Must be the area where you are. I know many people that get 2 weeks of vacation the day they are hired and as long as it isn’t a crew-type job (retail, resturaunt, etc.) you can always choose when to take vacation days.
What I definitely don’t see is people using their entire vacation days for the year in one large chunk.
If I may ask … what is the point of the OP?
I’ve tried three times to reply to this and deleted each on preview because I just can’t manage it in a way appropriate for GQ. I’m left asking simply for clarification.
Do you really believe that? Do you think either part of that generalization is true enough to be useful in this discussion or any other?
I think it’s a valid question from a UK resident wondering why US behaviour seems so different from their own. It could be an OP with an agenda (see the numerous “Why are Americans so ignorant” threads), but I think the OP deserves the benefit of the doubt that they have a valid question rather than an entree to US-bashing.
It’s a fact that very few Americans travel abroad. That fact seems strange to a lot of non-US people, especially Europeans who travel widely. The reasons for this have been thrashed in this thread and range from the insulting (Americans are provincial and isolationist and fear travel abroad) to the practical (the US is very large and travel between the states is equivalent to European travel between countries, so the stats are misleading). None of these answers are true across the board but they are all factors. As with many questions about differences between cultures, the OP and others can choose which answers they think are most relevant depending on how they want to characterize the “average” American.
What is “US behavior”? Of what entity? Individual Americans? The federal government taken as a whole? What?
I’m hoping for the OP to return and clarify this point.
Is it really a fact? Can we get a cite with some numbers? And just how far from home are all these European travelers going?
Fine … but I’d be interested in the OP’s opinion.
Australian passport ownership is surely over 75%. They get lots of time off too. I know of one Aussie company where the employees can choose to work for 4 years at 80% pay and take the 5th year off at 80% pay (on the condition that they return for a 6th year).
During the 4 years they are working they still get the standard Aussie holidays which I beleive are 4 weeks per year. I have met lots of Aussies traveling for 6 or 9 months - not very unusual at all.
Wow. Only the idle rich or the total hippies could even conceive of such a thing in America. I am so jealous.
My parents got passports at the ages of 67 and 64, respectively, but they’d travelled extensively in four countries (here, Canada, Mexico, Bermuda) none of whom required passports. Are they provinicial?
If I’m not mistaken and the article I read yesterday is correct, Australians get 6 weeks off a year, paid.
GEEEZ! Yeah I’m sure a lot of Americans would travel more (abroad or otherwise) if they got vacation time like that!
As has been said, 2 weeks is pretty standard, and in a lot of jobs (non salaried positions, food service, retail, etc) those aren’t even paid weeks. As has also been said, taking those two weeks off in a chunk is a rare luxury that most employers would balk at.
…and yeah, you kinda gotta visit family first, which takes up most of it anyway.
Sorry, standard issue holidays in Australia are 4 working weeks, not six.
I’d be surprised if 75% of Australians held passports, wouldn’t be if the estimate was over 50%.
In a similar OP Chris Hitchens(??) was cited as making the point that 20% of the US Congress hold a passport. FWLIW by personal research, 63% of current Australian federal pollies have travelled overseas since the election in 2000.
Four is still a lot.
It is in America. Everywhere else in the world 4 seems about standard. When I worked full time in Hungary, I got 5 weeks vacation my first year. I must admit, Americans work way to damn much. I’m back in America again, and I’m sure gonna miss all that free time. 
I just applied for my 3rd passport today. The others expired long ago.
One of the best things that I did for myself while I was single was to travel abroad on my own. No package deals or tours for me! The opportunity to be spontaneous is what leads to the adventures.
As for Americans not liking train travel, I disagree! Someone is buying all those Eur-rail Passes here. I travelled a lot with one long ago. At night, if I had the car to myself, I just pulled the seats together and turned the car into a wall to wall bed. I assume that they still do that.
During the day time, I would leave First Class and the Americans behind and join the Europeans in Second Class. Much more fun and sharing food was cool. Love European trains!
The same is true for fancy hotels. Stay in the less expensive two star hotels. The people are more interesting and the hotels can be absolutely enchanting!
If you are afraid of language problems, get a talking translator in 6 languages for about $150. Or go to Scandanavia where they speak English better than we do.
Three trips for me next year I hope: Paris, New York and Williamsburg. For those who are not from the USA, in Williamsburg you experience not only a different culture, but a different time!
Total number of Australian passports issued in 10 years prior to 2002: 8.07 million (Table 1 in PDF)
Number of Australian citizens in 2001: 16.56 million
Passport rate: 49%
(rate for US was 22%)
How do children fit into these statistics? It’d be a little more meaningful if we had %age of adult population. IIRC, kids under a certain age could be attached to a parent’s passport. At least this is how I traveled when I was younger. I was under my mother’s passport. Perhaps the rules have changes.
The first time I went to Europe I was 13, so my current passport is my second one.
I really loved staying at B&Bs in the UK… are they that much fun in the rest of Europe? I know they aren’t the same here in the US…
The rules have changed (in the US at least). Children have to have their own passport. They only difference is that the passport for minors is only good for 5 years while adults are good for 10 years.
But as stated earlier, this doesn’t tell you that 49% of Aussies have passports.
Micco has it - it’s just a genuine query.
The lack of travel by Americans is often cited here (in UK) as a derogatory factor about Americans, and used as an explanation for there somewhat bullyish belief that their politics and their ideas of liberty are the most worthy (I don’t stand by this point - just saying what a lot of people believe).
There is a certain intelluctual fashion for being anti-american in europe at the moment, to the point that people almost seem to support the terrorism against the US. I think this a really really wrong view. I think what people are confusing is their frustration at an American infiltration of their culture and are voicing this by being deliberately atagonistic with regard to their views on foreign policy, and making assumptions about the general character of Americans ie.they are igorant - they do not travel. Before we slate the Americans we should be a liitle more judgemental about ourselves. I think that the point Europeans don’t recognise is that over the last 50 years they have been able to scale down their military activity and costs - not because they are fantastic diplomats - but because they have American forces and American money to subsisdise them. An infiltration of culture is not the same issue as a national security and we need to seperate the issues when we think about how we feel towards other countries.
I’m sorry if this seems confusing and besides the point BUT (eventually) my original point was just to see why Americans (generally) don’t appear to travel as much as Europeans and to see if was as important a point as it is often made out to be.
I think the answers given here are wide ranging and absolutely valid. If Europe was one country I think the percentage of people with passports here would be alot lower. Plus we do get a lot more holiday. In fact this point about holiday prompted me to start another thread about whether Americans protest. You should really get more holidays, you need an entire population strike to get this sorted, really.
Anyway - I am not an American basher - far from - it’s juat a big issue at the moment and I’m curious to learn. Especially since I’ve only ever been to New York which I doubt is representative of the whole of America.
Naomi, I admit I was a bit suspicious of your motives at first too but that’s an entirely reasonable post.
I do find it funny that here in Ireland you get people accusing Americans of not travelling abroad … and then you also get people complaining about the number of American tourists everywhere!