Why never been out of the country?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ooops, for five nights in that lovely fishing destination, it would be $4,300, not $4,600 which is the price for a week.

But still a lot higher than $900 for the beach house. Honeybunch.

I don't think you're following me here.

The lovely fishing destination is 58 minutes driving from the airport and the shuttle is FREE. Bfast is included and in Brasil you don't tip (BTW, food there is CHEAP). You just don't want to see it, do you?

And the ILs you keep posting about who insist in ruin your vacations won't be there

Anyway, this topic is about people who NEVER have been out of the country. It's not about traveling with family. I went on my own and spent very little money compared to a weekend trip to Vegas or Miami.

If you want to drag your little ones with you it's a whole different story.

Oh yes, I'm following your every deviation from the bottom line. Now you've redefined this to say it's "not about traveling with family" or "dragging your little ones with you."

The same calculations still hold, just scaled down from 4 persons to 1 person. If you subtract the family, then I'm also going to have to assume that a single person would share the beach house (totally typical), so now the beach house is down to $200 or $300 a week. Against a single $550 airplane ticket and $1000 for a week in your fishing villlage, unless you travel with a friend and share that 2-person bedroom, in which case your hotel room is down to $500 a week. Neither of us has addressed food, although it's pretty obvious that cooking in your beach house kitchen is cheaper than eating out for 3 meals a day in Brazil.

So a total of $1,550 to go to Brazil, against a $300 beach house. A comparison that totally favors Brazil, because I'm assuming you'll never, ever, have to face those Thanksgiving relatives when you return, like over Christmas, so you're traveling in November not July. And we're excluding the cost of eating in Brazilian restaurants.

In any case: lots of college students, and lots of young people starting out on a job, are in no position to take a $1,550 trip to Brazil (and dumpster dive for their food when they get there). And then they have families, and it becomes even more expensive to travel.

You need to get out of your little fairy castle and look at how most of the world lives. Maybe your next trip should be to some working class areas of DC, so you can talk to the "natives" about why they don't engage in recreational travel?

Let's try again...

Did you notice that in some destinations the meals and transportation are part of the package? Food is CHEAP there, you don't have to tip, but still you don't want to see it. I'm not saying going to Brazil it's cheaper than staying at your boring beach house cooking for others and cleaning after your ILs. I never said that. I said that traveling abroad is cheaper than most of you are guessing. Mostly because you don't know how to search or don't speak the local language. That's all I wanted to say and so far all you did was attack me with your bad math and silly non sense arguments.

I was an AP and traveled A LOT with that $139.05 salary (good thing I didn't pay rent or food then). I traveled on my own when I was still paying my student loans. It's a matter of priority and being resourceful.

Now, if you still think that Expedia will give you the magic link to paradise, all I can do is LOL while you spend Thanksgiving with your lovely ILs. I'll be waiting for your posts on that last week of November

OK, I give up (for now).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people don't like airports and their intrusiveness
some people don't have the $$
some people are homebodies
I know of a lawyer family in the metro area who have never traveled outside maryland/Pennsylvania/VA; so it's not likely $ alone...I meet people in their 20"s who have never been on a plane...

I went to undergrad in upstate New York, 200 miles from New York City. Some locals living in that town have never travelled to New York in their entire lifetimes - and it was a four-hour-drive, at best. When I asked some of them "Why?", the answer was "Never wanted to".

So I believe it's not just about the money (although, international travel can be prohibitively expensive for a lot of people), it's about a person's interest in what's going on at the other side of the fence, so to speak. Some people are amazingly apathetic.

I know people from NYC who have no desire to travel because they feel all the culture/everything is already in their city so why bother?

So, it sounds sort of like the residents of Sao Paolo, huh? Who apparently prefer to explore in their own country instead of traveling abroad. But don't let that stop our Brazilian poster from applying a double standard to Americans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yup, I know people like this too.

But how many people in Brazil have no desire to travel to Sao Paolo, or outside the country? I'm guessing there's a group in every country like this. It's not an exclusively American problem.

It's Sao PaUlo!

And you don't know the culture. Over there, the poor want to see the "gringos" and the rich want to explore their own country.

Holy cr@p, did you just make an argument this hypocritical?

It's the truth, babe.

And depending where you're there it's cheaper to get tix to Miami if compared to Manaus or Recife.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some people don't like airports and their intrusiveness
some people don't have the $$
some people are homebodies
I know of a lawyer family in the metro area who have never traveled outside maryland/Pennsylvania/VA; so it's not likely $ alone...I meet people in their 20"s who have never been on a plane...

I went to undergrad in upstate New York, 200 miles from New York City. Some locals living in that town have never travelled to New York in their entire lifetimes - and it was a four-hour-drive, at best. When I asked some of them "Why?", the answer was "Never wanted to".

So I believe it's not just about the money (although, international travel can be prohibitively expensive for a lot of people), it's about a person's interest in what's going on at the other side of the fence, so to speak. Some people are amazingly apathetic.

I know people from NYC who have no desire to travel because they feel all the culture/everything is already in their city so why bother?

So, it sounds sort of like the residents of Sao Paolo, huh? Who apparently prefer to explore in their own country instead of traveling abroad. But don't let that stop our Brazilian poster from applying a double standard to Americans.

There's no double standard. You're talking about 2 different posters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Let's try again...

Did you notice that in some destinations the meals and transportation are part of the package? Food is CHEAP there, you don't have to tip, but still you don't want to see it. I'm not saying going to Brazil it's cheaper than staying at your boring beach house cooking for others and cleaning after your ILs. I never said that. I said that traveling abroad is cheaper than most of you are guessing. Mostly because you don't know how to search or don't speak the local language. That's all I wanted to say and so far all you did was attack me with your bad math and silly non sense arguments.

I was an AP and traveled A LOT with that $139.05 salary (good thing I didn't pay rent or food then). I traveled on my own when I was still paying my student loans. It's a matter of priority and being resourceful.

Now, if you still think that Expedia will give you the magic link to paradise, all I can do is LOL while you spend Thanksgiving with your lovely ILs. I'll be waiting for your posts on that last week of November

OK, I give up (for now).

I'm a bit gobsmacked by the nonsensical parts of this post. I'll just put the contradictions out there.

1. You claim you never said the price difference between Brazil and the beach house was irrelevant. Did you forget that you wrote this: "Oh please! We went to Brazil last Thanksgiving and the tix were $550 per person non stop. You guys should learn how to search for deals if you really want to go. Price is such a lame excuse! "

2. You actually admit that you were able to travel because you got free rent and food at one of your first jobs. And as a result you think the rest of the world should be able to travel just out of college, just like you did?

3. The proof that my math is good is that it got you to admit, above, that going to Brazil is more expensive than the beach house.

Again, I think your next "educational vacation" should be to Anacostia. You can grill the "natives" there about why they never travel abroad.

[Anonymous]

13:15 - instead of attacking other posters who say it is too expensive to travel outside the country while you sit there all high and mighty berating the people for not knowing where to look for these good deals, why don't you put your knowledge to good use and be helpful by showing people ways to search for cheaper ways to travel? Direct them to websites other than expedia, give them advice without being so condescending! Try not to be such a smug jerk!

[Anonymous]

This is in the US ppl! Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan. Ok, saw it on GMA as the most beautiful place in the US. Just wanted to share.

[Anonymous]

And for what it's worth, I think all residents of this country should travel to all the different parts of our own country to see all the different cultures of our own people. By understanding these differences of our own kind, we can all work together to try to solve some of the problems in our own country.

Nothing wrong with starting small, people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Let's try again...

Did you notice that in some destinations the meals and transportation are part of the package? Food is CHEAP there, you don't have to tip, but still you don't want to see it. I'm not saying going to Brazil it's cheaper than staying at your boring beach house cooking for others and cleaning after your ILs. I never said that. I said that traveling abroad is cheaper than most of you are guessing. Mostly because you don't know how to search or don't speak the local language. That's all I wanted to say and so far all you did was attack me with your bad math and silly non sense arguments.

I was an AP and traveled A LOT with that $139.05 salary (good thing I didn't pay rent or food then). I traveled on my own when I was still paying my student loans. It's a matter of priority and being resourceful.

Now, if you still think that Expedia will give you the magic link to paradise, all I can do is LOL while you spend Thanksgiving with your lovely ILs. I'll be waiting for your posts on that last week of November

OK, I give up (for now).

So drop the food. For a single person it's still $1,500 for Brazil vs. $300 for the beach house. For a family it's still $4-5,000 for Brazil, vs. $900 for the beach house.

What part of this don't you understand? Calling it "bad math" just makes you sound innumerate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Again, I think your next "educational vacation" should be to Anacostia. You can grill the "natives" there about why they never travel abroad.

I went to school in an economically depressed area and a friend told me that the local drug store didn't carry sunscreen. She thought maybe it was because the neighborhood mostly consisted of AAs so they didn't need it as much as those with lighter skin. But it was probably because they didn't have the time, place or money to go somewhere to lounge around in the sun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:13:15 - instead of attacking other posters who say it is too expensive to travel outside the country while you sit there all high and mighty berating the people for not knowing where to look for these good deals, why don't you put your knowledge to good use and be helpful by showing people ways to search for cheaper ways to travel? Direct them to websites other than expedia, give them advice without being so condescending! Try not to be such a smug jerk!

Here's another idea: she could use some of her evident riches to endow a scholarship fund to help low-income Americans travel overseas. If she really cared about this besides feeling smug and superior, that is.

[Anonymous]

I have no interest in going to Brazil. A big deal aka rite of passage for brazilian teens is coming on tour groups to the USA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up_kbC65Duk&NR=1

They are not on junkets to watch the poor people fish or weave a basket.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2008-07-12/news/brazil12_1_brazilian-restaurants-brazilian-tourists-theme-parks

[Anonymous]

Diplomat kid here... I've been around the world and back, it makes me sad people can't travel. But there's also people who waste a lot of money on stupid things and then say they don't travel because its too expensive. I travelled a lot as a kid but as an adult even more. I buy expensive handbags but my clothes are gap and target. I would rather see the world than drive a BMW or drink Starbucks every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no interest in going to Brazil. A big deal aka rite of passage for brazilian teens is coming on tour groups to the USA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up_kbC65Duk&NR=1

They are not on junkets to watch the poor people fish or weave a basket.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2008-07-12/news/brazil12_1_brazilian-restaurants-brazilian-tourists-theme-parks

When I was at Disney last January, I got to see first hand all those Brazilian teenagers! Ah...my Disney trip. Getting to experience different cultures by seeing firsthand Brazilian teenagers (all teenagers, regardless of country of birth, are similarly annoying). Plus I got to see many different countries just by going to epcot!

[Anonymous]

Diplomat kid here again- I'm also a nanny and font have a ton of $$$ but I still go on 2 international trips per year. I have an American airlines MasterCard and debit card and do all my online shipping through the Anerican airlines eshopping mall where I earn airmiles for every dollar I spend. I do all my employers errands and groceries on my card and earn that's almost $1500/month they reimburse me. I stay in cheap hotels ($42/night in Russia and it was just fine!!) and use discount airlines when I font use airmiles. I earn a free trip almost every year with American airlines. I'm a nanny but my Mom was a diplomat and I love to travel so I make it work on my salary. I go in the off season and don't stay in luxury resorts.