this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
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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
even South America is usually a flight. No trains, no bus, and the boats are terribly slow.
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.