It is often pointed out that the majority of US citizens don’t have passports and part of that is due to the sheer size of the USA (which is true), comparing it to Europeans where 3-4 different countries in a year is not unusual – however the majority of these countries are within Europe (not that some don’t do long haul flights as well)
So my question is how often do most of you go on an out of state trip (trip being defined as a 2 or more night stay) – I’m wondering if the lack of vacation time you all get is also a factor
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Couple of times a year maybe?
We are headed to South Carolina this coming Friday night, so that’s about a 13 or so hour drive from home.
I get 8 weeks of vacation each year where I work.
This year I visited 8 countries (Western Europe/Scandinavia/Aruba) on 3 separate vacations and have several out of state trips scheduled.
I know I am not the norm but there are quite a few of us who have similar vacation availability.
Pretty frequently. There is a lot of variety of vacation types to take in different states. Big city, historical sites, mountains, beaches, lakes. Whatever you desire.
I probably go at least twice a year. Many of us have relatives in different states. Vacations, weddings or family events, some people have work travel, etc….When I lived in mid atlantic region, it was more frequently. It’s easy to cross state lines there.
Some people make it a goal to visit all 50 states. One or two of my aunts have been to all 50, and another has 5 states left.
State lines are irrelevant. You can drive 6 hours without leaving the state or drive 5 minutes and cross a border. Not sure why you need to leave your state to take a vacation.
Edit: I can drive to like 5 other states in a quicker time than it would take me to get to Pittsburgh.
Everyday when I go to work.
While others are answering your question, I just want to say the fact that a lot of Americans don’t have a passport is overblown. 37% of EU citizens have never left their home country, compared to 40% of Americans, so really not that big of a difference.
not even just “trips,” it’s not unusual for people to commute over the Wisconsin/Illinois state line to work every day. or I have a colleague who lives in Duluth but works in Superior (the Wisconsin/Minnesota state line)
I imagine that’s the case in a lot of the country.
I cross state borders basically weekly, in fact I used to cross two just to go to work.
But that is a New England thing mostly, states are small around here.
As for going to spending 2 or more nights out of state? My family has a place in New Hampshire in the Mountains, and I’m there most weekends during the winter to ski, but I don’t know if I would even consider that a trip because I’m there so often.
It depends a lot on the state. Some states are small and have large cities near the state line. California, where I’m from, is large and the biggest cities are far from the state lines.
I probably go out of state three or four times a year, although I travel within California a lot more than that. It’s not because of any aversion to leaving the state. It’s just that most destinations out of state are pretty far away and so require more travel.
I probably travel to other countries every one to two years. I’m a teacher so the concept of “vacation time” doesn’t really apply: I just don’t have scheduled work days for most of summer and so I can travel.
Even this question will be “it depends.” My state is 220,000 square km in area (the size of Romania). Texas is the size of France and Portugal put together.
So for some people, living in the center of a relatively large state, you might not go out of state very often. Vacations might be to the large city or parks or other natural settings in your state. Many Americans even own “lake homes”– second residences on a lake or in the mountains used for vacations–in their home state, so they travel there for most of their vacations. There are also many poor urban Americans who don’t have money or transportation to get out of their city, much less their state.
On the other hand, there are tons of small states. There is literally a lake in my state that is larger than some other US states. So those folks will travel state to state more often. And there are lots of people who live in border areas of states and cross for all sorts of reasons. And there are many Americans who will head to other states for vacation, or to see family who live elsewhere. Not to mention work travel.
Personally, two weeks ago I left the state for a work trip. I’m leaving next week for a school reunion, and my family is going for a long weekend (“fall break” from school) the week after that. Two months ago, my wife left the state to see her mom (I didn’t go…) Last month, we left the state twice for weekend trips (one camping trip, and one to go to a beer festival at a casino in a neighboring state). So I’d say we leave the state for an extended period (1 or two overnights) at least once a month. Our family is abnormal though–we have a good amount of expendable income and pretty flexible schedules for travel, and we do our share of international travel top.
I live about an hour away from the closest state so pretty frequently
Kentucky is 2 miles away to the south across the Ohio River and Ohio is 2 miles east so all the time for those two. I just got back last week from a 1000 mile round trip to Iowa which we make 5 or 6 times a year to my daughter’s house. We cross Indiana, Illinois, and a small part of Iowa to get there. The biggest trip we have made was 6000 miles round trip from Indiana to California and back in 2016 and 2017. We were kinda busy taking care of my mom until she passed in 2020 and I’m still trying to close out some of her estate stuff(mainly some stock/insurance oddities). Next summer will be a different story, I hope
Depends on where you live. When I lived in Florida, down in the Tampa area, I’d leave the state *maybe* once a year. Because just to get out of Florida and into Georgia was 6+ hours, if I wanted to go to Alabama or Louisiana, it’d be worse. And that’s just to get out of the state. I usually went up to Atlanta when I went out of state, which is roughly another 4-5 hours on top of getting out of the state.
Then I moved to northern Kentucky, and I can constantly be out of state, going into Ohio or Indiana for stuff in far less time.
>I’m wondering if the lack of vacation time you all get is also a factor
No, this is so overblown and misunderstood by Europeans it’s comical.
Some jobs *start out* at two weeks vacation (many start out at more) and you gain additional days/weeks the longer you stay at the company. We also don’t count national holidays as “vacation time” like many Europeans do. Typically the jobs with lower vacation allotment are the entry level low paying non-career type of jobs, like grocery cashier. So it’s not like adults who have been at a company for five years still only have two weeks vacation time.
My entire family is out of state so…about a month a year for family obligations.
Time and money. When I was in my late teens, early 20s I went to Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire from Florida. We flew to visit family. Then I went with friends across the western states to California seeing the Painted Desert, Grand Canyon and several other parks. As a young child of 11 traveled route 66 with a family friend, much later i realized the significance of Route 66. But now, my funds are spent taking care of my home and pets, no time or extra cash for travel. If I lived in Europe I bet I would have jumped on a train to see the wonderful architecture and museums of the many countries so very close together.
It’s probably once or twice a year if you’re not in a particularly small state or live near a state line.
I just did a quick google and it seems 56% of us adults have a valid passport
Several times a year.
I suppose if someone lived in a country the size of New Jersey (Wales), you’d have to leave at some point. That would require a passport. I mean, New Jersey is our 4th smallest state (and Wales is smaller than New Jersey).
I decided to compare Passport ownership to counties of a similar SIZE (not population).
For larger countries, the US and Australia have a similar rate of passport ownership. Canada has a slighy higher rate. Russia, China, and Brazil have much lower rates.
So… I suppose the US is above average in passport ownership for large countries. If you just want to take straight numbers, the US is above average in passport ownership.
I have one. But im also closer to another country than I am to another state.
I’m kinda tired of the “Americans don’t travel” crap.
I’m the summer, I take an out of state trip almost every weekend. I also live less than 20 minutes from two other states and frequently visit one of to shop, so it’s not a big deal in my area.
I am like 2 miles from another state. I grew up 20 minutes from one state line and about an hour from another. People living in this area cross state lines often, some even cross daily for work. It’s not a big deal.
I don’t go on a lot of out-of-state vacations mainly because I can’t afford to. Plenty of people go on trips to other parts of the US.
It really depends on how large your state is. Someone in Texas isn’t going to be leaving the state often unless they’re near the state border.
For me, I do all the time. I live in New England so there are a few states that I can get to with only an hour or two of driving. I can’t count how often I’ve done it. There is literally no friction to crossing state boundaries.
Road trips are a very American thing to do when on vacation anyways. So we have a culture of interstate travel.
On average, more Americans than Europeans have passports. That’s like 40% to 37%.
So… Americans actually have more passports, and we travel the US the same way ya’ll do the EU.
Frequently, commonly, often. Growing up, we always went to Ocean City MD at least once a year and sometimes twice (otherwise North Carolina.). Commonly went to Great Adventure amusement park in New Jersey. Commonly went to Inner Harbor of Baltimore MD. We went to Ohio, New York and Maryland visiting relatives. We did trips to New York City, Whallops Island Virginia, a bunch of trips for regional areas (Boston, Walden’s Pond, Concord, etc…), Florida/ Disney, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, etc…
It’s -nothing- to hop in a car and drive 6 hours. I don’t think as many people in Amsterdam say “heck, let’s run to Brussels for dinner tonight, or drive all the way to Paris for the weekend.”
I think one big cultural difference between the US & western Europe is that when given the same time off, Americans generally split their time into far smaller chunks (we’ll take 2 days off here, 3 days off there, etc. rather than, say, taking all of August off). This leads to taking many small vacations, often within one’s state, and fewer big adventures. For example, people in NC frequently take extended weekends to the great smoky mountains or the outer banks, but will leave the state much more rarely.