Is it true that many Americans will never visit another country

[cinaminvanilla]

I remember reading an article where it says that many Americans don't have a passport or leave the USA ever in their lives. Just wondering does anyone with knowledge know if this true. Because the US is so big I could imagine people never travelling to another country. I think I read that for those who visit other countries the two most popular countries for people who live in the US to visit aside from their own is Canada and Mexico.

@MattyGroves, nor can you see the likes of St Augustine or the Pueblo dwellings or old mission churches or plantation mansions or sites associated with the American Revolution in Boston, or places like Salem in Massachusetts, in Europe...

Meanwhile, you can visit glorious art museums like those in NYC, LA, and Chicago, and even Kansas City, and see all the European art and ancient artifacts your heart desires. Plus all kinds of loot from elsewhere too.

The holiday question is quite difficult IMO as averages don't really encompass all the variation. I personally think that while it is a factor it's less so than cost and distance.

We have a large group of people with no paid holiday (they often wind up with time off, but it's unpaid). I don't think this should be legal and I'm not excusing it.

In salaried jobs, 2 weeks is typically the starting amount, but it often increases with time. Giving unlimited PTO or combined time off is increasingly popular in well paid jobs.

What those numbers don't say is what people actually take. In some companies and fields, the norm is to take all your vacation. In others, it's not. Unlimited or lengthy PTO is an illusion at some firms, especially if you're in a higher position. It can also be discouraged to take more than a week at a time in some jobs.

In any case, my observations have been amongst people who do have vacation time, and they're much less likely to travel abroad than Brits in a comparable position, especially once they have children. These are people who do take vacations, for a week or more. But Europe, much less Asia or Australia, is something that's a big treat and takes a lot of planning. It's not like a week at a beach house on the East Coast, or driving to national parks, or even a week at an all-inclusive resort in Cancun. (These are all popular trips that friends and neighbours take.) Americans do do more road trips and I've been here long enough that I do too. Also, Americans don't have anything like easyJet or Ryanair for international travel. There are lower cost airlines for domestic flights, but international is very expensive.

I've seen Brits do NYC as a long weekend too. Never understood that. But the long haul city break seems to be a thing for a certain sort of person.

[quote mathanxiety]@MattyGroves, nor can you see the likes of St Augustine or the Pueblo dwellings or old mission churches or plantation mansions or sites associated with the American Revolution in Boston, or places like Salem in Massachusetts, in Europe...

Meanwhile, you can visit glorious art museums like those in NYC, LA, and Chicago, and even Kansas City, and see all the European art and ancient artifacts your heart desires. Plus all kinds of loot from elsewhere too.[/quote]
Well yeah no one country has everything, that's what it's nice to travel outside your country!

I am not saying there aren't things worth seeing in the US, just that it doesn't have everything.

There's nothing quite like a properly old city in the US. I have been to Philadelphia, Boston etc and they're nice but no Venice, Rome etc. Not even getting into places like the Taj Mahal, Golden Temple..

@elp30, now I want to visit Texas🙂

Where I am, an 8-10 hour drive brings me to the heart of two other states, where I can enjoy both summer and winter fun and as much raw natural beauty as I can handle. Michigan's Sleeping Bear Dunes, Traverse peninsula, the entire UP, all the Scandinavian heritage and lovely beaches of Door County Wisconsin, as well as the wonder that is Washington Island. If I wanted to drive a bit further and in different directions I could get to Memphis, or Kansas City. Staying closer to home wouldn't be too shabby either.

@ElleOhWelk, childcare costs an arm and a leg in the US. Waiting lists are the norm to get in, and quality is often abysmal.

Most people cobble together summer arrangements involving local day camps, sleep away camps, local summer CMs, local teenage babysitters, relatives and sundry other help.

School summer holidays are much longer in the US than in the UK too - kids are off from the beginning of June to the end of August.

I live in the Northeast and almost everyone I know travels abroad. I am traveling in Croatia right now and it is full of American, Germans, and French people, but I have not heard a single British voice. Are Brits forbidden to travel here currently?

Honestly, this thread!
American is a small part of the world, it has a tiny part of the cultural, nature, history that the rest of the world has.
If you don't want to travel outside America, then don't travel outside America. It's fine, you'll have a great time within the country, it's a lovely country. Please don't pretend that you can get everything the rest of the world has within America though (actually I don't think they are pretending, I think they really believe it).

@PrincessNutella

I live in the Northeast and almost everyone I know travels abroad. I am traveling in Croatia right now and it is full of American, Germans, and French people, but I have not heard a single British voice. Are Brits forbidden to travel here currently?

Brits are allowed to travel to Croatia subject to complicated and expensive rules on Covid testing but we’re currently so scared that the rules will change mid holiday and we’ll be forced into quarantine when we get back that we’re mostly staying home.

Yes, I think it is true. Fewer than half of American have passports. It has to be remembered, however, that America is a HUGE country and that it contains 50 states with a lot of autonomy. So to say that an American has 'never been abroad' is more like saying that an English person has 'never been outside Europe' than that they've 'never been outside the UK'. The distance between Massachusetts and California is almost as great as that between Massachusetts and the UK!

If you don't want to travel outside America, then don't travel outside America. It's fine, you'll have a great time within the country, it's a lovely country. Please don't pretend that you can get everything the rest of the world has within America though (actually I don't think they are pretending, I think they really believe it).

Did it ever occur to you that “everything” can be an individual belief or that when someone says everything that it can be what they feel THEY need or want?

Why is it a seemingly bad thing when Americans say it (when they live in one of the largest countries in the world with many being immigrants, descended from immigrants, and a culture obviously influenced by it) yet fine for Brits when the U.K. is about the size of Oregon and that not even the biggest state in the US? Why take it so literal?

I love traveling and have always wanted to since I was a small child, however I can also understand that not everyone has that same need or want and can feel they have “everything” where they are locally or within their country.

Pretty sure, there are many Brits who feel the U.K. has “everything” hence the many threads about holidays and several posters saying people should just holiday in the U.K. and that was before Covid rules.

Why is it a seemingly bad thing when Americans say it (when they live in one of the largest countries in the world with many being immigrants, descended from immigrants, and a culture obviously influenced by it) yet fine for Brits when the U.K. is about the size of Oregon and that not even the biggest state in the US? Why take it so literal?

It would be even more ridiculous for someone from the UK to claim the UK has everything the rest of the world has. Its absolutely fine, in fact even worthy given the climate crisis, to not want to travel or be unable to travel. Stop with the 'America has the best of everything' attitude though because its simply not true and if anything is going to make Americans look unsophisticated it's not not wanting to travel (completely understandable) it's this mindset.

Let's face it, this whole thread has been quite sneering, let's laugh at how unworldly Americans are and how much more sophisticated we Brits are even if our travels only involve eating a full English and propping up a bar in Spain (also absolutely fine if that's what you want to do). I can understand why the Americans on the thread would feel quite defensive.

Oh and for balance, I met someone a while ago would said she'd only been abroad once and didn't know what country she'd been to. Her friends had organised it and she just signed up to go. It had been on a plane and they talked foreign and used foreign money but that was all she really knew. She actually seemed quite proud of this. She would have had a passport.

Let's face it, this whole thread has been quite sneering, let's laugh at how unworldly Americans are and how much more sophisticated we Brits are even if our travels only involve eating a full English and propping up a bar in Spain (also absolutely fine if that's what you want to do). I can understand why the Americans on the thread would feel quite defensive.

Spot on, thank you.

Well... it’s not like Americans take the piss out of brits is it? And the crap my sister used to get from the pro IRA lot when she over there war pretty nasty.

2 wrongs don’t make a right, I know, but they give as good as they get surely?

Many Americans never even leave their State. I used to attend an educational conference in Florida and it was the highlight of the year for many attendees.

When you go to a tourist destination, there are often a lot of Americans there. So they must be getting out somehow!!

@KittenKong

Well... it’s not like Americans take the piss out of brits is it? And the crap my sister used to get from the pro IRA lot when she over there war pretty nasty.

2 wrongs don’t make a right, I know, but they give as good as they get surely?

This really surprises me. I'm a New Yorker. We love our British visitors, above any others. British culture is wildly popular here. I've never heard a bad word directed at the Brits.

The pro-IRA bit is a separate issue, and rare even among Americans of Irish heritage. I have three Irish grandparents and there was no sympathy for the IRA in our family.

Stop with the 'America has the best of everything' attitude though because its simply not true and if anything is going to make Americans look unsophisticated it's not not wanting to travel (completely understandable) it's this mindset.

Never said the States have the best of everything nor is that my attitude. Where did I say that?

Most Americans don't have much holiday I think in the first year of employment it is not more than a week or and in many jobs 2 weeks a year i( excluding their equivalents of bank holidays here ) is normal

Short holidays mean long distance travel is very difficult to fit in

I worked for an American company based in the UK years ago and they were very proud that they gave you 4 weeks leave a year ( since that was the only way they could recruit Europeans ) and told me that as if it were a perk in the interview! I smiled and didn't tell them I'd just left a job where I had 5 weeks of holiday a year ( after being there a long time )

@bumblingbovine49

Most Americans don't have much holiday I think in the first year of employment it is not more than a week or and in many jobs 2 weeks a year i( excluding their equivalents of bank holidays here ) is normal

Short holidays mean long distance travel is very difficult to fit in

I worked for an American company based in the UK years ago and they were very proud that they gave you 4 weeks leave a year ( since that was the only way they could recruit Europeans ) and told me that as if it were a perk in the interview! I smiled and didn't tell them I'd just left a job where I had 5 weeks of holiday a year ( after being there a long time )

I know I’m a broken record, but yes, the American government mandates… 0 days of paid holiday OR vacation per year. Zero. Not even Christmas.

The average working American gets 8 paid days of both combined, but 23% of Americans, so almost a quarter of the country have 0.

I really feel this is the biggest inhibitor to travel. That’s why so many Americans go on “road trips” to somewhere they can just reach in just a few hours for a weekend, and just away for the weekend, if they’re lucky enough to get a weekend off.

It's partly because of cost
Partly because there is so much to do holidaying in USA
Partly because Americans get so little paid annual leave - the average is ten days per year.

I did study abroad there and people said what was the point of travelling abroad when they live in such a vast and diverse country themselves, most of which they will never see in their lifetime.
Also they all went to Mexico. This is about 20 years ago but you used to be able to travel into Mexico for a certain distance with a US driving licence as ID, and no passport.

I know I’m a broken record, but yes, the American government mandates… 0 days of paid holiday OR vacation per year. Zero. Not even Christmas

The fact that PTO isn't legally mandated doesn't mean that people don't get it. Employers compete for workers, with PTO policies being one factor. Hourly workers don't generally get paid time off because they are hourly, not on salary.

Not to sound like a broken record (to borrow a phrase), but PTO in the US is determined by time in employment. The longer you work, the more you get.

I get 23 days of PTO per year, plus holidays. That is not at all unusual in a management role.

www.zenefits.com/workest/how-much-is-average-pto-in-the-us/

How Much Is Average for PTO?

Ten (10) days is the average number of PTO for private sector employees who have completed one year of service, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

This number, rounded to the nearest whole number (it’s actually 9.7 days), does not include sick days or paid holidays. But it turns out the average PTO length varies substantially depending on a number of factors, like tenure with a company, public vs. private industries, and your geographic location.

In this post, we look at average days of PTO across various metrics, based on data compiled from the BLS as well as our own survey data. All, and more, of which is available in The State of PTO in Small Business.

We hope this helps you stay above the curve, literally, when it comes to positioning your competitive PTO policy, or at minimum give you some guidance about what average PTO looks like in other companies, industries, and geographies around you.

How Much Does the Average Number of Days of PTO Increase Over Time?

The average American small business employee can expect to earn an extra 3-4 days of PTO every 5 years of service to an employer, according to the BLS. This data, stemming from a representative sample of U.S. workers, confirms what we all likely already knew: vacation days increase over time. But to what extent? According to the feds, by the time you’ve worked 10 years at the same employer, you’ve put three weeks paid vacation in your pocket.

As a software developer I get 30 days PTO plus holidays and that is pretty average amongst my peers. These things are negotiable and I would not settle for less.

Honestly, the very purpose of this thread is clearly to sneer at Americans. If you were just curious, you could just use the damn Google. And yet there are 200 messages so far, including messages by me. Many of us should probably be ashamed of ourselves for adding to the pile-on.