How do Americans do holidays?

[Champagneforeveryone]

We've just flown to Venice for a few days, and I was reading the guide book which says that flights arrived only from a couple of US states.

Which got me thinking how very little I know about this and it seems I have a huge amount of preconceptions 🙄

I imagined that you could fly from every state to anywhere in the world - obviously not! So I'm guessing there's a large number of internal flights? Are they expensive? Are they as time consuming as taking a flight abroad, or are they similar to taking a bus.

Also, does this limit how you holiday? I had always imagined that the US was similar to us and people holidayed abroad frequently (ours would be mostly Europe with the occasional long haul "big" holiday) Do you fly to different states or do you leave the US?

TIA for filling the gaps in my knowledge while DH showers 😉

Oh I love the pictures! I can't wait to visit one day. If any of the many michigan visitors/residents from this thread have space in their bag when they next visit please try and shove me in 😂

That’s probably true. When I search for hotels and plane fare over an EU vpn I get completely different prices than I do from the US.

We visit in northern Michigan in February for the skiing.
It's beautiful at that time of year.

it can get crowded like that, yes. Hmmm, I went in October 2021 and that was a really nice time to visit. It was a weirdly warm fall that year, so weather wise it was more akin to the end of summer in the UK.

Ehem, Medicaid?

The VA health system offered to all veterans of the armed forces?
Along with many other benefits, including free university education and a commission as an iffi wr upon graduation, also university education after your service, preferential public sector hiring, insurance rates from companies solely doing business with veterans... Does the UK have an equivalent of the GI Bill? I think not.

Servers are not paid minimum wage. Many make a lot more on tips than people working full time in, for example, care homes. The restaurant industry is set up differently from other lower wage industries. You clearly are not aware of how it works.

Minimum wage is not set in stone. It's a foundation, not a limit to what you can be paid. The going entry level or minimum wage in any given city will be the result of market forces, not legislation.

We will have both VA benefits and Insurance from my husband’s state job for life once he retires. It wasn’t free, he’s earned it but there is nothing preventing any able bodied American from doing either or both. Non-able bodied and over 65s do have free health care also. People from very low income families and can get coverage via Medicaid. Who is left? People choosing jobs that are not full-time or for very small businesses, therefore not bound to provide health insurance. Even then, if you work over 35 hours in a place like Walmart, they are required to cover you.

Loudly.

I was a waitress in the US for many years. You don't understand how it works.

Because tipping is standard in the US, waiters actually get paid below minimum wage. In my day it was $2/hour. The tips take you up to minimum wage and usually rather far over. That's why they say they rely on tips, because that's the bulk of their wages.

I guess it sucks if you work at a slow place, but I made an extremely good salary working in American bars. Probably not much less than I make now as an academic in the UK! Several hundred dollars a night usually.

Whereas I tried waitressing in the UK, I got minimum wage and the restaurant kept all the tips, it sucked.

Btw I know they changed the law in the UK so that restaurants aren't supposed to keep the service charges anymore but they still do, most of them. Please tip in cash.

What an ignorant comment, clearly the offspring of a massive bee in your bonnet and a big, ugly chip on your shoulder.

Medicaid covers the poor. Coverage is better in some states than others. In a federal system, states have certain powers. People in states where coverage isn't adequate are free to vote for representatives who will improve matters.

I'm frankly baffled by your mealy mouthed comment on the GI Bill, though clearly there's a strong element of deflection from the disgraceful treatment of squaddies once out of the forces in the UK. I know which country I'd prefer to live in if I were one of the normally working class men or women who sign up and serve.

Lol @ 'ordinary hard working people'. Veterans of the US armed forces are generally from the exact same stock. Unlike the UK, people with a blue collar background are not seen as beneath contempt in the US.

It is such a beautiful state. I genuinely fell in love with it. Even Detroit, while there’s still a lot of work that needs doing to it, has massively regenerated compared to what it was.

omg stop being so stubborn when you have no idea what you're talking about

They get less than minimum wage BECAUSE THEY GET TIPS
Not the other way around

They need the tips to survive because they're not getting minimum wage.

You've got the wrong end of the stick there.

I recommend a lot less ill-informed shooting from the lip and a lot more research of reality on your part.

Well this thread veered off course while I was snarfing pasta 😆 Thank you to everyone who commented constructively, it's been a really interesting read.

I think it really demonstrates my naivety of the US as a whole, as well as the huge amount of travel options available to you without travelling "abroad". TBF though, I grew up in London and we were always awash with American tourists, so I think I just sort of assumed you all travelled long haul.

I've now also spent a part of my holiday scrutinising other tourists, which has been interesting.

By and large the Americans I saw were lovely. They were polite, older (mostly) and as already mentioned moved at breakneck speed - there was certainly little mooching around side alleys or relaxing outside coffee shops! Unfortunately, I was also unfortunate enough to be in front of an odious American mother and her two teenage children on a water taxi. They were loud, crass and borderline offensive. The thing is that the other Americans I saw didn't draw attention to themselves (I probably wouldn't really have even noticed them except when I heard English being spoken, except I was conducting my research 😉) so they were the only ones who really stuck out. I guess this could partially explain a negative impression of American tourists.

There was also a surprisingly large number of timid looking, young, solo, female Japanese travellers. They seemed so delicate and overwhelmed until the time came to haul their enormous cases ashore, at which point they all seemed to tear off into the distance with furious purpose. They also filmed everything on their phones.

Very few Brits really, and the ones there were were mostly older and what I would call middle class. Lots of sensible shoes and DK guide books 😉

The weekend was horrendous as it was so busy. I have a colleague going in May and I know she will ask me how my trip was. I now have the conundrum of whether to be honest with her or lie through my teeth 😬

Wow! Touchy much? Good for you having all that leave but you're in the minority in the US. That's a fact.

omg give it a rest

Certain jobs are exempt from minimum wage because they're a tipped profession, so no legally they do not have to get minimum wage.

That system you think is so great, minimum wage plus voluntary tips? That's what you have in the UK and it fucking sucks, it doesn't pay anything. Waiting tables in the US can be really highly paid.

You've obviously never been a waitress in the US so maybe just accept you have no idea what you're talking about. I mean, the fucking arrogance of it.