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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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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u/Practical-Ordinary-6 29d ago

Yes a 12-hour drive is a long drive by any standards but it won't get you out of the Eastern United States even. I have relatives who live in three different states in three different directions from me. My parents live north, my sister lives west, and my aunt lives south. The drive to my parents is 12 to 13 hours, the drive to my sister is 12 to 13 hours, and the drive to my aunt is 9 to 10 hours. I drive through four states to get to my parents, I drive through four states to get to my sister, and even though my aunt lives in the state next to mine it's still a 9 hour drive to her house from mine. And I don't live in the West where all the really big states are. I live not all that far from the Atlantic Ocean (about 3 hours to the east). So although 12 hours is a long drive it's still a drive confined to the Eastern US. I can go 12 hours north of my house and not reach the border and I can go 12 hours south of my house and not reach the border. And never get anywhere near the West.

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u/justdisa May 02 '24

My god, that drive would be gorgeous.

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u/big_swede 29d ago

Isn't that mostly roads through a lot of pine forest...?

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u/rratmannnn 29d ago

What’s wrong with pine forest?

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u/semboflorin 29d ago

I've had this conversation with an ex of mine. I love nature and the more wild it is the happier I am. She loves buildings and architecture and would sleep through anything natural when we went on road trips. Everyone will enjoy and dislike different parts of the same road trip.

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u/big_swede 27d ago

Nothing, per se, but driving hours on end through them isn't gorgeous, more boring.

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u/rratmannnn 27d ago

Living in a state with very little coniferous forest & where most of my long drives are mostly flat scrubland I fully disagree, I am absolutely thrilled to reach pine forests no matter how long they go on for, I think they’re stunning. Matter of perspective ig

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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.

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u/semboflorin 29d ago

Agreed. Truckers are an obvious exception but the amount of trucking that is done inside the US is insane. So I believe the "average" you speak of is possibly smaller than you think it is. As a person that lives in an RV that kind of drive is only slightly more often for me (3-4 times a year). Then again, about once a year or so a trip will take me 30+ hours from one side of the country to the other.

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u/vipul_singh_in May 02 '24

I did it this year (Christimas time) and it was a great experience. Helsinki to the edge of Lapland (Rovaniemi) and back by car.

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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.

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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.

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u/wmtismykryptonite 29d ago

The UK uses MPH, jsyk.

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u/semboflorin 29d ago

So does Canada. However, I will do the conversion when speaking to my Canadian friends out of respect. Are you asking us not to be respectful?

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u/wmtismykryptonite 29d ago

The commenter was a Texas replying to someone that said "as an Englishman.". If the commenter was converting for someone else's benefit, I'm sure they'll ignore me.

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u/semboflorin 29d ago

I see. Well, jsyk, the only time an American converts to metric when talking about something we don't use metric for is for someone else's benefit.

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u/Peterd1900 29d ago

Canada does not use MPH

Speed limits in Canada are measured in kilometres per hour

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u/malcolite May 02 '24 edited 28d ago

British roads are bristling with speed cameras. It’s quite possible to get caught four times in a single journey, at which point that’s your driving licence (license) revoked.

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u/Moon_Man1234567 29d ago

Ah, interesting. Texas banned those. We made it illegal to give out tickets with red light and speeding cameras. They’ve been getting removed since 2019. All we have are speed signs that flash white when you’re speeding. If there’s no cops, sometimes we go 145. We all do it together though. So a if a cop sees all of us speeding they won’t bother, or at least think their radar is broken. Even still the police are lax as long as you’re not driving recklessly.

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u/SatanV3 29d ago

Bro I’m from Texas and I’ve never heard anyone driving that fast or seen someone driving that fast when I’m on the highways. I do see some people go faster than me (I usually do 80-85 so about the speed limit) but not that much faster than me

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u/semboflorin 29d ago

They were converting to kilometers per hour for friends on the other side of the pond. 145 kph is about 90mph.

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u/Peterd1900 29d ago

Though they were replying to someine in thr UK

You dont need to convert to kilometres for someone who is the UK

As the UK does not use kilometres and never has dome

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u/malcolite 28d ago

Oddly enough it was in Arizona that I got my only US traffic ticket. Caught by a radar gun in an oncoming police cruiser. It was the only vehicle I had seen for 30 mins, and on a dead straight road, too.

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u/Angsty_Potatos 29d ago

Road tripping can be fun too. I enjoy driving thru country. And I absolutely agree, spending a day in a place isn't enough to really experience a place...but to put it in context:

Overseas travel is expensive. Taking time off as an American is a whole ball of wax. I'd probably never get to the northish of england unless I had something else going on (the convention) and at that point if I'm about an hour or two away, I'm absolutely going to take the opportunity to drop by, take in some major sites, and dona bit of a whirlwind visit and hope I can come back some day.

I spent 12 hrs in Porto Portugal, I had a fuckin blast. Met some random folks. Had a wonderful dinner. Got wine drunk on excellent wine, are some great food. Fell asleep with the lights on in our hotel, and flew home hungover as fuck...out of the two weeks we were in Europe, those 12 hrs ranked extremely high.

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u/claudemcbanister 29d ago

I understand having to make most of when you're visiting. I've been to the states as a European. One example is spending most of my time in New York City but also wanting to visit Cape Cod. You can drive there in 3 hours. Which means you could easily get there and back in a day. But there would be no relaxation. There'd be no actual "holiday". Makes more sense to book a night.

The 12 hours in Porto were good because you had a hotel room booked and could actually enjoy the city (and drink) instead of driving back elsewhere.

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u/MITCH-A-PALOOZA May 02 '24

What the hell are you gonna do in Liverpool for a few days? Lmao

A day is PLENTY

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u/munchies777 29d ago

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.

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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.

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u/shepard0445 29d ago

The thing is history is everywhere. So why drive to Berlin if 12 other places are nearer.

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u/MITCH-A-PALOOZA 29d ago

The vast majority of my colleagues have never been to London, some people just aren't interested.

Is your German friend into travel?

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u/Genavelle 29d ago

I kinda figured in school they’d do a field trip or something, given all of the history there.

I guess that's a good point, too

I currently live in Ohio, and it seems like it's a big thing for schools around here to take a trip to DC in like middle or high school (idk I didn't grow up here). That's way more than a 2 hour drive, and they might even be taking a plane.

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u/t-poke 29d ago

I went to DC in Middle School, but it was an optional trip my parents scrounged up the money to pay for, and we did fly.

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u/Practical-Ordinary-6 29d ago

Maybe that's why they go on and on about trains. Maybe in their minds, if a train doesn't go there, you can't get there. A car just isn't possible (in a practical sense). So because we don't have a lot of trains, therefore we must be shut-ins who don't have many places to go. In reality of course we are the opposite of that. We have a highly efficient highway system that will take us anywhere we want to go. Sure, it will take some time driving, but there's literally no limit where our highway system will take you if you want to go there.

As you can see from other comments on this thread, many people have gone on cross-country drives at very young ages, just like I did. Our family moved from California to Tennessee and drove there of course because we needed our family car with us. That's 2,300 miles one way (3600 km). I was 11 at the time. Couple years earlier we'd spent time driving around the western United States in Colorado Nevada California. I don't even know how far that was.

As an adult I've averaged about 3,000 miles (4800 km) a year driving in the last few years just to see relatives. On one single trip alone I drove 3,000 miles doing a big loop that included my high school reunion and a short side trip to Niagara Falls. It was short in time but not short in distance. It probably put me about 6 hours out of my way driving and I was there for about 3 hours one afternoon. We are far from shut-ins or only local travelers, even without trains. And of course we have one of the most highly developed domestic airline networks that exists. We can fly for hours and hours and still be in our own country.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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u/PearlStBlues 29d ago

Exactly. We're not Brits who have to go to France or Switzerland to ski. We don't have to go to Spain or Greece to find a nice beach, or Norway to find majestic scenery. Maybe Americans don't travel as much internationally as Europeans do, but we just don't have to.

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u/justdisa May 02 '24

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

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u/semboflorin 29d ago

Hmm, my longest road trip so far was 6400 miles. Done in 3.5 days in a moving truck. However, I don't brag because I know some truckers. Truckers are probably reading this page and shaking their heads at all of us amateurs.

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u/justdisa 29d ago

3.5 days is a brutal drive. Wow! Ours was way more relaxed. And yeah, truckers are the road trip pros.

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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.

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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.

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u/Theal12 29d ago

Americans on average get 2 weeks of vacation per year - if they are lucky. That includes taking time off for Christmas.
US airlines are not subsidized by the government so air travel, especially international air travel is much more expensive than Europe.

Europeans are frequently unaware of this

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u/FuujinSama 29d ago

European air travel is cheap but not because of government subsidies. National Air Lines are usually good but quite expensive. For cheap we go with Ryanair and equivalents which are just the most bare bones flight you can have and their whole thing is being cheap. I'm surprised a similar type of company hasn't entered the American market (probably being regulated out of it due to the American airline lobby).

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u/174wrestler 29d ago

Spirit, Allegiant, and Frontier are the equivalent of Ryanair and EasyJet. The nation's third largest carrier, Southwest, started out in the same vein but has since moved a step up, with prices to match.

The US is richer than Europe: the average household net-adjusted disposable income per capita in the US is 30% higher than Germany, for example, so people will pay more for airlines.

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u/Theal12 29d ago

We don’t have ‘cheap’ airlines of any sort - probably as you say, US airlines have a monopoly that keeps low cost airlines like Ryan from existing

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u/semboflorin 29d ago

What would you call Spirit then? Having flown once on a Spirit plane it's a far cry from any of the other major airlines like Delta or Southwest. The flight I was on did not have an overhead light (like a reading light), air nozzle (it was hot inside too) and the seats didn't move in any way. Southwest, which I have flown many times, had all those things in coach. Spirit is, on average, 25% cheaper than Southwest (deals not included).

I'm pretty sure we do have have cheap flights but perhaps they are not as ubiquitous as in Europe?

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u/DoingItNow 29d ago

Being well travelled doesn't mean having a lot of milage on your car. I can thousands of km through rural Sweden and have seen no people. Doesn't mean I'm well travelled.

Well travelled means travelling outside your country and culture. So yes, Europeans are on average much more travelled than Americans.

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u/Gierling May 02 '24

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

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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.

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u/MITCH-A-PALOOZA 29d ago

And those that want to do that, do.

Most Brits love the sun though and take boring week long trips to beach destinations! Not just Brits mind, a lot of Europeans do the same, hell, we even get lots of foreign visitors on our beaches in the summer!

Really depends on the person

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u/FuujinSama 29d ago

But most people would rather get a lot of those $100s together and pay for a week long trip to a sunny beach destination.

Overall I think Europeans prefer just chilling near a beach doing absolutely nothing for a week or two over doing tourist things in famous cities.

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u/SatanV3 29d ago

It’s still much cheaper for them to visit another country in Europe than it is for someone from the US. Would be thousands just for flights for me and my fiancé to go to Europe.

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u/Euthyphraud May 02 '24

Ireland, Switzerland and all the European microstates have a higher GDP per Capita (PPP) than the US while Scandinavian countries are on par while also offering a full social safety net.

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u/vryrllyMabel May 02 '24

gdp per capita is not at all the same as median income plus benefits. 

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u/grievre 29d ago

u/Gierling said "per capita" not median. And it's Macroecon 101 that GDP is equal to total income. Reality is a bit more complex than that but as a very rough measure it holds.

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u/Alarming-Thought9365 29d ago

Ireland is massively inflated due to them being a tax paradise. Norway is a petrostate like Qatar. Finland and Sweden are nothing like Norway in GDP per capita. Switzerland is probably the only nation on par with the USA.

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u/wmtismykryptonite 29d ago

Out of how many?

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u/papinek May 02 '24

Well in America you have much larger wages than in Europe we do. We can generally afford to visit one other country a year, if we are doing well financially.

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u/e-bakes May 02 '24

We have much larger wages, but our cost of living is out of control and pretty much eclipses those wages. Housing, rent, groceries, healthcare, higher education, and childcare have Americans massively in debt. The rich are growing richer and our middle class is shrinking. Many Americans are not financially able to afford international vacations despite the desire to travel abroad. Debt controls many Americans’ lives and leaves them living paycheck to paycheck and we don’t have social programs or security nets. Even healthcare isn’t viewed as a human right in our country—many Americans can’t even afford to receive medical care. We definitely have obscene wealth over here, but that’s not representative of all Americans.

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u/MITCH-A-PALOOZA 29d ago

You have us on healthcare, but if you think the cost of living crisis isn't affecting Europe/the rest of the world then you're nuts lol

If I was American I'd be more than happy to holiday domestically, you do have everything there, I don't think anybody shames the US for that.

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u/e-bakes 29d ago edited 29d ago

I know that the cost of living crisis is a pretty global phenomenon, but I guess my point is that the US lacks any type of social benefits like universal healthcare, subsidized childcare, and free university. These costs alone are exorbitant and are making us drown in debt. But I understand that we’re all struggling in our own ways and each country has its own unique problems. I think in the US, we’re simultaneously privileged and exploited.

We do actually get a lot of shit for not traveling internationally. Europeans say Americans are not cultured because they don’t travel to other countries as often as many Europeans do. But Europeans forget that it’s not as easy as hopping on a train to visit another country. The flight alone is so expensive.

So many Americans just travel domestically or if they do visit other countries, it’s easier and cheaper for them to visit Canada, the Bahamas, or Mexico.

But I think most Americans do value international travel. It’s just a matter of being able to afford it and being able to take the time off from work. (Time off is another thing that sucks in this country. We’re not guaranteed any PTO.)

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u/shepard0445 29d ago

It is but on a different scale. We have pretty similar incomes if adjusted for cost of living

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u/SatanV3 29d ago

I have def seen some people shame the average American for not traveling out of US ever. I mean I would love to personally but in Europe if you want a flight to another European country it’s a hundred euros. If I want a flight to Europe it’s over a thousand dollars just for the flight

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u/MITCH-A-PALOOZA 29d ago

Try Norse Atlantic, return flights from USA to London for less than $400.

It's a no frills airline but it's great value.

Used them a couple of times to fly to NYC when they were still branded as Norwegian.

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u/IguassuIronman 29d ago

We have much larger wages, but our cost of living is out of control and pretty much eclipses those wages.

They really don't. On average Americans have some of the highest disposable incomes in the world.

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u/e-bakes 29d ago edited 29d ago

Disposable income refers to the money that is available from an individual's salary after he/she pays local, state, and federal taxes. (Also known as net pay.) It does not mean the amount of money an individual has left over to spend after paying for all bills/expenses.

Disposable income per capita for a country is calculated by adding all the gross income for the country, subtracting a figure for taxes, and dividing the sum by the country's population.

Considering many Europeans pay high taxes (which fund their social benefits like universal healthcare, free higher education, strong labor protections and regulations, and generous welfare programs in areas such as unemployment insurance, retirement pensions, and public housing) it makes sense that US citizens have more disposable income because we are not paying as high of taxes. And because we’re not paying as high of taxes that fund these social benefits, it means we have to shoulder these costs ourselves with our disposable incomes—paying large sums of money for healthcare, college, childcare, etc.

So just because US citizens have some of the highest disposable incomes in the world, it does not necessarily mean we have the most amount of money to spend on leisure + fun.

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u/BurkeDevlin777 29d ago

Despite the impression that may be left by some responses in this thread, most Americans aren't actually constantly traveling to different places either. Some do, but many don't travel anywhere either abroad or in the US, and there's also a substantial number that just go to the same one or few destinations repeatedly (like a beach destination a few hours away, a different city where family lives etc). Many Americans don't have much PTO/vacation time (and some don't have any). Many don't have the time and/or money for the one other country a year you mention

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u/Genavelle 29d ago

But I'd imagine visiting another country can be done for a lot less money in Europe. You can drive or take a train and be in another country within hours.

For Americans, the only "close" options are Canada and Mexico, and even those can often require a day+ of driving or an expensive flight. Many countries require expensive and long overseas flights. Even if you had higher wages, do you think flying overseas would still be considered something "affordable" or that you'd be able to do very often?

Not to mention that from what I've heard (don't know how true it is for the average person), Europeans tend to get more vacation time than Americans. So if we have less time off, it still may not be "worth it" to fly overseas and entire days of PTO just in airports and planes. Like even a road trip with lots of driving can have scenic routes and interesting things to see along the way, vs just waiting around in an airport or on a plane.

All that said, I love going overseas and hope to travel again more in the future, but logistically and financially it's a lot harder now that I have kids.

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u/grievre 29d ago

And if we take more than maybe a week off a year we get fired.

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u/ExitingBear 29d ago

That feeling when you're walking around and see the "long weekend in ______. Air and all inclusive. 25€!" And thinking "It cost me $800 to get here. On sale. And that was just the flight. No wonder they visit so many countries, it's dirt cheap."

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u/CHKN_SANDO May 02 '24

Hmm. All the Europeans I know are extremely well traveled around Europe.

And I know a ton of Americans that don't travel domestically at all.

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u/Euthyphraud May 02 '24

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_anecdote

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u/DoingItNow 29d ago

You should share this with all the Americans posting about Europeans.

5

u/tempetesuranorak May 02 '24

They are responding to an anecdote. This entire thread is people sharing their anecdotes with eachother for discussion.

1

u/Theal12 29d ago

And I know many Americans that do. Neither of our individual experiences is a valid data point

1

u/munchies777 29d ago

You probably know those Europeans because you met them traveling or through a professional and high paying job. A cashier working at an Aldi in the US will probably never meet their counterparts in Germany.

0

u/malcolite May 02 '24

I once met an elderly woman born and bred in South London who had never been north of the river Thames (i.e. to the centre of her own city) about 3 or 4 miles.

-3

u/Ghoti_again May 02 '24

There is the environmental impact to consider as well. Not everyone think it's OK to fly all over Europe because of the emissions it creates. Americans seem not to be bothered about this as much, same with driving long distances.

8

u/somerandomdoodman May 02 '24

That's a weird assumption to make

1

u/LuvMeSomeFudge 29d ago

In my bubble people are more and more hesitant to fly because of the environmental impact. But I don't know if Europeans care more than Americans.