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I'm beginning to feel that way. US citizen here and I've fallen in love with Europe, the UK to be more specific. All my current travel interests are countries in Europe, Canada, Asia, Israel, or South America in the near future. The downside is that it's so expensive to travel abroad and that hinders where I can visit and how long I'll can stay.
Here at home, I've been to every state except Hawaii (I consider that traveling abroad), many of them SEVERAL times a year. Due to my work, almost all of my travel is business related. I usually live in 2-3 states per year and I drive so I've see a lot of places in a lot of states.
There are only a few cities left that I'm interested in visiting again: Anchorage, Seattle, Portland, Sante Fe, New Orleans, Miami (will be 1st time), and Bangor Maine (will be 1st time). That's it. I'll probably have visited all of these cities by this time next year, God willing.
Other than that, domestic travel is beginning to bore me but the thought of traveling abroad excites me! But it's so expensive to fly abroad.
Does anyone else feel this way? Or, do you still get excited about traveling domestically?
I've been to all 50 states, held residence in more than a third of them and used to perpetually think the grass is greener elsewhere. I'm not sure what Exactly knocked that stupid thought from my head, but I started focusing on traveling more in my local area. Looking for the "off the beaten path" places and Suddenly started discovering gems that captivated me.
I am completely bored with urban areas though and try to avoid them.
So I do both. I get outside the US about once every other year for a month, and I travel within the US the rest of the time. Next year I'm doing a 6~8 week driving tour, the main goal is to drive the PCH, but there's plenty to do and see between GA and CA/WA/OR.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Expensive to travel abroad?
I have found Only food is more expensive abroad.
Really cheap flights available to many destinations, (<$500) and once there you can use their discount carriers. I got a $300 fare SFO>Tokyo using the weekly bargain emails that come every Wednesday from carriers . But several great deals <$380 to Europe. We did 30+ flights within Europe, never over 80 euro, often under 20 euro.
We end up eating via fresh produce and farmers markets.
Costco has good rates on euro rental cars. But I may ship my own motorcycle, and buy a camper van at my destination.
Lodging is inexpensive worldwide for us (guest exchange) been doing it for 30 yrs. over 100 stays each of last 2 yrs. we were gone for a yr and only used 8 hotels. ( 5am flights).
We most enjoy staying with, and traveling like locals.
For the overwhelming majority of people who work for a living in the USA a vacation abroad isn't something that involves saving money by buying a camper van, shipping motorcycles, and spending their limited time off pulling weeds in exchange for a free room in some hamlet.
I thoroughly enjoy both! I love traveling through smaller cities/towns like Petoskey, MI as well as larger cities like NYC, Honolulu, etc. within the USA. Outside of the USA, I've particularly enjoyed my travels throughout India, Australia, and the UK.
It really depends on whether you travel or just take a vacation to relax. For the latter,staying in the US might do it. But if want more exploring, of course many trips inside the same country gets boring very fast - same language, largely similar culture, same layout of the cities, similar lifestyle. Even the food is largely familiar. The US is diverse but Honestly, how different can Santa Fe be from Bangor, if you compare with Southern Italy, or Japan, or Turkey?
I stopped traveling in North America a long time ago. It is far more exciting to see countries with vastly different culture and history, language, food, architecture etc. And it is not necessarily more expensive. Hotels are mostly way less expensive in other countries and so is food (as long as you know where to eat, not tourist restaurants). All you need is a good deal on airfare.
Traveling abroad is much cheaper than traveling to the 48 States. I live in Hawaii. I travel about two times to East Coast and two times to East Asia every year. It takes me between 10-15 hours no matter I fly east or west.
Airfare has dropped drastically for foreign travel. I just paid $570 for a trip to East Asia while I paid over $800 to NYC just before this trip.
I have been to 40+ States and been to almost every National Park. I usually don't stay long in the cities because except a few, most American cities are basically the same.
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