Why don't Americans travel

BA said:
Columbia? Afghanistan? Peru? Nice countries?

Nice try.
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i've been to colombia (note spelling) and it's a beautiful place with warm welcoming people. sure, there are parts of the country where poverty is a problem and there are parts of the country where crime is a serious problem but you could say exactly the same about the usa.

i was there for over a week and i came back alive! (sample of one)

it's not at all clear to me why peru gets lumped in with the other two. sure it's had its problems in the past with the insurgent shining path but that's very much abated and isn't recognised as being much of a threat to tourism these days. indeed, peruvian people have a reputation as friendly and helpful.

alasdair
 
felixdahousekat said:
When was this, where did you go, and why didn't you hit me up, bro? :X
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I went to Edinburgh for the festival about 5 years ago.
Saw the Royal Tattoo as well as some of The Fringe.

Quite an awesome place!

We stayed near Holyrood house.

And I didn't look you up because I was afraid you'd try to ply me with drugs and I'd wake up in a strange place with a shit tattoo on my forearm like the rest of ye daft scots!

:D
 
Note: Not true that the world hates Americans. The ones I've met travelling tend to be almost apologetic about being from the USA. I assure you that not the whole world lumps US government, companies and citizens into one general gob. There's some playful teasing here and there, but don't be afraid to stand up reasonably against discrimination!

Plus, I think that there are more and more Americans travelling these days, and not just on shit package tours. I made a whole bunch of really good, cool, fun, openminded kanos backpacking, and I can say they will probably be my friends forever. Can't say I'll be travelling with them anytime soon, though, since I guess the American lifestyle is built less around mobility than most other cultures.

It's just a matter of what you value, and that differs across people and cultures.

Many people will think me (and many of my friends) crazy/foolish for not having any savings and spending the little spare money I have on travelling, be it a random busride or a plane to another country. I recently made my phone prepaid and sold a huge chunk of my things, so I'm prepared for anything, but nothing specifically. I have job experience and (sort of) a career that I can take with me wherever I go.

So travel, yeah. May not be for everyone, but I highly recommend it.
 
i agree with dtergent - whilst the rest of the world may be stinky and incomprehensible, we can actually differentiate between americans and the bush administration...

poopie said:
i have only left this country twice and both times were a joke. plenty of americans would embrace foreign travel, but the reasons are numerous why they don't.
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the reasons you listed are hardly exclusive to americans.

and yes, i realize every country has plenty of places to see, but not every country has absorbed plenty of different cultures (diluted, yeah, maybe) with nearly every single possible environment.
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i dunno - some countries have had thousands of years of cultural interaction, and on a larger scale than the US, too.

and america, for all its diversity, is still basically a white christian english-speaking nation...
 
Re Hairbo1:
<<Havn't you US guys ever been just a BIT suspicious that Europe manages to look after people so much better for so much less? Where ARE all your taxes going???>>

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Culturally speaking people from nations tend to spend differently

many americans buy stupidly expensive cars, which use a lot of gas... again, most expense
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that's what i meant when talking about paying bills

of course, i didn't mean "don't pay the rent. go on vacations and only face the problems when you come back

but i had in mind that people often create the bills to be paid
they choose a high level of life "at home" that is in my opinion not necessary at all to be happy and forces them to pay the bills instead of, for instance, travelling

like Applebliss said, in many countries (and arguably the most interesting ones) travelling is much less expensive than most would think
he's not joking about $0.5 for a lunch in a restaurant. or a $3 hostel room

However, is say, seeing the Hagia Sophia or Mount Fuji in person superior to visiting Crater Lake or hiking the Appalachian Trail? I'd say it's a matter of taste.
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geographically speaking, we agree that america has enough to see for a lifetime

but culturally speaking, one day outside of the US may be worth more than 10 years inside

For the average American, a plane ticket overseas could easily cost several weeks' salary
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if the plane ticket costs several weeks of salary, how many years of salary does the shiny car cost?

my friend tom earns 290 bahts a day working at mcdonalds
that would be 110 days of work for a $1000 ticket
but since 290 bahts a day are not enough to live, he will never be able to save anything
and anyway, they don't have vacations

so the average american is still in one of the best positions to travel
 
Listen to applebliss. He's spot on.

My g/f and I are paying US$1200/month plus utilities, just to be in a place that's proximate to NYC and Philly. Good, fresh food is not easy to find and expensive. There's nowhere to walk or bike to. Not easy to meet people. I never have more then $2000 in the bank. The two of us have never been flabbier or lonlier. Reading what applebliss wrote makes me want to move back to Asia in a flash.

It really cracks me up to hear Americans stereotype English teaching in Asia as a job for losers who 'couldn't hack it in their home countries', when in fact this job affords one a quality of life that's hard to afford in the US, except in Tokyo.
 
okay, maybe they are just lazy.

so many people think of it as an unattainable dream. didn't someone say earlier in this thread that it seemed more reserved for the wealthy upper-class.

we should have someone throw some actual costs out there. plug some numbers into some travel sites.

also, for those who have traveled extensively, were the expenses completely out of your pocket? employment related? military?
 
Some of you guys shouldn't feel so defensive when this dumb issue comes up.

I have no idea what the real figures are, but if we said that 80% of UK people had a passport, that wouldn't tell the whole story. Out of that 80%, I would estimate that 95% of them have only been to one or two places in Europe. Cheap package holidays for about the equivalent of $200-300 dollars equivalent. Like some of you guys travelling to the coast or a lake for a week in the summer.

The people I know in real life are not exactly cosmopolitan in their holiday tastes. A lot of them go back to the same fucking place, year after year. 8)

I've worked and vacationed in the US (7 states visited so far: NY, CA, TX, LA, AL, MS, FL), and I haven't even scratched the surface. I'm dying to go back, cos America isn't just a country, it's a whole frickin' CONTINENT. %)

And I never met a single asshole during all my travels. (They're all contained in one place here on Bluelight. :D JOKE!!!)
 
^America is only part of a continent. (But it's the good part!!!!!!!!!! =D ;))

My best friend is teaching English in Asia right now, and she just extended her visa for 3 extra months she loves it so much. It's definitely got me thinkin....
 
vegan said:
geographically speaking, we agree that america has enough to see for a lifetime

but culturally speaking, one day outside of the US may be worth more than 10 years inside
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nicely put.

alasdair
 
I want to see the world, meet new people, try new food, do crazy things, see history, and everything else you can possibly imagine ... but that takes money and I've got very little of it now that I've bought a house. Plus, I heard a little rumor that we aren't well liked. Anywhere. (And have read some comments that back that up). Why go somewhere I might not be welcome?

That said, I am 27 and before I hit 30 would like to visit Europe via the Queen Mary II. I'm terrified of flying.

But, yeah. Not everyone in America is an overconsuming, self-absorbed redneck, some of us just don't have the resources to get the hell out of this place.
 
fruitfly said:
I'm an American who's traveled a lot (especially through "nice" parts of the world like the Middle East, lol) but that may be due in part to the fact that both my parents are from other countries. :\
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Ex-pat children are often well traveled.
 
Plus, I heard a little rumor that we aren't well liked. Anywhere. (And have read some comments that back that up). Why go somewhere I might not be welcome?
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the story of the wise monk :

a traveller meets a monk on the side of a road
the monk says hello and asks where he is going
the traveller explains he's going to the next village
and he also asks how are the people there

the monk says "i can tell you, but first i would like to know how was your experience in the last village"
"well" says the traveller "it was pretty horrible. no one was nice to me. those people are extremelly unsympathetic"

"well" says the monk, "i'm afraid the people is the next village wil be exactly the same"

later on that day, the monk ses another traveller on the side of the road
the monk says hello and asks where he is going
the traveller explains he's going to the next village
and he also asks how are the people there

the monk says "i can tell you, but first i would like to know how was your experience in the last village"
"well" says the traveller "i loved it. the people were so nice and sympathetic. that was really a gret place"

"well" says the monk, "the people will be just as nice in the next village"




we do like to tease americans about not being liked abroad, because a few ones with bad attitudes spoiled the reputation for you

but if you come with an open mind, you'll be greeted as any other foreigner
 
funny, we don't hold travelers here to any standards

I don't know any Americans that ruined Americans for Europe, I'm sure they're out there, speaking loudly with strange accents, criticizing things, eating at McDonalds in Paris, etcetera. I don't think I should have to answer for their mistakes, just like I don't hold "Europeans" accountable for the hostility Americans so frequently receive here.

In all honesty, Felix and Percy were actually part of the reason I'm not visiting Europe this Summer. I'm not interested in defending a country that doesn't particularly for me in the first place.
 
kittyinthedark said:
Most Americans don't travel because it's WAY more expensive for us than for a lot of people. If you're in Europe, you can take a train to a completely different country. Or you can easily make connecting flights to anywhere in Europe, Asia, or Africa. When you're in America, you have to make at least one 8-hour non-stop flight to get to most major foreign cities, and that gets expensive.
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boo-fucking-hoo. I live in Australia, guess how long it takes to get to the US or Europe? Fuck I hate whinging Northern Americans who bitch about travelling times. So you have to sit in the one spot for 8 hours. Whack a few more on top of that, and that's how long I have to sit to get to anywhere half-way decent in the world. If you want to see a place desperate enough, you'll do whatever it takes to go there.
 
I think that post says more about the quality of life in Australia than it does about Americans' traveling habits. ;)

We can't change the fact that you come from a cultural abyssal zone with poisonous platypuses.
 
Crikey! Just got attacked by one of them there platypuses while I was out making sure me pet kangaroo was locked up for the night. Time to chuck another shrimp on the barbie
 
who_can_say said:
Crikey! Just got attacked by one of them there platypuses while I was out making sure me pet kangaroo was locked up for the night. Time to chuck another shrimp on the barbie
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Don't STOP!

talk about how awesome silverchair is now!

but srsly: good for you for making the effort to travel for the sake of traveling.
 
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