this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
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The fact that people need to say get a passport is weird as an european
The problem is that international travel simply doesn't make sense for many Americans. The U.S. only has two international borders - Mexico and Canada. Any other international destination is going to be a flight across an ocean (South America isn't, obviously, but the distances/costs are similar), which can be $400-$1200 per person. The cost/duration of flights and need to adjust to a dramatically different timezone means that it really only makes sense to travel internationally when you can go for at least a week at a time. However, Americans tend to have very limited paid time off - usually only 10-20 days or so per year - and that is often a combined pool for vacation, sick time, etc. This means that a single international trip can chew up over half of the PTO for the entire year. So even if you can afford to travel, you don't have enough time off anyway. Most of the time it makes much more sense to travel domestically and just take Thu/Fri off for a long weekend.
(This is speaking from experience, if you couldn't tell, lol)
Yeah traveling abroad is the least of most people issue right now. And with how diverse north america is I understand why they don't do it sadly
To add, before 9/11 only a drivers licence and birth certificate were needed to cross the US/Canada border. After 9/11 that disappeared unfortunately. Thankfully their "Express security" for a fee became much better with the Nexus program being a combined US/Canada initiative over the older pre 9/11 separate US and Canada programs that were managed independently. It also cost more to enroll.
PS in BC one can get a "enhanced" driver's licence for crossing the border into the states but it costs more than a Nexus and there is no special lane like Nexus. With the enhanced drivers licence you still need to wait with everyone else in the long line ups.
even South America is usually a flight. No trains, no bus, and the boats are terribly slow.
I mean, I didn't have a passport for most of my adulthood either. As long as you only travel within the Schengen area and you live in a country that has ID cards, you don't need a passport.
I would be curious to know where you're from, I don't know anyone in France without one. Maybe because we needed it for the UK ?
Pre-Brexit, an ID card was actually enough to enter the UK. I guess that may have changed since. (Also, Germany.)
Last time I went I needed one, since it's not in the EU, but now that you say it an ID was enough before that.
Maybe it's just that people around me travel more. But I would still expect anyone here to know about passport
UK was in the EU for the most part of my adulthood, so I didn't need a passport (I'm from Germany).
To enter, you didn't need a passport, but for most flights you did for the last few years. The airlines stopped accepting any I'd and required a passport. UK was never in Schengen but was in free movement, being part of EU.
Ireland is still not in Schengen as there is "borderless" travel between Ireland and northern Ireland.
The size of the US versus Europe explains the difference
https://us-browse.startpage.com/av/anon-image?piurl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F2zsp44wsjjn81.jpg&sp=1697322546T177a2bba3155e13181decea28281769e42e4bfec285ecf7eb5d256f86461d6d8
That URL doesn't load for me.
It probably was a temporary link, it's broken to me too now. It was an image of the US put on top of europe. And the usa is huge.
I still think traveling to a place with a different language and political context make a huge difference, even with how wide the US is.
Ah, okay.
Interestingly the USA is about the same size as Australia in terms of land mass, but has Australia only has 25 million people living there, compared to 331 million in the USA. There's a loooot of desert in the middle of Australia.
People in the us don't need to travel much with how diverse north america already is, but it's still a shame
I would rather say, they can travel extensively to many different places, many different climates, many different cultures, all in the same country. So getting a passport is not a priority
People donβt βneedβ to say that.
I hope most people know, but since 5 people bring that up as their first point it's probably not the case sadly