Most people here on the boards seem to have quite a bit of experience with traveling abroad, or at least lived in several different geographical regions in their lives.
Just wondering if you (or anyone you know) has really never traveled more than a few miles from their hometown.
And if so, any particular reason why?
I get around a LOT, so I won’t win this one. I did work for a while at a manufacturing plant in Baltimore, and it really surprised me how little those folks got around. Many, if they’d left Baltimore at all, had only been to Ocean City, Maryland, which is where “everyone” went in the summer. Most had never been to Washington, DC, which is about 45 miles away. Never been to the Smithsonian, etc. I found this mind boggling. This wasn’t terribly long ago.
In 2003 or so I drug a friend of mine to Vegas from Las Cruces NM. He would have been 26 or 27 at the time. Vegas was the furthest both west and north he’d ever been in his life. In fact, the only place he’d ever been outside of New Mexico was El Paso TX (about 45 miles SE of Las Cruces).
His reason was that he was somewhat claustrophobic, and never though he could handle a cramped plane or a long roadtrip in a car. He got drunk before we left, and slept most of the way there (we drove, about 12 hours). And of course it was his first trip to Vegas, so he was exhausted and slept most of the way back.
The good news is, he had such a good time that he decided that the discomfort was worth it to see something outside of NM. He’s been back to Vegas several times, once on a plane, even! He’s also discovered Diamondback baseball and drives to Phoenix a couple times per season.
I lived in quite a few states when I was married and in 1985 I spent three months seeing America. Since then, I’ve lived in New Jersey, take trips to NYC, and occasionally to New England.
I have no desire to go anywhere else.
Farmers, for one, don’t get much of a chance to travel due to … farming and all its circumstances. I remember being a pre-teen and going to western-central Victoria (Aust.) to visit our very, very distant relatives for a few weeks. It was only about a 5 hour drive from modern civilization but the family that had been running the vast land they called a farm had been there for a few generations, and no one in their immediate family had ever visited a city.
I still remember that time as “the days of naked people in gumboots”*
*Gumboots were for prevention of snakebites.
I’ve been all around the States, but maybe only 17 of them. When I go on vacation, I tend to stay in this state, and go to the same old places again and again.
I’m thinking of taking a vacation at Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg this year. Which is in this state, of course.
Boot camp was the first time I left Iowa, and I had never been more than 80 miles from home at that point. Culture shock!
I’ve lived for 23 years in the same state. Though I’ve visited a bunch places like Sicily/Italy, India, Canada, Mexico… and that’s it for out of the Country. In the US, I’ve been North as far as NH and down south to Florida up and down the coast (we’re counting driving and not spending a Night I hope), and I’ve been to California and Texas. I’ve not really been driven further west outside of Alabama, and even then that was for a one night wedding thing. Most of my life has been in my Home state, and about 19-20 of those 23 years have been within 50 miles of my parent’s house (where I grew up).
I’m sure (i hope) someone can top that with lesser travels.
My uncle’s neighbors live in Greensburg, PA. Which to my mind is a suburb of Pittsburgh. These people have never been to Pittsburgh. Or anywhere else.
I’ve known some people who have lived their entire lives within 20 or so miles of a major city, and have almost never been to that city. If they do happen to go there, it’s a Big Deal, and they tend to get all paranoid about the crime and the rats and the weirdos and the weird criminal rats.
A friend in high school’s mom had only been to three counties, the one she was born in and one North and South.
In Reno, Nevada I knew a few co-workers that had never been to California which is about 10 miles away. Overseas, most expats are very well travelled, to the point where no matter where we go we can almost always meet up with friends of friends.
A former co-worker who is 51 and has lived in New Rochelle, NY since birth has never ventured further than Manhattan (~25 miles). He justified it by saying “Why would anyone want to go anywhere else?”.
I didn’t make it out of southeast Connecticut until I was 18 and ~19 before I left the state which is when I worked at the place I met him. A lot has changed since then, so while I thought he had some point at the time, I think he’s an idiot now.
I would say 80% of my travels were because of the military. Except for that most of my trips have been on the east coast.
I have lived in Arkansas my entire life, all 24 years of it. The furthest I have traveled was a road trip with my best friend and my parents back in '98 to Florida. We drove, so we saw Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. I have been to Memphis and Jackson Tennessee, as well as Tunica Mississippi and a trip or two right across the border into Missouri. I have never been west of Arkansas, North of West Plains Missouri or out of the country. Most the time, I don’t even like to take the 3 hour drive back home from where I live now.
I haven’t been traveling a lot - I’ve never been east of here, and the farthest west I’ve been is Victoria BC. I was in Washington State for a few days, which is the only time I’ve been out of Canada.
I’m plotting, but my family isn’t much for travel and I’m waiting for all my friends to get out of the poor student phase of their lives and into the working-with-disposable-income part. Traveling by myself isn’t something I really want to do right now.
I’ve travelled a fair bit (a lot of Europe, Eastern US, Mexico, Peru, North Africa, Kenya), but I’ve only - apart from a brief stint at Aberdeen University - lived in Edinburgh.
Born here, and nearly 45 years later still live here.
And of course what will happen to these people who have never been far from their place of birth is that they will fall in love with someone from the other side of the world who is visiting their hometown…
Isn’t there something about ‘different = exotic = attractive’? (Of course, you have to watch out for ‘different = inhuman = kill’…)
Before my kids were born I travelled quite a bit in the U.S. and had been to Canada, Mexico and the U.K. Since 1997, though, I’ve only been out of California once (to Scotland).
I was born and raised in Hicksville, OH (actual place). I got the hell out as soon as possible and traveled quite a bit even while I was growing up.
I know several people I went to school with who have never traveled any farther than Ft. Wayne, IN or Defiance, OH, both about 30 miles from Hicksville.