As an American, I often hear about the stereotype that Americans don’t travel. I’ve never felt that to be true, as my family always made it a priority to take a vacation every year, whether that was visiting a city like New York or LA, going to an island in the Caribbean, or even just spending a week at the beach a few hours away. But for some reason, visiting another continent has always felt a little out of reach. When I decided to travel from America and spend a summer abroad, I quickly realized why; because it was expensive.
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How Americans travel
In recent years, Americans have spent more money on travel than other countries, even though they spend less time doing it. In 2019, Americans were expected to spend only about 1.4 weeks traveling, while people in other European countries spent between 1.4 and 2.2 weeks traveling. In that same year, Americans budgeted $2,373 for travel, while Europeans budgeted $2,271 (Forbes). Since America is so much larger than Europe, Americans are much more likely to take domestic vacations, as Europeans live much closer to foreign countries. It is possible to travel to Europe from America and stay within this price range, but it comes with a lot of drawbacks. You don’t have as much freedom when choosing which city you want to visit, as you would most likely have to stick to Eastern Europe. You also have to look for cheap housing such as dorm hostels or couchsurfing, which can be uncomfortable and isn’t for everyone. You would have to cook a lot of your own meals, as an average meal is about $20.00 and most people don’t have it in their budget to spend that much money three times per day. Budget travelers tend to stick to public transport, and while it is much cheaper than renting a car or getting Ubers, it can be hard to navigate and can feel unsafe if you are alone at night (Worldpackers).
Budget traveling is never ideal for Americans
Most budget travelers are young people with a small group or on their own, as families with children typically want to spend more money when they travel to make their vacation more comfortable. They are more likely to book excursions to keep the kids entertained and make the trip more memorable for them. Day tours through cities or around landmarks can cost around $100.00, and museums and galleries can have an entry fee of around $10-$20 (Worldpackers). Families from the U.S. are typically more inclined to go to places in Western Europe, which can also make the trip more expensive. They also won’t normally stay in hostels, as a crowded environment like that can be hard for kids, so they normally look into hotels or Airbnbs. The average price of an Airbnb in Europe is $114.00 (AllTheRooms). Hotels have a much larger range depending on how luxurious they are, but the average price for a budget hotel room across all of Europe is around $110.00 (Rick Steves). It is still possible to travel to Europe with a mid-range budget with a mix of practices from budget travel and more expensive travel. You can eat out at nice restaurants every now and then while still cooking the majority of your own meals, while also relying on public transit instead of Uber. You can also book one or two excursions, depending on how many cities you visit which will allow you to save a little money.
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The scary first steps of booking a trip
Most Americans tend to wait until they are out of college and have a well paying job to take big vacations, so they have more income they can spend on it. Being a college student, I felt like I would have a hard time finding the money to go. I knew I couldn’t get away with just going for fun, I had to be doing something productive while I was there. I decided to get an internship abroad, as I knew my parents would be more accepting of me traveling if I was getting professional experience out of it. I saw it as almost a loophole. So, I applied to a program in Prague, and once I was accepted into my program, I began looking at flights. All of the flights I could find were thousands of dollars. The ones that were less than $2,000 were all budget airlines that had extremely long layovers and multiple connecting flights. I ended up purchasing one for $2,400 that was a more trustworthy airline and only had one layover, but it was much more than I was planning on spending. The prices of the planes took me by surprise, because they were about the same price of what Americans typically save to spend on travel for the entire year. Knowing that just the cost of the flight was that much made me finally understand why a trip to Europe had always felt so unattainable to me.
Surprisingly low cost of living
The next thing I had to think about was budgeting while living in Prague. In the United States, I typically spend about $100 a week on food, and probably another $100 eating out. That would be $200 per week. My program was eight weeks, which would mean I would need to set aside $1,600 per week for groceries and food. To my surprise, the cost of living abroad is much cheaper than in the United States. In Prague, I spend about $30 per week on groceries, and maybe $50 per week eating out. That lowered my food budget to about $80 per week, which meant I only needed to save $640 for food. Luckily, I paid for the housing through my program, so I didn’t have to worry about paying rent while I was here, or spending a fortune on a two month stay at an Airbnb. But, if I had to find my own housing, I would have had to spend $2,000 to stay two months at an Airbnb, which was almost as much as what a summer vacation would cost in the U.S.
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Making the most of your trip costs extra
I also had to think about the cost of traveling within Europe. Prague was my home base, but I wanted to venture out into other parts of the continent to make the most of my trip. While planning, I tried to stay on the less expensive side, using Hostels and cheap Airbnbs. Since I was traveling with other people, I was able to split the cost. The costs were very different depending on where we were going, as I paid anywhere between $33.00 and $146.00 for housing. After getting our housing figured out, we then had to figure out transportation for traveling within Europe. There were a few spots we had to fly to, and those flights were around $200.00 for a round trip. We also had to think about trains and buses for places that were closer, and those ranged anywhere from $30-$50 per person. Overall, I ended up spending almost $800.00 on accommodations for travel within the continent.
So, why don’t Americans travel?
I ended up paying about $4,000 for the main costs, which were flights, food, transportation, and housing. But, this doesn’t even include the money I spent on things I bought beforehand, such as new luggage, packing cubes, new clothes for work and leisure, outlet converters, portable chargers, etc. I spent at least $1,500 trying to prepare for the trip after I bought the flights. Tuition for my program was also around $7,000, which means I spent a total of about $12,500.
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The average American isn’t looking to live in Europe for two months like I did, they are looking for somewhere fun to go during their week off work. A trip to Europe from America is an investment, and for many Americans, it is once in a lifetime, so they want to make the most of it while they can. It’s not something that they’ll use their typical yearly vacation budget for, it’s something they’ll plan years in advance and take off extra time for. Knowing what I know now about European travel from my personal experience, I’m not sure if I’ll ever have the time or money to be able to do it again in my adult life. The reason there is a stereotype about Americans not traveling is not because we don’t want to see the world, but because it is more costly and time consuming than what we are willing to spend.
