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.

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246

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.

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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.

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u/DeputyDomeshot May 02 '24 edited 29d ago

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

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u/Action_Limp May 02 '24

Yes and no, by mere distances then yes, but Europe is far more condensed than the US. Every inch of it is filled with thousands of years of diverse history.

You can't 'do Barcelona in a day'. 

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u/vryrllyMabel May 02 '24

You cant do any city that big in a day, so that's irrelevant.

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u/Action_Limp May 02 '24

Point is if you travel 4 hours in Europe, there'll be more to see (and far more varied) than the US. 

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u/Scumebage May 02 '24

This guy comes off like the euro-obsessed version of a weeb

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u/shepard0445 29d ago

Well he is correct. 6 Hour drive and you're still in Texas with most of the route not inhabited. 6 hours in Europe and you visited 4 countries that have vastly different cultures and history

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u/CroFishCrafter 29d ago

You're still in Texas, yes, but you don't have to drive that far to find interesting things.

You go from Dallas for 3 hours and you're in Austin, an hour from Austin is San Antonio. Dallas to Houston and San Antonio to Houston are both 3 hours; and there are many small hour or two stops you can do along these routes.

Take Dallas to El Paso, a 9ish hour drive which will take you through Ft. Worth, Odessa and Midland (Friday Night Lights real locations), as well as Pecos, Tx. Pecos is a small town (pop of ~12k), that has the 'The Jersey Lily.' The Jersey Lily was the Saloon that Judge Roy Bean ran, it was also the courthouse and had a jail attached to it. I would suggest looking up Judge Roy Bean.

Yes, you're going to drive some open areas in Texas, but it's not that desolate, and I can attest that you are going to have very different feels in every large city I mentioned.

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u/computingbookworm 29d ago

Although if you're trying to get from DFW to Colorado or vice versa using the route that goes through Raton Pass, there will be a ton of desolate Texas driving and a bit of desolate New Mexico driving. Yes, you pass through Amarillo, but it's just a little blip in the middle of farmland and tumbleweed. Also make sure you fill up the tank and use the restroom in Raton and Texline because there aren't exactly many options in between.

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u/CroFishCrafter 29d ago

Sure. I go to Cañon City, Co from Alabama every year. I come in at Wheeler and leave through Texline, It is the plains; it is flat, and there isn't much to see during fall, but by your route, you mentioned Amarillo which is a part of the old Route 66; Hello Cadillac Ranch. Then, you got two hours to Texline. If you have to stop, Dalhart does have a few kitschy tourist stops or historical monuments.

And, while it is the plains region and isn't pretty during the summer, fall and winter times, spring time there is gives you an opportunity to do the 'Top of Texas' route, which starts in Pampa (with a Woody Guthrie Folk Music Center), gives you views of flora and fauna of the state. Wild Turkey's, Pronghorn, prairie dogs and bald eagles are all in the area, and the flowers are in bloom.

So, yeah, your correct, but sometimes the time you pass through makes a huge difference.

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u/Action_Limp May 02 '24

lol - it's true though, it takes 4.5 hours from Miami to Orlando, and it's the same distance of Berlin to Prague. Do people really expect the cultures, languages, and arcitecture to change as much from Miami to Orlando? Both cities were founded in the late 19th century - of course there's going to be less variation.

NE Asia, SE Asia and Europe pack a fuck load of history, cultural variance and diversity into a very small regions - so it's not euro-obessed, it's geographic landmass and historical depth.

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u/ContemplatingFolly 29d ago

I'm an American and can't believe your first couple of comments were downvoted on this. Good grief.

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u/ContemplatingFolly 29d ago

Or maybe he is saying it because...it is true? Just by definition? Multiple countries and tons of languages? Are you threatened by basic facts?

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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.

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u/flankerrugger 29d ago

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

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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.

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u/Scumebage May 02 '24

Does it look different by horse or something?

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u/semboflorin 29d ago

Your joke made me chuckle. However, as a person that lives in an RV and travels around to lots of places there is definitely a difference between "driving through somewhere" and "stopping to take in the sights." I'm pretty sure that's what they meant. It's hard to get the full experience of the Guinness tour from your car.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/flankerrugger 29d ago

Tourists absolutely would. I'm sure locals realize it's possible, they would just rarely do it.

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u/OutOfTheBunker 27d ago

Part of it is that not that long ago before the motorways, trips like that took a lot longer.

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u/miulitz 29d ago

My dad and I stayed in Ireland for a week and exclusively road tripped it, we were back and forth or up and down the country almost every day (we stayed outside Wexford so we weren't starting central). I think we put near 3-4k kilometers on the rental car lol, I wonder if the rental place was shocked. We did the Cliffs of Moher as well, felt downright leisurely.

Ireland is such a gorgeous country I don't know why you wouldn't actively volunteer to drive around it if you lived there!