As an American living in the UK, this was one of the biggest cultural misunderstandings I discovered after moving here.
A lot of people assume Americans don’t travel because they’re uninterested, but when you start looking at vacation time, passport costs, flight prices, distance, and work culture… the picture changes.

I’m genuinely curious, what surprised you most in this comparison? And for my fellow Americans watching, how easy (or difficult) has international travel felt for you?

Let’s keep this one thoughtful. It’s a fascinating difference in systems, not people. 🇬🇧🇺🇸
#AmericanReacts #UKvsUS #TravelDifferences #CulturalDifferences #WhyAmericansDontTravel

0.30 seconds in and Misti says "maths". 😊

Ladies and gentlemen, she's one of us now.

Many of the entitlements that the British workers have today ( paid holidays, sick pay, etc ) hasn't always been the case. The entitlements including workers rights in the workplace have been fought for by the workers down the years and the decades by standing up and fighting together as part of a Workers Union. There's an old saying - United We Stand Divided We Fall, and it's a true saying.
For a bit of a light fun listen on YouTube search for the old song titled - You Don't Get Me. Sung by The Strawbs 😊.   🇬🇧

It''s very sad, I travelled all over the world with my 4 kids. Not just Europe, I took them to the Maldives, Mauritius, the USA, Australia, Mexico, The Dominican Republic and many countries in Europe. We used to go on holiday twice per yr, once at Easter and then in the Summer. I truly believe that  the US Gov doesn't don't want Americans to travel to Europe as their eyes would be opened. Imagine if all Americans got to spend a month in Europe every yr, they would soon see that the rest of the world operates very differently!

Costs (in dollars for UK passports)

Adult passport (online): ~$114
Adult passport (post): ~$129
Child passport (online): ~$74
Child passport (post): ~$89
Fast-track (adult): ~$228 ADDITIONAL FEE (so a total of $342 per adult to fast track the passport)

You say that you can experience different climates within the boundaries of America. We in the UK can beat that easily! Winter in the morning, Spring at lunchtime, Summer in the afternoon, Autumn at evening time. Without even moving.

Makes a lot of sense when u set it out like that, not exactly the land of the free though , but there is incredible variety of landscapes and climates in the USA so that helps them

I'm from Brazil and we got the same problem as well. It's completely unaffordable for someone to travel from São Paulo to Bahia for example. Most people travel by bus when they need to go to another state. After I moved to the UK I've been in 6 different countries, it's a very different reality

Years ago I was a business travel manager. I got to go to lots of places with free flights and fifty percent off accommodation. The time off wasn't deducted from my holiday allowance. I went around Australia, New England, Canada, Arizona (three times as I loved it), South Africa, Paraguay and all over Europe. As an old man I don't have a bucket list!

Domestic fights in the US are exorbitant because the airlines are a Cartel, they don’t compete with each other.  They’ve divided up the market so that each airline has monopolies on certain routes.

12000 miles several times. NZ to Europe and the flights  were expensive. Unfortunately many Americans I met were exactly the ones you don't want to meet. (we were all in our 20s so that tells you something) The American girl who called the Cologne cathedral cute and dinky needed a good slap!

I agree with what you have said in your clip. I had English friends who lived in Seattle so I knew about the amount of annual leave.
I’ve been a public servant for all of my working life, and get up to 13 weeks a year paid leave.
If I’m sick need compassionate leave or need to visit the doctor, that’s additional paid leave.
I’m a One World Emerald member so I have flown several times in Europe with BA in business class for £1 return.
I’ve flown a couple of times to Cape Town in First using points for under £600 with only a one to two hour time difference.
The best deal though was one way on Concorde from New York to London for £600.
I’m lucky to have travelled to all six continents multiple times and have never been ripped off.
I find the US very expensive these days and I’ve been visiting  nearly every year for 34 years.
It’s a shame that US citizens work their bloody socks off, and can’t experience the wider world.

In the UK, if you want a beach you can go to Devon, mountains you can get in Wales, skiing stuff is in Scotland and if you want a desert*, just go to Clacton.

* cultural desert. Also deserted by its MP.

Honestly and wonderfully expressed! If I were not fortunate enought to travel internationally for my work, I would likely seldom get the chance at all.

I started traveling in Europe in 1974. I could not afford a flight. I went by ferry straight across the channel, and hitched across Europe. No such thing as cheap flights until the last 10 years. It used to be cheaper to drive which I first did in 1997. To cross the channel it averaged £300 to drive. It’s only since Easy jet and Ryan air that flight  tickets have come down,The only Americans I met abroad were the men that avoided the call up for Vietnam.

When I worked in the US, number of hours worked was regarded as a yardstick of productivity. Might be true on a production line perhaps, but not in a creative role.

Psssport costs and inconvenience roughly equivalent to the UK

During the first Gulf War I was working in London on a project with an American company. They refused to come to London, because they were afraid that we were within range of Iraqi missiles! Duh!

Europeans can be a bit haughty about such things to Americans. But travelling was not always a thing on this side of the pond. Europeans who find travelling these days  normal were kind of born into this mindset because of the possibility. That was not always the case in the past.   I'm a GenX and our grandparents hardly ever left their country. There just wasn't any money for that. Now I'm from Belgium and sure there was the obligatory school trip to Germany or France just over the border and back. But only in the seventies did some Western Europeans begin to have the economic means to travel abroad. This was the first time that people began to go on holiday in Spain, Italy or Greece. And this was kind of viewed as a luxury. The sun tan you came back with was a status symbol which meant that you had the economic means to go on holiday in southern Europe. Other exotic places in the world were still off the chart. Both my parents worked in finances and a fortnight holiday on the Belgian coast for a family of four was about all they could afford in the eighties. Only in the early nineties did I travel for the very first time to Spain, Portugal, Greece and the UK. And as a teenager in those days you always travelled together with your parents. It was only in the early 2000's that I began to notice that very young people began to have the economic means to travel alone to far away to exotic places. Suddenly it wasn't uncommon for teenagers to say that they just came back from a trip to Brazil, Japan or the United States. Something that sure wasn't evident for my generation.

Furthest travel for me as an adult, London to Southern Egypt.