What the hell, America?

21% of 300M is some 63M people. That’s about the entire population of UK, France or Italy. People in those countries travel on average more often than Americans, but on a much shorter distances too. Most Europeans travels in Europe, only very small percentage ventures outside. I’m sure majority of the mentioned 21% in USA is also related to weekend shopping trips to Canada and (maybe) Mexico. If you strip that numbers and compare intercontinental travels, maybe the balance will be recovered…?

As far as American mentality is being psychoanalyzed here by a bunch of amateur Freuds, I have my two cents two. Most Americans don’t vacation overseas, because they don’t have the time for it. Or a need for that matter. They have all they want at home. Most of them won’t have enough time in their life to visit the places worth visiting in their own country, why bother with multi-day travels to places half way around the globe? Those who have the time, and the craving… they are among the 21%. The rest still’s got 50 states on their bucket list, before they venture outside…

i have traveled all over the world and the united states will always be my favorite place to travel. it’s everything all the time, baby. we really do have it all. we have the same land mass as china with loads of different landscapes and cultures. the usa is huge and the only people who are bored here are boring people.

for americans, i would recommend japan and china. the over-the-top hatred of americans that you experience in europe is virtually nonexistent in these countries. many of the younger people in japan/china take english in school and they try hard to communicate with you. to them, it is fun to meet americans and vise versa. their food is better, their people are friendlier, their culture is more beautiful…

I have been to Cancun/Yucatan, Mumbai, England, Ireland, and Brazil (Natal) and I would honestly only recommend England as “worth it” because its a country tied closely to American history and makes for an interesting comparison between the old and new world.

Your travel really depends on you… If you have a girl friend or something from Brazil (in my case), you’re going to have a lot of fun there. If you’re just Joe American going to Brazil looking for a thrill, you’re more than likely to be so stressed out trying to deal with Portuguese that your precious vacation time was basically just blown trying to acquire basic services like changing money or getting a decent meal instead of actually RELAXING which is the prime motive of any vacation. Who the hell would subject themselves to a stressful vacation? Why would you got a beach in South America a day’s flight away when you can simple drive your car with your family to Orlando and enjoy beaches on both side of Florida and bring your kid to meet his childhood heroes…? Why?!

I’m sure New Zealanders travel all over the world, I mean… Why wouldn’t they? Their territory is like the size of a single US State and even Australia, which is big, is mostly barren! Unlike those former colonies, The United States was founded through rebellion, its very nature and identity as a nation is openly dismissive and at times even hostile to anything outside of the western hemisphere. Love or hate that attitude, it was largely responsible for us winning our independence and right to self-determination…

–Two weeks vacation is STANDARD at American companies.

–Many Americans don’t even get two weeks off because they are on probation at their job when they first start (when you are on probation your vacation doesn’t even start to accrue) or they are at a temporary job that offers NO vacation.

–Some permanent workers are at companies that do offer more vacation (i.e. 3 weeks); however, this figure typically includes vacation AND sick leave, meaning that one nasty illness can knock off a lot of the available leave time.

–Also, unlike in most developed countries, American companies are not required to allow vacation time to accrue and thus it usually doesn’t. So Americans can’t typically “save up” their vacation time over several years to allow for a long overseas trip.

–Because there aren’t as many public holidays as in other countries (Australia, for example), workers who are parents frequently have to use their vacation time to babysit their children on school holidays when the office is still open. Companies have a lot of leeway as to what holidays they offer and many of them are quite stingy.

–In addition, many people have family living in other parts of the country, so at least some of their 2 week vacation will usually go towards visiting relatives. This further depletes a measly two weeks/10 days, leaving very little time left.

–Yet another issue in the way is the fact that most American employers frown on employees who take more than FIVE days off at a time (and some will outright disallow it)! So Americans would typically be in for a very rushed and stressful vacation since they would have to fit it into such a short block of time. This would not really leave enough time to properly unwind and would make it difficult and perhaps not financially feasible to travel to faraway destinations (e.g. Asia, Australia, etc.) since they would be paying for expensive airfare and spending time traveling each way yet having very few days to enjoy at their destination.

I have spent time in Australia where most workers go on an extended holiday (i.e. 3 weeks or more) over Christmas. (Most Americans only get one or 2 days off for Christmas plus New Year ’s Day!). In addition leave time accrues in Australia, there are more public holidays, most companies offer their employees 4 weeks off per year, and employees earn long service leave (6 months of paid leave) after 10 years of service. The amount of leave available most workers in other countries have available to them (Australia just being a typical example) is vastly greater than what Americans have.

Most Americans aren’t really aware of the disparity because they don’t get to travel and don’t get to see for themselves how things are in other countries.

P.S The US doesn’t cover an entire continent. That type of ignorance is why many. People in other countries are so hateful towards us.

I work with tourism everyday and the people from USA (i hate the term Americans, because i’m american too, i’m from Argentina) are so scared to move out from an all inclusive resort. I currently work in Dominican Republic and even if they need something from outside, and it’s completely safe to go outside (i tell them a hundred times!) they won’t go. The young people thinks that they will be kidnapped (most of them) and the older people simply thinks that the people is so savage or needed that they will be killed for a dollar. When people come here from another part of the world, let’s say.. Rusia (it’s full of russians too) they go outside without hesitate, they ask for places to go, and just move!

That’s my POV, and i work with people from USA, Canada, and many europeans every day.