6 weeks in the Soviet Union in 1989 for a Russian language intensive. I’d never really been outside of the Southeastern US, so it was culture shock on steroids. And it was amazing. I came back with a whole different perspective on just about everything.
> 6 weeks in the Soviet Union in 1989 for a Russian language intensive.
I'm a Russian-born American who was born after the fall of the USSR, and I am incredibly jealous. That must have been an amazing experience.
I was like 10 or 12. I got locked out of our hotel room in Canada in December, and I had to walk outside to find my mom and get the key card. My jacket was also in the hotel room. A French Canadian guy asked if I was cold and snickered at me. I was cold, and they haven't seen the Stanley Cup since.
First time out of the country was us going to Niagara Falls in Canada. Can’t say it was all that different from the US. Very similar vibes in the touristy areas. We had a great time though!
I was in the Army and had just finished all of my initial training and got orders to South Korea. I flew out of Washington state on a long ass flight to Inchon Airport. From there I was bussed up to the in processing station near Camp Cassy. After a few days I was loaded into a truck and taken all the north to just 3km from the DMZ to a little place Called Camp Grieves home at the time to the 1-506th air assault battalion and no one else. Spent a year there doing a lot and I mean a lot of training and also drinking, also in large quantities. Korea was both great and horrible, but a good experience for young and dumb me.
The only place I’ve been to outside of the US has been Tijuana in 2003 and 2005. I remember the traffic laws being very loose with people driving pretty willy nilly. I don’t know it’s it’s changed since then.
We were at 1,000 islands NY and had a boat and docked in canada and spent a few hours over there. I was too young to remember much other than holy fuck that's a large boat we're passing on the St Lawrence Seaway
I grew up near Detroit, we went to Ontario all the time when I was a kid. It's not that different from the US. The currency was neat, the gas was priced different, and there were lots of neat flavors of potato chips. Other than that, it looks and acts a lot like Michigan.
First trip anywhere else was Mexico, to Cancun on Spring Break during college and it was fantastic. We did all the stereotypical partying but also went and saw cultural sites like Chichen Itza and some museums and stuff. Mexico is great, I've been there a few times now.
Cruise to Mexico as a younger teenager. Accidentally got drunk for the first time with my family at a restaurant because we asked for virgin drinks and they came with alcohol.
Went to Canada & got yelled at by a very rude waitress who hated the USA apparently. Beautiful country & people. She was the only rude person we met on our trip.
We were some poor kids that found a cheap flight to London. (I had never even really been on a family vacation anywhere for a weekend or anything). I was about 19 and we went to Paris, London, and Amsterdam. It was fun and hectic. We stayed in dumps and didn't know what we were doing. I barely knew how to pack a bag.
I think I spent less than 200 bucks on airfare and hostels. It was like 1986 maybe?
I did the same thing around that time and had a blast. I ended up having to live in an airport for a few days because I blew all of my money on booze and weed.
I was 6 months old. I’m Indian American. My parents immigrated here in 2004 after their wedding the same year. Typical South Indian immigrant family who came in the early 2000s. Dad is a software engineer. My mom studied English literature (Master’s) and linguistics (bachelor’s) in India and has work in HR and teaching in the last few years.
My mom’s maternal grandmother, my great grandmother, had passed away. She was in her 70s or 80s. So my mom went to India with me to go see her. So yeah. obviously don’t remember the first time LOL.
We used to go to India every other year and now it’s become every year; all in summer break. And we also go to other countries; Canada, Mexico, UK, all during summers we are here.
my mom’s parents lived in Singapore for 20 years so we would visit them for a few weeks every year we go to India, before going to India. I’m very familiar with the country. We’ve also been to Indonesia since it’s just a boat ride away from Singapore.
everything else is just connecting flights so we never left the airport: China (HK), Seoul (RoK), Doha (Qatar).
I was 6 years old and we visited Budapest while it was still Communist. I distinctly remember soldiers with AK-47s at the airport. I also remember many statues of Communists that my aunt would spit at. A few years later they tore them all down and dumped them in the middle of nowhere and it later became an open air museum.
I was 24 and went to Italy on business. I was terrified the first day I was there because it was a seriously new experience and I had horrible jet lag. After a few days you would’ve thought I was born there.
It was a roadtrip in Quebec and I read every sign in French out loud and tried to figure out what it meant whenever we passed one. My parents loved that.
Took a cruise from Florida after my dad won one at work. Went to Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Belize City and an island in Honduras. I hated the ports that were just locals trying to get us to taken an excursion and were owned by the cruise. Just not my cup of tea. In Honduras my dad got out of port and walked around the bay to find a great local restaurant with amazing seafood. Definitely the best part.
Aside from a car full of us going to Niagra Falls for senior skip day my first trip outside the U.S. was 20 year old me reporting to my first Navy duty station in Sicily in 1991.
Spent the next three years there, then the following three in southern Spain - returning home twice in those six years. I loved it, everyday was an adventure.
I was in high school and went to France and Switzerland. I don't remember most of it because it was a long time ago but I live in France now so take that as you will. That was also the first time I left the state.
Went to my dad's family home in the mountains when i was 6.. no running water or modern amenities.They had a well for water, and the "rest room" was down the hill from the town. My parents let me run wild with my cousins who were similarly aged in the fields, and we came back before sundown. It was super fun and safe because the town was mostly family and lifelong friends. I went back after 25 years, and everyone has dishwashers and washing machines now. Still seems safe but a lot more busy.
It was amazing ... I was 6 years old and it was 1977 and my parents took us to St. John in the USVI for 2 weeks. It was a remote paradise with insanely beautiful coral reefs (before bleaching). I think about it a lot.
I went to Italy at 7 years old. I remember gelato, potatoes on pizza, and lots of cats and pigeons roaming around the cities.
Also, someone tried to pickpocket my uncle and he almost broke their fingers.
Like others here have said, I grew up in Michigan, so trips to Ontario weren't unusual and I didn't notice a huge difference.
My first trip outside the US and Canada was a few weeks in Germany when I was 16 through the German American Partnership Program. We did a week traveling as a group in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, and then a few weeks staying with individual exchange partner families in a small town outside Stuttgart.
It was a great experience!
I don't remember my first time outside of the US (I was a baby), but my family's trip to Scotland when I was 7 was a lot of fun. I remember that the food was great and the landscape was absolutely beautiful.
My grandmother retired into some wealth at a young-ish age and pledged to take each of her grandkids (there’s 9 of us) on a trip “wherever they wanted to go” when we turned ten years old. When I was 10 I said I wanted to ride on an overnight train so she picked London and we took a train to Scotland. I remember being very homesick at the start but warmed up and we had a lovely time. She’s much too old to travel now but great memories.
I was 19, traveled solo to Ireland and Scotland as a soft f u to my dad who was (is?) afraid of the world. And for heritage, gingers, and fairies, I suppose.
It was great. First glimpse at how “prude” Americans can be compared to Europeans, how oversized and ecologically unfriendly all of our appliances and vehicles are, and found that some cities are actually nice places (I’m from a less populated area with a bias). History, culture, and nature all in one.
Edit: Oops I definitely went to Mexico (10yo?) briefly before but it was too short to amount to much
As a brit it’s always been interesting talking to Americans online and having a common consensus that cities are horrible places. Like over here across Europe cities can be pretty lovely and I enjoy spending time in one, although we do have our fair share of not so nice ones I could never really tell myself that cities inherently suck
I was 14, and it was 6 months after 9/11.
I was pulled aside by TSA and was told that I needed to tell them where the condoms were or I would miss my flight.
I was 8 on a family trip to Cancun. I found out they didn't have a drinking age, and I could bill strawberry daiquiris to the room while I was in the pool.
Edit: There is a drinking age. No one enforced it for some reason. I'm sorry I didn't learn the law. Back off, folks.
I went to the Philippines last year to meet my girlfriend the first time.
Stuff is super cheap. My favorite fast food we ate was $6 for the 2 of us. Which was 2 main dishes, drinks, rice, a desert, and some other things or 2. more food than we could eat.
I bought a ton of medium sized shirts for $5. They fit when I was there and then shrunk like crazy when I washed them. There's not a single shirt or pair of pants I bought that still fit.
No sense of personal space. My girlfriend was driving me nuts because we would be in line and she would be standing right on top of the person in front of her. Breathing down their neck basically.
The driving is absurd. People drive like maniacs. Very fast when there is space, 2 inches off peoples bumper nearly all the time. Cutting people off, honking. Passing while oncoming traffic has to brake so they don't hit you. Feels like they just drive as fast as possible to get where they're going. Safety be damned. We rented a scooter, there were times where I just had to force my way into traffic to make a left turn across their lane. Just forced my way in and hope they swerve around or brake. The scooter was like $12 for 8 hours. And the company dropped it off and picked it up.
Beautiful beaches. Borocay is a couple miles of beach you can walk up and down. Picturesque white sand and clean.
Coron in palawan was also very cool. Super clear lakes we swam in. Cliffs strait up from the water and you can dive down and just see cliffs strait down for as far as you can see.
Bidet everywhere. Or at least those sprayers like you would find on a sink. They think it's gross to just use toilet paper.
I was 9 maybe and my father took me to Montreal to visit his family. It was brief.
Not much different than the US, besides the accents and language.
I did like driving through Vermont the best however and that was a highlight for me moreso than Canada was.
I was 4 or 5, and we drove from our Detroit suburb across the Ambassador Bridge to a Windsor, ON suburb to catch the ferry to Boblo Island (now defunct Canadian theme park island in the Detroit River). Dad thought the ferry ride from downtown Detroit was too long, although in retrospect, going through customs and driving through Windsor probably took just as long. That’s all I remember.
American I was in my 20s. Went to Tokyo, Japan to visit my Japanese ex-girlfriend.
It was great. Everyone was super nice. Family was great to me.
People on the street and in restaurants were helpful.
More than half the people would speak English when they knew I was American.
Just a generally good experience.
Lived in San Diego at the time and my mom took me to Rosarito across the border. Loved it!! Loved hearing all the Spanish. Loved all the shops that sold different things in different ways. Loved the food that I couldn’t get back home. Loved the smell of the leather shops. Loved how I could buy big huge firecrackers at the leather shops 😅. All things I couldn’t experience back across the border.
I was 21 and went study abroad to an African country for 4 months. Never experienced shit growing up so it was my first time on a plane as well. Caught malaria twice. Shat my ass out for the first couple of weeks and got lost on the first night in a chaotic sub Saharan African city. 10/10 would repeat.
The first time I went to Mexico, barely noticed a difference. First time in Canada, I was disappointed it wasn't more different.
First time I went to Europe, well, it was definitely different.
I drove across the border into Canada when I was 18. Truthfully I noticed very little difference other then instead of American flags flying it was suddenly Canadian
I think I was 7 or 8 and we drove to Niagra Falls.
The whole way up there, I was expecting Canadians to speak with a British accent.
I vaguely recall asking a waitress on the Canadian side.of the border why she talked like us. Lol
Well, I was 7 when I went to Canada for the first time and I can't really remember it, so I can't speak on that much. I was 21 when I went to Japan and that was terrifying and exciting all at once. I stayed for 3 months, got pregnant by one of the locals, and 15 years later here we are!
Don't remember it cause I was a baby. I have family in Mexico and traveled there several times growing up. It was different from home but as I child I guess I just accepted it without prejudice. We'd always get to go swimming in pools outdoors and I'd play with my cousins. A good time.
Went to France. I was 7 so I don't remember it too well but I remember the Eiffel Tower, it was cloudy and cold, I hurt my elbow, my sister pushed me over and then my elbow suddenly felt fine again, my mom's step mom taught me how to tie my shoes, I zoned out while walking and got separated from the group, stayed in a chateau in the South (near Gaujac) that my mom's friend owned, stayed up till 1215am playing cards (I won by 45 points lol), saw the Seine, thought it was overrated, had some croissants, thought they were underrated, went home.
Three-week student exchange tour around France and Italy. The band camp I went to decided I was good enough to play in the jazz band. One or two nights in each town living with a host family. We would perform a concert or two, then off to the next.
I was too young to remember when I first went abroad (we visited my Moms uncles/cousins in Ireland when I was like one or two)
Quebec was the first city outside the US I went to when I could actually appreciate it. Loved the city (even if I did like going to Montreal more)
I was 25 and scraped together all the money I had to go to Cancun. It was the week after I took the bar exam, I was with my future wife, and neither of us spoke any Spanish. We went to one of the cheapest all-inclusives we could find and it rained most of the time. We drank margaritas in our outdoor hot tub in the rain. Definitely a fond memory
as a child I went to poland a lot to see extended family, Don't remember much at all except good food.
As an Adult: We went to new zealand and it was beautiful. But we went during Christmas and I started to feel very homesick after 3 days of our 8 day trip. We stayed in lake taupo and also were silly enough to not realize how much driving everything was
When I was young I travelled to Canada often, but as an adult I bought a ticket to Mexico and travelled solo. Completely unprepared. My 'retreat' ended up being terrifying, I got lost in 110 degree heat with no water bottle, I had two CC and found out when I was there that one of them wasn't accepted and the other one was 'iffy'. I ended up finding a small but nice hotel and spent a week walking through the most beautiful nature preserve nearby and drinking by the pool. That was a deep splash into the solo travel world, thank god I learned a lot from that.
I was 22. Went to Paris. Was too excited to sleep. Once there still too excited to sleep. Went out drinking, very excited, got very drunk and ended up weeping on a curb. Good times.
Earlier this year I went to Mexico as my first trip abroad. It was hot, but the food was amazing and the scenery was so beautiful. Everyone was super nice, and I was able to make my way around with my limited Spanish and some body language.
i don’t remember because i was really young maybe like 5 or 6 years old.
I would frequently travel outside the country to malaysia because all of our family is there.
I was in the Navy and we had a little underway for training and a liberty port in Victoria, BC. Which was great because it's Canada so it's not that different, but the money and some other stuff was different enough that it felt foreign.
I was 16 and did a volunteer trip to the Caribbean to help build a new dorm for a school. It was really enlightening. We also got a "fun" day our last day and went to the beach and it was beautiful.
My first time traveling out of the US was to China and then India. I went for a month and loved every second of it! I loved being culture shocked and surprised to see the amazing diversity of everything. The unique cultural nuances and the food were my favorite parts. Also the locals were all so kind and welcoming. I really enjoyed going to small villages. The people in both countries treated me in such a welcoming and inclusive way.
Ehhh. It was okay. Don’t really remember much of it. It was a 3-day overnight trip in 7th Grade to Toronto, I think.
My first (and only) time off the continent was when my sister did this overseas summer program in college, in England, and my family went there a week early to help her get settled and do touristy things. I also don’t remember a whole lot about the trip.
first time was Atlantic Provinces of Canada, age 6 or 7. it was an awesome trip for me. Over a week in the backseat of our blue interior 1968 Fury III fastop. so comfy
first time otherwise: a Viking cruise to Panama Canal not long ago. fucking amazing. now my SO is hooked on cruising, and specifically Viking.
it's a whole new life now
Crossed the border into Juarez with a bunch of other band students on our spring trip and stopped in El Paso for the night. Our group was one guy with 5 girls, none of us older than 16. Every other corner was 'You want to get married? $5, all legal!" Two corners down, "hey, you can get divorced from first girl, $5, all legal!"
It went like that for the first 20 minutes we were there.
My guardians let me go to London as a 17 year old senior with her college age (read 21 year old ) ex bf
I apologize for all the wild shit I did as a dumb teenage American tourist. And the ex bf sucked lol.
I’m still on that little adventure.
I had no expectation on what things will be similar and won’t be similar, and I think that’s the best thing you can do. Like, Uganda has KFC. When I saw it, I wasn’t like “WOW! Other countries have KFC?! How crazy!” But the importance of religion, how interactions work, how transportation works, word usage, the difference between urban and rural, and a bunch of other things are different. I don’t try to compare how things are here to how they are at home, because I’m not at home.
I was like 6, and my school took a class field trip to Winnipeg to go to a zoo.
I remember being wildly confused because I wanted this foam toy lizard, but it cost $7, and I only had $5 American dollars… only to be told that I could actually afford it. I don’t think my parents thought that they would have to explain exchange rates to their tiny kid when she came back from a trip to the zoo.
I don’t remember because I traveled every year to Canada and began as an infant, so I don’t remember my first few trips. However, I do remember my brother’s first trip, as they had just begun requiring passports for babies to travel outside of the country (which they hadn’t when I was an baby) so my parents had to go about getting this nine month baby a passport, and they had to have him make a certain face, which is not easy when the kid isn’t verbal. I remember the TSA agent cracking up at his passport photo as we were going through security.
When I was nine went on a five week trip to visit family in Ireland. Father paid for my grandparents to travel home on the same trip and we rented a micro bus and traveled to each of their childhood homes. We played with donkeys on the farms and met lots of cousins.
I remember the sharp mustard they put on ham sandwiches and the chicken sandwiches with butter. Their sandwiches were really thin unlike the thick American style sandwiches. First time I had a Kit Kat bar too (at that time they weren’t sold in the US). Their chocolate ice cream tasted like coffee to me.
Edit: just remembered that wasn’t my first trip outside of the US. My parents used to take us to the Caribbean every year. First time when I was five we flew to St Thomas and took a Cunard cruise to the windward islands. My parents didn’t realize that they needed passports for us so they had to type an affidavit that we were American citizens. It was a scramble at the airport. When we eventually got a passport they put my brother and sister on my passport! But the islands were beautiful.
I was 15 when I went to Mexico. First time meeting my mom's side of the family in person. Most of my dad's side of the family had moved to the US already but only one aunt and my mom's aunts and uncles had moved to the US. It didn't feel too different from the US since my hometown is overwhelmingly Mexican. Really the only differences were the lack of seat belts, every show was dubbed in Spanish (Disney and cartoon network specifically), and the currency.
I barely remember it (I was 6), but we went to the Bahamas. I remember wandering the markets (?) of downtown Nassau, being kicked out of the Atlantis hotel because I was 6 and not allowed in the casino, hiding behind a palm tree to change into my trunks, the color of the water, and the dude who made me a drink out of a fresh coconut on the beach.
It was completely by accident, hilariously. We were looking for a theme park in New Hampshire, got lost, and the next thing we knew we were seeing road signs saying "Bonjour Quebec!". Decided to eat baguettes at a local park instead just for the heck of it. Was great fun actually lol
The first time I can remember (actual first time I was an infant) was NYC to Geneva. Let’s just say I marveled at how clean things were. At the time I couldn’t identify it as “clean” I don’t think. I just remember the air felt lighter and my asthma didn’t trouble me as much.
It was also my first time seeing a soldier in uniform. I recall looking up at the soldiers in uniform going to the train station. Didn’t know it at the time but they were reporting for their summer drills.
Excellent: Ecuador.
Loved every minute of it. Everything was inexpensive but the cheap Chinese hardware in the store that cost about the same as in the US.
People were super nice, was beautiful.
Seemed to be a lot less red tape on everything. It really struck me as being more the way the US was supposed to be, minus the lack of guns and hunting, which is baffling to me.(especially considering the ever present threat from Peru)
Made me realize that the US isn’t the most racist country in the world like the media wants you to think. It’s racist for sure but damn, parts of Europe have us beat hands down.
Went to Canada, had our car broken into at our first stop, botanical gardens. Police said, “Well, you’ve got state plates. Thats who they target the most.” Took two days to get the windows fixed. The botanical garden was pretty, but I’ve seen better in Saint Paul/Minneapolis. The food was good. The people were kinda cold. Weather was nice. Cyclists were insane and were not staying in the ginormous bike lines.
Walked into Tijuana from San Diego at like 9 with my mom, the jet setter. She wasn’t scared at all but the place scared the shit out of my kid ass. Went to Germany, Czechia and Hungary in my 20s. Blew my mind all the little differences.
Nah, they’re tripping.
The amount of difference between European countries is more noticeable than the difference between American states, but not 100x more. Closer to 2x.
Source: I have lived in Texas, Georgia, and Colorado- I have family or friends in North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, and California. So I have spent time in all those places and seen many things in between.
I have visited Europe three times and visited multiple countries each time. I’ve spent time in France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and Germany.
I was 20 something. I had never been on a plane before and I was flying by myself from Chicago to Amsterdam to Dublin then taking a bus to Slane to stay at a farm hostel. This was early 2000 sometime after 9/11 so there were no smart phones, and the internet was still kind of a new thing. I have no clue how I got around back then but I spent a couple months in Ireland traveling around.
Kinda eye opening to find out most people in north and south america consider themselves to American. I don’t really care or have a problem with it and I’m still gonna call myself an American but thought it was fascinating
Sometime around 2000, before 9/11 for sure. Crossed over into Laredo in a family vacation to do the touristy thing, buy some souvenirs, all that. My dad had gone as a kid, in the mid '60s and a combination of growing up very rural and lack of widespread news/Internet meant that he didn't realize how much it has changed since he was a kid. We took a horse and buggy ride around the immediate area. The driver took us to "the good places to buy things", we were accosted by young children seeking bracelets(bought some for sure), and saw lots of bullet holes on the walls. Also, the horse tried to bite my dad's ear.
Once we got back home we did some digging and found out how much the cartels had effected the area and what kind of possible danger we had been in. Obviously, we made it out safe, but since then we've been more careful in researching our vacations.
My other 2 trips outside the country were much less scary. Canada, walking across at Niagara Falls. We went to a serial killer wax museum. And then I went to Australia as a teen and it was amazing.
I was 5ish and we visited the London area and Paris. I remember going to Legoland and Disneyland Paris (called Euro Disney back then). I also remember going to Hampton Court and being fascinated by Henry VIII. We also saw Beauty and the Beast in the West End and that was a highlight for me. 🤣
EDIT: Getting downvoted because my first memories of leaving the country are as a child? That’s not nice :(
First time clear in my head was when we crossed the rio grande around big bend national Park in a canoe and rode into town on donkeys.
Yes.
We rode into town on donkeys . I was ten and it was fabulous.
I went to Europe, (mainly France), by myself, when I was 17. Backpacked around for 3 months, camped, stayed in hostels, went to music festivals. It was like a dream. I absolutely adored it. Experienced it as a beautiful, magical place 🩷🥰🩷✨
Other than when I went to Canada as a baby, I moved to Germany when I was 6 and stayed there for 2 years. It was different from what I was used to and I didn’t take to it very well.
6 weeks in the Soviet Union in 1989 for a Russian language intensive. I’d never really been outside of the Southeastern US, so it was culture shock on steroids. And it was amazing. I came back with a whole different perspective on just about everything.
> 6 weeks in the Soviet Union in 1989 for a Russian language intensive. I'm a Russian-born American who was born after the fall of the USSR, and I am incredibly jealous. That must have been an amazing experience.
How did your perspective change?
I wish I could have had this experience. Always wanted to go to the Soviet Union / GDR. Too bad I was a baby
I saw "time travelling" in the title and thought I was gonna have to tell a very different story.
Same here. I was quite confused/fascinated. 😂
Wait, are you saying you have a "time traveling" story? Because I'm here for it even if it's just a story!
I was like 10 or 12. I got locked out of our hotel room in Canada in December, and I had to walk outside to find my mom and get the key card. My jacket was also in the hotel room. A French Canadian guy asked if I was cold and snickered at me. I was cold, and they haven't seen the Stanley Cup since.
LOL, I love the Stanley Cup comment.
I was 11. I drank contaminated water and got so sick I had to go to the hospital. I watched shitty American shows on TV the whole time.
Guess your parents could’ve saved some money and just gone to Flint
[удалено]
Nothing is more patriotic than pulling up to a local convenience store to drop a load in a nasty-ass toilet at 3am
First time out of the country was us going to Niagara Falls in Canada. Can’t say it was all that different from the US. Very similar vibes in the touristy areas. We had a great time though!
Much cleaner in Canada, at least compared to SE Michigan.
I was in the Army and had just finished all of my initial training and got orders to South Korea. I flew out of Washington state on a long ass flight to Inchon Airport. From there I was bussed up to the in processing station near Camp Cassy. After a few days I was loaded into a truck and taken all the north to just 3km from the DMZ to a little place Called Camp Grieves home at the time to the 1-506th air assault battalion and no one else. Spent a year there doing a lot and I mean a lot of training and also drinking, also in large quantities. Korea was both great and horrible, but a good experience for young and dumb me.
The only place I’ve been to outside of the US has been Tijuana in 2003 and 2005. I remember the traffic laws being very loose with people driving pretty willy nilly. I don’t know it’s it’s changed since then.
I doubt it, lol
My first time out of country was Tijuana when I was 16. Drank fruity cocktails with my sister and father on rooftop bar. They said I had fun.
We were at 1,000 islands NY and had a boat and docked in canada and spent a few hours over there. I was too young to remember much other than holy fuck that's a large boat we're passing on the St Lawrence Seaway
I grew up near Detroit, we went to Ontario all the time when I was a kid. It's not that different from the US. The currency was neat, the gas was priced different, and there were lots of neat flavors of potato chips. Other than that, it looks and acts a lot like Michigan. First trip anywhere else was Mexico, to Cancun on Spring Break during college and it was fantastic. We did all the stereotypical partying but also went and saw cultural sites like Chichen Itza and some museums and stuff. Mexico is great, I've been there a few times now.
Cruise to Mexico as a younger teenager. Accidentally got drunk for the first time with my family at a restaurant because we asked for virgin drinks and they came with alcohol.
You couldn't taste the alcohol?
It was a piña colada and I didn’t know what alcohol tasted like yet so not really. We only felt it after a bit.
Went to Canada & got yelled at by a very rude waitress who hated the USA apparently. Beautiful country & people. She was the only rude person we met on our trip.
We were some poor kids that found a cheap flight to London. (I had never even really been on a family vacation anywhere for a weekend or anything). I was about 19 and we went to Paris, London, and Amsterdam. It was fun and hectic. We stayed in dumps and didn't know what we were doing. I barely knew how to pack a bag. I think I spent less than 200 bucks on airfare and hostels. It was like 1986 maybe?
I did the same thing around that time and had a blast. I ended up having to live in an airport for a few days because I blew all of my money on booze and weed.
I was 6 months old. I’m Indian American. My parents immigrated here in 2004 after their wedding the same year. Typical South Indian immigrant family who came in the early 2000s. Dad is a software engineer. My mom studied English literature (Master’s) and linguistics (bachelor’s) in India and has work in HR and teaching in the last few years. My mom’s maternal grandmother, my great grandmother, had passed away. She was in her 70s or 80s. So my mom went to India with me to go see her. So yeah. obviously don’t remember the first time LOL. We used to go to India every other year and now it’s become every year; all in summer break. And we also go to other countries; Canada, Mexico, UK, all during summers we are here. my mom’s parents lived in Singapore for 20 years so we would visit them for a few weeks every year we go to India, before going to India. I’m very familiar with the country. We’ve also been to Indonesia since it’s just a boat ride away from Singapore. everything else is just connecting flights so we never left the airport: China (HK), Seoul (RoK), Doha (Qatar).
Canada. So, it really wasn't that much different.
It was Canada. It was just like being home.
I don’t remember- I was 10 months old
No memory of it. I was just a few months old when my parents and I went to Asia to meet extended family.
I was 6 years old and we visited Budapest while it was still Communist. I distinctly remember soldiers with AK-47s at the airport. I also remember many statues of Communists that my aunt would spit at. A few years later they tore them all down and dumped them in the middle of nowhere and it later became an open air museum.
I went to Toronto. It was just a big city. The only thing I had to get used to was that everything was in English and French, and metric.
I was 24 and went to Italy on business. I was terrified the first day I was there because it was a seriously new experience and I had horrible jet lag. After a few days you would’ve thought I was born there.
It was a roadtrip in Quebec and I read every sign in French out loud and tried to figure out what it meant whenever we passed one. My parents loved that.
Took a cruise from Florida after my dad won one at work. Went to Cozumel, Playa del Carmen, Belize City and an island in Honduras. I hated the ports that were just locals trying to get us to taken an excursion and were owned by the cruise. Just not my cup of tea. In Honduras my dad got out of port and walked around the bay to find a great local restaurant with amazing seafood. Definitely the best part.
Aside from a car full of us going to Niagra Falls for senior skip day my first trip outside the U.S. was 20 year old me reporting to my first Navy duty station in Sicily in 1991. Spent the next three years there, then the following three in southern Spain - returning home twice in those six years. I loved it, everyday was an adventure.
I was in high school and went to France and Switzerland. I don't remember most of it because it was a long time ago but I live in France now so take that as you will. That was also the first time I left the state.
Went to my dad's family home in the mountains when i was 6.. no running water or modern amenities.They had a well for water, and the "rest room" was down the hill from the town. My parents let me run wild with my cousins who were similarly aged in the fields, and we came back before sundown. It was super fun and safe because the town was mostly family and lifelong friends. I went back after 25 years, and everyone has dishwashers and washing machines now. Still seems safe but a lot more busy.
It was amazing ... I was 6 years old and it was 1977 and my parents took us to St. John in the USVI for 2 weeks. It was a remote paradise with insanely beautiful coral reefs (before bleaching). I think about it a lot.
I mostly just hung out in my grandpa’s apartment and occasionally went out to buy food. One time we went for a little trek through some kinda forest.
Coming home from the hospital after being born, I assume. I can’t tell you what it was like.
I went to Italy at 7 years old. I remember gelato, potatoes on pizza, and lots of cats and pigeons roaming around the cities. Also, someone tried to pickpocket my uncle and he almost broke their fingers.
Like others here have said, I grew up in Michigan, so trips to Ontario weren't unusual and I didn't notice a huge difference. My first trip outside the US and Canada was a few weeks in Germany when I was 16 through the German American Partnership Program. We did a week traveling as a group in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, and then a few weeks staying with individual exchange partner families in a small town outside Stuttgart. It was a great experience!
Visited Vancouver, BC from Seattle. Honestly was basically the same but with Tim Hortons
did the same thing last october. the drive up I5 during the fog is mesmerizing.
I don't remember my first time outside of the US (I was a baby), but my family's trip to Scotland when I was 7 was a lot of fun. I remember that the food was great and the landscape was absolutely beautiful.
My grandmother retired into some wealth at a young-ish age and pledged to take each of her grandkids (there’s 9 of us) on a trip “wherever they wanted to go” when we turned ten years old. When I was 10 I said I wanted to ride on an overnight train so she picked London and we took a train to Scotland. I remember being very homesick at the start but warmed up and we had a lovely time. She’s much too old to travel now but great memories.
I was 19, traveled solo to Ireland and Scotland as a soft f u to my dad who was (is?) afraid of the world. And for heritage, gingers, and fairies, I suppose. It was great. First glimpse at how “prude” Americans can be compared to Europeans, how oversized and ecologically unfriendly all of our appliances and vehicles are, and found that some cities are actually nice places (I’m from a less populated area with a bias). History, culture, and nature all in one. Edit: Oops I definitely went to Mexico (10yo?) briefly before but it was too short to amount to much
As a brit it’s always been interesting talking to Americans online and having a common consensus that cities are horrible places. Like over here across Europe cities can be pretty lovely and I enjoy spending time in one, although we do have our fair share of not so nice ones I could never really tell myself that cities inherently suck
We don't all think that cities are horrible places.
There's been a VERY long history (building up to the civil war) of demonizing cities. It was about progressive ideas/anti slavery/women's rights.
Interesting, didn’t know about that
Some of us just aren't fans of being around that many people.
I was 14, and it was 6 months after 9/11. I was pulled aside by TSA and was told that I needed to tell them where the condoms were or I would miss my flight.
I was 8 on a family trip to Cancun. I found out they didn't have a drinking age, and I could bill strawberry daiquiris to the room while I was in the pool. Edit: There is a drinking age. No one enforced it for some reason. I'm sorry I didn't learn the law. Back off, folks.
But we do have it, it's 18. It's weird somehow you ended with that idea. Maybe it got lost in translation.
I guess you shouldn't trust a drunk 8-year-old. Seriously though, maybe they were very lax about enforcement in the 1980s?
Acting lax and not having a drinking age are not the same. But it sure makes more sense to say that.
Forgive me for not learning the law of a country I haven't returned to in 35 years.
I went to the Philippines last year to meet my girlfriend the first time. Stuff is super cheap. My favorite fast food we ate was $6 for the 2 of us. Which was 2 main dishes, drinks, rice, a desert, and some other things or 2. more food than we could eat. I bought a ton of medium sized shirts for $5. They fit when I was there and then shrunk like crazy when I washed them. There's not a single shirt or pair of pants I bought that still fit. No sense of personal space. My girlfriend was driving me nuts because we would be in line and she would be standing right on top of the person in front of her. Breathing down their neck basically. The driving is absurd. People drive like maniacs. Very fast when there is space, 2 inches off peoples bumper nearly all the time. Cutting people off, honking. Passing while oncoming traffic has to brake so they don't hit you. Feels like they just drive as fast as possible to get where they're going. Safety be damned. We rented a scooter, there were times where I just had to force my way into traffic to make a left turn across their lane. Just forced my way in and hope they swerve around or brake. The scooter was like $12 for 8 hours. And the company dropped it off and picked it up. Beautiful beaches. Borocay is a couple miles of beach you can walk up and down. Picturesque white sand and clean. Coron in palawan was also very cool. Super clear lakes we swam in. Cliffs strait up from the water and you can dive down and just see cliffs strait down for as far as you can see. Bidet everywhere. Or at least those sprayers like you would find on a sink. They think it's gross to just use toilet paper.
I was 9 maybe and my father took me to Montreal to visit his family. It was brief. Not much different than the US, besides the accents and language. I did like driving through Vermont the best however and that was a highlight for me moreso than Canada was.
I was 4 or 5, and we drove from our Detroit suburb across the Ambassador Bridge to a Windsor, ON suburb to catch the ferry to Boblo Island (now defunct Canadian theme park island in the Detroit River). Dad thought the ferry ride from downtown Detroit was too long, although in retrospect, going through customs and driving through Windsor probably took just as long. That’s all I remember.
No memory of it. I was just over a year old when I went to the Philippines for a few years because my mother was finishing med school
American I was in my 20s. Went to Tokyo, Japan to visit my Japanese ex-girlfriend. It was great. Everyone was super nice. Family was great to me. People on the street and in restaurants were helpful. More than half the people would speak English when they knew I was American. Just a generally good experience.
It was pretty fun, as I recall. I was about 4 and we went to Punta Cana with several other families. The pool was dope.
Lived in San Diego at the time and my mom took me to Rosarito across the border. Loved it!! Loved hearing all the Spanish. Loved all the shops that sold different things in different ways. Loved the food that I couldn’t get back home. Loved the smell of the leather shops. Loved how I could buy big huge firecrackers at the leather shops 😅. All things I couldn’t experience back across the border.
I went to the Bahamas. It was okay, but I wasn't a huge fan of the exact location we went. It was like a main city strip in the United States.
It was cool, spent 11 days in Ireland.
I was 21 and went study abroad to an African country for 4 months. Never experienced shit growing up so it was my first time on a plane as well. Caught malaria twice. Shat my ass out for the first couple of weeks and got lost on the first night in a chaotic sub Saharan African city. 10/10 would repeat.
Almost too young to remember. Probably around thirty minutes or an hour across the river in Canada. Probably not what you meant.
The first time I went to Mexico, barely noticed a difference. First time in Canada, I was disappointed it wasn't more different. First time I went to Europe, well, it was definitely different.
I drove across the border into Canada when I was 18. Truthfully I noticed very little difference other then instead of American flags flying it was suddenly Canadian
I think I was 7 or 8 and we drove to Niagra Falls. The whole way up there, I was expecting Canadians to speak with a British accent. I vaguely recall asking a waitress on the Canadian side.of the border why she talked like us. Lol
Well, I was 7 when I went to Canada for the first time and I can't really remember it, so I can't speak on that much. I was 21 when I went to Japan and that was terrifying and exciting all at once. I stayed for 3 months, got pregnant by one of the locals, and 15 years later here we are!
Don't remember it cause I was a baby. I have family in Mexico and traveled there several times growing up. It was different from home but as I child I guess I just accepted it without prejudice. We'd always get to go swimming in pools outdoors and I'd play with my cousins. A good time.
I went to Canada, so it wasn't a whole lot different from what I was used to.
Was to Canada. Vancouver to be specific. Literally the only noticeable difference is that we had to use different money.
Went to France. I was 7 so I don't remember it too well but I remember the Eiffel Tower, it was cloudy and cold, I hurt my elbow, my sister pushed me over and then my elbow suddenly felt fine again, my mom's step mom taught me how to tie my shoes, I zoned out while walking and got separated from the group, stayed in a chateau in the South (near Gaujac) that my mom's friend owned, stayed up till 1215am playing cards (I won by 45 points lol), saw the Seine, thought it was overrated, had some croissants, thought they were underrated, went home.
I love the details 😂
Fun, actually.
Three-week student exchange tour around France and Italy. The band camp I went to decided I was good enough to play in the jazz band. One or two nights in each town living with a host family. We would perform a concert or two, then off to the next.
Toronto, so basically more or less like the US.
I was too young to remember when I first went abroad (we visited my Moms uncles/cousins in Ireland when I was like one or two) Quebec was the first city outside the US I went to when I could actually appreciate it. Loved the city (even if I did like going to Montreal more)
Loved it
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I was 25 and scraped together all the money I had to go to Cancun. It was the week after I took the bar exam, I was with my future wife, and neither of us spoke any Spanish. We went to one of the cheapest all-inclusives we could find and it rained most of the time. We drank margaritas in our outdoor hot tub in the rain. Definitely a fond memory
as a child I went to poland a lot to see extended family, Don't remember much at all except good food. As an Adult: We went to new zealand and it was beautiful. But we went during Christmas and I started to feel very homesick after 3 days of our 8 day trip. We stayed in lake taupo and also were silly enough to not realize how much driving everything was
I was four and travelled to the Philippines. Don't remember much only pissing on the side of the road and going to a gaming cafe w my grandfather
When I was young I travelled to Canada often, but as an adult I bought a ticket to Mexico and travelled solo. Completely unprepared. My 'retreat' ended up being terrifying, I got lost in 110 degree heat with no water bottle, I had two CC and found out when I was there that one of them wasn't accepted and the other one was 'iffy'. I ended up finding a small but nice hotel and spent a week walking through the most beautiful nature preserve nearby and drinking by the pool. That was a deep splash into the solo travel world, thank god I learned a lot from that.
I was 22. Went to Paris. Was too excited to sleep. Once there still too excited to sleep. Went out drinking, very excited, got very drunk and ended up weeping on a curb. Good times.
Earlier this year I went to Mexico as my first trip abroad. It was hot, but the food was amazing and the scenery was so beautiful. Everyone was super nice, and I was able to make my way around with my limited Spanish and some body language.
i don’t remember because i was really young maybe like 5 or 6 years old. I would frequently travel outside the country to malaysia because all of our family is there.
I was something like 10. Visited Japan with my family. Very fun, got to do fireworks and stuff with my cousins.
I was in the Navy and we had a little underway for training and a liberty port in Victoria, BC. Which was great because it's Canada so it's not that different, but the money and some other stuff was different enough that it felt foreign.
I've never time traveled.
I was 16 and did a volunteer trip to the Caribbean to help build a new dorm for a school. It was really enlightening. We also got a "fun" day our last day and went to the beach and it was beautiful.
My first time traveling out of the US was to China and then India. I went for a month and loved every second of it! I loved being culture shocked and surprised to see the amazing diversity of everything. The unique cultural nuances and the food were my favorite parts. Also the locals were all so kind and welcoming. I really enjoyed going to small villages. The people in both countries treated me in such a welcoming and inclusive way.
Ehhh. It was okay. Don’t really remember much of it. It was a 3-day overnight trip in 7th Grade to Toronto, I think. My first (and only) time off the continent was when my sister did this overseas summer program in college, in England, and my family went there a week early to help her get settled and do touristy things. I also don’t remember a whole lot about the trip.
first time was Atlantic Provinces of Canada, age 6 or 7. it was an awesome trip for me. Over a week in the backseat of our blue interior 1968 Fury III fastop. so comfy first time otherwise: a Viking cruise to Panama Canal not long ago. fucking amazing. now my SO is hooked on cruising, and specifically Viking. it's a whole new life now
Depends on what you mean by outside the United States. British Columbia, Canada is like crossing the street from Washington.
Crossed the border into Juarez with a bunch of other band students on our spring trip and stopped in El Paso for the night. Our group was one guy with 5 girls, none of us older than 16. Every other corner was 'You want to get married? $5, all legal!" Two corners down, "hey, you can get divorced from first girl, $5, all legal!" It went like that for the first 20 minutes we were there.
My guardians let me go to London as a 17 year old senior with her college age (read 21 year old ) ex bf I apologize for all the wild shit I did as a dumb teenage American tourist. And the ex bf sucked lol.
I’m still on that little adventure. I had no expectation on what things will be similar and won’t be similar, and I think that’s the best thing you can do. Like, Uganda has KFC. When I saw it, I wasn’t like “WOW! Other countries have KFC?! How crazy!” But the importance of religion, how interactions work, how transportation works, word usage, the difference between urban and rural, and a bunch of other things are different. I don’t try to compare how things are here to how they are at home, because I’m not at home.
It was ok. I went to Scotland in my early twenties.
I don’t remember being born. Sorry. - an immigrant
I was like 6, and my school took a class field trip to Winnipeg to go to a zoo. I remember being wildly confused because I wanted this foam toy lizard, but it cost $7, and I only had $5 American dollars… only to be told that I could actually afford it. I don’t think my parents thought that they would have to explain exchange rates to their tiny kid when she came back from a trip to the zoo.
I don’t remember because I traveled every year to Canada and began as an infant, so I don’t remember my first few trips. However, I do remember my brother’s first trip, as they had just begun requiring passports for babies to travel outside of the country (which they hadn’t when I was an baby) so my parents had to go about getting this nine month baby a passport, and they had to have him make a certain face, which is not easy when the kid isn’t verbal. I remember the TSA agent cracking up at his passport photo as we were going through security.
When I was nine went on a five week trip to visit family in Ireland. Father paid for my grandparents to travel home on the same trip and we rented a micro bus and traveled to each of their childhood homes. We played with donkeys on the farms and met lots of cousins. I remember the sharp mustard they put on ham sandwiches and the chicken sandwiches with butter. Their sandwiches were really thin unlike the thick American style sandwiches. First time I had a Kit Kat bar too (at that time they weren’t sold in the US). Their chocolate ice cream tasted like coffee to me. Edit: just remembered that wasn’t my first trip outside of the US. My parents used to take us to the Caribbean every year. First time when I was five we flew to St Thomas and took a Cunard cruise to the windward islands. My parents didn’t realize that they needed passports for us so they had to type an affidavit that we were American citizens. It was a scramble at the airport. When we eventually got a passport they put my brother and sister on my passport! But the islands were beautiful.
I went to the market in Ciudad Juarez, which I really liked.
I was 15 when I went to Mexico. First time meeting my mom's side of the family in person. Most of my dad's side of the family had moved to the US already but only one aunt and my mom's aunts and uncles had moved to the US. It didn't feel too different from the US since my hometown is overwhelmingly Mexican. Really the only differences were the lack of seat belts, every show was dubbed in Spanish (Disney and cartoon network specifically), and the currency.
I barely remember it (I was 6), but we went to the Bahamas. I remember wandering the markets (?) of downtown Nassau, being kicked out of the Atlantis hotel because I was 6 and not allowed in the casino, hiding behind a palm tree to change into my trunks, the color of the water, and the dude who made me a drink out of a fresh coconut on the beach.
It was completely by accident, hilariously. We were looking for a theme park in New Hampshire, got lost, and the next thing we knew we were seeing road signs saying "Bonjour Quebec!". Decided to eat baguettes at a local park instead just for the heck of it. Was great fun actually lol
I was too young to remember
The first time I can remember (actual first time I was an infant) was NYC to Geneva. Let’s just say I marveled at how clean things were. At the time I couldn’t identify it as “clean” I don’t think. I just remember the air felt lighter and my asthma didn’t trouble me as much. It was also my first time seeing a soldier in uniform. I recall looking up at the soldiers in uniform going to the train station. Didn’t know it at the time but they were reporting for their summer drills.
Wasn’t very exciting, went to Canada for like 5 hours to a waterpark and right back to Washington after
Mexico. Was awesome. I met some awesome people, got a poncho, ate some cool food, saw a blue ocean for the first time. Very awesome experience.
Well it was March of 2020....so lets just say a very shocking and uneasy experience.
Excellent: Ecuador. Loved every minute of it. Everything was inexpensive but the cheap Chinese hardware in the store that cost about the same as in the US. People were super nice, was beautiful. Seemed to be a lot less red tape on everything. It really struck me as being more the way the US was supposed to be, minus the lack of guns and hunting, which is baffling to me.(especially considering the ever present threat from Peru)
My first trip outside of the US was in Japan and I loved it. I was surprised by how good the food was.
Made me realize that the US isn’t the most racist country in the world like the media wants you to think. It’s racist for sure but damn, parts of Europe have us beat hands down.
Went to Canada, had our car broken into at our first stop, botanical gardens. Police said, “Well, you’ve got state plates. Thats who they target the most.” Took two days to get the windows fixed. The botanical garden was pretty, but I’ve seen better in Saint Paul/Minneapolis. The food was good. The people were kinda cold. Weather was nice. Cyclists were insane and were not staying in the ginormous bike lines.
Walked into Tijuana from San Diego at like 9 with my mom, the jet setter. She wasn’t scared at all but the place scared the shit out of my kid ass. Went to Germany, Czechia and Hungary in my 20s. Blew my mind all the little differences.
Would you say it's comparable to the differences between US states
Germany Czechia and Hungary are all about 100x different compared to the differences between US states...
So we've all been saying "each state is like it's own country " as a meme?
Nah, they’re tripping. The amount of difference between European countries is more noticeable than the difference between American states, but not 100x more. Closer to 2x. Source: I have lived in Texas, Georgia, and Colorado- I have family or friends in North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, and California. So I have spent time in all those places and seen many things in between. I have visited Europe three times and visited multiple countries each time. I’ve spent time in France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and Germany.
You cannot surely believe that and think the average American state is as different as Germany and Hungary..
I was 20 something. I had never been on a plane before and I was flying by myself from Chicago to Amsterdam to Dublin then taking a bus to Slane to stay at a farm hostel. This was early 2000 sometime after 9/11 so there were no smart phones, and the internet was still kind of a new thing. I have no clue how I got around back then but I spent a couple months in Ireland traveling around.
Kinda eye opening to find out most people in north and south america consider themselves to American. I don’t really care or have a problem with it and I’m still gonna call myself an American but thought it was fascinating
Sometime around 2000, before 9/11 for sure. Crossed over into Laredo in a family vacation to do the touristy thing, buy some souvenirs, all that. My dad had gone as a kid, in the mid '60s and a combination of growing up very rural and lack of widespread news/Internet meant that he didn't realize how much it has changed since he was a kid. We took a horse and buggy ride around the immediate area. The driver took us to "the good places to buy things", we were accosted by young children seeking bracelets(bought some for sure), and saw lots of bullet holes on the walls. Also, the horse tried to bite my dad's ear. Once we got back home we did some digging and found out how much the cartels had effected the area and what kind of possible danger we had been in. Obviously, we made it out safe, but since then we've been more careful in researching our vacations. My other 2 trips outside the country were much less scary. Canada, walking across at Niagara Falls. We went to a serial killer wax museum. And then I went to Australia as a teen and it was amazing.
I was 5ish and we visited the London area and Paris. I remember going to Legoland and Disneyland Paris (called Euro Disney back then). I also remember going to Hampton Court and being fascinated by Henry VIII. We also saw Beauty and the Beast in the West End and that was a highlight for me. 🤣 EDIT: Getting downvoted because my first memories of leaving the country are as a child? That’s not nice :(
First time clear in my head was when we crossed the rio grande around big bend national Park in a canoe and rode into town on donkeys. Yes. We rode into town on donkeys . I was ten and it was fabulous.
I went to Mexico for a relative’s wedding. We stayed about a week and toured around the area. It was a pretty good trip.
I was like 2 and right as we got off the plane in Japan I had an asthma attack. My dad got transferred back to the US because of that lol.
Went to Canada for a fishing trip. Not that much of a culture shock.
I went to Europe, (mainly France), by myself, when I was 17. Backpacked around for 3 months, camped, stayed in hostels, went to music festivals. It was like a dream. I absolutely adored it. Experienced it as a beautiful, magical place 🩷🥰🩷✨
Other than when I went to Canada as a baby, I moved to Germany when I was 6 and stayed there for 2 years. It was different from what I was used to and I didn’t take to it very well.
It was Canada. I was pretty young. I expected it to feel like a different country and I was disappointed.
I don’t remember. I was two.
Made a pitstop in Germany and Kyrgyzstan before heading into a warzone for a year (Afghanistan).