Great, you learn how to say cerveza, but that’s not really learning a culture. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not nothing, but 20 year olds partying on the beach are mostly the same everywhere. You can be exposed to culture by vacationing in another country, but it doesn’t happen by default.
A New Englander going to South Beach in Miami for spring break can be exposed to a new culture, even if it’s still in the US.
That’s why Mallorca is often jokingly called the 17th state of the Federal Republic. And most Germans aren’t there for the culture, mind you, but for German beer and German schlager…The worst people.
Most of Western Europe is more generous with vacation time than the US. I had a conversation with a young Frenchman in the 1990s who told me that anyone there with only 3 weeks vacation felt very aggrieved since 4 or 5 weeks were the standard.
And last month my niece, a new hire and recent college grad, asked me to look at her benefits package and advise her on which health plan to pick. What jumped out at me is that she gets 25 vacation days! I asked her if she was aware of how generous that was, she said yes, all the other young new hires in her group had commented on it and pointed out that even though they were hired by the NYC office, it’s a British company.
You just described many of the Mexican vacations that Americans take. I’m so not interested in “all-inclusive” but most of these folks are.
The US is an outlier with respect to the measly amount of vacation time employees get. Most EU countries have a legal minimum of four weeks. Employers usually add more days depending on length of service. Health care is standardised and provided by the state and financed out of general taxation or a mix if that and one of a few state approved insurance schemes.
That battle was fought and won in Europe in the decades after WW2. Economies have large state sectors and plenty of employee rights and protections.
In the US the struggle goes on and employers tend to have the workforce by the cojones. I was always astonished to hear that vacation time is a week or two and the hire/fire work culture.
Consequently in Europe there is a lot of vacationing. In some countries like France, the whole country goes on vacation during August. In the UK it is much more spread out but there are peak times based around school terms for families. This does affect productivity because stuff gets delayed until some key individual returns from annual leave.
Different nationalities have their preferences about resorts where things are arranged just the way the like it. Some hotels that cast their net widely have to deal with different cultural habits and traditions.
Beating the Germans in the morning to reserve a sun lounger by the pool with a towel is a routine. Watching huge family groups of Italians sit in circles adjudicating some dispute is another. Noisy British party animals is another.
There is a rather challenging job known as a ‘holiday rep’ employed by a tour operator, who has to try and keep some order and deal with problems. It require a lot of people skills. Or, in the case of resorts that cater for the youth market, their job seems to be to lead the drunken partying. A search for ‘holiday reps’ on YouTube reveals many videos about the best and worst of this job.
This is all very international, lots of languages and cultures. But not at all classy. Just ordinary folks having a well earned vacation. Some people frequent the same hotel in the same resort year after year.
One of the advantages of this international set up is NOT understanding some of the languages. Having your ears tuned to English sometimes means you have to listen to some empty vessels showing just how ignorant they can be. If the same character is speaking another language it is mercifully easier to tune out.
While basic insurance in Switzerland is standardized, it is not paid by the state or covered by taxes. Those who cannot afford health insurance will get financial help. Also, Switzerland is not a member of the EU,
The general point I was making is that healthcare is not so intimately bound up with employment contracts in Europe, as it is in the US. Holiday entitlements also have a legal minimum in Europe, which is normally four weeks or so.
This must affect the kind of vacations people take in the US. If you are time poor, that must surely reduce your options.
I work for a global company. Our European and Asian colleagues get much more statutory paid time off and much more rights about when they can take it.
Managers of the US units routinely veto vacation plan, sometimes even retroactively. You have plane tickets and hotel reservations for the week after next and you’re negotiating with your boss about whether you can actually go. You can notify your manager six months in advance and still get fired because you wouldn’t cancel your trip.
Any manager trying this in Germany or Czechia would find themselves fired, not the employee.
Oh another thing. I didn’t learn this on my last trip but confirmed it.
Greek food, meaning food made in Greece for locals and not ‘tourist food’, is some of the best food I have ever eaten.
What I did learn in the Frankfurt airport is that real German beer, even a cheap bottle, is phenomenal.
Indeed it is. Probably not unconnected with the beer purity laws that forbid artificial additives.
Now I’m looking to see if there are real German beers for sale in the US, not the German-style beers made by Inbev or Molson Coors.
Don’t bother. Good beer doesn’t travel.
This menu lists some German beers- I know that at least some are available at beer distributors in NYC although I doubt if you will find any in supermarkets and can’t say if they are available in the rest of the US.
Good luck with that. I would recommend a minimum of two weeks and a month would be better. Most Europeans do not truly comprehend just how big the United States truly is. Upthread, Germans vacationing in Italy was mentioned. Frankfurt to Naples is about 1,500km, the same distance from Phoenix to San Francisco and there’s a whole lotta country north and east of those two points.
Yes, if I were a European visiting the US and wanted to see a lot of the country, I don’t know how I’d do it. You’d spend a lot of time in either a car or in the airport.
I spent a month in the UK back in 2004 and that wasn’t long enough to see anywhere NEAR what I wanted to see. For a little country, it’s awfully big inside.
In the US, you’ll lose about a day to travel each time you get on a plane, which you’ll have to do if you want to see points that are far apart. Most of them are. Getting from Philly to Pittsburgh, for example, takes about 5 hours and that’s when you’re traveling on a superhighway.
This. I am a professional tour guide (in Australia), and I am absolutely stunned by the total disregard Indians seem to have for - not just rules, but even just simple standards of behaviour (yes, they vary from country to country, but they are not hard to work out, and you generally only need to be politely told once ‘We don’t tend to do that here’). Don’t even ask about their timekeeping.
Most other tourists tend to be interested in the differences between their country and the one they are visiting, interested in sights and history, and generally willing to give the ‘strange food’ a go.
As a general rule I would say tourists are more polite than the general public in any country.
My idea as an European for seeing a lot (but of course still a small part) of the US would be to spend a week in city A, two weeks driving to city B, one week in city B. Or something like that. A number of friends and family have done their US vacations on these lines.
That would be a good way to see the “in between” parts…if you didn’t stick to the interstate.
In Birmingham. fifteen miles away from me, they are hosting the Commonwealth Games. Competitors and spectators from 72 nations and territories representing a third of the world’s total population competing in 27 sports and eight Para-sports.
Tens of thousands of people from all over the world coming to what is already one of the most multicultural cities and having a great time. No competitors from the USA of course (You can apply for membership if you want) but I have seen a few stars and stripes around the various venues and a couple of American girls were interviewed on local TV.