Americans, do you travel around the country?

Sometimes, but it's expensive, so there's a lot of consideration.

For example, when I went to Vegas for five days, that cost me nearly a grand more than going to a 5-star all-inclusive resort in Mexico for a week and a half, including multiple excursions.

nope

Yes during Summer break our Family went on Camping road trips. Very impressive Country Geologically and People wise. Seen most of The US and Canada. Missing only the North East regions.

Having Relatives in the Mid-West traveled there more often. So many awesome stuff to remark about. Being in California when going to other States. Some of the things makes an impression on me is Summer Thunderstorms. Also Fireflies and Alligators are cool. Spent 4th of July near Seattle, people could set off Fireworks.

Favorite National Park is Yellowstone , geographically amazing.

Quote from VioletBobaTea

No, but I would if I had the time and money. To my knowledge, most people who travel here go either to visit relatives / friends, sightseeing (like the Grand Canyon), or visiting a specific event like a broad way or disney world. Nobody really travels for the sake of travelling - there's not much of a "road trip" culture here. IMO, it's not really worth it because driving anywhere of substance in the U.S. is a hassle since there's so many miles between the interesting places. Nobody goes out of state for the sake of getting to know another state's culture or to listen to the different annoying accents. There's not much of a different between my state and the several others that surround it.

Best answer.

Yes. Usually a few times a year for work. That's mostly to South Carolina and back, but can be to other places for conferences or training.

Other than that there's usually at least one trip for family, maybe more depending on where and how frequent concerts are that I want to see.

Things are definitely different in various parts of the country. The architecture is varied, the common businesses can be different, etc. But it's mostly the same.

For example, there's a chicken fast food place named Bojangles that I've only ever seen in South Carolina. But I've never seen a Del Taco there. Things like that.

ill compare ur one hour

im in houston, texas

a one hour drive will land me

still in houston, texas

It depends on where you are in America. Big car-focused states like California and Texas are very much road trip states so it’s wild to me to see someone say America doesn’t have a road trip culture. Maybe where you are. 😂

For me, as a Californian, a 2 hour trip is a day trip and sometimes just a night out trip, but it’s my understanding that in some other places, that’s a long road trip. SF to LA is a 8 hour road trip that people make quite often for family vacations or a 90 min flight. It’s about a 2 hour flight to Seattle (or a 17 hr drive naurrr).

America is often so vast and disparate that you don’t have to leave a city or county, let alone, a state to find a world of difference in climate, culture, food, landscape and attitudes.

As a Californian in a metropolitan area, it’s pretty typical to spend any given week eating pho (Vietnamese), carnitas (Mexican), tteokbokki (Korean), dim sum (Chinese), and adobo (Filipino). CA is the state with the largest population of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indians and Latinos, so it represents a very different “country” to some other states that are less diverse. However, even within California, it can be like traveling to another country to go from diverse coastal cities to conservative rural mountain towns.

If I look at the four major metropolitan areas of CA, they are vastly different from each other: SF Bay Area, LA, Sacramento, San Diego. And that’s again before you start talking about wine country or Mexican farming communities or beach towns.

If I head outside CA, I can see many parallels with this state in some of the Western states (fresh food, laidback, friendly, a do-what-you-like attitude, influences from other cultures woven into the state), and I always think there is a very clear difference in culture as you move across the country. New England felt initially closed off and skeptical but became warm and friendly once they realized you weren’t a dick, but were there to enjoy on its own terms, not to complain about not having a vegetarian option, the Sourh emphasized warm hospitality. NY felt faster paced than our California chill, while Hawaii felt much much slower with a you can be in a hurry but I don’t give a fuck vibe that I loved (like you’re clearly on vacation, asshole, why are you complaining that shit ain’t fast? 🤣)

I love to travel but I’d add a very big note that two notes probably shape my perceptions:

1. When I go anywhere, US or otherwise, I try to get recs from locals about what I should go, do or eat rather just relying on Yelp or IG of whatever. I always preface this with a rather cute and chirpy, “I’m from California and I really want to try what’s great here.” I’ve found people like the fact you want to try what is specific to their region rather than just looking for what you can get at home. I can great sushi at home. That’s the last thing I’m looking for in Rhode Island. I’m not trying to go to McDonalds when I’m in Paris. Also it makes people want to humble brag on their local stuff. And it gives them the opportunity to tease me about avocados and tofu, making a nice icebreaker.

2. I’m mixed and it’s obvious when you see me that I an an ethnic person, so I am very mindful and do my research on safe areas as well as considering my surroundings when traveling. I joke that I’m ambiguously ethnic - I’m clearly not white, but I’m open for interpretation: Black folks always approach me with “black and what?”, Latinos often speak Spanish to me, and I’ve been mistaken for Cape Verdean (esp in Massachusetts) and Pacific Islander too (esp in Hawaii). Nonetheless, this fear and concern likely colors my opinions of specific parts of the country that a white person may not have when traveling.

Counting my own state, I’ve been to half of the 50 states. I’ve been to 14 states for an extended period of time: Washington and Oregon in the Pacific Northwest; Indiana and Nebraska in the Midwest; Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama in the South; Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine in New England; New York, Nevada, Texas and Hawaii. And through these 10 states for a shorter time (either driving through or only a day or two there): Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming in the West; Kansas, Illinois, Ohio in the Midwest; Kentucky and Oklahoma in the South.

Some of this was for work or family so not places I wanted to go or would go again.

Quote from Ves

You can buy weed legally in Seattle You want to know how that changes things? Really?

You can buy weed legally in LA too. It’s legal in California. 🌱

Quote from VioletBobaTea

i mean when you consider america as a whole. sure, big states have a subculture of road tripping, but OP was asking if americans travel around the country not around the state. so, i assume he means - do people from colorado travel to boston and back? the answer to that is no, even if a state like texas will have people touring its nature reserves and such, but that's a local thing, rather than something really ingrained in the general u.s. culture.

Road trips are legendary, from movies to TV shows, and deeply ingrained in American culture.

In fact, recent research shows that 80% of Americans are taking road trips and that more than half of Americans planning to travel in road trips are taking one that is more than 100 miles away from their home so..

Additionally, the US actually tracks this information through the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. This is specifically about summer road trips. It looks like they’re in the process of updating their research, but their past research states:

Long Distance Trips are more than 50 miles from home to the furthest destination. Summer trips are not for business or commuting to and from work and begin the Thursday before Memorial Day and end the Wednesday after Labor Day.

HOW FAR WE TRAVEL

• The average summer long-distance trip is 284 miles one-way.
• More than three out of four (78 percent) summer trips are 50-249 miles in length. We also travel:
  • one out of 10 (11 percent) trips — 250-400 miles
  • one out of 20 (5 percent) trips — 500-999 miles
  • one out of 20 (5 percent) trips — 1,000+ miles
• (Totals do not add to 100 percent due to rounding.)

• Nine out of 10 summer trips (about 91 percent) are in personal vehicles — such as a car.

Again, maybe it’s just a function of where you live in America? Because road trips are less of a big deal in big states, we are more inclined to take them outside of our state, I think, not just in them. No one in Northern California thinks twice to go to Reno or Tahoe in Nevada and no one in Southern California thinks twice to go to Las Vegas in Nevada or Arizona for road trips. That can be just a weekend or even overnight or day trip! We’ll go to the Grand Canyon on a road trip. We’ll drive to Portland.

Quote from Ves

Then maybe we do have a lot in common! Did it become legal recently? I left 3 years ago, only legal with a medical marijuana card as far as I knew

2018, I think? It’s definitely been in the last few years.