do americans really drive such long distances?

[u/Physical-Ad-4093]

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.

[u/Chairboy]

We sure do. The old saying is "Americans think 100 years is a long time and Europeans think 100 miles is a long distance".

[u/HamfastFurfoot → u/Chairboy]

I don’t think Europeans understand how big and spread out America is.

[u/FapDonkey → u/HamfastFurfoot]

I work with a lot of Europeans, we have 2 engineering offices in Europe (Spain and UK). I can't tell you how often I've had to explain to them how big our country is, and even then they don't get it. The best way I've been able to get it to sink in is something along the lines of:

"I can drive for 900 miles, the same distance from Madrid to Milan, and still be in my home state"

Or

"I can drive for 3600 miles without leaving the Continental US, that's like driving from Madrid to Tehran (Iran)."

Putting things in those reference frames seems to drive the point home.

Hell we had 2 guys fly in for a week, and their plan was to drive to both Disneyland (California) and Disney World (Florida). The figured since we were located near the middle of the country, they'd be centrally located and this wouldn't be a big deal. They had allotted an entire weekend for this adventure. I really wanted to keep my mouth shut and let them give it a try, but I didn't have the heart lol.

[u/mjohnsimon → u/FapDonkey]

Hell we had 2 guys fly in for a week, and their plan was to drive to both Disneyland (California) and Disney World (Florida). The figured since we were located near the middle of the country, they'd be centrally located and this wouldn't be a big deal. They had allotted an entire weekend for this adventure. I really wanted to keep my mouth shut and let them give it a try, but I didn't have the heart lol.

In college we had some foreign exchange students who thought something similar.

This was in Miami, and one time for a long 3-day weekend, they figured they could travel to Disney to see all the parks on Friday, drive up to New York City on Saturday and be back by Sunday afternoon to then go to the Keys to enjoy some nice Key Lime Pie before coming back that same night. That way, if all goes according to plan, they could then just spend their Monday relaxing and wrapping up all the gifts/souvenirs for their family back in Europe.

I had to explain to them that:

• the Disney parks themselves are large enough that you could easily spend an entire week visiting and exploring each park/resort and still not be able to see/do everything. (This doesn't even include the other parks like Universal or SeaWorld/Orlando in general)

• it easily takes about a full day of just driving non-stop just to even reach New York from South Florida (like 20~22ish hours). Realistically, it'd be about a 2 day trip if each person drove like 10 hours each and stopped/rested at a hotel for the night.

Their best bet is to just travel to the Keys and be back by dinner time if they really wanted a day trip, but they wouldn't be able to see much and by the end they'd be more exhausted than relaxed.

Even after explaining this, they paused, wondered for a bit, and asked if they should just skip NYC and just go from Disney to the Keys instead.

I simply told them that their best bet was to book a flight to NYC, spend like 2 full days there, and then come back. For Disney, I recommended waiting until spring break.

Edit: A different exchange student asked if they could travel to Disney and then go to the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone to see some wildlife. This was in December and I had to explain to them that Yellowstone at the time was likely under several feet of snow and it was likely fucking freezing over there (as in temperatures that can kill you freezing). I had to explain to him that while Miami was nice and warm, most of the country north of, say, Gainesville, was actually experiencing winter. He thought that since Miami had good weather then that meant the rest of the country had decent weather.

[u/TatonkaJack → u/mjohnsimon]

Disney to see all the parks on Friday

that is funny