place they have seen. Some will mention somewhere in the US like the Grand Canyon or Bryce, but not the majority.
China has some awesome natural beauty and an enormous variety geographically and even culturally. I would say that China is probably the most diverse geographically of any country out there, although India also has a lot more variety than most people imagine.
For all those stating how boring America is, I wonder how many have actually been anywhere else. Of those who have, I wonder how many actually spent longer then a typical weeks vacation and saw the parts of the other country's NOT on the postcards or resorts brochure!
I have been bored out of my mind in the Bahamas and assorted Caribbean islands. In Costa Rica I've spent many days and nights wishing I was somewhere else because of sheer boredom. Likewise in Panama City and Medellin. Not to let the US escape that, I have been bored out of my mind in many places here as well, wishing I was someplace else.
But, no matter how bored i've been at times in those places I've also been at awe and had the time of my life. I'm just one that after a while my suroundings seem rather ho hum, no matter where I am. It's just that you get used to them after awile and don't think much of them. That goes for any country in the world.
That being said, i think the US, overall, is anything but bland and boring. It is also large enough of a country that if you get bored where you are there is always someplace not very far away you can move to that would be exciting, beautiful or both. If you can't move you can surely hop in a car and drive someplace and within a few hours will be someplace different and more exciting!
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The USA often tends to be too exceptional.
