Why Americans don't travel

Last week I went on a date with an Israeli and since we'd both spent time in India we talked about traveling. He made a reference to "his country" and I remarked that I had noticed when foreigners in the U.S. refer to their homeland, they always say "my country." When I've traveled I say, of my homeland, "in the United States." I theorized that it was a way to distance myself the United States: instead of claiming it as "my country," I just refer to it by name. I told him that many Americans are happy to be mistaken for some other nationality. My date asked our waiter where he was from, thinking he was foreign-born, and he replied "Pennsylvania." His response to being mistaken as foreign was "thank you, I'll take that as a compliment."


At some point in the conversation, my date commented that "Americans don't travel" and to my surprise, I delivered a swift and thorough argument in our defense. I don't like being lumped into a category and I don't like whole nations being summed up in simple statements, but that isn't what got me going. What bothers me is the implication that Americans are ignorant and unsophisticated because we don't travel.

I actually happen to agree that we suffer from not seeing outside of our country more often. We are an insulated, nationalist country that spends too much time working and not enough time traveling. We don't talk about politics enough and are constantly told that this country is better than all others. In fact, according to a comment posted by a reader on my blog we should work harder, complain less and appreciate what we have more.

Yet Europeans, who by many accounts have it WAY better than we do, with their mandatory six-eight weeks vacation, cheap to free schooling, unionized wages, better health care, looser regulations on medicine and stricter laws on guns, never stop complaining! They talk and argue and debate issues over bottles of wine into the wee hours of the night and no one would ever think to tell them to shut up and sit down.

There are three VERY GOOD reasons why Americans don't travel more: Time, money and distance. But first, let's clarify that this statement refers to international travel, more specifically, travel ABROAD. Americans travel quite a bit within our own country and travel to Mexico and Canada requires only a driver's license. The statement should be "Americans don't travel to as many countries and with the same frequency as other industrialized nations."

The reality is, Americans only get a fraction of the vacation time other industrialized nations receive and a third of us, don't even take it. A regular salaried job gets me two weeks vacation in the first year, and usually doesn't increase for at least three years after that. If I stay in a job long enough (and I haven't yet), I may get more than two weeks but it will be a long time before I have six weeks.

This year, instead of saving my two weeks, I'm using it throughout the year to visit my good friend three time zones away in New York, another friend in North Carolina who's getting married, my brother and nephews in Oregon. It's not uncommon for Americans to go years without seeing some of their closest friends and relatives because of the distance, time and cost between us. Each of my trips will cost me $350-$500 in airfare and including gifts, expenses and a hotel, will run me about $1,000 each. The east coast trips will take me 5-9 hours flying time, each way, depending on the layover.

In order for me to spend more than two weeks out of the country, I have to quit my job and save quite a bit of money. My vacation will be without pay but I'll still have to pay rent on my apartment and all of my other bills. I met a German guy while traveling around India who thought it was hysterical that I had saved for a whole year and quit my job to take the trip. He boasted that the German government was paying him to take his six weeks vacation even though he was collecting unemployment.

His flight to India took eight hours, mine took thirty-one hours and included an eight-hour layover in the Seoul airport. There and back, with time changes, I'm traveling almost a week before I spend any time in my destination. From the west coast, I can be in Europe in 12-14 hours but everything in the UK costs me twice as much as it does here. By comparison, Europeans can fly anywhere in Europe in a couple of hours and for $50-100 one way.

Yes, we are isolated and there is a certain amount of inertia to overcome, although I'm sure it's quite common for people who live in the country to travel less than city-dwellers, and not just because of the inertia. In this country, people not living in Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York, are likely to earn half as much for the same work. Lower cost of living, lower wages. Which is fine if you stay put, but try traveling abroad with a family and a yearly income of $35,000 or $40,000 when the Euro is 1.3 to the dollar. Still, thirteen million Americans visited Europe last year and not just London and Paris but Dubrovnik and Budapest!

Not that it should matter WHERE we've traveled. I don't believe for a minute that the majority of Europeans are visiting other countries for the cultural experience. They go for the mountains and the beaches: skiing, surfing, scuba diving and shopping that they can't do in their own countries. In the United States, we already have some of the best spots in the world for vacation activities and some of the most beautiful natural sites on earth. If we're trying to get the best value for our time and money, why not stay in the States? We must have SOMETHING worth coming for because fifty-one million people traveled to the U.S. from other countries last year.

When I've met foreigners who've traveled to the U.S., they always name three things that surprised them:
1) How beautiful the United States is. It's not all strip malls and Air Force bases.
2) How truly vast the nation is. You can't comprehend the size and richness of the State of California, for example, without driving the 18+ hours along the coast before realizing there's a completely different adventure running parallel, five hours away, along the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
3) How friendly and helpful Americans are.

We aren't as xenophobic as people think. Close friends and family of mine have spent time in China, Japan and throughout Asia, Australia, New Zealand and throughout Europe. An ex-boyfriend, after traveling all over the world, moved to Bangkok where he opened two yoga studios. Other friends of mine have lived in Scotland, Sweden, Hong Kong, Venezuela, Germany, Japan and Ecuador. I've been abroad five times and although I've only visited eight countries (not including Mexico and Canada), I've vacationed to over half of the states in the U.S.

When I was in India, making my way around the country staying in small villages, the people there were so excited to spend time with travelers. They asked questions, practicing their English if they didn't know it well (although many do), chatted excitedly about their lives and invited us to their homes. Because most of them will never have the opportunity to leave their country, spending time with foreigners IS their form of travel. Similarly, in the States, we all have friends from other countries to learn from and experience the world through. Of my mom's close friends (in the suburbs), half are born in other countries including Hungary, Scotland, Wales and Czechoslovakia.

When I was in high school, my family hosted exchange students from Germany, Sweden and Japan and throughout school many of my best friends were exchange students, au pair, or immigrants from Poland, Iceland, Spain and Thailand. Growing up, American kids aren't encouraged to learn other languages, our schools teach primarily American history and very little, if any, history of other countries and yes, we are brainwashed to love our country unconditionally. We're told it's dangerous for Americans to travel (we might get kidnapped!) and people don't like Americans (freedom-haters!) and despite all that, we still venture out into the world. I suppose the real reason the statement upsets me is because I wish it were easier for Americans to experience life outside the bubble.

[A few snaps from my trip up the CA coast two summers ago. To really get a sense of what we have to offer, these are the most gorgeous photos of California I've ever seen.]