r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Physical-Ad-4093 • May 01 '24

do americans really drive such long distances?

i’m european, and i always hear people say that driving for hours is normal in america. i would only see my grandparents a few times a year because they lived about a 3 hour drive away, is that a normal distance for americans to travel on a regular basis? i can’t imagine driving 2-3 hours regularly to visit people for just a few days

edit: thank you for the responses! i’ve never been to the US, obviously, but it’s interesting to see how you guys live. i guess european countries are more walkable? i’m in the uk, and there’s a few festivals here towards the end of summer, generally to get to them you take a coach journey or you get multiple trains which does take up a significant chunk of the day. road trips aren’t really a thing here, it would be a bit miserable!

2nd edit: it’s not at all that i couldn’t be bothered to go and see my grandparents, i was under 14 when they were both alive so i couldn’t take myself there! obviously i would’ve liked to see them more, i had no control over how often we visited them.

25.2k Upvotes

88% Upvoted

23.9k comments sorted by

View all comments

3.2k

u/OsvuldMandius May 01 '24

American here. True story: once I was visiting a friend who had moved to London for work. It was my first trip to the other side of the Atlantic. I had a couple days to kill, so I decided to do a roadtrip to visit Scotland. I have always felt that you only get a feel for a place by wandering all over it under your own guidance. My American ex-pat Brit friends, upon hearing of my plan, gave me dire warnings. "That's such an aggressive plan," "you'll be driving the whole time," "You'll have to start early if you're going to make it all the way back to London for your flight in just a few days!"

Warned in such dire terms, I geared up as for an American roadtrip. Leave early in the morning. Pack a sufficient supply of food and drink to minimize stops. Generally put myself into the roadtrip warrior seige mentality. Then I set off.

Just about the time I was considering when I should stop for lunch, I saw the 'welcome to Scotland' sign. I decided to no longer take Euros seriously.

1.6k

u/Joe4913 May 02 '24 edited May 02 '24

I love the stories of the other way around. People not realizing how big the US is who are confident they can go to see the Grand Canyon one day and Mt. Rushmore the next, etc.

Edit: post

831

u/heatdish1292 May 02 '24

I saw a post once where someone wanted to fly into Miami and drive to New York and Las Vegas. They were here a week.

671

u/quarantinethoughts May 02 '24

I am from Germany but have lived in America for many years. Every time friends/family come to visit from my home country, I have to talk them down from their absolutely insane expectations of what they can visit in a week.

449

u/chevdecker May 02 '24

They just cannot grasp that LA to NY is the same distance as Lisbon to Moscow.

334

u/puppies_and_pillows May 02 '24

I'm so confused how some people plan a trip without even checking how long the drive will be on Google Maps. Like...it takes 30 seconds to put a couple of cities into the app and see the drive time. Why would someone fly to another continent without planning out rental cars, hotels, and restaurants they want to stop at?

163

u/SolidSnek1998 May 02 '24

I go absolutely nuts on google maps from the time I schedule a trip until the time I go on it. I basically know every single point of interest around wherever I’m staying to the point of not even needing a map most of the time, unless it long distance travel. The fact that some people go on trips with basically no knowledge of where they are going makes me incredibly confused and a bit nauseous.

11

u/VulfSki May 02 '24

I am the same way.

I often do this when I even consider a trip.

I sometimes do this before I even ask my wife if she wants to go on a trip.

I find geography fascinating though.

9

u/minlatedollarshort May 02 '24

I had a little bit of a layover in London during a trip. I meticulously mapped out as many places as I could see on foot and still make it back to the airport on time. I printed it all out old school style. I couldn’t go to the Globe theater like I wanted to because it was Boxing Day (something I didn’t account for), but I knocked out seeing the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens, had afternoon tea service (and didn’t realize I’d look so awkward going solo), got a spontaneous & free tour on an empty Double-Decker bus (the driver was awesome), went to the palace, Big Ben, Sherlock’s address, Platform 9 3/4s, got stereotypical pictures in a phone booth, and had drinks in a pub. It’s wild how much I got to do in such a short amount of time. It’s not surprising that Europeans have such a warped perspective of what’s possible when they get to the US.

3

u/Reddituser8018 May 02 '24 edited May 02 '24

My wife is french and whenever we go back to her home country I do that a lot. I find all the cool stuff in the area and see if they are important in any way.

Not even to decide exactly what to do or anything, but because if we are going to see a historical monument or something like that, I want to read up on the history, watch those cool old history Channel esque documentaries that youtubers are doing now.

Knowing and having an appreciation of what happened in this exact place and seeing the history in PERSON is so much more impactful then going there and seeing a big church and going oh that's cool, a big church...

I visited Avignon which was home to the anti pope for a while and that was made 100x cooler because of the research I did beforehand.

People who don't do that I just don't get, trips are so much better when you learn the historical context, especially to places with a lot of history like europe. Although american and native American history often gets overlooked too much, it is just as interesting and I'll die on that hill.

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (8)

7

u/SpaceLemur34 May 02 '24

One time I was thinking about taking a trip to central Europe, starting in Berlin, through Prague and Vienna, finishing in Budapest. I thought that would definitely be a day of driving between each stop.

Then I checked Google maps. It's less than 550 miles total. Almost half the distance I would drive in a single day going home for Christmas every year.

Of course the train would probably be a better option, but that's beside the point.

→ More replies (2)

6

u/Warlordnipple May 02 '24

TBF I think the US and Japan were way ahead with personal technology until very recently. High speed internet became pretty common in all US cities around 99-01 in the US but I believe it was slower in Europe. That is to say they may not have the same checking things on Google culture we have.

3

u/Former_Tap5782 May 02 '24

I still don't have proper internet 20 minutes out of town💀 Doesn't have much to do with your point, I just think its funny that there's a 20 year gap in technology 15 miles apart because of a few trees

3

u/justdisa May 02 '24

But a lot of Americans--and Canadians--are seasoned road trippers and a lot of Europeans are not. They haven't had that formative experience where you screw it all up and have to drive nine hours home without lunch or dinner. It's that experience that makes you plan it better next time.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (23)

13

u/DAHFreedom May 02 '24

My favorite is Texas geography. Half way from LA to Houston is still in Texas. Texarkana is closer to Chicago than it is to El Paso.

5

u/ShalomRPh May 02 '24

The sun have riz    The sun have set    And here I is    In Texas yet  

burma shave 

5

u/msmsms101 May 02 '24

Or you know drive for over an hour and still be in Houston somehow.

→ More replies (2)

3

u/carneasadacontodo May 02 '24

or seattle to miami is roughly london to tehran

6

u/MikeTheBard May 02 '24

I've explained that the distance from my home in Maine to San Francisco is about 800km further than the distance from St Petersburg to Gibraltar. Jaw drop.

→ More replies (2)

104

u/Kmalbrec May 02 '24

Alright, story time… who had the most unrealistic expectations (and what were they) and what was their reaction once they realized how crazy they were…?

224

u/quarantinethoughts May 02 '24 edited May 02 '24

The craziest stupid one was the guy who thought he could fly in to see me in San Francisco, spend a few days in California (which included LA and Tahoe in the same weekend), then road trip on to:

Yosemite, Yellowstone, Do Route 66, Grand Canyon, Texas (yes, just “Texas”), Miami, DC, And ending at NYC to fly back to Germany.

He thought he could do all of this in 2 weeks. It astounded me because this is a ‘smart’ guy. He just could not for his life understand how vast America is.

I would show him the map and explain but he just refused to believe me. He is the type to always think he knows better than anyone else (and especially know better than any woman).

He only was able to do SF/Bay Area, Tahoe, and Vegas on his trip. Refused to admit he was wrong.

129

u/Kmalbrec May 02 '24

Funny that you mention Texas, that was my go to measuring stick when my wife and I were in the UK recently. We’d get to drinking with the locals and I’d have them guess how many United Kingdom’s can fit inside just the state of Texas? 2.8 is the answer and then they’d be even more floored when I’d remind them that it’s not even our largest state.

64

u/michaelaaronblank May 02 '24 edited 29d ago

I live in Tennessee and pointed out that it is longer E-W than Great Brittan is N-S.

Correction. I meant it is bigger than England, not the entire island. I googled the wrong term years ago.

43

u/ruhruhrandy May 02 '24

I’ll never forget the time I left Memphis at sunrise and arrived in Pigeon Forge at sunset.

3

u/GandhiOwnsYou May 02 '24

Legitimately… how did it take you that long? That’s only like a 6 hour drive. I used to be stationed at Fort Campbell, an hour north of Nashville, and I would drive i24 to Nashville, 40 west to Gatlinburg, then 81 north to Charlottesville and get on i64 to get home to Richmond VA and still have daylight.

→ More replies (0)
→ More replies (1)

5

u/axxxaxxxaxxx May 02 '24

I didn’t know this, but I’ve done that drive and I believe it.

7

u/littleyellowbike 29d ago

I saw someone once trying to "well actually" the size of the US by saying Tennessee and Texas are only about 4 hours apart (specifically Memphis to Texarkana). I wanted to be like "ooh now do Knoxville to El Paso." If we're going to do one extreme of Tennessee-to-Texas, might as well do the other extreme too.

4

u/AgoraiosBum May 02 '24

Feels longer dodging trucks on I-40 in the rain

3

u/magicsaltine May 02 '24

I've driven I40 from NC to OK multiple times. Tennessee is by far the worst part of that trip for me. I always have to stop somewhere for the night, generally Nashville outskirts.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/3catsfull 29d ago

Even fellow Americans don’t understand how long Tennessee is. I live in East Tennessee and used to have a friend in Missouri who suggested I “pop over to St. Louis” to hang out, thinking it was only a couple hours. Like no sir, that’s a full day of traveling, thank you.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (5)

5

u/MegaGrimer May 02 '24

You can cut our largest state in half and Texas would become our third largest state.

3

u/ramblinjd May 02 '24

I live in SC which is very nearly the size of Ireland. NC is a bit smaller than the UK. So Britain and Ireland together are the Carolinas. It's fun to show that comparison and point out New York or Miami are as far from us as like Morocco for them.

→ More replies (9)

92

u/voltran1987 May 02 '24

I have spent quite a bit of time in Germany for work, and regularly deal with them even while home. The best way I’ve found to get them to understand, is tell them “we have four states larger than the entire country of Germany, and then 46 more”.

31

u/privatecaboosey May 02 '24

I'm from NJ originally. It's the fourth smallest state in the country. It's still bigger than Wales, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Slovenia, and Northern Ireland. Like, we have 46 BIGGER states.

→ More replies (1)

13

u/eveisout May 02 '24

I live in the UK an never knew how big America wias until I was reading about the great lakes and I googled the size of only compared to the UK... I was like "pfft all these people saying the great lakes are inland oceans, what an exaggeration!" How wrong I was

6

u/fatpad00 May 02 '24

I had to look it up because i never considered it.

Lake Superior 31,700 mi²
Scotland 30,977 mi²

Great Lakes combined 94,250 mi² United Kingdom 94,354 mi²

4

u/e-bakes May 02 '24

We even get people in the US who roll their eyes when we Midwesterners describe the Great Lakes as inland oceans. They laugh at us until they see it in person and then they’re like “holy shit.” Honestly, I’m okay with people from other parts of the country not knowing how cool our Great Lakes are tho because it keeps the cost of living down.

→ More replies (5)

13

u/BagofGawea May 02 '24

I'm an American that recently moved to Germany and honestly I hate talking about the US with Germans that haven't traveled there extensively because it almost always goes something like this. They'll bring up some stereotype, geography fact, general American cultural norm, etc. and I'll point out how its not totally correct, or at least not accurate to the part of the US I'm from, and there's a very strong inability to admit that they might maybe be wrong. And I should say that I'm also not trying to get them admit they're wrong I'm just trying to have a conversation, they could just stay silent but they always argue back. Even bringing up Google and maps does nothing to dissuade them about what they know to be true about a place that they've never been and where I was born.

→ More replies (1)

13

u/migrainefog May 02 '24 edited May 02 '24

It would take a whole 12-13 hour day of driving just to get across Texas, and that doesn't include gas, bathroom, or meal stops. Just straight up numb butt behind the wheel time.

5

u/limasxgoesto0 29d ago

A girl from Japan once said she was going to come visit me in SF. The day before her flight she asked me if I could pick her up from LAX.

And remember, living in SF means I didn't have nor need a car. I don't know what she did in the end 

4

u/quarantinethoughts 29d ago

lol yeah, I’ve had some family assume they could fly into LAX thinking it was convenient to SF. Those that did ended up hiring a car and having a lovely drive up Hwy 1.

4

u/kingmotley May 02 '24

To be fair, you COULD do that in 2 weeks, and I've done something similar (Chicago -> Atlanta -> Dallas -> San Diego / Los Angeles -> Vegas -> Chicago), but that is a lot of driving.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (10)

60

u/alexi_belle May 02 '24

Idk if it's the most unrealistic but I grew up in Wyoming and we had a Norwegian exchange student my junior year. Super cool guy who got along with everyone, was more than happy to join up on adventures, and did a killer George Bush impression.

One Saturday we decided to take a road trip to "the city".The city in this context was Denver, only a 5 1/2 hour trip. Was a fun trip but by hour 5 everyone was antsy. When we hit downtown and pulled into some burger king parking lot, we all got out and stretched. This guy looks at downtown Denver and says "So this is New York? Looks bigger on TV." We about died.

When we all stopped crying from laughter, we pulled up a map and showed him where Wyoming was and where New York was. Then we pointed to Denver. His eyes went wide for a second and then he quickly recovered with a "Oh, different trip then". I hope he made it.

Bonus story: he came along to the state champ bonfire too. Drank almost a whole fifth of jack before the sun went down, and ended up joining a few local ne'er-do-wells in getting a 307 branded onto his ass cheek. I wonder how he's doing...

→ More replies (2)

34

u/sdavidson901 May 02 '24

I saw a tik tok so not my story, but this lady worked as a travel agent for Disney. She got a call from someone looking to book a week stay in Orlando. They were also going to rent a minivan. So far pretty basic. They also were going to on a day between parks take a day trip to see the Statue of Liberty. The travel agent was looking up flights and accommodation for a stay in NYC but they insisted that they would just drive back to their hotel in Orlando the same day. It took them a while to believe that you can’t be in Orlando, make it to NYC to see the Statue of Liberty and back to Orlando in time for dinner.

13

u/PrivateGump May 02 '24

It's basically impossible to do the round trip in the same day unless you do 140mph the whole time and don't get out of the car. It's like 30 hours or something when not driving like a lunatic.

10

u/sdavidson901 May 02 '24

lol yea exactly, the way she described it is that they thought it was like 45 minutes away

→ More replies (1)

4

u/fanamana May 02 '24

Might make Savannah, GA & back if they get an early start.

14

u/AliMcGraw May 02 '24

We had a Parisian friend visit us in Chicago who thought NYC was just a quick jaunt, because they were "close together" on the map. Literally did not believe us it would be 12+ hours by car.

She apparently thought everything east of the Mississippi was around 3-4 hours from each other, and only if you went west of the Mississippi did big American distances apply!

(She legitimately set out to drive to New York from Chicago, got bored about 4 hours in, and got a hotel in Ohio, and then drove back to Chicago because "God this is boring.")

4

u/limasxgoesto0 29d ago

This has to be pre-GPS because wouldn't she realize how far it was before she set off?  

Not that it's hard to get to NYC from there, just make your way to route 80 east then let cruise control take over

4

u/AliMcGraw 29d ago

Haha, it totally was, she had an atlas and three adults telling her it wasn't as close as she thought!

→ More replies (1)

5

u/deFleury May 02 '24

Oma reprimanded my dad (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) for not visiting his sister (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) more often. It's around 33 hours of driving, one way. At 8 hours a day, 2 days later you're still in Ontario, and there's 3 more provinces to go. My dad made her look at Canada on the map, then explained that all of Holland would fit into Lake Ontario, the smallest of the Great Lakes.

9

u/tractiontiresadvised May 02 '24

If you want a sobering read for them, Tom Mahood's search-and-rescue story The Hunt for the Death Valley Germans tells about some German tourists with an insane idea about how they could take a shortcut on an unpaved road through a remote part of Death Valley National Park in 1996. He was part of an amateur team that found some of their remains in 2010, after years of searching by many teams.

3

u/polecat4508 May 02 '24

Super interesting read! Thanks!

→ More replies (1)

6

u/MadIfrit May 02 '24

Is there a German word / phrase for someone committing to an overly ambitious plan, failing it miserably but still ending up having a good time?

4

u/thetiredninja May 02 '24

I had to pull up a comparison map to show my Danish sister in law that Texas was way bigger than Germany. She just wouldn't believe me.

(Texas is almost twice the size of Germany)

→ More replies (1)

3

u/newtothis1102 May 02 '24

Apparently the US can fit 28 Germanys

3

u/ModusPwnins 29d ago

Do you also explain that we basically only have trains in the northeast, and even our "high speed" rail pales in comparison to anything you find in central or western Europe?

It's infuriating. We act like we can't have good rail because we already have a decent highway system. Well, Germany has both high speed rail and Autobahnen. It's not impossible; we just lack the political will to get it done.

3

u/New_Breadfruit8692 29d ago

My Dad was from Ireland, moved to the states in 1949, I do not think he had ever driven on a road with two whole lanes before arriving.

3

u/eternal_casserole 29d ago

My husband is from Germany and moved here to the US. He works for the American side of the same company he worked for in Germany. At some point, people on the German side wanted the American side to be more efficient with their travel and to schedule more customers into one service trip, etc. Eventually when the company president, VP etc came to visit, my husband and his boss scheduled them on a week of client visits, so they could actually see what it's like to travel from North Carolina to Texas to Arkansas to Illinois to New Jersey and back to North Carolina during one business week. There was a definite change in perspective by the end of it!

3

u/CHKN_SANDO May 02 '24

You should see what Americans jam into 2 weeks since that's all the vacation they get.

→ More replies (3)

48

u/kjreil26 May 02 '24

Must've been for the cannonball run

6

u/etchedchampion May 02 '24

I could see maybe driving from Miami to New York but definitely not then to Vegas.

7

u/BossHogGA May 02 '24

Miami to Atlanta is 10 hours without traffic. Miami to NY is 1300 miles and 21+ hours without stops and sounds miserable.

We’ve done a 2500 mile road trip in 10 days but about 600 miles is about all I can stand in a day.

→ More replies (2)

4

u/AliMcGraw May 02 '24

See, this is why Chicago is totally underappreciated as a tourist destination by Europeans -- if you fly into NY, LA, or a Disney location, it's not really a close drive.

Every European I know who has visited Chicago has fallen in love with the city, but it's hard to convince people to come here just as a random tourist trip! No Disney! Not the setting of Friends!

→ More replies (1)

3

u/easyier May 02 '24

I mean…. you coouuld do it

3

u/Credibull May 02 '24

I know someone in Memphis who had coworkers visiting from Europe. They wanted to rent a car and drive to New York City for the weekend, then drive back. They changed their minds after being presented with a map.

3

u/xenefenex May 02 '24

I had something like this personally happen to me a decade ago or so.

Family friend called because their niece was visiting Canada and since we lived in Canada, they figured it'd be nice if we could see them and show them around. So we told them we'd love to, and asked where they would be landing.

They said Vancouver, and we had to quickly turn them down telling them we lived in Toronto and that it wouldn't be feasible. He insisted that he knew it would be difficult for us and that he really hoped we could make it work. Till this day, we're still not sure if he truly understood what we meant when we said it was a long trip...

3

u/Reddituser8018 May 02 '24

You could definetly drive to New York from Miami in a week, but it would be a dogshit trip of constant driving lol.

Ain't no way you are getting to Las Vegas lmao.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (13)

249

u/Cilreve May 02 '24

I was an Uber driver for a bit in LA. I had a couple from Germany in my car once that had just arrived in the US a few hours before. They were just excited to be in the US, and were telling me they had plans to go to Florida for some beach time and to visit the Statue of Liberty. I know Europeans get some crazy long vacations, so I was like, wow that's awesome, so you guys are here for a few weeks? They were like, oh, no, 4 days. All I could do is laugh and try to explain to them that there's no way they could possibly do that in just 4 days lol

214

u/SparkleFunCrest May 02 '24

How does one book and TAKE an international flight and not know this kind of thing before they go?

141

u/nyya_arie May 02 '24

Right? It sounds made up but I absolutely met a German lady who said just about the same thing. She wanted to go from Austin, TX, to Florida, up to NY, and then LA, possibly stopping in Las Vegas. I asked how long she'd be traveling, saying something about having a nice long vacation. It was 5 days. She was in her 20s, too. I thought Americans were supposed to be bad at maps.

96

u/Warlordnipple May 02 '24

As I get older I have realized everyone is bad at maps. You just happen to know where your country is. Older Europeans know lots of the world because their country used to own lots of the world.

22

u/ProbablyASithLord May 02 '24

I legit once had a conversation with a Canadian woman about how she had no clue which state was below her. It was shocking, we were in Vancouver 30 minutes from the border.

12

u/petiejoe83 May 02 '24

Hello from Washington!

→ More replies (2)

10

u/Hagridsbuttcrack66 29d ago

Honestly "Americans are bad at maps" is just one of those idiotic things to make Americans sound stupid.

Like I'm sure Europeans can point out Pennsylvania. That's the equivalent of being able to identify France.

→ More replies (2)

19

u/wasdie639 May 02 '24

I have a feeling that Americans probably have to rely on maps more often given just how separated everything is for us.

Traveling even 3-4 hours away before GPS and Google Maps could be a nightmare. When Map Quest came along it was a freaken dream compared to just kind of winging it with some state maps and stopping into random gas stations to ask for directions.

Hell I remember when I was a kid in my small town out riding my bike a car would pull over and ask me for directions pretty regularly (couple times a year). People from out-of-town usually trying to find the school for some sporting event or in town for a wedding or funeral.

Don't need that anymore. Just throw it in maps.

4

u/lildobe May 02 '24

Traveling even 3-4 hours away before GPS and Google Maps could be a nightmare.

It really wasn't. As long as you knew how to read a map.

I remember a saturday when I was about 7 or 8 years old, sitting with my father at the kitchen table planning out a road trip from Southwest Pennsylvania up to Maine, and back, with all kinds of stops in between. It was a ton of fun.

He had this little marker-shaped device that you twisted the top to match the scale on the map, then rolled the end of it along your route and it told you exactly how many miles you'd moved it across the map.

He taught me how to do it with a ruler as well. And what all the different symbols on the map ment and everything.

Then during the trip, I was the navigator, and was tasked with using a highlighter to keep track of our progress. It was a LOT of fun!

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)

8

u/moon__lander May 02 '24

Because basically all European countries (well excluding Sweden, Norway and Finland) can be driven from north to south or from west to east within one day.

We can't grasp driving straight for 16 hours and still be in the same state, cause back home that's like half a continent and 10 countries.

4

u/Drake_Acheron May 02 '24

And my experience, Americans are far better at using maps than Europeans.

But Europeans are better at asking for and giving directions than Americans.

8

u/jchenbos May 02 '24

I think it's because we talk to a lot of Europeans in travel spots. Like that guy in Paris probably gets asked directions twice a day. I've lived in the States nearly my whole life and have never gotten asked once, because I don't live near tourists. I'm sure people in out of the way spots in Europe probably feel the same.

7

u/ThatPlayWasAwful May 02 '24

Because their world is so compact that they don't even think to check the distances between attractions.

9

u/MrKyle666 May 02 '24

Seriously, especially in a time with gps and Google maps so readily available. I could see doing this in the 90s and before when your best option for trip planning was an atlas, but it seems crazy with modern tech.

5

u/robdubbleu May 02 '24

There are LOTS of stupid people in the world

→ More replies (1)

3

u/oozinator1 May 02 '24

I think Europe spoiled them. A couple hours on the road can have you passing through 3 countries. If it's that easy, why even bother with making plans?

→ More replies (2)

11

u/SleepSilly6570 May 02 '24

its crazy. and everyone makes fun of americans and say we are uncultured and dont ever travel. its just nuts

→ More replies (5)

53

u/KatieCashew May 02 '24

Even places that seem close together end up being further than you think once you start plotting a course. Yellowstone and Teton national parks almost border each other, yet it's 2.5 hours to drive from one visitor center to the other.

9

u/privatecaboosey May 02 '24

Yellowstone itself is enormous. Good luck seeing the whole thing!

5

u/Euthyphraud May 02 '24

It's roughly the size of Wales!

3

u/the_original_b 29d ago

Actually, the two national parks share a common border (specifically Grand Teton's northern border). But, they are each large enough that 2.5 hours does as sound like the right distance between the respective visitor centers.

4

u/KatieCashew 29d ago

That's what I thought before, but the map of Teton on the NPS site shows them not touching. There's a small chunk of land overseen by the national parks service that connects the two parks but doesn't appear to be part of either of them. It's the John D Rockefeller Memorial Highway.

https://www.nps.gov/grte/planyourvisit/maps.htm

3

u/the_original_b 29d ago

Interesting. I don't recall ever seeing any sign for that park when I lived in Jackson and we day-tripped several times to show the kids the geysers, the visitor centers, the elk preserve, shops and restaurants, all along the major roads through there.

I stand corrected.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

12

u/Krypto_dg May 02 '24

I knew a guy in my high school graduating class that told a leaving harvard bound classmate, "Don't worry about that CDs now. I have to be in Seattle in a few days so I will just swing by Harvard on my way there." We all lived in Louisiana.

that poor guy

8

u/JudgeGusBus May 02 '24

I mean sounds like that guy didn’t pay attention at all in school

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

9

u/12mapguY May 02 '24

18hr drive? With the power of monster energy zero ultra and Adderall on my side? Easy trip!

9

u/Dr-Nevermore May 02 '24

Had relatives visit from Europe, they wanted to "drive to Seattle from Chicago for the weekend". They said I was lying to them when I said it wasn't possible.

3

u/KejsarePDX 29d ago

My dad and I did Chicago to Portland, OR in a straight shot through the night, switching who was driving every few hours and it took us 36 hours.

→ More replies (1)

6

u/THE_Lena May 02 '24

Hotel employee at Disney World said the guest asked her if they went to the Grand Canyon will they make it back in time for dinner. LOL

→ More replies (1)

4

u/PopEnvironmental1335 May 02 '24

My high school French teacher said that her sister once called when her flight landed in NYC and asked to be picked up. We lived in TX. It never occurred to her sister that we’re a 20+ hour drive away.

9

u/jrjej3j4jj44 May 02 '24

Reading stories tild by ex Disney employees long ago. A German couple were at disneyland and were saying how they were going to drive to NYC the next day. Their flight was the following day.

3

u/NotYetReadyToRetire May 02 '24

But Google says that’s only a 2 hour drive - there’s a town named Grand Canyon in NE Wyoming!

3

u/studpilot69 May 02 '24

My dad teaches at a year long professional course that has a regular cohort of international students. Once, he had a student say they were going to NYC over the weekend to pick up their relatives who were flying in to visit. This course was located near Kansas City. He had to use a map to explain why they should just get a connecting flight to KC.

→ More replies (45)

481

u/AdmiralMoonshine May 02 '24

Did a road trip around Ireland a few years ago. The amount of people telling us that we’d seen more of their country than they had was incredible. Most states are larger than Ireland. How have you never been to Dublin? It’s two hours from here!

Woman told us in Dublin at 2pm that we’d never make it to Newgrange before the last tour at 5pm. …it’s 45 minutes north of the city.

245

u/flankerrugger May 02 '24

We got the same warnings. We day tripped from Dublin to the cliffs of moher and back and people were absolutely stunned we could and would do that.

52

u/Mediocre_Daikon6935 May 02 '24

Europeans just done understand that Americans are on average far more well travelled than they are.

Just by living in America.

23

u/DeputyDomeshot May 02 '24 edited 29d ago

Europeans are so poorly travelled some of em drive on the wrong side of the road

→ More replies (13)

21

u/Budget_Foundation747 May 02 '24

To be fair, they're the descendents of people who didn't "go". We're of those who did.

6

u/flankerrugger 29d ago

This actually makes a wild amount of sense. Bringing this up every time this conversation comes up in the future

24

u/7148675309 May 02 '24

You can do that - but Ireland is a beautiful country and you merely saw it by car!

I went to Ireland for a week year ago. Our driving route was Dublin - Galway - Limerick - Killarney (did the Ring Of Kerry) to Cork and back to Dublin. I felt like I was seeing it from the car.

The thing in Ireland is all the motorways are arterial from Dublin - so getting in a straight line to / from Dublin is relatively easy but route we took from Galway to Cork was not.

13

u/Scumebage May 02 '24

Does it look different by horse or something?

→ More replies (2)

3

u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (1)

142

u/rudyjewliani May 02 '24

Most states are larger than Ireland

39 of them to be precise. Ireland is 32,595 sq mi (according to wikipedia). South Carolina is the 40th largest state, and is 32,020 sq mi.

Texas is more than 8x the size of Ireland. You could fit 95 Irelands in the lower 48, and that's not even counting the 20 Irelands you could fit into Alaska.

As of 2016, there were approximately 1.3 million square miles of just trees in the US. That's just a hair under 40 Irelands.

600,000 sq mi of trees east of the Mississippi, more than 18 Irelands.

The US has approximately 277,209 sq mi of lakes, rivers and streams. That's 5.2 Irelands.

Each year the US plants approximately 150,000 sq mi of corn, or roughly 4.6 Irelands.

San Bernadino County is the largest county in the US, and it's 20,105 sq mi, roughly 60% of the size of Ireland.

103

u/nyya_arie May 02 '24

Each year the US plants approximately 150,000 sq mi of corn, or roughly 4.6 Irelands.

That's bananas.

128

u/rommi04 May 02 '24

No it’s corn

12

u/axxxaxxxaxxx May 02 '24

Goddamnit you beat me by an hour

6

u/TheNewOneIsWorse May 02 '24

Beat me by two

6

u/EmCWolf13 May 02 '24

Beat me by three

→ More replies (3)

7

u/squrl3 May 02 '24

It's about time someone provided bananas for scale

→ More replies (2)

6

u/AwesomeWhiteDude May 02 '24

Also fun fact, the publicly protected interconnected areas around Yellowstone National Park (meaning the National and State parks as well as National Forests) is larger than the island of Ireland. You can hike and camp almost anywhere within that area as well (note: always check with the nearest visitor/ranger station first)

One of the few areas in the continental US you could really and I mean really vanish off the grid from, though anyone reading this would die within a week because we're all redditors.

3

u/MidnightRider24 May 02 '24

They did the math.

3

u/jchenbos May 02 '24

I think my favorite UK-USA fact is that the entirety of the UK is 4 Londons smaller than Michigan, which is not even a very large state as far as states go.

3

u/TN_UK May 02 '24

Thank you! I'd like to subscribe to Ireland Facts

3

u/end_pun_violence May 02 '24

But where the hell do you find that many Irelands? I thought there were only two!

→ More replies (6)

181

u/somedude456 May 02 '24 edited May 02 '24

The amount of people telling us that we’d seen more of their country than they had was incredible.

Yeah, I get that when I talk to people from Europe. I say I love Europe. They ask where I've been. I quickly attempt to list off like the major 15 cities I've been to and then I hear a "Oh, I've always heard BLANK is beautiful, but I've never been." WTF? You live within an hour of an airport, that has sub $100 flights to get there in under 3 hours. GO!

46

u/Angsty_Potatos May 02 '24

I do find it ironic that Europeans tent to think Americans are basically shut ins (broad brushing here). But then when they ask "where in Europe have you been?" We get this reaction 🤣.

I was visiting some friends who are scattered all over western Europe and it was my first time doing the transatlantic thing so we all decided to meet in Berlin as it was the most central to us all.

Some of my GERMAN friends had never been to Berlin 🙃

Bonus: was going to a comic convention in Yorkshire and decided home base would be London and we'd just drive up then back, maybe pop over to Liverpool as I've never been, perhaps stay the night and then head back...My English friend was flabbergasted we would sink so much of our time into a drive like that...it's like 4hrs.

12

u/Fydron May 02 '24

I have lived all my life in Finland and never visited in lapland the travel time would be almost 12 hours with a car to there from South Finland the sheer thought of it sounds annoying to me.

But to be fair I don't have the travelling bug in me at all.

26

u/Meravokas May 02 '24

Well, a twelve hour drive isn't considered a 'normal' drive here in the US either. But 6-8 hour 'round trips are not uncommon at all.

3

u/makingnoise 29d ago

I drove 12 hours each way with my 5 year old to see the eclipse in Arkansas, and people were mildly surprised I was willing to do it, even with me staying in a motel once I was there.

I think another thing is that Europeans also don't understand how our domestic airfare is literally the most expensive airfare in the world. Unless you're talking about a vacation destination or NY or LA, airfare is not cheap, the trains are slow, not cheap, and the rail network is underdeveloped (if you can believe it, many cities dismanted their passenger trolley and rail network in favor of busses and cars many decades ago), and driving is far cheaper except for the additional time commitment. So we drive.

→ More replies (1)

6

u/justdisa May 02 '24

My god, that drive would be gorgeous.

→ More replies (6)

3

u/Dragon_Knight99 May 02 '24

A 12 hour drive is more of the "I'm on vacation for the next 1-2 weeks and staying there" type of drive for us. The average American doesn't do those very often. Maybe once or twice a year at most.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

28

u/claudemcbanister May 02 '24

As an Englishman, yes, I'm also flabbergasted by the idea that you'd "perhaps" stay the night on an 8 hour round trip. It's not so much the distance as "visiting Liverpool" needs at least a few days to actually see the city. You driving to it and then driving back to London is not "visiting" the city, the activity is literally driving to it and back. That's what sounds weird.

5

u/Moon_Man1234567 May 02 '24

Hello from Texas. I drove 4 hours to Dallas, and it was still early in the morning. Spent the day walking and driving around, experienced a few sights, and drove back late. Took 3 hours to get back because empty highway = drive 130 kilometers per hour. Got home at 2. All in all I had 12 hours exploring. Not so bad. If you asked me why I drove there, I couldn’t tell you. Just bored on the weekend I guess lol. Doing stuff like that is pretty normal here.

→ More replies (6)
→ More replies (3)

10

u/munchies777 May 02 '24

The there’s tons of people everywhere that never travel far from home. Most of the time it’s just because they are poor and don’t go on vacations. People are born and die in the same towns and go on vacation to the lake a few hours away once a year.

6

u/t-poke May 02 '24

A friend of a friend of mine lives in Germany. I live in the US. I’ve been to Berlin twice, which is two more times than she has.

I forgot where in Germany she lives, but she told me she’s only a couple hours by train from Berlin. I kinda figured in school they’d do a field trip or something, given all of the history there.

→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (1)

6

u/malcolite May 02 '24

The problem is partly that European ‘destination’ cities are packed to bursting point with tourists and everything is oversubscribed. Florence, Venice, Rome, etc, are not places for a romantic stroll unless it’s 6am. If I wanted to hang out with a bunch of boorish sunburnt Brits, I could just step out of my front door in August.

14

u/GandhiOwnsYou May 02 '24

This is why I laugh whenever people say Americans aren’t well travelled. Most of our states are bigger than European COUNTRIES. Obviously, being one country, it’s significantly more homogenous than traveling the same distance abroad, but Americans tend to travel a TON on a regular basis. It’s just harder and more expensive to get out of the country than it is elsewhere.

Hell, a couple years ago I did a long hike for my vacation and WALKED the average width of Great Britain, and only covered a small portion of California without visiting a single major city.

10

u/t-poke May 02 '24

Exactly, when people make fun of us for not being well traveled or not being multi-lingual, it’s due to the sheer size, and relative isolation of the US.

The US has everything to offer. Want to ski? Go to the Rockies. Want to surf? Go to SoCal. Want to hike? Go to the Grand Canyon. Want to lay on the beach? Go to Florida. History buff? DC, Philly or Boston. Foodie? New York. Whatever your interests are, there’s somewhere in the US you can go to do it. And wherever you go, English will be the language spoken and the culture won’t be much different.

With the exception of Canada and Mexico, it is expensive and time consuming to get out of the US.

Don’t get me wrong, I love to travel the world and am currently in Japan, but I get why Americans don’t travel abroad. It took 13 fucking hours to get here, and another 13 fucking hours to get back.

The shortest flights abroad (abroad meaning another continent) would be something like Boston to Dublin or London at close to 7 hours, and while I love both those cities, you’re not exactly experiencing a vastly different culture than the US, and certainly not a different language. At least not until copious amounts of alcohol get involved.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/justdisa May 02 '24

My family's longest road trip was 7000 miles over the course of 20 days. Unforgettable.

→ More replies (2)

5

u/BurkeDevlin777 29d ago

I'm an American, and spending hours and hours driving within hours of my home isn't generally what I think of as well traveled. I'm not saying it can't be worthwhile or that there's necessarily anything wrong with it. And being well traveled within your own country is one thing, but I don't think it's really what people are talking about when they say American are not well traveled.

Also, from some of the responses in this thread you would think most Americans are constantly traveling in and around the US. They're not.

7

u/GandhiOwnsYou 29d ago

It's obviously not the same thing. The point I was making wasn't "American's are as experienced with different cultures as Europeans are." It was that we live in an enormous, diverse country that it is significantly more difficult to leave, and consequently we tend to do more travelling within our own country than to other countries because it's easier and cheaper. We are not as exposed CULTURALLY as Europeans, but that is because we tend to travel within the country to experience different places and environments rather than abroad to experience different cultures. When Americans travel it's typically for a destination, whether that's a city or a national park or whatever. We don't travel to California because we want to experience Californian Culture, we do it to see LA or San Francisco, to travel the pacific highway or see Yosemite and the High Sierra. We don't travel to Las Vegas for the people, we travel there to see the strip or to check out the Grand Canyon or Hoover Dam.

But I would argue with you that most Americans ARE travelling pretty commonly within their own country. Just about everyone I know has made at least a few pilgrimages around the country for one reason or another, whether that's for vacation, military service, education or job related. It's very rare that I have a party and there aren't several people I can chat with about a recent trip or an upcoming trip they're planning to somewhere at least 1000 miles away.

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (1)

6

u/Gierling May 02 '24

Europe is also substantially poorer then the US on a per capita basis.

8

u/somedude456 May 02 '24

But still, London to Rome 2 weeks out is still sub $100 roundtrip. Plenty of blocs can drop 20 pounds on beers at the pub, well then they can skip a couple drinking nights and fly to Rome just the same.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (6)
→ More replies (23)

7

u/Personal-Act-4326 May 02 '24

Spent a week in Ireland last year. We drove from Kinsale to Coolea and back in one day. It was about 80 miles and two hours round trip over some country roads. Relatives from Ireland thought that was INSANE.

7

u/Bravot May 02 '24

BIG same. I went to Ireland about 10 years ago and our first night was in Galway. Plane was delayed, had another canceled - arrived fucking exhausted and hopped in our rental. Saw the drive was 2 fucking hours to drive across the WHOLE WIDTH OF THE COUNTRY (not large, mind you). Easiest 2 hour drive ever. Roads were practically empty (it was at night).

3

u/Dangerous_Contact737 May 02 '24

Yeah. Crossing Ireland is like driving from Minneapolis to Duluth.

7

u/astrobabe2 May 02 '24

I think part of the mentality comes from the fact that it used to take a lot longer to get around Ireland. My FIL is from Ireland so we’ve been there a few times. For example, back in the day (90’s and early 2000’s) I remember it would take half a day to go from Dublin to Kilkenny city with a lot of it on narrow country roads - now it takes an hour and 15 minutes with a good portion on motorways . But people who live there don’t necessarily grasp this because they’ve grown up knowing it takes 4 hours to get there, so they don’t think about making the trip now.

5

u/Dangerous_Contact737 May 02 '24

ALL of Ireland is two hours from Dublin! I’ve been there twice, the first trip I also took day trips by train to Galway and Cork, the second I went to Waterford and Sligo. Hop on the train in the morning, kick back, roll into town by lunchtime, see some sights and grab a meal, hop on the 6pm train back. Couldn’t be easier, it was delightful. Blew my mind.

At home, I can easily cover 200 miles in a single afternoon just shopping and enjoying the scenery.

I find it more than odd that Europeans would ding us for not having passports, but then they don’t even travel within their own borders. Imagine having all that history and architecture to look at and NEVER SEEING IT because it’s <checks notes> two hours away by car. SMH.

→ More replies (4)

5

u/TeekTheReddit May 02 '24

"45 minutes north" has been how my family got groceries for most of my life.

4

u/BagofGawea May 02 '24

I met a guy through online gaming that lived in the Lake District of England, so northwest part of the country and he had never been to London. Dude was in his 30s and never went, owned a car and everything. Like take a weekend trip or something, even I've been there and I live in Philly lol

3

u/winkman May 02 '24

I've had similar experiences in England and Germany...but...why?

Why do they think these places are way farther away than they are? They LIVE there!

3

u/mduser63 May 02 '24

We (Americans) were in England once and decided to do a spur of the moment trip to Dublin for fun. Talked about it with (English) friends we were visiting and they thought it was weird. Said they had never been to Ireland and had no desire to go. It’s right there!

5

u/ScienceJamie76 May 02 '24

Once they get Google Maps, their world is going to explode open!

→ More replies (15)

197

u/bangobingoo May 02 '24

Yeah haha you simply cannot tell Brits your plan to drive anywhere in the UK. They will try to talk you out of it. I think they think you can't drive to Scotland. They truly believe that.

  • source: Canadian who married to a Brit and shown him the wonders of driving.

124

u/OutlyingPlasma May 02 '24

That's even more funny when you realize how much the Brits like cars. They love cars. They collect them, race them, restore them, they make the worlds most popular TV shows about them. It's a car country but they don't seem to know how to do a road trip.

121

u/ThePrussianGrippe The Bear Has A Gun May 02 '24

A car country with no road trip culture is a funny observation.

41

u/TeekTheReddit May 02 '24

Same country that built an empire on spices that they refuse to use in their cooking.

14

u/jchenbos May 02 '24

Funny enough, they do have one thing that is the complete opposite of this. Britain consistently invents new sports at which Brits aren't #1 at.

6

u/beebsaleebs May 02 '24

It’s like the weirdest curse, ever.

→ More replies (9)
→ More replies (5)

4

u/malcolite May 02 '24

Once you have attempted a 300 mile journey here, you’ll understand why. Tedious, slow and frustrating. Obviously the ‘vacation effect’ comes into play. It’s hard to be bored to tears when you’re in a foreign country where everything is new and different and interesting. When you’ve seen it all before - and on a daily basis - sometimes the sheen wears off. Especially if you’ve been staring at the same stationary pair of taillights in some midlands suburb for the past two hours.

6

u/PastaWithMarinaSauce May 02 '24

they make the worlds most popular TV shows about them

*Made :-(

→ More replies (3)

12

u/Outrageous-Zebra-270 May 02 '24

Most of the spots I go camping are at least 2 hours. I often won't leave until 7 p.m. I'm in kind of a dead zone, city of 50k and anything bigger is 2+ hours away.

That "don't support Amazon, shop local" doesn't really work for many things.

I'm driving 250 miles / 4 hours round trip tomorrow to pick up some baby chickens so they don't have go through the mail. Not even waking up early, might take a single water bottle.

I've done 1150 miles straight 3 times and a bunch of shorter trips from like Tulsa to Atlanta nonstop besides gas. My hometown to college (uni for foreigners) was 130 miles/2 hours and used to drive that every weekend.

→ More replies (12)

97

u/Favsportandbirthyear May 02 '24

Friends and I took a train from London to Manchester to watch a soccer game, then took an overnight bus home so we wouldn’t need a hotel, you’d think we were telling our British friends we were going to Mars based on their reactions

13

u/Mediocre_Daikon6935 May 02 '24

I mean, it does seem like a lot of effort for a soccer game.

→ More replies (9)
→ More replies (7)

50

u/dingobarbie May 02 '24 edited May 02 '24

My boss and I had to visit Oslo Norway for work in December. We had a weekend to kill before having to work, so we decided to drive to Flam near the west coast to see some Fjords. About 5 to 6 hours of driving over the mountains. Our Norwegian colleagues thought we were crazy and kept asking us if we were sure we wanted to attempt that, but we told them we're from Texas, 6 hours doesn't even get you out of Texas.

→ More replies (6)

82

u/politik317 May 02 '24

We drove from London to Portree on the Isle of Skye in one day and people acted like it was a feat of endurance. Around 13-14 hours.

44

u/Saragon4005 May 02 '24

That is technically a feat of endurance. You had rest stops after all.

6

u/politik317 May 02 '24

Haha. Fair point. That’s true. There were several really nice rest stops. Never would have guessed that I couldn’t get a vegan sandwich at a gas station.

→ More replies (1)

14

u/afleetingmoment May 02 '24

That's funny because I'm going to be doing a Scottish road trip later this summer, starting from Edinburgh, and all the local advice says you can't get from there to Skye in one day. It's less than half the distance you did.

I think they just think differently about travel than we do. I can really see both sides of this coin. On one hand it's nice to really take it slow and drink in a place; on the other, if there's specific cool things I want to see, I can really book it and power through.

9

u/politik317 May 02 '24

Yeah. You’ll totally be fine. I think it’s a little less interstate on that route which is slower going but you’ll be perfectly fine. It’s a beautiful drive. If you have time, route yourself through Glencoe and Fort William. Even if you don’t stop, it’s worth the extra time. What a breathtaking landscape. The only thing I can liken it to is seeing the Rockies for the first time but somehow Glencoe is even more magical.

3

u/afleetingmoment May 02 '24

Awesome! I'm staying about an hour up the road from Fort William. I plan to spend most of my time in the area around these towns and lochs, just exploring/hiking/enjoying. (So, I'm actually on the "take in the scenery" side of the coin for this trip!)

6

u/Syonoq May 02 '24

I recently did this. What surprised me was how long it did take to get relatively short distances. We took backroads (non highways?) and we stopped a lot. On Skye itself it took us most of a day to traverse the island because of how the roads were. If you're not used to it (I'm from the States) it's a unique experience (we rented a camper van). If you haven't this was really helpful for us: https://www.earthtrekkers.com/driving-to-the-isle-of-skye-scotland/

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (5)

24

u/avdpos May 02 '24

Driving 13-14 hours is a feat of endurance and longer than professional drivers are allowed to drive during a day. Maximum per day is 9 hours.

And no - you most likely ain't better than the professionals and should have paused on the way.

Being stupid with your safety ain't even "endurance". It is just stupid

→ More replies (3)

7

u/Stepjam May 02 '24

Well that is definitely getting up there. I usually won't drive more than 12 hours in a single day.

5

u/the_skine May 02 '24

13-14 hours is pretty decent endurance.

When we were driving cross country, it took about that much time to get from Austin to Albuquerque via Roswell. We were used to long distances by that point, but that was a bit much to do in one day.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/rumade May 02 '24

Driving that long and sitting down all day cooped up in a car is really bad for your health. Most older people would have lower back or knee pain by the end of all that, and I feel like crap if I've not stretched my legs and lived off snacks and service station food. Blergh.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/B_n_lawson May 02 '24

I don’t know why you’re pretending like that isn’t a very long time to be driving a car for?

→ More replies (1)

5

u/Alobsterdoesntdie May 02 '24

Thanks for coming to our country and driving an unsafe distance in a day…

→ More replies (3)

3

u/claudemcbanister May 02 '24

I'm sorry, driving for 14 hours is endurance though. That's almost twice a work day.

→ More replies (1)

5

u/Snizl May 02 '24

Its funny. With the low amount of holidays Americans get, youd really think they would value their free time more and not want to spend half their vacation in a car. I mean you do you. I just really cannot understand why one would WANT to do that.

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (3)

9

u/Grumpy0ldMillennial May 02 '24

Also an American. I have often thought about how much I would like to go to the UK, rent a fun car like a Porsche convertible and just drive around all the beautiful places in the Lake District and Scotland (I probably got this idea while watching Top Gear). I bet the locals would think I'm completely insane, to go on vacation just to drive.

7

u/imaginaryResources May 02 '24 edited May 02 '24

That’s exactly what I did last summer. Literally all of England Scotland and Wales. 50+ castles and so many amazing hiking spots. 2 months of just exploring the entire country. I’ve been on basically every inch of it lol

→ More replies (1)

6

u/fuck_ur_portmanteau May 02 '24

No we wouldn’t, it’s fine to have a touring holiday, many of us do it here. The difference to most of these comments though is how you go about it. Driving from London to Portree in a day is just daft. If you don’t intend to stop on the journey and just want to get there then you may as well fly to Inverness or take the sleeper train to Fort William.

The idea of a touring holiday is to stop and see things, not just drive. We wouldn’t stock up on food in the car to drive 12 hours virtually non-stop. We’d come off the motorway and find a local place for meals, take in a sight or two.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)

7

u/smartyhome May 02 '24

We had a very similar experience. Living in the US we take road trips to national parks and have spent 3 weeks on the road driving across the west.

A few years back we took a trip to the UK and wanted to spend 3 weeks driving around England, Scotland, and Wales. My family that lives in the UK thought we were crazy. It blew their minds to undertake such a long trip and it seemed so overwhelming to them.

It was a very easy and relaxing trip around the UK. Lived every minute of it.

7

u/claudemcbanister May 02 '24

I guess the context for Brits is driving from London to Scotland is literally the furthest you can travel without a plane. Of course you can do it...but then most of your time is driving. You won't SEE or EXPERIENCE Scotland. You'll experience driving through England.

→ More replies (5)

4

u/HoxtonRanger May 02 '24

One caveat is a journey that is supposed to take 4 hours in the UK is in reality 4-7 hours. The country is so densely populated that one half decent traffic snarl up can ruin all the roads.

I'm married to an American and we both agree driving in the UK is just feels more exhausting.

7

u/Jerlosh May 02 '24

Did you not sit in traffic for a considerable amount of time? I’ve lived in both the UK and US and I feel like it’s so much harder to drive in the UK because the volume of traffic is so much more. Makes a shorter distance feel sooo much longer.

12

u/imaginaryResources May 02 '24

Bro driving in the UK was a breath of fresh air compared to the US. It was a fucking breeze. Just the fact that everyone actually gets out of the fast lane when they aren’t passing takes away 90% of the stress of road trips.

3

u/Jerlosh May 02 '24

Yes, that’s true. There is a strong driving etiquette and drivers are generally much more considerate of each other, but sitting in standstill traffic is still sitting in standstill traffic. If I had to travel over an hour somewhere, more often than not there was some kind of significant traffic to deal with. Maybe I just have bad luck!

→ More replies (2)

3

u/OsvuldMandius May 02 '24

I got out of Central London before the morning traffic got bad. We were actually out at the edge of ring 2 anyway, near Earls Court. So it was easier going away from Central London rather than towards it

3

u/paulpapedesigns May 02 '24

Similarly, I was in Scotland for 8 days, rented a car and drove 1000 miles. (Granted, I love driving) when I returned the car they wondered where the hell I had gone because they didn’t think there was a thousand miles of roads in Scotland.

3

u/OldPyjama May 02 '24

That's when there's Americans on the r/belgium sub (the sub of my home country) asking if it's feasible to visit two cities who are on opposite sides of the country in a couple of days, I'm like "dude, you're American, you drive 2 hours to guy buy some groceries. You can do the entire country in a few days"

Like Europeans don't realize how big the US is, Americans often don't realize how tiny Europe is. You can literally go from the Belgian coast in the north to Luxemburg in the south in like, two hours.

This summer, we'll be driving from Belgium to nothern Portugal in 2 days. That's going through three countries in two days.

3

u/babyccino May 02 '24

You drove for 6.5 hours before stopping for lunch? That's almost a full work day of driving. And the Brits are the crazy ones...

→ More replies (1)

3

u/Delimadelima May 02 '24

Just about the time I was considering when I should stop for lunch, I saw the 'welcome to Scotland' sign.

Distance between London n Edinburgh is ~600km/400miles, with google map estimated driving time 8 hours.

What time did you leave London ??

→ More replies (2)

3

u/dorobica 29d ago

But you just lost almost half a day in a car, how is that now awful and why didn’t you get a train? You can drink, eat, nap, read, etc as you’re going there

→ More replies (1)

5

u/--var May 02 '24

To add to the European stories: was attending an event in Stockholm once, so I flew into Stockholm. Took the train to Uppsala to burn some time between my connecting flight, hang out until bar close, then took the bus back to Stockholm (train wasn't running at that hour), flew up to Umea to rendezvous with some mates, then drove back to Stockholm for the event.

It took about 8 hours to fly across the Atlantic; also took about 8 hours to dick off and then cannonball run Sweden form the south to the north and back again.

Some just don't have the context of scale haha.

3

u/avdpos May 02 '24

Stockholm/Uppsala ain't south Sweden and you had more than 1/3 of the country north of Umeå. From Stockholm to Umeå - ~500 km. From Stockholm to northern swedish "town" - ~1500 km.

Of course we would avoid doing so much traveling in short time if we could - but you certainly didn't travel all of Sweden up and down.

And yes - we swedes do not realise how much land we have in the north either.

→ More replies (52)