When we were in Las Vegas last year, a taxi driver who we got talking to, told us that only about twenty per cent of all Americans have passports.
I asked him why he thought that was, and his answer was that most Americans felt that they had everything they needed in their country, so why go somewhere else? Oooookay then.
I’m sure this isn’t true for everyone, but what other reasons are there for people not actually owning a valid passport? Even if they can’t afford to travel.
If what the taxi drive says is true, then surely that makes America a very insular country. (yes, I realise you guys have had this charge levied at you many a time, so bear with me.)
I know at least two Americans who don’t have a passport, and were quite proud of the fact.
Personally, I think it’s weird.
I can’t imagine not experiencing other countries, other cultures, other ways of life.
So, come on fess up, how many of you guys own a valid passport? Also, when was the last time you left your country?
Incidentally, you don’t have to be an American to answer.
Jane
January 18
9:35 pm
I think its the perceived cost. Before I started traveling abroad, it was always something I thought only the rich could do. I didn’t realize that it was just as affordable as going to California or New York.
Travel to other countries does not give anyone real perspective on another culture.
I tend to disagree with this. Whenever you travel, I think you gain a new appreciation for the place you visit. Not necessarily the entirety of the culture, but definitely a recognition that these different places have all their own unique charm and wondrousness as home does. I get that same sense when I visit small towns for business.
As for Karen being “offensive” have you not read the title of her blog? LOL.
Anonymous
January 18
10:00 pm
Well, In Ferfe’s defense, I have to admit I felt I had to pipe up to defend against the feeling I got that Brits think Americans are back water hicks for not traveling more …
Now I feel back water for taking the bait!
Shelly
January 18
10:17 pm
Wow! Quite the discussion going on here. I have to admit I JUST got a passport for the cruise I’m going on this Feb and the reason I didn’t have one before is because I’ve never been able to afford traveling around the country, let alone outside it.
But a good friend told me last year that ALL Americans should have a a way to leave the country if needed. I had never thought about that, but I guess he’s right. I think of a passport as “vacation” he thinks of a passport as a safety option.
FerfeLaBat
January 18
10:47 pm
But a good friend told me last year that ALL Americans should have a a way to leave the country if needed. I had never thought about that, but I guess he’s right. I think of a passport as “vacation” he thinks of a passport as a safety option.
Shelly. My son was born in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. In order for him to play soccer here in Florida, I had to produce his “American” passport and pay a $10 fee to process a foreign player. Puerto Rico is part of the United States. People born there are American citizens. When I argued these facts they said I should take it up with the “Puerto Rican Embassy”. They’d had quite enough of the complaints about hispanic “ringers” dominating the FYSA games. I paid the fee and instructed my blond haired, blue eyed boy to keep the Spanish talking to a minimum during games with the kids in Hialeah (Little Havana, Kendall – where Puerto Ricans go to see OJ’s house, and every other huspanic enclave in Miami) because as Americans they might not understand him.
Without a Passport? He would not have been allowed to play.
Ignorant as hell? Yes. But entertaining.
Karen Scott
January 18
11:33 pm
Normally, I would ignore a subject like this because it’s just baiting Americans specifically to PUT them on the defensive.
Ferfe, you should know by now, this blog isn’t for the faint of heart, or for the oversensitive types, there are plenty of other places to go for non-offensive content. This blog isn’t one of them. End of.
FerfeLaBat
January 18
11:56 pm
Ferfe, you should know by now, this blog isn’t for the faint of heart, or for the oversensitive types, there are plenty of other places to go for non-offensive content. This blog isn’t one of them. End of.
Hey. YOU asked. I could have lied and kissed your ass but that would bore the hell out of us both.
On another subject does BB have live feeds there? If so how do I get them. (I have a small addiction problem with that retarded show.)
Eva Gale
January 19
4:44 am
“Nothing is sweeter than one’s native land.”-Homer.
Homer is kind old so I guess that feeling has been around for a long long time. 😛
Jane, percieved cost? 5k is not chump change to me. When this thread started I hopped onto Expedia and checked out what a spring trip to Hawaii (the big island) round trip tickets and hotel stay would be for a family of 4. 5k, not including food and a car. I have 7 kids for a total of 9 people in my family. I do not have 15k lying around to go on holiday to Hawaii.
When I do go on vacation, I rent an 8 million dollar house on the Jersey shore (on the water) in the off season for 2k a week (regularly 8K for a WEEK) and we go grocery shopping. I spend 3-4k all in all and you know what? I am grateful that I can do that. I am damned thankful that I can affford to take that holiday with the kids, becuse most people I know can’t. They’re putting their kids dentist bills on a credit card-if they can even afford that. And they’re paying 10k a year in state taxes.
Dang, I all het up.
Dee
January 19
6:22 am
LOL, yes, there’s not a big misperception on cost. Flying from CA to NY is too rich for my blood. Even the cheapest flights is more than my monthly budget can handle. And that’s one way. Taking hubby and kid(s)?
I’ll call you when I stop laughing. 🙂
Dee
Anonymous
January 19
5:23 pm
The reason people in North America don’t travel as much is that it’s too damned expensive – and it’s not perceived, it’s absolutely real. If it cost L2,000 *just for the airfare* for you and your partner to go to Spain, would you go?
Anonymous
January 19
5:29 pm
Also, I think many Europeans are ultra-spoiled with respect to the cost of leisure activities. Everything from gym membership to vacations to movies to museums to sports events costs significantly more here, sometimes up to four times more than it does in most European countries. Yes, food is cheaper in the US (but not Canada!) than in the UK, but a gym membership can cost five times as much.
Anonymous
January 20
12:30 am
Foreign travel is expensive and I think most Americans prefer a bigger house or a higher standard of living than having thousands and thousands of extra income left to spend on a vacation.
Also the US conservative mindset really doesn’t lend itself to appreciation of other cultures, peoples and Lawd forbid, races. Why drop thousands to see some for-een-neers when they can stick here and visit with folks exactly like themselves?
Dee
January 20
1:18 am
Yes, food is cheaper in the US (but not Canada!) than in the UK, but a gym membership can cost five times as much.
Well, that explains why we’re fatter than everyone else, lol.
I’d leave the US conservative mindset out of this, though, lol. We’re not nearly as conservative as people like to make us out to be and it has little to do with travel. We have waaaaay too many foreigners here to expect never to meet any. (Trust me, Canada hardly has the market on that.)
Anonymous
January 20
4:58 am
Well you’re really going to think I’m a freak because I haven’t left the US since I was in 5th grade when we went to Germany to visit my great grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc. The reason I don’t have a passport is I don’t have a need for it. Why you might ask? Because I don’t have the cash flow to take out of country trips… hell, I don’t have the cash flow to take in-country trips. LOL I don’t think it’s freakish, it’s just why spend the money when you KNOW you’re not going to use it? Kinda a waste to me.
Anonymous
January 20
5:00 am
Well you’re really going to think I’m a freak because I haven’t left the US since I was in 5th grade when we went to Germany to visit my great grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc. The reason I don’t have a passport is I don’t have a need for it. Why you might ask? Because I don’t have the cash flow to take out of country trips… hell, I don’t have the cash flow to take in-country trips. LOL I don’t think it’s freakish, it’s just why spend the money when you KNOW you’re not going to use it? Kinda a waste to me.
Anonymous
January 20
5:02 am
Well you’re really going to think I’m a freak because I haven’t left the US since I was in 5th grade when we went to Germany to visit my great grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc. The reason I don’t have a passport is I don’t have a need for it. Why you might ask? Because I don’t have the cash flow to take out of country trips… hell, I don’t have the cash flow to take in-country trips. LOL I don’t think it’s freakish, it’s just why spend the money when you KNOW you’re not going to use it? Kinda a waste to me.
Anonymous
January 20
5:04 am
Well you’re really going to think I’m a freak because I haven’t left the US since I was in 5th grade when we went to Germany to visit my great grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc. The reason I don’t have a passport is I don’t have a need for it. Why you might ask? Because I don’t have the cash flow to take out of country trips… hell, I don’t have the cash flow to take in-country trips. LOL I don’t think it’s freakish, it’s just why spend the money when you KNOW you’re not going to use it? Kinda a waste to me.
Sandra Schwab
January 20
6:31 am
I’d leave the US conservative mindset out of this, though, lol. We’re not nearly as conservative as people like to make us out to be
And you’re probably not all clones, either. *g*
Indeed, I can safely say I’ve been never met with anything but friendliness when travelling to the US — which is not always the case when you’re German and travel to Switzerland or Luxemburg (or at least it wasn’t 10 or 20 years ago).
And as to wanting to visit folks exactly like oneself — well, that might explain why parts of Mallorca look like little Germany…
Anonymous
January 20
11:59 am
Dammit, dammit, dammit, you all made me go watch Jade and Shilpa and now I won’t get any sleep at all cos I’ll be up all night downloading clips from YouTube.
Dammit!
Karen Scott
January 20
1:53 pm
It’s addictive isn’t it Kat. (g)
Jane
January 20
4:06 pm
It’s all in the timing. My BFF and I went to Italy in March a couple of years ago and our airfare was $375 round trip. A very good friend of mine and his wife go somewhere every Thanksgiving because the holiday fares to non traditional European destinations like Amsterdam are also inexpensive. Hawaii is almost always expensive because it is a regular tourist destination.
There are times and places to travel to Europe for the same cost as an in state vacation. I’m going to Miami in a few weeks and the tickets were $400+, more than my trip to Italy. I get airline emails and there are often “all inclusive” specials for $250 or so a night including hotel and airfare from major cities.
It is true that with a large family it is hard to afford the cost of travel but that is true anywhere that you would have to fly. It was a lot easier when I could pick up and go by myself or with the DH.
Monica
January 20
4:39 pm
I was fascinated with Celebrity Big Brother.
I frankly don’t see Americans getting as upset if Shilpa were black and Shilpa would have been pilloried for ever muttering the R-word, even once, short of being called the N-word and even then unless it was absolutely unmistakeable.
The casual racism wouldn’t even been recognized as such, but passed off as normal or projected as the black’s fault. I’ve seen it over and over on our reality TV shows.
The fact that Britain was all up in arms speaks volumes for its overall tolerance, methinks.
Monica
January 20
4:45 pm
Conservatives aren’t all the same, but their politics tend to be, and open to other types–not so much.
They can’t avoid non-European-Nordic foreigners, true, but it’s generally not for lack of desire.
They’re building ridiculous fences along the Mexican border, ostensibly because of terrorists, but in Canada where the terrorists are actually getting through, no worries.
‘Cause Canadians are mainly white and that’s why they don’t need a fence, the terrorists be damned.
Karen Scott
January 20
5:02 pm
Monica, Jade got booted out last night, which was obviously no surprise. The good thing about this country is that the majority of people who live here are intolerant of such blatant bullying, whether it be racist or otherwise.
There were over 40,000 official complaints made about the treatment that Shilpa was subjected to.
Jane, holidays are always more expensive if you have children, , but what about people who chose not to travel anywhere before the kids came along?
Whilst me and TTG, are childless, it’s important to us to travel to far off places, because we do know it’ll be more difficult to do so, once children come along. I guess it does depend on how important travel is to the individual.
As for the cost, you can get cheap air fares, it just depends on when you’re flying. We’re lucky over here because we have the budget airlines, where you can fly to various parts of Europe for as little as £30 ($54) depending on availability, and time of travel.
Like somebody mentioned earlier, a lot of Australians love to travel, and place huge importance on seeing the rest of the world, and I can’t believe that it’s any cheaper for them.
raspberry swyrl
January 20
10:25 pm
I live in the centre of Canada and I have been out east and out west. I’ve been down to the states several times and been to Europe twice, the second time I lived in the UK for about a year and a half. Canadians face the same airfare prices, in fact more when you take into account that our dollar is worth less then the American dollar and yet the percentage of Canadians with a passport is more.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/12/AR2007011201926.html?nav=rss_world
Overseas I met far more Canadian/Ozzie/Kiwi/Saffie travellers then I ever met any Americans. I met some people who had not been back to New Zealand or Australia in a couple of years because they had just kept on travelling. Several of my British workmates had done round the world trips, another randomly decided to go to Australia one day and left two weeks later and I can definitly tell you none of us were earning a lot of money. (except the IT people…)
I’m currently back home and job hunting because I definitly want to go travelling again. Currently tempted to do the JETT programme and live in Japan for a year teaching English.
I suppose in the end it is about priorities but even I got my mom to visit me when I was in London and she had not been outside North America since she was a teenager when she had been to Holland a couple of times. Even my dads parents who grew up farming in the middle of the prairies have been to Europe twice.
I suppose I love travelling so much and want to see so much more it is hard to imagine not wanting to see what the world has to offer.
Karen Scott
January 20
11:07 pm
RS, I guess I expect the majority of people to feel like you about travelling, but I guess it is a question of priority.
Of course cost is an issue, but not everybody who travels a lot is loaded, the difference is mainly the desire or lack thereof to see different places.
FerfeLaBat
January 21
1:26 am
I’m going to Miami in a few weeks ~ Jane
Ha! A heads up. God to be forwarned. ::planning evasion strategies:: Not … Fun in the Sun with FRW by chance?
raspberry swyrl
January 21
3:12 am
Karen you are right it does come down to a desire to go or not to go, to make the sacrifices to save or not to save.
FerfeLaBat
January 21
1:14 pm
The simplest adjustments you can do to bring travel within reach that I’ve found don;t require a change in income and only a slight change in savings.
What are your monthly expenses? Calculate how much you spend on everything.
Now.
Get a Visa or master card for your prefered airline with a limit equal to or slightly above that amount.
Pay all bills and expenses on that card and pay it off every month with the money you would have spent out of the checkng account.
At the end of one year you should have enough frequent flyer miles for a family of four to go to Europe or Hawaii.
One woman I know used coupons and bargan shopped keeping track of every dime she saved. At the end of each week she put the total saved in a special savings account. By the end of one year she had saved several thousand dollars. She used that for the yearly vacation.
Anonymous
January 21
6:16 pm
I do not own a passport. I have no desire to get one. I live in Mississippi and have traveled throughout the south east, USA. My husband and I budget for vacations each year and could afford an overseas vacation; we just do not have the desire to go. I think one reason is the language barrier. It is very frustrating not knowing what is being said to you, or not being able to make yourself understood. I would have nightmares if I went to another country not knowing the language and offended someone. I guess it is the case of stepping out of my comfort zone.
Carol
Dawn
January 22
12:44 pm
There are many English speaking countries to travel to, and I would say that in most of the non-English-speaking tourist destinations, the hotel staff will speak English. You can get a phrase book and just get out there. A lot of times, the locals will welcome you trying to speak their language, so long as you make the effort. And most of these places welcome the tourists (except for France – just ducking to avoid the flack!) For me the whole point of travelling is to experience other countries. Be brave!
Dawn
January 22
12:47 pm
I also meant to say regarding making the effort to speak the language. If I lived in Spain/Germany or wherever English is not the 1st language I’d be much more offended if someone, spoke loudly and slowly to me in English as if I were stupid. I’d prefer them to make a mistake in my language. If nothing else, I’d get a bloody good laugh!
Karen Scott
January 22
6:04 pm
I totally agree with you Dawn! It shames me that we English expect others to spwak our language when we make no effort to learn theirs. I took a Spanish course for beginners a couple of years ago in order to be able to converse with some of the hotels I have to speak to in Spain, and other Spanish speaking countries.
Anonymous
January 23
3:19 am
Dawn, funnily enough when we visited Paris, very few people would let us butcher their language. *lol* My husband did notice, however, that when North American tourists tried to start a conversation in English, they usually faced a barrage of French. Maybe North Americans get a raw deal in France.
Karen, my husband doesn’t eat pork and was so proud to be able to ask Spanish waiters about the menu…until I looked up what he was saying and found out he’d been asking, “Does this have pig?” *lol* Oh, and he once asked for a vegetarian schnitzel in Berlin and our waitress laughed and thought he was joking.