I got my passport as soon as I turned 18 (mother insisted), on the theory that I would travel abroad someday, and when I did, I didn’t want to have to wait for six months to get a passport then. When a flight to London from New York has the same flight time and cost as a flight to Los Angeles, why not be ready to hop the pond?
And ruadh’s point is valid, too. Being a child of the internet, I have friends in several places in the US I’ve never seen. Not that that’s any reason not to go abroad… cause the world is cool. But sometimes when I fantasize about visiting other countries, I feel dirty for not having seen my own.
I’ve had a passport and been using it since I was 16. I’m very lucky in that regard, I was allowed to go abroad to travel and study. Nothing against Oklahomans, but not a lot travel outisde the US. I’ve had people on another website who were convinced that I’d never been to Europe, because nobody from the Oklahoma ever leaves. The Estonian stamp in my passport put paid to that - once I convinced the Okie that Estonia is an actual country.
Both my parents got passports after my marriage to ‘that English guy’ as they referred to him. I always wanted to show my parents ‘my’ London, UK and Europe. My father was very keen on the idea, he wanted to travel outside of the US, but my mother didn’t want to travel. Now that she has passed on, I’m trying to get my father to visit me in England. He loves his whiskey, I’d love to take him to Scotland to visit the places that make his Christmas pressies.
I do agree that there is SO much to do and see in the US, and I’ve been there/done that when I was a kid. There are still parts of the US I haven’t been (Pacific NW for one) that I hope to get around to seeing.
Until then, I’m just well pleased to be living in a country where I can fly off to Amsterdam, Paris, Greece … wherever … cheaply, quickly and easily. I do love living in London.
RUADH I quite agree. I despise package holidays. I just think to myself “What is the point of spending money on a package holiday when you spend the entire time reading a novel by the pool”!!! (?@{+#)
I would read the book under a sunbed and spend my money actually experiencing the world, unlike many other Brits, I am sorry to say. (And I don’t just mean in the airport).
To the others, I am not contesting the size and/or diversity of the US. I think it is a great advantage of a great country. My uncle has a holiday home near the Grand Canyon (Phoenix??? I think) and the sheer difference between that and let’s say… New York State is staggering and yes, if I were an American I would want to experience my own country before travelling to the wider world. Just like I am travelling to European countries before spreading my roots to the wider world (with some exceptions).
I was not aware RUADH that many Americans only have about two weeks holiday, and yes it is understandable that much of that time would be spent visiting relatives.
In Britain I think most of the workforce has about four weeks holiday year. Because the UK is much smaller, it is easier to visit relatives etc so I didn’t even think of that. (I think the relative the longest distance away from me is about three hours maximum).
In general I think it is a shame that many Brits never see further than a hotel wall or bar complex when they “travel” and I also think it is a shame that many Americans can’t experience the wider world, for whatever reason. BUT that comment is in no way exclusive to America. It can be said for any citizen from any country. Britain and the rest of Europe would be included as, as has already been said, it cost’s a lot to travel and it is one hell of a big world.
I have a passport, but if I hadn’t gone to the UK two summers ago for my 10th anniversary I wouldn’t have one. And let me tell you, that was EXPENSIVE! Over $1000 each just for airfare. THAT is why most Americans don’t travel abroad. Who can afford it? I travel within the US quite a bit (between 5,000 and 10,000/year most years) though.
And America isn’t one big homogenous culture, for those of you that haven’t been here who were somehow under that impression.
What PLANET are you from? It’s $85.00 for the passport alone. I have a choice: Pay for a trip to the UK or pay my mortgage. I’d rather not see my children thrown out onto the street. Yes, I guess, by your standards, I’ll have to “eat cake”, Marie.
You’ve never been to the USA, have you? Lemme guess, you’re one of those sorts who ignorantly believes that we are all identical to our TV shows, right? Can I presume that you’re all identical to “Yes, Minister” and “Keeping up Appearances”?
What PLANET are you from? It’s $85.00 for the passport alone. I have a choice: Pay for a trip to the UK or pay my mortgage. I’d rather not see my children thrown out onto the street. Yes, I guess, by your standards, I’ll have to “eat cake”, Marie.
You’ve never been to the USA, have you? Do you believe that we are all identical to our TV shows? Can I presume that you’re all identical to “Yes, Minister” and “Keeping up Appearances”?
My father lives over 3200km from me. My grandmother lives about 1100km from me. Other relatives live in intermediate distances.
It’s been pointed out by other posters that there is a good bit of cultural variation within the US. I’d just like to add that many of the cultural differences within the US are much larger than the cultural differences between the “average” US and the “average” UK. If you live in San Francisco, New York or pretty much any big US city, you’ll be much more at home in London than you would in many rural towns in flyover country. Yes, I appreciate the culture of the UK. I love the museums and architectural sites in London and the rustic countryside. But from a cultural standpoint, it’s not all that different than the US.
I agree that experiencing other cultures is important and I wish more Americans traveled abroad to get those experiences, but if we’re urging people to travel, sending Americans to the UK is hardly pushing the limits. I think if I had a friend in a big US city who needed to broaden their cultural awareness, I’d send them to rural Mississippi, North Dakota, or any one of thousands of places in the US that are farther from their home, culturally, than the average UK site. Believe me, moving from San Francisco to rural East Texas was a much greater culture shock than any travel to a westernized “foreign” country could be.
DOGFACE if you bothered to read my later post you would realise that I retracted that statement and acknowledged that it costs a hell of a lot more to travel than $85. That specific part of my post was in reference to people not wanting to pay for the passport. I wasn’t even talking about the actual travel costs; I consider that a bit of a gibbon. I, along with everybody, am aware of the astronomical travel costs these days.
Do I think that you are all identical to your TV shows? Well I shouldn’t even dignify that with a response. Of course I do not. No one does. I would not expect to travel to the US and only find Will, Grace and Frasier and the cast of Friends. I am fully aware that America is a very dynamic and culturally diverse country but, it is NOT an exact microcosm for the rest of the world. And no matter what you say the national diversity and cultural differences of ANY nation cannot rival that of the world as a whole. So all I am saying is yes by all means travel the US and enjoy all it has to offer, as I hope to do one day, but just remember that there is more out there.
…I don’t think anyone said that the US is a microcosm of the world or that there isn’t more out there… people were simply reacting what seemed to be an implied statement that by travelling only within the US you were not experiencing different cultures. That is patently false as there are plenty of diverse cultures here. Are there yet more (and more diverse) cultures abroad? Sure there are. No one was disputing that.
As a budget traveller, I don’t think that is true at all. For example, consider a trip from Chicago to London, January 13-20, 2004.
Passport: $85.00
Passport photos: $15.00
Round trip airfare to Heathrow Airport from Hotwire.com, incl. all taxes and fees: $311.00
Underground from Heathrow Airport to city (roundtrip): $12.00
Double w/breakfast at Oxford House Hotel, Victoria, per person, 5 nights: $200.00
Five 1-day Travelcards for London underground: $30.00
6 pub lunches: $72.00
6 fixed-price dinners: $72.00
Buckingham Palace: $17.00
Tower of London: $16.00
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre: $12.00
St. Paul’s Cathedral: $6.00
Museum of London: $8.00
Day-of-show discount theater tickets, 2 shows: $12.00 - $29.00
Roundtrip boat to Greenwich: $11.00
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich: $12.00
Total: $937.00
(add $69 to fly from Los Angeles)
Many of the best London museums are free, including the British Museum, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, the Tate Britain, the Tate Modern, and the Victoria & Albert Museum; so are the Houses of Parliament.
True, Wallon, but who wants to go to London in the winter? I bet some of those numbers are so low because you are traveling off-peak. That’s a good way to save money, but probably not the most pleasant when it comes to the weather.
London winters aren’t that bad, anyway. Much better than Chicago winters for sure.
If you want to travel around March or April, airlines usually have really cheap rates to major European destinations. Paris is normally around $400 (if not less) during this time period. You can easily, EASILY, spend a week in Europe for under $1000 without hostelling or backpacking. In 1996, in Paris (one of the genuinely prohibitively expensive European cities) I managed to find a hotel with bed, breakfast, private shower, cable, near a Metro stop for $30 a night. It can be done.
And the stories about Europeans not welcoming Americans…that’s a pile of crap. pure and simple. I’ve been in two dozen European cities this year, spread over nine or ten countries (even more last year), and not once have I got any hassle for being an American. Many Europeans will disagree heavily with American politics, but everyone I’ve met has been able to separate disliking American politics from disliking American people. If you’re an asshole, they’ll treat you like one. If you’re polite, respectful and act like a regular human being, they’ll treat you the same.
I Love Me: no, it was an issue of timing. Not being able to plan as far ahead as is ideal really jacks up the prices. But it’s better than getting your nonrefundable tickets earlier at a better price and then not being able to go because of conflicts
We don’t need a passport to travel between EU countries. Only an ID (and even then, since there’s no border check between most of the EU countries, you don’t even really need an ID).
The UK is a peculiar case, since :
It’s not part of the Schengen agreement, hence there are still border checks
UK citizens aren’t required to have IDs, hence, they may need to use a passport as ID (for instance, in France, it’s essentially impossible not to have an Identity Card, since you need it all the time…to sign a check, to deal with some administration, to register at the library, etc…So, people travelling to other EU countries will just bring their Identity Card and won’t bother using a passport).
On travel boards, I read on a regular basis comments from american people travelling to Europe mentionning that their colleagues, relatives, etc…are always wondering how they can possibly afford such vacations, though they’re themselves spending much more on their vacations within the US. There’s a strong consensus amongst these “travellers” about the fact that most american people who don’t travel outside the US vastly overestimate the cost of an oversea trip.
The Americans here seem to believe that the reasons Americans don’t travel much outside the USA are:
1/ the USA is so geographically big and diverse there is no need to
2/ the USA is so culturally big and diverse there is no need to
If these were the case they would apply to other large and “diverse” countries. For instance Canada, Australia, China, or India. Also the EU, which is essentially a nation state now. But this is not so; apart from China where there are political restrictions, those countries’ middle and upper classes travel internationally far more than Americans do. They all have pretty much as diverse a geography as the US.
As for those who think the US is culturally diverse: this is only by American standards! By this I mean that the culture in any American’s area of origin is so consistent, that the tiniest variations found when travelling within the US appear huge. A different accent, a different way of serving hotdogs, and two novel words don’t constitute a different culture.
