Why don't more Americans travel abroad?

Because America is huge and has a great number of kickass things we can visit cheaply and easily without having to deal with the hassles of international travel. Fun times.

I'm living in Syria right now....amid all the 'horrors of the Middle East.'

Wrong. Syria is wonderful and the people are great...every day (and I mean EVERY DAY) I'm in the marketplace I'm invited into peoples homes for tea. I've been in Jordan and Lebanon recently...two places who have been having protests, and still felt quite safe. I'm not saying everyone is a saint but if Americans would just walk out the front door and hop over the pond they'd have completely different outlooks on almost everything.

Have you actually been abroad? I've been in over 20 countries during three years abroad Americans are all over the damn place, what are you talking about? I run into them in like random cities in Europe, cambodia, and there's places where they hang out en masse.

Weak dollar - traveling abroad too expensive now.

Because I weigh more and hurt her back.

I'm in South 'merica and no one understands what the hell I am saying. English muthafukka, do you speak it? Plus, these people are dirty as hell. No pride in the area they live in, just toss your trash at your feet. The roads are shit and they have no pepper. I was a little pissed about not having hot sauce, but the holder has a spot for salt and the missing pepper. The only thing going for them are the tight butts on these women!

forigners stink even [especially] Canadians

your mom's abroad

A fraction of the 300+ million Americans is still a lot of people- so your noticing a lot of Americans while abroad is entirely consistent with the fact that a minority of Americans ever travel internationally.

I think the article summed up the reasons fairly well; one thing it doesn't touch on is the downstream effects. The fact that so few people have been to Canada allows the Canadian healthcare system to still be held up as some sort of bogeyman. Same with Europe- easy to call them a bunch of socialists if people don't go visit and realize how high the standards of living are.

Uhhh....it costs a lot? I'd love to travel but I don't have that kind of $$

3 months in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, we literally met more New Zealanders than people from the US. Granted, we avoided the high end hotels and such.

I think there are a good number of reasons. Certainly one of them is that if you can drive to your destination for $50 for the family then the $5000 that I just paid last night for some airfares is going to stop many. More importantly for many here a "vacation" is a day or two extra added to a long weekend. However, I think the most important is that people do mostly what others around them do. If all their friends and neighbors do nothing but Outer Banks with the occasional cruise, likely that these folks will follow the same pattern. If you are European, you miss your exit and you are in a new country. Once it is in your head that it is not a big deal to go to places where they speak a different language, etc, you are already a big step closer to the concept of going to more exotic places.

If I could take a train to Paris, then I would.

dd wrote:

Same with Europe- easy to call them a bunch of socialists if people don't go visit and realize how high the standards of living are.

I've been to Europe several times. While I enjoy it immensely, I wouldn't say the standard of living is up with America. Simple things like ice, washer/dryer, and AC are commodities there still, it seems. That's not to mention the cost of living. Ever try ordering a meal at McDonald's in Zurich? $12 (Swiss Franc is basically 1 to 1 with the dollar as well, so it's not a conversion issue). With all this said, if I couldn't live in America, I would definitely choose Western Europe. I'm still glad I live in America though.

Hod much do people from other countries travel? And going from England to France or something like that doesn't count.

1)Expense

2)Time (hard to get off from work)

3)The USA is huge and a long way from anywhere. I live in North Carolina, and it's about 1000 miles to Canada, 1500 to Mexico, 3000 to Europe and 9000 to Asia.

fgfg wrote:

your mom's abroad

I hope she'll be back soon.

Ahem wrote:

Ever try ordering a meal at McDonald's in Zurich? $12

Perhaps a bigger question than why Americans tend not to travel abroad, is why they would go to a McDonalds when they do.

Americans want a Royale with Cheese.

Or Le Big mac.

They are narrow minded apart from when it comes to excuses about not travelling

I think that this and priximity are probably closest to correct. Something like 85% of all Canadians live w/in 100 miles of the border, so driving to the US is much easier. In England, you can hop a flight to the continent for ~40 pounds roundtrip or take the train.

I'd be the first to state that there are plenty of people in the States who don't want to travel, but I think cost/time/proximity would explain most of it.