lululucy Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 Hmm, it seems like you can travel cheap cause you make a lot of connections through the Internet. When I lived in Japan, my fellow JETs had something similar, a travel network of people on whose floor they could crash.... But I've always been way too nervous to do it in the US. Traveling alone, to an unknown city, and connecting with essentially strangers over the Internet makes me a little.... nervous. Some of my best experiences in the UK were when I was CouchSurfing. By checking through people's reviews and using your intuition you can avoid creeps. I had amazing experiences (stayed with both men and women) and saw cities in a way that I could never have as a plain old tourist.
carhill Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 (edited) Here, let's see if you're up for a challenge. I have about $400 of savings available. I would like to visit my friend out in New Haven, CT, but I can't stay with them (apartment too small.) How can I swing it? Sign up for an airline credit card, get 40-50K miles and the first year fee waived and book an award flight. Cancel the card right before the first annual fee hits. Same with the hotel of your choice. I did this for my best friend's wife and she had a free trip arranged within six weeks of my advice. I also sponsored her to elite status so she could sit more comfortably on the airplane and carry more luggage for free. She buys treats for my cat. As an example, I have a close friend whom I help manage miles and points for her and her husband's travels. AFAIK, she's never paid an airfare for any travel on AA (American Airlines) and is a lifetime elite and they always travel in first class. Her current mileage balance (with that one airline) is just over .55MM. How does she do it? She owns a print ad agency and pays for most of her space bookings with her airline credit card and has been doing so for the last decade or so. Guess where I crashed for Thanksgiving and New Years? Yup. I won't get into the arcane aspects here, or how to game travel systems, but you'd be surprised by what is *possible*. IMO, you'll have to become comfortable with traveling alone. Information is your friend. Experience is your guide. Knowledge is your power. Get started today ETA, for the OP, noting where she lives, that our Aussie friends have universally explained that Aussies in general tend to be more well traveled than 'Yanks' (their term) and we've hosted a few when I was married. To me, Oz is just one night's sleep away. Edited January 5, 2012 by carhill
FitChick Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 If someone is retired, I figure they want to travel more often than if they were working. I work for a living so even if they treated me to a trip I still wouldn't be able to take a lot of time off from work. Most people who say they like travel just don't want to go to Disneyland every year.
FitChick Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 ETA, for the OP, noting where she lives, that our Aussie friends have universally explained that Aussies in general tend to be more well traveled than 'Yanks' That is because their country is so far way from everything so if they are going to spend a lot of money on airfare they want to get as much value for money as possible by seeing a lot of places for a long period of time. Conversely, Brits are well traveled because it's just a short hop to the Continent where they can see every European country in a short period of time. Americans travel less because we have lots to see and do in a vast country. Not as much to see and do in sparsely settled Australia.
grkBoy Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 Frankly, I think now many use "travel" as a buzz word in dating profiles to appear as if they're "interesting" or "have a life". It came out of a few who put how they like someone who travels and does things, so everyone (men and women) will put "travel" in the hobbies/interest list based on any tiny thing. Someone only goes to Miami and Vegas every year, they believe they travel a lot. Someone takes one cruise in their life and they put "travel". I think there are SOME people who do travel and explore a lot. The rest IMHO simply are playing a smoke and mirrors act in an attempt to appear as if they have a life, when they don't. It's boring people pretending to be interesting, rather than actually trying to be interesting.
carhill Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 Americans travel less because we have lots to see and do in a vast country. Not as much to see and do in sparsely settled Australia. Any Aussies want to respond to that? Tall poppy alert. I can say that, in total, I've spent about six months there and have only begun to scratch the surface. Perhaps my idea of 'see and do' is somewhat different. It is true that Australia has the lowest population density of any country in the world but that suits me just fine. Lots of space with people mostly concentrated in coastal cities. Perfect
zengirl Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 I love traveling, but what I'm always surprised about is how so many people can afford it. I get a pretty lenient time-off schedule (12 hours a month), and my wage is pretty middle class, but traveling takes so much time and money.... It boggles my mind how people my age can just jet set off to Las Vegas or Boston for the weekend. Between hotels, plane tickets, and possibly having to take a unpaid vacation day, how do people in their mid-twenties manage to HAVE all of these travel adventures?? When I was in advertising, I had plenty of money but no time to travel. Then I went into education. What you REALLY need to travel is time, not money. It's easy to work out affordable options, but most folks can't manage the time to do things on the cheap, it seems. At least most Americans. In many countries, where a month's vacation a year is totally average and normal, you'll find people who travel much more. I have traveled a lot because I worked for my supper. I actually traveled (I had two long-term stints, one in Korea and one in Japan, but went from a series of holidays and short-term teaching/living abroad stints for about 5 months once where I visited over a dozen countries, making money in some by teaching and earning money that would pay my way there and a little more for the holiday stints; I came out about $150 ahead after the 5 months, even with the holidays in there) for a couple years before landing back in the States. Now, I take more expensive trips. I live on the cheap (was with roommates till I moved in with my hubby; in this case, we live in a small apartment, on the cheap, and generally don't buy much stuff). I save 50% of my salary after expenses, general fun around town, and IRA, and some of that goes to travel. I was a teacher last year, and now I make a little more than I did as a teacher, and I get the same amount of vacation time. I'm a PhD student right now, though, so it's limiting my travel. We're still going on 2 longish trips this year. The hubby gets 6 weeks off work because he works for an awesome mid-size company and because it's his compensation for working 60-80 hour weeks during their crazy periods. Luckily, our slow periods fall at the same times in many cases and we can take the time together. Granted, I'm lucky and very much upper-middle class, but I think whatever you make a priority in life is what you'll do. A lot of Americans make "stuff" a priority. I do buy clothes occasionally, but I shop the deals. And mostly I just don't buy stuff, except what I need. I'd rather save my money for travel. But I've also Couchsurfed and the like -- lots of good suggestions upthread for traveling on the cheap. Hostels are often quite fun, actually, as is couchsurfing and making friends abroad and so forth. One of the best weeks of my life was spent at a hostel in Turkey. I gave English lessons an hour each day anyone the hostel could get to sign up (they charged a small amount), and they let me stay for free. It's important to find out the underlying reason why the person has a need to travel so much. What's their motivation? What do they get out of it? It's fun! Why does anyone do anything? Because they find it amusing, engaging, energizing, interesting, whatever. . . Hmm, it seems like you can travel cheap cause you make a lot of connections through the Internet. When I lived in Japan, my fellow JETs had something similar, a travel network of people on whose floor they could crash.... But I've always been way too nervous to do it in the US. Traveling alone, to an unknown city, and connecting with essentially strangers over the Internet makes me a little.... nervous. I agree that it's more unsettling in the U.S. than somewhere like Japan. I've only Couchsurfed in the U.S. when I was going with a friend. A lot of folks will take couples, so I've done that with a fella, but never alone. I've done it alone in other countries, but the U.S. is a bit scarier. I know quite a few people who did JET! Cool program.
bean1 Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 Australia is such a big homogeneous (in terms of language, etc) isolated country. I have traveled with Australians before, when they travel, they go "big" because of the cost and time required to even leave their continent. They are a fun group but I found the younger crowd to be very snide/mean to the Americans in the tour group... they would say it behind their backs. I am Canadian so I guess they thought it wouldn't bother me It did, and I told them they were dicks.
dasein Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 Frankly, I think now many use "travel" as a buzz word in dating profiles to appear as if they're "interesting" or "have a life". Men have figured out that including travel as a hobby on their profile ups their response rate, whether they actually travel or not. It's a way to send an "I'm wealthy" message to gold digging females without being crass by using pics of houses and cars. I'm sure many actually travel, many more don't, but have figured out it's efficient code to use.
jerbear Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 IIt boggles my mind how people my age can just jet set off to Las Vegas or Boston for the weekend. Between hotels, plane tickets, and possibly having to take a unpaid vacation day, how do people in their mid-twenties manage to HAVE all of these travel adventures?? I've done the Thanksgiving in one country, Christmas in another and New Years in another; all in the same year. Some people in their mid-twenties have vacation days. Boston and Las Vegas; two of my favorite cities! Well as Carhilll mentioned similar, I have friends and family in those cities so it is easy to crash at their place.
lululucy Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 They are a fun group but I found the younger crowd to be very snide/mean to the Americans in the tour group... they would say it behind their backs. I am Canadian so I guess they thought it wouldn't bother me It did, and I told them they were dicks. Definitely found that too, us Canadians get a free pass on much of that drama. Have to say though, I'm not a huge fan of traveling with Americans either so the Aussies and I bonded over that. It was probably just the Americans in our group specifically (a coach tour of Ireland) but they were grating at best. That is because their country is so far way from everything so if they are going to spend a lot of money on airfare they want to get as much value for money as possible by seeing a lot of places for a long period of time. Conversely, Brits are well traveled because it's just a short hop to the Continent where they can see every European country in a short period of time. Americans travel less because we have lots to see and do in a vast country. Not as much to see and do in sparsely settled Australia. It's this kind of attitude that puts people off of Americans world-wide. Aussies (and Kiwis by extension) aren't just more likely to travel because they might as well get more bang for their buck -- it's ingrained in every Aussie I know. It's just an expected right of passage. It's pricey for me to get off the continent too and I have no desire to travel around the States besides the couple places I've gone. It just doesn't interest me.
verhrzn Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 Is it also possible that other nationalities (Aussies, the British) can travel "big" because they don't have loans hanging over their heads? From what I understand, the secondary education system isn't nearly as throat-cut as it is in the US. (Example: I went to an average-rated, smallish state college, and my tuition was $6,000 a year. Add in room and boarding for two years at $1500 a semester, and the fact that my parents are marked as being 'well off-enough' income wise, and I get no financial aid besides loans.) Loans from my college education are probably the biggest sap of my income, and I've got another ten years to go on them. A lot of the people I know who can travel are people who had their college paid for by their parents, or who have their vacations paid for by their parents. My parents are middle class/lower middle class (police office and a nurse who entered the work force at an older age), and while they travel a lot, they travel exclusively within the US. They hook up their trailer and go camping in the national parks out of West. Any time they've been able to afford a vacation, it's been somewhere relatively near by (Mexico and Hawaii) and it's been a BIG deal. Like, "trip of a life time" sort of thing. It also means that the Americans who can afford to travel very abroad are either going to be pampered brats whose parents pay for everything, or Americans who are so out of their minds with delight at their "trip of a lifetime" they'll come off as grating and obnoxious. My mother is a very nice, polite person, but if she ever pulls off that dream trip to Ireland, I bet she'd drive regular travelers up the wall. It's a shame, really, that the US doesn't seem to get a lot of foreign tourists outside of big cities, so they could meet what the average American tourist is actually like.
bean1 Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 We (meaning western travelers not from the US) generally have better employment conditions in terms of vacation time, pay, leave, etc. For example, 1 year maternity or more in most places, the rest of the western world sees America's 6 week-ish maternity leave as an abomination. Americans actually have more money in some areas (groceries) but less in other areas (health care). I suppose over time, those differences can help "us" travel more. That, and we are often exposed to other languages more (ie. bilingual) which can open doors travel-wise.
lululucy Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 Is it also possible that other nationalities (Aussies, the British) can travel "big" because they don't have loans hanging over their heads? From what I understand, the secondary education system isn't nearly as throat-cut as it is in the US. (Example: I went to an average-rated, smallish state college, and my tuition was $6,000 a year. Add in room and boarding for two years at $1500 a semester, and the fact that my parents are marked as being 'well off-enough' income wise, and I get no financial aid besides loans.) I can't speak to Aussies/Brits (my British ex-bf never went to uni, and his two friends I keep in contact with went to Cambridge and Oxford respectively so I don't think those are the norm), but my tuition is about $3000 a year, maybe $500 a year on books and here (Manitoba) almost no one lives in dorms but instead at home, for free. I'm also well off-enough to not get financial aid but since I only have to pay about $1500 a semester and I can do it at any time during the semester, I've been able to make it work on a waitress' salary. WAY more manageable than my American friend's tuitions. It also means that the Americans who can afford to travel very abroad are either going to be pampered brats whose parents pay for everything, or Americans who are so out of their minds with delight at their "trip of a lifetime" they'll come off as grating and obnoxious. My mother is a very nice, polite person, but if she ever pulls off that dream trip to Ireland, I bet she'd drive regular travelers up the wall. It's a shame, really, that the US doesn't seem to get a lot of foreign tourists outside of big cities, so they could meet what the average American tourist is actually like. Interesting. I've spent a lot of time in North/South Dakota (close drive to the malls from my city) and I don't think it's changed my opinion of "average American". I actually enjoy people in cities like Chicago or San Francisco much more.
vsmini Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 (edited) I'd like to start off by saying that travel is a good thing, it can open your eyes to new cultures and it's a great way to spend your time if you have enough of it. I don't want to ever discourage travel but... ...some of the biggest full-of-crap douchebags I've ever met were huge *fans* of travel. Did they travel? Yep - they sure did but it made them pompous, assuming, faux-worldly jackasses. The last guy I dated spent some time in Thailand - two of those days he traveled were spent in a landfill living with a poor family and now he's the highest and mightiest man you've ever met. Telling everyone about his moving experience and how none of us really "deserve anything" because he's seen the worst of the worst living conditions. Ummmm OK. I think a lot of people put that in their profiles to make them seem interesting. I don't think it makes someone particularly interesting to like to travel. It's the same as saying "I like cake," Yea- I know...most people do. Travel is great but it's not responsible for making you a better person - you don't have to travel far to gain wisdom or insight into life. Most of the time these people that brag about being big travelers are only doing it to get a stamp in their passport to impress people. Really listen to the way people describe their travels - you can usually tell if they're just telling you to impress you or telling you to inform you of what they experienced. Edited January 5, 2012 by vsmini
norajane Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 This is the second thread in as many months about people who like to travel. I don't get it - why do you care if other people enjoying visiting other countries? What's the big deal? What do YOU do on your vacations? I am very much a homebody and LOVE my home, but I get 5 weeks off a year, have zero debt and can well afford to travel, and enjoy doing so both in the US and out. Some of my most treasured memories are from trips taken with family members, friends, or lovers. I like to meet people from other cultures, like to try different foods, am fascinated by architecture and history, and treasure amazing natural vistas. And I sure as hell want to be on a beach somewhere instead of in Chicago during winter. So I love that my bf enjoys traveling because that means we can enjoy it together and share bottles of wine watching sunsets all over the world while making all kinds of language mistakes while trying to order that wine. It's not a dealbreaker, but it sure would suck if he never wanted to leave our city because we'd miss out on having some really fun experiences together and awesome hotel sex. Why is this so terrible? I truly don't understand.
FitChick Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 I took one English friend's retired parents out for dinner when they were in the US on holiday and they came off like stereotypical Americans -- loud, demanding, critical, fat. Most Americans who've never traveled to the UK believe Brits as reserved but Europeans view them as loud drunkards with loose morals. I briefly traveled with Aussies when I was touring Europe after university and it seemed to me that they were more "American" than Americans (loud, brash, openly friendly). Stereotypes exist because there is a grain of truth but ultimately you have to judge each person individually as you meet them.
Art_Critic Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 They are trying to tell you what you want to hear... Women are always telling you in their profiles how they want to travel to so and so and travel all over, so the guys are trying to show compatibility. No different when a woman in her profile talks about how big of a sports fan or football fan they are.. Be realistic..if the women who say they are into watching sports on their profiles was for real then there would be more women sports fans... Just My Opinion
silvermercy Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 They are trying to tell you what you want to hear... Women are always telling you in their profiles how they want to travel to so and so and travel all over, so the guys are trying to show compatibility. No different when a woman in her profile talks about how big of a sports fan or football fan they are.. Be realistic..if the women who say they are into watching sports on their profiles was for real then there would be more women sports fans... Just My Opinion I am a female with a genuine interest in "male" hobbies. (Not sports though, and would never write that in my profile). For example, I am a big gamer. There are many female gamers but people think mostly men play them, especially the gory or adventure ones. I was watching a youtube video yesterday about "Assassin's Creed" and some men made a comment about how this is a man's game. After that, the female gamers were in uproar about such a stereotypical thought. lol
turt Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 I also agree that the reason behind traveling is all that's important. There are a lot of people who say they enjoy traveling because they see it as a their vacation. When I travel, I usually end up exploring nature and photographing/studying the life around me. I doubt many people would enjoy what I do! Walking at least 8-15 miles in the middle of nowhere isn't exactly fun to most people!
grkBoy Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 I think when it comes to Americans and travel, it really depends on the type of person. Some people just like warm beaches, ski slopes, clubs, shopping. You don't really have to leave the US to get that. Others like famous sights, a real change in settings, etc...those are the ones that go abroad. I've seen a few (generally Conservative) who think it's unpatriotic to travel to Europe, China, Mexico, anywhere outside the US. They are of the mind that Americans should spend their money here, and the rest of the world is crap compared to the US. Had one even say traveling to Europe tends to poison people into Socialist thinking. Dear lord...
lululucy Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 They are trying to tell you what you want to hear... Women are always telling you in their profiles how they want to travel to so and so and travel all over, so the guys are trying to show compatibility. No different when a woman in her profile talks about how big of a sports fan or football fan they are.. Be realistic..if the women who say they are into watching sports on their profiles was for real then there would be more women sports fans... Just My Opinion That's ridiculous. Okay, there are some women who say "I love football!" when really what they mean is they love dressing up in slutty jerseys and getting free beer at games, but there are women out there who, shockingly, are truthful! And like stuff that guys like! WOW. Excuse me while I go set up my tv to record the Flames/Bruins game so I don't miss it while I'm watching the Jets and Leafs. I've seen a few (generally Conservative) who think it's unpatriotic to travel to Europe, China, Mexico, anywhere outside the US. They are of the mind that Americans should spend their money here, and the rest of the world is crap compared to the US. Had one even say traveling to Europe tends to poison people into Socialist thinking. Dear lord... Eugh I had to deal with so much of that traveling. They'd prefer to ignore all local customs rather than attempt to assimilate and lose some of their American-ness. Incredibly grating.
Author Buttercup84 Posted January 5, 2012 Author Posted January 5, 2012 Ok , I wasn't saying that it is bad , and they proberly want a travel buddy . But the way they say it sounds like they want to do it alone . And Australia is a travel obsessed country . I wasn't saying it was a bad thing people .
nothappyjan Posted January 6, 2012 Posted January 6, 2012 I get annoyed when a guy messages me and tells me has 3 massive trips all planned and booked as what is the point of meeting him. He is barely going to be in the country, plus I couldnt join the trips as they are already arranged etc. It just seems like a waste of time. If a guy just likes to travel for is going away for a couple of weeks to a month then that's fine as I like to travel too. But when you have no roots anywhere and nothing stable in your life I tune out as I want someone who has their crap together.
Art_Critic Posted January 6, 2012 Posted January 6, 2012 WOW. Are you shocked that some women lie about their likes to show more compatibility with men ?
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