Why do Americans not travel more internationally ?

Alan S wrote:

On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 12:01:58 -0600, Doug McDonald
wrote:


As far as I am concerned, for example, most of Europe is
totally uninteresting ... the only part I would be interesting
in seeing for an extended time is the inside of museums, which
admittedly is something I will eventually go over and do.



I think you just answered the original question. Sadly.

Cheers, Alan, Australia


I'm serious ... why do you say "sadly"??? I realize the
main reason is a troll, to imply that there is something wrong
with Americans ... but is it JUST a troll, or can you actually
explain a reason?

Doug McDonald

Doug McDonald schrieb:

Why do all those Europeans who travel "abroad" (i.e. "overseas"
or "out of Europe") have to do all that? WHAT'S WRONG WITH EUROPE
THAT THEY HAVE TO LEAVE? Whereas America is so wonderful that
it really is not necessary.

I don't think it's that. There are a lot of wonderful places in Europe,
and I could probably spend several years just by visiting those within
200 miles of my home town (and indeed I've spent lots of weekends doing
just that).

I think many Europeans suffer from the opposite of the "blind spot" effect
Americans are often accused of, believing one can find interesting places
only by going abroad.

For example, I know several Germans who have spent a lot of time in
faraway countries but never visited former Eastern Germany - even 16 years
after the Wall went down.

.... Martin

On Tue, 8 Nov 2005 10:59:18 +1100, "larry" wrote:

Why do so few Americans visit South America?

It's both more expensive and more difficult to reach than Europe.
--
Barbara Vaughan

My email address is my first initial followed by my last name at libero dot it.

On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 19:33:20 +1100, Alan S wrote:

It's a different mind-set. I know very few Aussies who don't
want to travel, it's just that it's expensive so they do it
less often but for longer. The people I met in the USA - or
the UK - who had never left their home county except to go
to college astounded me.

I live in rural Italy, and the percentage of people here who have
travelled beyond their own province is much, much lower than in the
US. The number who have never been on a plane would astound you. The
number who have never been to Rome (2 and a half hours by train) and
have no desire to see it would make your head spin.

Among the over-60 set, a sizeable minority left Italy to work in
Switzerland, Belgium, or Germany after the war, but came back and
haven't moved since. Another sizeable minority worked for a while in
Milan. You might call this travel for necessity, and they didn't try
to do any sightseeing while they were "abroad".

It's the younger people I don't understand. There's a young guy in my
husband's studio who would like to see the world, but can't get over
that obstacle of having to take a plane. I know many people, even
university-educated people, who have never been on a plane.

--
Barbara Vaughan

My email address is my first initial followed by my last name at libero dot it.

On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 03:35:21 GMT, AZ Nomad
wrote:

On Mon, 07 Nov 2005 22:10:14 +0100, B Vaughan wrote:


On Sun, 06 Nov 2005 18:45:12 -0500, Dave Smith
wrote:

FWIW, my wife was navigating on a trip a few years ago and was totally messed up
in Holland. We had a map the same size as our provincial road map. One one
occasion we were headed for a small town north east of Arnhem. She told me the
exit was a few miles after we crossed a river, but the exit was about 200 yards
past the river. Not a problem, there is a place ti turn around about 10 miles
down the road. It turned out to be less than a mile. She was having a really bad
time adjusting to the difference in scale of the map. It took us less than 4
hours of easy driving from the very north of Holland to Belgium. It takes me
longer than that to get to an annual vacation site, and it is not even half way
up on the map of the southern half of our province.

My (Italian) husband has a similar problem when driving in the US. He
thinks we can stop for lunch in a town that we won't reach until the
next day.

How long can it take to traverse one inch on the map? It's just 500 miles or
so.

The problem is that on an Italian map, you can traverse an inch in 15
minutes, even on back roads. The maps we use most often, which cover
several provinces, are to a scale of 2 kilometers to a centimeter, so
an inch would be about 8 miles.

My record for a day's driving was 1250 miles. I was ready to quit while in
western kansas on my way to denver colorado. Just a little more and I could be
home. Another 4 hours; another 300 miles.

We don't drive anywhere near that much in a day. We can cross from
where we live, on the Adriatic coast, to the opposite coast in a few
hours. However, we don't drive that much even when we're driving in
the US. I wouldn't want to cover more than 600 miles a day, normally,
although I've covered much more when there was a necessity.
--
Barbara Vaughan

My email address is my first initial followed by my last name at libero dot it.

Rita wrote:

They can drive there now :-) Maybe it is the island mentality that makes people
reluctant to travel when every trip involves a ferry trip. I have no idea what the
Chunnel costs, but links like that tend to be just as expensive as the ferries
they replace. Perhaps it is a problem many English seem to have with different
cultures and languages, similar to many Americans and Canadians. I was amazed at
the English staying at the same hotel as us the last time I was in Paris. The
breakfast buffet had a great assortment of cheeses, croissants, baguettes, great
coffee. The English were drinking their tea and munching on plain white toast. I
saw them one day in an English pub down the street from the hotel, drinking
English beer and watching soccer. I had to wonder why they had bothered to go to
France.

I stayed at a hotel in Sorrento that had a lot of English package tourists.
In the dining room they were distinctly uneasy and peered at the food as if
it contained something unsavory. The women appeared to take to it all
better than the men.

I confess to having gone to an Irish pubs in Copenhagen and to an Irish Pub and an
English Pub in Paris. We went to the one in Copenhagen because we were meeting up with
someone from the British Embassy which was nearby. The Irish pub in Paris was across
the street from our hotel and one of the party was being a drag and didn't want to go
far. The English pub was to meet a Parisian friend, and it was his choice, and the
closest to our hotel. When travelling with my brothers over there, we went to an
Italian restaurant in Baden Baden, second worst meal of that trip, the worst being the
one at the Irish pub in Paris. I would have preferred a German meal. Not much point
in going to another country and eating foreign food.

encounter German tourists who tend to travel in a pack. The English
at least are reticent if not totally with it, but the Germans are so
aggressive in staking out territory -- saving seats, spreading bath towels
by the pool at 4 a.m. to assure a spot, etc.

Americans often get a bad press as travelers, but citizens of some other
nations have their quirks as well.

I would think that it is because there are a few who are loud and obnoxious. Those are
the type that make leave strong impressions. I met some of them over there. I mentioned
previously about the American girls being so rude and yelling at the girl in the
restaurant that they wanted ketchup, apparently thinking that speaking louder would be
more effective than trying to speak French, or perhaps to try speaking more slowly. I
ran into some very pleasant Americans there too. I used to deal with a lot of tour
buses and their passengers when I was working. I ran into a lot of obnoxious Americans
over the years, and they do leave an impression, just as an obnoxious person from any
other country could be. As much as they tend to stand out, I have to say that the vast
majority of them were very pleasant.

On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 16:44:19 GMT, "Frank F. Matthews"
wrote:

Actually the Vermont - Quebec border didn't look all that porous. The
small crossing stations appeared to have a fair amount of antennas.

Back in 1965-66 when we ere living outside Montreal we drove down
to Missiquoi Bay just north of Vermont to spend some time with
friends. When we left in the evening I realized we were low on
fuel, and I realized I wouldn't have enough to drive back to
Montreal. I figured we'd just drive down across the border into
Vermont and fill up. As we drove south down a rural road we came
to a T-intersection in the middle of nowhere where a large sign
announced that we had entered the United States and told us to
proceed to the nearest manned border crossing. The actual border
was totally invisible to us and we never saw it.

I assume it's less porous than that these days.

************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

B Vaughan wrote:


How long can it take to traverse one inch on the map?


Around where I live, oh, about 6 minutes. ON FOOT. That's using the
right map of course.

I do believe you have to specify the kind of map!

Doug McDonald

I would have preferred a German meal. Not much point
in going to another country and eating foreign food.

I strongly agree with that point. I'm always interested in trying something
new. Yet somehow I've worked myself into a quandry -- I'm a vegetarian
(lacto-ovo), but I'm fascinated with the history of Central Europe and the
Balkans. On my recent trip to Berlin, I ate dinner nightly in the numerous
ethnic restaurants in Prenzlauerburg (many were excellent, and things I
can't get in my city in the US). Thank god for cheese! (I really miss those
little cheese and tomato sandwiches the German's sell everywhere....the
bread is so wonderful and fresh.)

On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 15:40:36 GMT, Rita
mangled uncounted electrons thus:

On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 10:28:04 -0500, Dave Smith
wrote:

Doug McDonald wrote:

No, no .... just think of this:

Why do all those Europeans who travel "abroad" (i.e. "overseas"
or "out of Europe") have to do all that? WHAT'S WRONG WITH EUROPE
THAT THEY HAVE TO LEAVE? Whereas America is so wonderful that
it really is not necessary.

There are probably several reasons that Europeans like to travel overseas.
The one you are probably most interested in is cost. Things in western Europe
tend to be expensive. Anywhere they go overseas is likely to be cheaper than
home. On the other hand, there are places in Europe that are relatively
inexpensive. Spain and Portugal are generally inexpensive, as are many
destinations in the old eastern bloc. Young people flock to places like
Prague where beer is cheap. For most of the Europeans I know, it is a general
love of travel, the chance to see new places and experience different
cultures. Living in small countries, having diverse cultures and being
multilingual, they are not intimidated by having to deal with a different
language.

On the other hand, I've talked to people in England who never have
crossed the English channel, something that is very hard for me to
understand. And to others who have vacationed at times in one of the
winter resort communities in Portugal or Spain but never have explored
European cities.

And it is so easy for them -- they can drive there.

grin There are insular people all over, just as there are those
who love to travel.

My wife and I have a friend in Vermont who lives to travel,
having decided that she wants to see as much of the world while
she's young enough to enjoy it. And in contrast, the woman who
ran the motel at which we stayed on my first trip to the US
(Florida) near the US27/I4 intersection, who had never traveled
further than Davenport, had no wish to do so and couldn't
understand her friends and neighbours who went up to Orlando or
over to Kissimmee...

Martin D. Pay
Hates *traveling*, loves to arrive (especially when airplanes are
involved)...