# How old were you when you first left the country? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 19, 2020, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119 "2020-04-19T12:45:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Declanium](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5daacb/32.png) [@Declanium](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declanium)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/81 "2020-04-20T21:10:56Z")
Definitely under 3 Parents were born and raised in Ireland and we went back every summer from the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/82 "2020-04-20T21:34:51Z")
I wish I could change my poll entry. I put down “21” but forgot ab out when I was eleven, visiting relatives in Buffalo\< NY, and we crossed the border into Canada, to the other side of Niagra Falls. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/83 "2020-04-20T22:51:02Z")
I went on a family vacation to Toronto when I was 6. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/84 "2020-04-20T23:11:27Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > I would have been about 13 years old. The family had driven all over Scotland, England and Wales for years, staying in (dead cheap) youth hostels. My father was a teacher so we could go away for two weeks at Easter and a month or more in the summer. So would an Englishman consider himself to have left the country when he travels to Scotland, or vise versa for a Scotsman traveling to England, etc? Or do you only consider yourself to have left the country if you exit the UK? Based on your post it sounds like the latter. It’s hard for us colonists to wrap our heads around the idea of a country composed of four constituent countries. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2020, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/85 "2020-04-20T23:50:35Z")
Looks like I’m the only “Something else?”, at least so far. I have crossed an international border, but it was coming into my country, not leaving it. The document I used to get my RealID was issued by the Department of State. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/86 "2020-04-21T00:02:30Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > That’s interesting; to me, a Canadian, you are WAY more like SoCal than you are like us. In what respects? I note your location as Oakville, where I worked for a year while living in Mississauga, and still continue to visit when it’s not virus season. While technically the GTA, both Mississauga and Oakville are still far enough removed for Toronto to be _not_ Toronto, which is decidedly _not_ like Michigan (it’s more like Sydney). Is it our good Mexican food? I’ve still never found good Mexican in Ontario. You’re right to be envious! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/87 "2020-04-21T00:46:31Z")
Our family went to Canada multiple times growing up. We lived near Boston and we had friends outside of Montreal that we visited a few times. The first time I went anywhere outside of North America was a work trip to England when I was 24. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/88 "2020-04-21T02:03:57Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > Looks like I’m the only “Something else?”, at least so far. > > I have crossed an international border, but it was coming into my country, not leaving it. > > The document I used to get my RealID was issued by the Department of State. Oops **Doug K** , your post made me realize that I should have replied “Something else” as well, so you’re not the only one. I became a US citizen as an adult, but I was born the child of a foreign diplomat in a country in Europe in which diplomats’ children take the citizenship of their parents’ country. I didn’t return to my country of citizenship until I was 4 years old. I crossed many international borders on the way from my birth country to my country of citizenship. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/89 "2020-04-21T02:43:48Z")
When I was about 13, my favorite uncle drove us to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada, just across the border from Detroit. We saw _Timon of Athens_ and _Cyrano de Bergerac,_ and a shop clerk tried to cheat me on the currency exchange. No passports or hassle for either of us. Good times! ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/90 "2020-04-21T04:49:35Z")
> [@gkster](#): > > Oops **Doug K** , your post made me realize that I should have replied “Something else” as well, so you’re not the only one. > > I became a US citizen as an adult, but I was born the child of a foreign diplomat in a country in Europe in which diplomats’ children take the citizenship of their parents’ country. I didn’t return to my country of citizenship until I was 4 years old. I crossed many international borders on the way from my birth country to my country of citizenship. So is there a way to change my poll reply from “3-10” to “Something else”? ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/91 "2020-04-21T05:16:18Z")
I was 16 when I want on a school trip to Europe, the summer between my junior and senior years of high school: 11 cities in 6 countries in 30 days. I’ve been to a few more since then but I still have about 182 to go… ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/92 "2020-04-21T05:21:58Z")
I must have been about 8 years old. We lived in Toronto, and Niagara Falls made for a great daytrip. I remember walking across the Rainbow Bridge, and into the United States. > [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Here’s an interesting wrinkle I thought of: how old were you the first time you went to a foreign country on your own - or with peers and not guardians? I was 19 years old and a student at the University of Toronto. Some friends and I got the idea to visit New York City for the weekend. And we did! ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/93 "2020-04-21T06:11:52Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Here’s an interesting wrinkle I thought of: how old were you the first time you went to a foreign country on your own - or with peers and not guardians? > > For me it would be that bridge I could walk over to Canada, so maybe 12 or 13. 17, still Tijuana (Mexico) for me, 1968. My girlfriend had to go down to pick up some legal documents for her older sister. Sister was a flake who lived in San Francisco but for some reason had gotten a Mexican divorce from her husband. God knows why the documents couldn’t just be mailed to her. My GF didn’t want to go alone so I drove her. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/94 "2020-04-21T10:00:44Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > When I was about 13, my favorite uncle drove us to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada, just across the border from Detroit. We saw _Timon of Athens_ and _Cyrano de Bergerac,_ and a shop clerk tried to cheat me on the currency exchange. No passports or hassle for either of us. Good times! Just FYI, Stratford is considerably further than “just across the border,” and it’s not a Shakespeare festival; Festival is the name of one of the theatres there. I’m only pointing out the latter because people always tend to think that some type of festival is always taking place in Stratford. And while, like any small town, there _are_ festivals, they’re incredibly hard to Google for because of that theatre! ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/95 "2020-04-21T10:23:00Z")
10, we went to a resort in Majorca (Spain), which is pretty stereotypical for Brits. I thought it was paradise on earth. Couldn’t get over the enormous buffet restaurant where I could help myself to anything my heart desired. Have been overseas every year since, usually multiple times. This is the first year I can remember where I haven’t yet got in a plane. I was supposed to be in Nice at Easter, and the Dordogne in June _SOB_. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/96 "2020-04-21T10:28:31Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > So would an Englishman consider himself to have left the country when he travels to Scotland, or vise versa for a Scotsman traveling to England, etc? Or do you only consider yourself to have left the country if you exit the UK? Based on your post it sounds like the latter. It’s hard for us colonists to wrap our heads around the idea of a country composed of four constituent countries. 😉 I’d only consider I’d left the country if I left the UK. There’s no border checks between Scotland/England/Wales and whilst we might regard each other with exotic interest/suspicion/amusement, I wouldn’t regard a Scot or Welsh person as foreign. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/97 "2020-04-21T14:31:11Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > I would have been about 13 years old. The family had driven all over Scotland, England and Wales for years, staying in (dead cheap) youth hostels. My father was a teacher so we could go away for two weeks at Easter and a month or more in the summer. > > The decision to be super brave and take a ferry to France was probably based on the fact that I was doing French at school and was therefore designated translator (!). We took three days to drive from Cumbria to Dover in order to catch the ferry. I have a very strong memory of the first lunch in France - I was bundled into a shop and came back with a loaf of bread and some [La Vache Qui Rit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Laughing_Cow) processed cheese spread. My French was good enough that I knew it meant The Cow Who Laughs. Bear in mind that finding a French person who spoke _any_ English - even the _gardien_ at many of the camp sites we stayed at - was in those days a near impossibility. > > Lunches got better as I got the hang of it, but a note in passing - for months before the holiday an extra tin would would be added to each shopping trip, to build a stockpile of “safe” tinned food to take to France. And yes, we took water purification tablets. It was the early 1970’s. > > j From the age of 12, we, too, used to take a ferry to France, where I was the designated translator. My Dad insisted I interrogate every waiter to make sure the beef wasn’t, in fact, horse meat and my Mum wouldn’t let me pet any cats and dogs, because ‘they might have rabies’. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/98 "2020-04-21T15:04:16Z")
I lived near the Canadian border so quite young, maybe before 3 even. That almost shouldn’t count. After that, lived in Brazil for a time in my early 20s. I didn’t visit Europe until last year, was 47. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/99 "2020-04-21T15:12:28Z")
I was maybe 6-8 years old. We lived in the Los Angeles area and my parents liked venturing to Mexico for shopping. Tijuana and Rosarito Beach were our only destinations from what I remember. Mid 1970s. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119/100 "2020-04-21T15:48:47Z")
I was in my 30s before I traveled anywhere that I needed a passport. I went to Italy to teach a class for my company. I had been to Windsor, Ontario, and Tijuana when was in college but that was just tiptoeing over the border and you just needed your driver’s license, so I didn’t count those. I’ve been trying to make up for lost time since then. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-old-were-you-when-you-first-left-the-country/852119.md?page=6)