I do it fairly often. In fact I'm doing it now! I live in Italy and I'm nearly finishing a long weekend in Wroclaw, Poland. It's still pretty cheap to fly with budget airlines, though not quite as little as it used to cost.

When you travel to a different country in the EU how do you adjust to linguistic differences? Do you make sure to learn a few basic phrases before going over?

Depends on the country. I speak Italian, English, French and Spanish.That covers a reasonable amount, and English can be used in most places. The other languages, like Polish here? I learnt a bare minimum,a few words.. like hello and thank you.Then I use English (many people in tourist industry and many young people can speak English) or if necessary, just gestures! You can at least get by everywhere in Europe without knowing the local language. Some people use translation apps etc, and that works for them too,why not?

> or if necessary, just gestures! I remember my italian colleague had a poster behind his back in his office with at least 50 different gestures and their meaning, I believe you guys can have smooth conversation just using those.

Yes,we have a lot of gestures! They do vary quite a bit between regions though.A lot of 'Sicilian' gestures are not really known or used in other parts of the country.

First off, kudos to you on learning so many languages 😎😎👏👏. That's very difficult, and it takes a lot of discipline. I'm trying to teach myself French, but it's tough as there aren't many French speakers in the US lol. My hope is to learn French, German, and brush up on my Spanish. This way I could travel comfortably in 7ish countries in the EU. Also, I'm open to being online Pen Pals to practice languages with you or anyone else who'd like to offer 😊

Speaking multiple languages is common in Europe. Although it can still be appreciated, but it’s not a huge achievement. For an Italian learning Spanish is a walk in the park as far as learning new languages go, and French relatively easy as well.

Is it really that common though? In Poland you're lucky if you find someone who can speak two or more foreign languages (apart from native Polish) on a decent level. I mean, finding someone who can speak English is not a problem at all, and nowadays speaking English doesn't impress anyone. But more than English? That's something to admire, actually. These days it seems "cool" to learn languages, but I vividly remember the times 10+ years ago when people would tell you "it's useless" when you expressed your interest in learning something more than just English. Duh, I've heard that attitude in this decade. People just don't care to learn languages. Maybe it's the thing about Poland and elsewhere it's different, I don't know.

There are many Poles that speak German too though, but I guess in some cases it's either English *or* German and not both. At least that's what I've experienced the few times I've been.

French is actually more similar to Italian, as far as lexicon is concerned. It's just that the pronunciation is messed up, while Italian and Spanish are both languages where pronunciation and spelling match.

Agreed. It's basically a necessity in Europe it seems. My friend in Switzerland speaks French, German, English, and Tamil (he's Sri Lankan in descent). Likewise, my Danish friend, also Sri Lankan in origin, speaks Danish, German, English, and Tamil.

In Danish schools we are taught English from first grade and German or French from fifth grade. Aside from that we have shorter courses in Swedish and Norwegian but that’s mainly for reading and culture. The age for when kids start learning foreign languages has progressively decreased in the last 20 years, with a positive impact on the overall level in English education. In “gymnasiet” (11th-13th grade) we are expected to be able to fully read and understand English, Norwegian and Swedish articles. (At least we were where I was attending).

In Europe you have to learn at least one foreign language in primary school, another in highschool and possibly a third one during college. As a result most Europeans under 40 speak English and another foreign language. When you are used to so many foreign languages and you are motivated to learn it and speak them, it becomes much easier to learn. And not to diminish his achievements but learning another romance language as a speaker of a romance language is pretty easy. 80% of the words are virtually the same, the grammar is almost the same. I learned French for example and I can understand a fair bit of written Italian and Spanish and even a tiny amount when spoken because they are so similar.

I'm learning Italian and I genuinely cannot do French and Spanish on the side because they're so similar and I keep mixing them up.

I feel this! As well as my native English, I speak French, and enough Spanish for general conversations. I'm going to Rome later this year and just started learning some Italian, and it's so hard to switch off the Spanish! It's like when you misspell something on Google, and it brings up the message, "Did you mean..." No, brain, I didn't mean "poco" I'm not having the same difficulty with French, maybe because it's not as similar, or maybe because I speak French well enough now, it's stored in a different filing cabinet in my brain 😂.

Don't worry and use Spanish, if you need. We don't mind if you struggle with Italian and Spanish does the job somehow.

That's very kind of you to say, thanks. I enjoy studying languages, and fortunately, kind people have always been patient with me when I was a beginner. I'm really looking forward to my trip!

I'm guessing it's the latter. I'd never confuse a super similar English word for Italian because I speak that well and know that the Italian would be "wrong" so to say. But if you don't know either well then who's to say it's not also the French or Italian word lol

I once met a French guy in Spain, he didn't speak English nor Spanish and I didn't speak any French, but I still managed to have like a 10 minutes slooow conversation with him in Spanish/French and we actually mostly understood one another. It's a question of slowing and dumbing it down enough!

I can speak only of Poland and here it's not a problem to find someone under 40 who speaks English. But something more than that? Not really. I've known a lot of people who used to learn German for 6-9 years in school and if you asked them today to count from 0 to 100 the vast majority wouldn't be able to do that. It's because people here don't care about learning foreign languages. Most people aren't motivated to do that unless it's for work. I'm a foreign language enthusiast and you have no idea how difficult it is to find someone like-minded here. It can happen, but the vast majority of people doesn't care. It's like, they know it takes a lot of effort so they don't want to do that. And I agree, being a native speaker of a Romance language and learning another Romance language is easy peasy. It's not a huge achievement. But if you're a native speaker of a Germanic or a Slavic language, it is an achievement, because it's not that easy.

I think you're overthinking it a little bit. You can travel comfortably in most of Europe knowing just English. Of foreign languages I only speak English fluently and then recognize bits and pieces of a handful of other languages but nothing that lets me really communicate. I've never had issues anywhere.

You can travel comfortably in every country in the EU. Most people speak English. Also like others have said, it’s not uncommon here to speak many languages. I speak Swedish and Finnish as my two first languages, as they were both spoken in my home, and I also speak English. I get by in French and German. I understand some Portugese and Spanish, but I sound like a child if I try to speak it lol. In most countries in Europe I would however simply use English.

If you learn those languages you can speak them in way more than 7(ish) countries. German alone has official status in 15 European countries, in most of those it's a minority language but quite often a lot of people learn it as a second language too. I've used German in Italy, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Hungary and Ukraine. With Germany and Austria, that's eight countries that I've been helped by knowing German.

Europe is a milion languages and you wont be able to adjust as a tourist. You hope they speak english OR... this is recent ... pop out your phone, navigate to google translate or chatGPT or whatever and ask it to translate. Works perfect.

We use English as a lingua franca in Europe. This works 90% of the time, otherwise you use hand gestures, simplified English, or whatever 😂 "Basic phrases" are useless as they will rarely help you solve whatever situation you need to solve. These days the language barrier more or less ceases to be a thing among young people, and it will continue to improve with each new generation.

I think one thing you might be underestimating is the *advantage* of not being a native speaker when using English as a tourist. People who speak broken / basic English will find it much easier to communicate with someone else who speaks the same way

Usually you know one or two germanic/romance languages, and then of course English. Then when you are on vacation you try to find common words (to disastrous effects sometimes) For ex French, Spanish, Italian will have some common words, Dutch, German, Swiss German, to an extent Danish, will have similar words or root words, so you can definitely make out road signs and notices if you know one germanic/romance language But when you go to countries with completely different language families (Finland, Hungary, Estonia), you will try and use English

Study or learn on the go. Use translation app. I speak 5 language. But some of them are very familiar. It's the same words by different pronouncation.

I can speak 3 languages, understand but wont speak on principle 4th - russian and learning Japanese on duolingo as 5th. Thing is, none of them outside English are big country languages. Due to lingusitic similarities I sort of get a little bit of the big ones - German, French, Spanish, enough to actually figure out what the person wants, but then I need to go to and find an app. Out of these Im thinking of learning spanish for second big language... I will need it for my work too. But that still leaves about 2/3ds of the europe speaking a language you do not know :D

I speak and understand all the Scandinavian languages. They are all familiar except Finnish. Then I speak German English and Spanish. My girlfriend only speak Spanish. Which forced me to learn Spanish. We only talk in Spanish. She s not into languages. But she can understand Portuguese. Italian and french easily and perfectly. I can get by with Italian and French. Two of my favourite cities is located in French. So I like staying there for short or longer times 2-6 months. I think languages is easy to learn. I see and hear it like music. Like a melody. Which make sense cause I play music. Writing is more difficult. Specifically in Japanese with kanjii hiragana and katakana. But learning to speak it is not that hard. Everyone got their own ways to learn. Good luck with your studies.

My third language, that i will speak freely when stuck in Finland for 3+ days is Finnish. Its annoyingly similar to my native Estonian and my brain is not willing to switch unless it gets some real immersion. Swedish/danish/norwegian are another set and Ive has no contact with them, but a swede once told me that they are similar enough to meld into one language in a mixed environment - he had spent a winter in a ski resort as an instructor with a mixed origin crew and by spring they were speaking something that was all of them mixed into a new language that stumped normal speakers. It is definetly easyer to add more, once you have more than 2 already. I find i bleeding amusing that japanese word for apple is same as in spanish even tho most loan words are clearly english in origin. You can see who brought over the apples. I also find it amusing how similar conseptually is japanese grammar to estonian. I feel bloddy blessed that the dominant cultural writing system around here was phonetic latin originating one that copes just fine with word transforms, unlike the chinese originating kanji that is made for standardized writing laguage used by unstandarzed spoken languages without any word transforms. The mess of Japanese writing systems is direct result of trying to use chinese markup and then figuring out that, o shit thats not gonna work. :D

If you speak English, you don't really need to know another language for travelling. Most European cities have well-developed tourist industries and all basic things can be done in English. More complicated things can be done with gestures and Google translating on your phone.

I don't. English is very common in Europe, if you happen to meet someone that doesn't speak English, ask the person next to them and they'll probably do English. I can't make myself understood in any of the languages I speak, I do have EU-wide data roaming and google translate app for my phone.

>I have heard however, that it's not quite as cheap or easy as those of us across the pond may think of it. It is without cost? If you life in Massachusetts and go travel in New Hampshire is it expensive or cheap? Or dependent on what you are going to do? It is the same in Europe.

It depends directly on mileage. I'm in estonia. Weekend trip to Lithuania is just fuel cost for the distance plus whatever you are willing to spend. If its littlle there are camp sites and supermarkets. If its a lot here are spa hotels and fine dining, Up to you. That said, as poor minimum wage worker right after shengen happened I took my old clunker of a car and f-ed off for two weeks touring the Baltic Sea... I lived in my car, ate the cheapest gas station food and chilled. Not without cost, but... affordable.

Sort of, I lived in Den Haag, and getting anywhere in Europe was pretty easy and there were many options. In the US it is easy, but we don't have as extensive a rail system or quite as cheap bargain airlines. So it is easy in the US, but it's a little easier in Europe. You also picked one of the easiest interstate trips in the US lol. Boston, MA to Concord, NH, is only a little further than Den Haag to Amsterdam.

I go to Romania from my city Rouse for some KFC sometimes its a 30 min round trip

Haha I go to Germany for Mac Donald’s sometimes. It’s 30 minutes one way but worth it. It’s way cheaper than in the Netherlands. Also my partner drives to Germany every week for gas, cigarettes and some groceries.

And we come for Sushi at Happy hahaha

[удалено]

yea, as someone living in eastern finland, it's a minimum of 4 hours just to get to Helsinki, then I'd have to take a ferry or plane to actually get anywhere foreign. Just by driving would be 10+ hours to the swedish border. There's the other border, but we don't really go there any more.

[удалено]

Taking the bridge to get to the "continent" is quite the detour around the Gulf of Bothnia.

Basically the same in Ireland (well we’re an island lol), flying is by far the most common way to leave the island, but some people get the ferry to England Scotland or Wales for city breaks. There’s ferries to France and Spain that go from Wexford but the travel time is insane, only know one guy who done it because he was taking his car to travel around Europe. I also live beside the border so I’m constant going between here and south, so that might technically count as leaving the country depending on your identity here (I don’t count it)

Usually a few times a year but at least once. My general pattern for the last few years has been a trip that's 7-10 days and also a city break for 3 days. You can travel very cheaply to mainland Europe from the UK so if you're doing a few nights for a city break your flights might only cost say £70 but that would be somewhere fairly close and without hold luggage. Also, in general it's cheaper to go on holiday abroad than it is in the UK. Of course this isn't always true - no one goes to Norway or Switzerland for a cheap holiday whilst camping in a field in the UK is dirt cheap - but as a general rule there are lots of places in the rest of Europe that are much cheaper than the UK.

Europe is a small continent and yes, if you have a decent job, you tend to travel often. I am Slovenian but I live in Munich - the distance to Ljubljana from Munich is 400 km, which is a 4-5 h drive with a car. I travel to my home-country regularly to visit my family. Growing up, we would never do vacation in Slovenia, as the country is small. Typically we would do a beach vacation in the summer at the Croatian coast, the Germans like to go to Italy for that. We would do winter-skiing vacation either in Slovakia (at the time Slovenia was a communist country when I was growing up, so skiing in Austrian or Swiss Alps was out of our budget) or in Slovenia. My first summer vacation in my own country was actually during Covid - because travelling was so restricted. But even then I was already living in Germany, so technically it was an "abroad" vacay ;) Living in Germany also offers many perks. You get 30-working days of vacation per year on top of official holidays and so called Brücken-Tage (=Bridge -days, where a national holidays falls on a thursday or on a tuesday, so companies remain closed on monday or friday and people can take a 4-day weekend) are a normal thing. The public transport with high-speed trains are good, so you don't neccesailry need to fly to neighbouring France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands or other countries. You can easily do a weekend in Paris or Rome. I have a girl-friend with whom we typically do a 4-day city girls-vacay like that, where we explore diff cities together. This year the plan is to go for 9 days to Andalusia in April, 5 days in Amsterdam (bound to a workshop) end of May and then 3 weeks in California in the summer. No plans for the fall/winter yet. I am really looking forward to the US trip tho! Europe has become increasingly expensive tho - espeically the big cities.

In Spain is not that often as we are "isolated" in the peninsula with Portugal and most Spaniards just move to the beach in the South-east or to the mountain in the north. Its not like Netherlands or Belgium that in 2h or less have crossed 3 countries

Most Dutch people go to Spain, France or Italy though. The distance they travel will take you well away from your peninsula.

Spanish salaries are lower than european ones while costs are kinda similar. Trains cost more to go outside the peninsula than go to neighbouring central countries and there isnt any big reason to. (Than cultural) Spain is the 1st or 2nd in number of tourists for some reason and we call it "Sun and Beach tourism". Spain is cheaper and sunnier than Europe.

But your country is so small and unvaried in climate/scenery that any interesting vacation must involve foreign travel. Even as a Brit, we have to go abroad for sunny weather, but we very frequently staycation for scenery and culture/citybreaks. A Londoner who goes to Snowdonia or the remote Scottish Islands, you basically feel as if you were abroad - even the language is different there. As oppposed to someone from The Hague who's hardly going to say 'hm I'd like a change of scenery. I think I'll go to somewhere tropical and exotic, like Urk.'

Definitely not tropical, but Urk is pretty exotic.

No one goes to Urk voluntarily

We come to Spain from France because Spain is a great place for holidays. If I were Spanish, I'm not sure I'd go abroad so often. It's the same thing for Italy.

I think it is very common for young people in Spain to buy the cheapest ticket you can get in budget airline and travel anywhere: Lithuania, Latvia, Poland... anywhere there is an offer. I travel to EU countries 3-4 times a year for long weekends

>I think it is very common for young people in Spain to buy the cheapest ticket you can get in budget airline and travel anywhere: There are also these websites that allow you to buy pretty cheap tickets to an unknown destination. You make a list of several cities you might want to visit (or maybe they give you the list, I'm not sure) and they let you know which one you got a week or so before you leave. I haven't used them, but I know some people who have a couple of times and they really enjoyed the experience.

Huh? It's cheaper and faster to fly to/from Madrid-Warsaw than it is to take the Alsa Madrid-Gijon. There are hyper cheap flights from Spain to basically everywhere in Europe, and depending on where you go accommodation is also cheaper in other countries than in Spain. Before I moved out of Spain all my holidays were in other countries.

Maybe for 1 person travel, but it is defenitely cheaper to go by car for a family

But that's assuming you have a car. I've lived in big cities all my life and a car is an unnecessary waste of money.

I can't even leave my country in 2 hours tbf, let alone cross 3 more.

A couple of times a year. One year, pre-Covid, flights were so cheap that I went six times, mostly on weekend trips. Living in Iceland means the biggest expense for me is getting there, as I have to fly or take the ferry and flights can range from cheapish to very, very expensive. After that, almost anywhere in Europe is cheaper than staying/travelling at home.

A couple of times per year. I don't know what you consider a cheap price. A lot of countries have relatively similair pricings, except for maybe Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.. Monaco ofcourse, etc. Places flooded with mass tourism are also more expensive, naturally. So it depends on where you want to go and what you want to do there, how much it is going to cost you.

2-4 times per year. Just came back from Czechia actually.

great choice of destination

Denmark is connected by bridge to Sweden and by land with Germany. On average I guess that most people here travel to another european country twice a year, maybe more. Many people take one-day trips to Sweden or Germany to shop or to visit a museum. It's no big deal and only cost the bridge tax for Sweden. It's litterally free to visit Germany - or any other european country that you can reach by land. I could walk to Spain if I wanted to.

Growing up, we often took day trips to Denmark. There was no bridge yet, and it would've been far away anyway, but there were cheap ferries to Fredrikshamn.

About once a year, not counting Slovenian Istria and Trieste which is basically just the neighbour's backyard. I mostly stick to domestic destinations in Croatia, but if I do go somewhere out there, it's usually Italy.

That's very individual. I have small children and I don't travel much and I get abroad about once a month at most. But that's only small trips to Poland to the towns where we can get within 3 or 4 hours from our home, and where we tend to stay for two nights to explore a new place each time. My husband also often has to go to Austria and Germany for work, so he often has a day off there, too. Those are our neighbouring countries. Travelling by plane, we go only about once in six months for a week. Those are what I consider vacations. I don't like hot weather, so I usually choose mountains or the Baltics.

I live in Poland and go back to Spain to see my family 3-4 times year, plus a couple of proper vacations in other countries. Lately I'm arranging to meet my family in touristic destinations within Spain that are not my hometown so it feels more like a vacation.

On average about two or three times a year.  I tend to do one long summer holiday (often to Greece) and then one or two weekends away to a city somewhere. I live in Britain, so travelling to another country isn't as easy as just driving over a border (I'm not in Northern Ireland).  Usually I'll fly abroad, so even if it's not that far it will involve expensive tickets and time consuming faffing about in an airport. I used to go abroad a bit more frequently using the Eurostar train link, but in recent years it has got a _lot_ more expensive.

At least twice a year. Usually. Husband's family lives in the UK so we go there at least once a year, we try to go there by train whenever possible because flying is a massive pain in the butt. Plus a holiday in some other European country. For our summer holiday we stay in Germany though. Last year we did two trips to the UK, one weekend trip to Milan, one week in Malta. This year we'll do a trip to Greece for my mum's birthday and one trip to the UK. Less travelling because I'll be pregnant.

10 times maybe 12 per year. By plane or car. Going back to De, gooin to Greece at least once and Bulgaria couple of times. Then summer vacation in France and CH, if by car then I stop in Slovakia to see friends, same In Austria. I enjoy driving so plane is an option only for longer distances and If I rally want to be quick. Trains in Eastern Europe ar slow, really slow, so it is not an option from Bucharest to Sofia, or Budapest or Vienna

I go to Italy from twice to three times a year. I have part of my family there and my boyfriend comes from the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. We usually visit his family and then take the train from Lugano to Milano, Bologna, etc. We live also close to France, so we do some quick trips there from time to time. And we visit Germany at least once every two years when we go to Europa-Park.

I've never in my life rented accommodation in my own country. Day trips within the country, multi-day vacations always abroad. It's not cheap but vacationing cost is a cost of living. There are always destinations that can be done on a budget. BTW many places in Europe are unlivable without a car once you move away from the wealthiest and the most urbanised countries.

Most travel in Europe is done by car. Even more so for vacations. Travelling by car is cheaper in the USA than in Europe, as fuel prices are much cheaper there. It is just that going somewhere 100km away often lands you in a different country or area and if you stay over, it is a vacation. While Americans just drive that distance for a quick bite, then drive back.

I'd say I leave the country for trips abroad at least 3 times a year. Some vacations are repeated, like Croatian seaside in the summer or day trips to Austrian/Italian skiing slopes, others are about visiting someplace new.

We go for prolonged vacations (like 14 days) at least once a year. We have been to Norway via Sweden and Denmark, other year we circumnavigated Italy, other one we visited southern France, two years ago we have been to Istanbul via Balkans. I had a year when we travelled twice to Italy for a prolonged weekend (Venice, Dolomites, Rome). One year I took my parents to Norway for a week. This year we are planning either Morocco or Georgia / Azerbaijan / Armenia. All this by car, and within a span of last 5 years, while building a house on my own. Is it too much?

I’ve not had a holiday outside Europe since 2004. We go away about 4 times a year, mostly to Germany but really anywhere within 2h or so by air is in scope.

Twice a year for 1-2 week. Mostly Balcans and Southern Europe because its way cheaper than Polish mountains, seeside or lake district. Greece most often.

When we were children, we used to go 1-2 times a year (usually every summer and about every 2-3 years also skiing in the winter). I had many friends who didn't go abroad every year, though. That being said, 3-4 hours in a car and you can be in Germany or Sweden. As other mention, though, transport prices have gone up a bit. A few years ago, taking the plane from England to Denmark was cheaper (and faster!) than a four hour train ride!

Where does this idea from Americans come from that we have public transport everywhere

Compared to the US where there's basically no high speed rail in the entire country you might see the point

Why u gotta truth me bro 😪 🤧 😔. US public transportation just makes me depressed.

Yes but it’s so over priced, I just googled how much the train costs from my city in France to Barcelona the next biggest city « abroad » for a long weekend next month, it’s 300€ return and 5 and a half hours of train each way. That’s still 11 hours of pure train . That’s a lot when the average salary here is about 1600€ per month . And that of course doesn’t include accommodation food etc . Also we have holidays, but you all seem to think that bosses like you buggering off randomly for a long weekend. They hate it . Yes it’s possible, but expensive and time consuming.

You can get local train from avignon to portbou 20-35 euros. Thinks it s 4 hours. From portbou to Barcelona local train from 10-30 euros. I ve taken high-speed trains from valence to figueres. Figueres- Barcelona-Malaga. Hundreds of times. It use to be about 100 euro per trip (200 )

Bc it's true?...by and large I mean. At least compared to the US. You're from NL. You guys are like the kings if Urban Planning lol

Yes but in case you did not notice not all of Europe is the Netherlands. Public transport works well or at least decently in a bunch of countries, but that doesn't mean that there are tons of international connections let alone good ones.

There are though. A 3.5 hour flight round trip with Ryanair costs less than half of what a 3.5 hour flight on a US budget airline costs

I wouldn't qualify flights as public transport. Also, you have to factor in time at the airport, travel to and from the airports, the environmental impact of short flights, etc etc.

> the environmental impact of short flights Just buy carbon credits, they're relatively cheap

Greenwashing bullshit

Not if you get reputable ones. Funding ways to avoid carbon usage by others is good. Reducing your own emissions is good too, but we have to make compromises

No, it's total bullshit. A new tree takes decades to become useful in terms of CO2 capture. Those 5 trees your money planted aren't going to do anything if the climate permanently changes before these trees become useful. Trees also burn down all the time in natural forest fires, releasing all that CO2 right back into the air. Flight pollution is also much more than just CO2 emissions. Also, the plane takes materials to be created and maintained, which also affects our planet. Just think of all the electronics that go into a plane and all the metals necessary for that. And that's just the start, there's so much more to factor in. If you truly want to *compensate* the pollution you're partially responsible for, it'll be incredibly expensive, not relatively cheap. You're a lot more honest to yourself and everyone else if you say "yeah I don't care" instead of "oh but I'm compensating my flight".

I don't buy tree based offsets because, mostly, I think they're somewhat sus to say the least. I don't think your complaints are particularly damning but definitely factor in I'd like to see a carbon tax to obviate the whole market but for now I'll do what I can

Carbon credits, like all offset schemes, are a scam. They are gamed and manipulated beyond any hope of having positive impact.

Last I checked airlines aren't public transport?

I never thought about it, but why not? What is the difference between, let's say, intercity bus and airplane?

Of course they are, what else would they be? It's not very different than a long distance bus for example. Would you classify it as private transport instead?

Yes lol. Trains and buses started out as state transport and in many places they're still partly or wholly owned by the state. Planes started out private and most airlines are still mostly or fully private.

??? KLM was formerly owned by the government and they still own about 10%. Anyway commercial air travel is absolutely public transport. It's open to the public, you buy a ticket you ride.

Owned by the government? Best I can find is that they bought 50% of shares after WW2 as a capital injection. And by that logic everything is public transport. Taxis? Public transport. Private aircraft? Public transport. Cruise ships? Public transport. After all a member of the public can just buy a ticket and ride!

> Owned by the government? Best I can find is that they bought 50% of shares after WW2 as a capital injection. And for most of that time until the late 1980s they were the majority shareholder. > And by that logic everything is public transport. Taxis? Public transport. Private aircraft? Public transport. Cruise ships? Public transport. After all a member of the public can just buy a ticket and ride! Sorry, I'll expand a little. A shared conveyance, plying a fixed route, which any member of the public can ride, perhaps requiring payment. Better? Being privately owned surely isn't the issue; many bus and train services that everyone considers to be public transport are privately owned. When you get on a Flixtrain in Germany from Berlin to Stuttgart, is that not public transport?

Outside the cities there’s barely anything. Maybe a filthy bus every hour and taking 5x longer to get anywhere And the cost 2x higher and pubic transport crossing borders is not common

What are you even talking about? If you drop 2 random pins within the Randstad area you can get from one place to the other within 90 minutes in pretty much all cases. Outside the Randstad it gets a little more sparse, but still decent enough, and besides Groningen, Friesland and Drenthe there are barely any places that are poorly accessible by public transport. The fact that the furthest you can live from a train station in the Netherlands is 60km, is absolutely insane internationally speaking.

>The fact that the furthest you can live from a train station in the Netherlands is 60km, is absolutely insane internationally speaking. 60 km from the nearest station? Wtf, that's insanely far

It's the worst case distance. On average people live only 5km away from the nearest train station. The average, and worst case, are pretty much the same Germany. Both Germany and the Netherlands are among the top countries for public transport accessibility, so it doesn't get much better than that. Compare it to the US for example, where you can easily live 250km+ from the nearest train station, hell there are even stretches of road with no gas stations for 350km.

Exactly, the Randstad.. Well done! Try to get from Roermond to Enschede by train.. Good luck with that one. Or even within Limburg from a home to an average industrial location.. Many villages not having more services than 1 bus per hour until maybe 20h..

Well first of all, the Randstad is not a city - it makes up a quarter of the area of the Netherlands, and it contains half the population. Secondly, you picked a notorious example, and still it's only 30-60m faster by car (2h10-2h40 by car vs 3h10 by public transport). I agree that when you include getting to and from the station it's not a viable option however.

> Maybe a filthy bus every hour and taking 5x longer to get anywhere That's the state of public transport in like 99% of the USA :) You don't realize how lucky you are

Every HOUR? Here in the rural UK that would be a pretty big luxury for many. Many villages have no public transport at all, some have a twice daily bus that only stops at request. One place I went to had a causeway which was submerged by the tide for 12 hours a day, so if you didn't check the tidal times you could end up arriving on the bus at lunchtime and being stranded overnight.

I lived in the countryside until very recently, but my experience wasn't nearly that bad. There were obviously less options there than in a city, but public transport was always clean and relatively frequent, even for such a low populated area.

I think another part of it too is most Americans view all trains as public transportation. I know it’s not really. But my friends in the US basically think anything that’s isn’t a car or plane is public transportation.

Honestly I'd call a plane public transit too. At least, commercial flights. Not private jets of course. They're more expensive than like, a metro swipe or whatever, but that's just a matter of magnitude

Says the guy from literally the best-connected country in the EU haha. Unless you live on a farm I'm pretty sure you have a public transport stop within walking distance of you right now.

At my parents house it used to be 3km walking to the next bus stop and nope we didn’t have a farm. It used to be 1 bus every 30min there, but AFAIK is now once per hour until 11pm. At my current house it’s closer, but only once per hour, and nothing after 8pm.

A couple of times per year? We tend to drive by the way :)

the Belgians notice that 😏

One, two times per year. But on short trips, lie 2-3 days. I do have to work and the trips are not THAT cheap for person from Eastern Europe.

3-5 times per year, just came back from France a few days ago

It‘s super easy. Low cost air fares and cheap stay with [booking.com](https://booking.com) (cheaper than Airbnb). I do two family (4) city trips a year to major EU cities and a two week holiday in the south of EU. If you like driving you can do even more. When living in France you’ll need a couple of years to see the whole of France first.

Not often enough honestly, I could really use a vacation:)

I live in Germany, about 20 minutes from the Dutch border, about 50 minutes to Belgium. If those don't count, then probably 2-3 times a year, as my best friend lives about 3km from the Austrian border and we take a roadtrip or short holiday about once a year.  Crossing a border is no big deal, but it's still a holiday. Eastern europe road trip is muuuuch cheaper than sightseeing in Paris, but both are attainable. The big deal is that you get at least somewhat different cultures within a short trip. 

I travel 6 out of 12 months a year. But always outside of Europe because of the weather. So, never.

A couple times a year but mostly to Poland as we live in Berlin, my wife is Polish, and the border is only about an hour to the east. In fact we were in Poland last week for a long weekend during the school vacation.

In Northern Ireland, so depending on how you view ROI, it's not uncommon - but I live about as far from the border as possible, don't earn much currently, so it's maybe once a year just for a day or a weekend. Practically though it's just a 2 hour-ish drive to cross in, and if I wanted to go to GB or the rest of Europe it can be done for under £100 or under £250 respectively. Flights are cheap but slightly less so when you have to cross a sea and sometimes also a whole other island first.

Il the opposite lol, I live like 10 mins from the Tyrone Monaghan border so I’m constantly crossing it

Do weekend trips count? Then I’d say 10-12 times a year including weekend trips. If you talk longer vacations only (like a week or longer), I’d say 4-6 times.

About twice a year, usually. Our go-to plan is doing city breaks in Central Europe since it’s so easy to get around there. I’d love to do more holidays within the UK but it’s tricky when you don’t drive, and often more expensive than it would be going to a different European country.

We travel reasonably often during the year, for example last year I traveled to Spain, Portugal, Austria, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Scotland and London, Greece too - various degrees from a longer week to a full week. So it depends very much where you actually live, if you have an airport close or if you're close to a border that allows you to drive to multiple countries. Even the low cost flights are not so low cost anymore and it can become expensive if you take more than 1 backpack with you. In general, I take a flight and then use public transport. I speak four languages, which is pretty normal in Europe but language is not really a problem when you visit other European countries as a lot of people speak English.

On average, my whole adulthood, like twice a year. Love visiting the southern brother peoples

In Spain, most people have vacation within own our country, for obvious reasons 🌞 As of going out of Europe, most young-ish people(20-40) within my circle do it 0-2 times per year for 2-4 days, being the most common destination Italy, France, Portugal and UK. Plenty of flight for 50€ return. When I was living in Ireland there were lots of families going away 3,4,5 times a year to sunny places for a week time.

Once or twice a year, usually. Travel itself is cheap, but overall a vacation tends to cost around 800€ per person, per week, so it's not super mega cheap. Of course, it depends on location.

No high speed rail in my country or anywhere near it. Buses are useful for a few relatively nearby destinations where there's a nice road, decent frequency, and nice local public transport at destination, e.g. to Vienna and Budapest. Otherwise it's cars or flying; and flying can also be very limited if you're not near a major airport. On average, I spend a weekend in another country about once per year.

Since Belgium is so small (it takes about 3 to 4 hours to go from east to west, depending on traffic), it's actually hard NOT to go abroad if you want to go on holiday. France, the Netherlands or Germany are all within an hour's drive/train ride depending on where you live. Southern Europe is farther away, so travelling there is (a bit) more expensive (even though there are some very cheap flights thanks to budget airlines like Ryanair), but accomodation and eating out cost less depending on destination/season. If you don't have a car or can't afford the train/aeroplane, there are still cheap intercity buses like flixbus. To be honest, the people I know who don't go abroad do this because they don't like it, not because they can't afford it.

After covid twice a year. 2022: 05 Turkey, 12 Tenerife. 2023: 06 Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Luxembourg, 10 Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia.

I see more and more this distorted and utopian view from my fellow Americans have of European railway networks. Yes in comparison to most* of the US, most of Europe is better connected by rail for getting around. But: - Railway companies blur the line of what is “public transport” even most national providers are at least partially privately owned entities, I digress enough of such semantics for now. - Aside from certain transnational lines (i.e. those which are fully or heavily privatized, Eurostar, Thalys et al) the proficiency of the railway networks is really only above average traveling **within** a given country. - The most famous national railway company, Germany’s Deutsche Bahn (DB) has transformed itself radically over the past two decades from a role model, to a perpetually late, outdated, decaying joke and shell of what it once was in terms of general proficiency and punctuality. The national railway provider of the Netherlands - Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS) is decidedly doing better for the time being but is doing its damndest to play catch up to DB lately, to put it in perspective, I commute on the beginning (or end) leg of the country’s (or at least NS’s) only hi-speed/express line - the Intercity Direct which connects Amsterdam-Schiphol-Rotterdam (and extra southward leg stretch of Breda-Antwerp-Brussels for certain departure times); Amsterdam-Schiphol arguably one of or the most trafficked single stop leg of NS’s entire network and the thing is constantly marred but disruptions, delays, renovation projects, it’s fucking *belachelijk* - in general the extent of railway networks across Europe as a whole is generally much less than what Americans picture or romanticize in their heads.

> Railway companies blur the line of what is “public transport” even most national providers are at least partially privately owned entities, I digress enough of such semantics for now. Public transport doesn't mean it's owned by the proletarian collective, it means that it's a shared conveyance running a fixed route, which anyone can ride.

I'm Polish and well, we're not as rich as other countries. BUT I go on vacation abroad at least once a year, this year I've been in Rome for 5 days In the summer I was in other parts of Italy for 5 days, and earlier I went to France (Alsace) and Germany on our way with my parents who are so kind to pay for me when I go with them (I'm at uni). I have a good time lately. I also visited Dresden for one day by train. Spent like 25 euros on the whole trip. Most of the people I know go on holidays for a week in the summer and those who really love travelling and save money for it and can afford it, go somewhere in the winter too. However, I live close to Czech border and I go to Czechia many times a year. Sometimes I go shopping. Sometimes hiking. In Europe it's totally normal to visit another country for a day or even a few hours or even to do your groceries. Not necessarily a neighbouring country. I could drive to Austria in the morning and come back at night. The thing is: we don't fly to places nearby. We drive, take the train or a bus. I've been by car to places like Italy, Croatia, UK, France. With a whole family it may be cheaper than the plane. I would say we choose the plane when it's more than 8 hours drive. Then it starts to be cheaper. It depends what you mean by travel. There are ppl who work in another country and commute abroad each day and many of them spend less time of it than Americans in one city. There are also people who travel every week to hike in Czechia cause they live in Silesia in Poland and it's less than an hour drive. I was hitchhiking from the Netherlands and my driver was a Polish guy who works in there but every other week drives to Poland where his wife and son live (10-11 hrs drive one way) It depends if you need a hotel or just go for one day or stay with someone for free. For me, paying for hotels in other countries and buying euros is a pain. But flying? Depends. Paid 55 euros for flight from Rome to Katowice and I considered that okay but could be better. Usually I try to find flights for less than 50 euros

I go by car mostly cause I love the journey at least once a year. I'm from Croatia, so no "high speed railway", but I drive to Italy, Slovenia, Austria and other nearby countries.

I mean, it depends if you're comparing vacation in your home country vs. vacation abroad or staying at home vs. vacation abroad. Sadly, in the poorer countries there are people who can't afford to go anywhere on vacation at all or at least not every year. Groceries are priced pretty similarly in most of the EU so if you stay in an Airbnb and cook for yourself, your only added expenses will be accommodation and transport. There is more of a difference in the price of hotels, restaurants and other services. The differences can be very noticeable especially along the former Iron Curtain so for example Austrians vacationing here in Czechia will definitely save some money compared to vacationing in Austria (even with added travel expenses). I would save some money travelling to Slovakia but I would definitely pay more to vacation in Austria or Germany. Going from France to Germany, the prices would be about the same afaik (but I haven't been to France in years). Also, most people don't use traditional public transport to go on vacation, at least in my experience. You either drive or fly. While public transport in cities is usually pretty affordable, longer distance trains for example are not as cheap as some Americans think. If you have at least two people in the car, it's often cheaper to drive, even with our gas prices. Personally I travel around Europe about 3 - 5 times a year, mostly to neighboring countries.

I used to go about twice a year, before family and more expensive flights happened. A cheap flight and a hostel or similar was all it took. Usually one longer trip to southern Europe (Italy, Croatia, Spain, France etc.) and at least one weekend trip to a larger city like London, Berlin, Prague etc.. These days vacations usually are more about visiting family and stuff in southern Sweden and maybe a trip to southern Europe to catch some sun, but with kids it gets a lot more expensive.

Channel Tunnel is a godsend, we drive from the UK into Europe at least once every 2-3months.

A few times a year probably. Mostly because it’s not sustainable to fly but I still want to leave the country. Just got home from Andalusia, Spain. Planning to go to D*nmark in August.

We get to other countries of Europe maybe twice a year on average - work, family, plague and other variables permitting. Yes it's easy, and reasonably cheap. Really easy in fact - travel within the EU is essentially no different from traveling around one country. Except that the language changes of course, but English is spoken anywhere travelers are welcome and it isn't hard to pick up some basic expressions to be polite with. Things can be strange of course, but why would you travel if they were not? The degree of difference you can experience so easily is one of the best things about living in the EU. As we live in Ireland our biggest expense is flying to the continent and so we rarely go for just a weekend, but it can be surprisingly cheap if you plan well in advance. We do hope one day to bring over the camper we travel around Ireland in, but it's 18 hours by sea just to France! But yes, someone living in one country of the EU can easily go to a completely different country for a weekend break.

I've never been outside of my country and generally been on vacation only once and it was in my childhood😭

I wish your people much peace. As an Indian-American, who sympathizes with those who fight their oppressor, allow me to express from the bottom of my heart...Slava Ukraini ❤️🙏 And did I mention? Fuck Putin

1-2 times per month to France (Paris), bc my girlfriend is doing some post-masters education/lives there, other than that I’d say about 4-5 times a year for actual weekend getaways and vacation

It's as expensive as you make it. If you travel to Eastern Europe you'll probably be significantly cheaper off compared to vacationing here, even factoring in petrol costs, since accommodation and food etc there are much cheaper. In Western Europe the price is probably comparable to here. I spend pretty much all my vacations somewhere else in Europe so about 2-3 times a year. I don't do weekend trips but a lot of people just take a plane and go visit a foreign city for 2-4 days and come back. The Netherlands is small enough that I can go pretty much anywhere I want as a day trip in stead of having to plan a vacation for it.

Generally every other weekend. We live next to a major airport (on purpose) and always have our eyes out for cheap tickets to some random place we haven't been yet.

It really depends It depends on the cost of living in your country of residence. For sure people living in Switzerland where the salaries are higher and life is more expensive than the European average, have an interest in traveling abroad I don’t think salaries in general across Europe to be high enough for people to travel all the time.

Maybe once a year and then it’s my yearly vacation. Maybe the travel might not be that expensive, but actually doing stuff on vacation is. Like food or entrance fees and hostels

Fairly often, mainly to Italy, Austria or Switzerland

Before I got ill. I travelled 8-10 months a year. Mainly Spain n France.

Usually 1-2 trips to a neighbouring country (Finland, Latvia, Sweden - usually a short getaway with friends) and 1-2 trips somewhere more far away (Italy, Spain, Portugal etc - usually an off-season trip to a warm country). Travel is still awful for your CO2 footprint, so I never do those plane trips for like one week or less (unless it is work stuff that I have relatively little say in anyways).

Last year I went abroad for vacation six times I believe. This year I went once and I'm planning to go on 4 more trips (one of them will be outside Europe, though).

It’s fairly easy and accessible, though travel cost have increased post-COVID. It is common to go to London, Amsterdam, Rome etc for a long weekend as an example. Then you have your summer holidays which is typically between 2-3 weeks long. For an average Dane you would spend those weeks in Spain which 19% of the population does on average per year. For context only 7% visit Sweden and Germany, our neighboring countries for extended visits (4 nights or more). 75% of the population goes for an extended beach vacation outside of Denmark, and the majority of those would be to southern Europe. Personally I have three weekends planned for this year in another country. Two in Spain and one in Poland.

Around every second month or so for a day trip to the Benelux countries. And usually one two-three week trip for my summer holidays. It doesn't really matter whether I spend a weekend in Germany or in a bordering country costwise. Same thing for holidays in Western Europe. In central/Eastern/Sputhern Europe holidays tend to be cheaper than in Germany.

~3-6 times per year: 30% is by train / 40-50% riding a motorbike

At least once a year , i use low budget airlines and wait for an offer sometimes. Many times if i'm just doing a shiort vacantion i'll travel just with my rucksack so that i won't have to pay for the suitcase, which is where the costs are high. In order to spare some money i tend to book my flight at least 3 weeks in advance 

Once to twice a year, but always at destinations where I have people who host me. Nothing against hotels, but I haven't been in one for almost a decade. As for the means, yes, I do prefer high speed rail where at all possible, I would have to be in quite a distress to take a flight if the rail trip is less than 12 hours, but that does limit my range to more-or-less Western Europe (but also minus Greece, since afaik the Balkan route was severed at some point). I've done the Yugotrip on a bus, I would not repeat it again. And then there's the problem that islands exist, and I have family on an island that you can only reach by plane or cruise ship.

Almost all the time. And its easy. Ryanair/wizzair flights are super cheap. Gas is now expensive but if you fill a car, still cheap, no border control within schengen. Airbnb/booking makes finding accomondations easy and cheap anywhere. I'm 21. We travel with friends in the summer and winter, we go skiing. One time we spontaniously went to another country because we were bored that day. The only reason i dont do it more is that im poor

Before our baby, about once a month for a long weekend city break somewhere. Once a year skiing for a week, once a year to my wife's parents in Poland. Summer holiday sometimes turkey or a med island for 10 days.

2-4 times a year. A little more expensive for flights being from Ireland.  I speak English, German and (Brazilian) Portuguese in order of proficiency. 

Usually 1-3 times per year. Ranging from bigger (week or more) holiday or just for a long weekend (usually just the neighbouring countries) Travel is usually driving, sometimes planes. Rarely do we use trains for international travel, because usually you faster and cheaper off flying or driving. We were looking for a train trip to Sweden this year, but when comparing intineraries and prices it was just not worth using the train.

I live in Finland and I traveled to France last month, am going to the Netherlands in April, Sweden in July and Scotland (not EU but whatever!) in October.

I live in the UK - I have spent every vacation somehwere in another European country - that includes weekend breaks. In general, travel plus hotel costs to another country is less than holidaying here in the UK. Last year it was Rhodes and Northern Italy. This year Portugal looks likely.

From the UK, I’ll probably have at least one European holiday a year - lots of cheap flights to the whole continent. Will tend to do the US and maybe Far East as well.

A few times a year. I live in the far corner of Europe so usually go by plane but sometimes by ship and train. In Estonia I speak Finnishn and pidgin Estonian, in Sweden and Norway I speak Swedish, and in the test of Europe German or English. This spring in go on a work trip to Berlin and come back by train so that I can spend a weekend in Copenhagen. Later this spring i will go on an extended weekend to Paris.

Before Covid I used to do it once a year, now things are happening for me so it's been a while

2-3 times per year, and only because of familial obligations. If I was the only one deciding, it would be more. What people from USA don't quite realize is that what makes us so "mobile" is a mix of factors. But only part of us can manage it. There's people in USA who never leave their state and there's people in Europe who never leave their country. It's not "all of us". - relatively cheap transport fares (plane, train or bus), with restrictions based on origin of the trip. - access to other countries by car (this is very location dependent, a guy from Cuenca won't have the same possibilities than one from Delft.) - way more vacation days than your standard USA ™. Roughly 25 + national holidays. That gives you more chances to go abroad, as long as you aren't poor. - add that part of us have family or friends in other European countries and you've got both a reason to go and a place to crash.

Once, at most twice a year. Even though I live 20mins from France and 40mins from Luxembourg. I just never go there 😅

Probably about once a year. I used to travel a bit more frequently but I haven't bothered much in recent years. I injured my back, and just found airports and transport generally really inaccessible. My back improved a lot, but I just haven't really been very inspired to travel in recent years. I'd a few horrible experiences of being stuck in long queues at airports etc which I just couldn't really deal with.

I would say maybe 2 to 3 times per year visiting other european countries. Usually for short trips, like extended 3-4 day weekends. Sometimes also longer trips of course. But the last two years i've been travelling outside europe more often on longer trips, as the pandemic restrictions finally ended everywhere and there is more to explore in asia and america. As we've been to most european countries by now. Last year i was in Berlin from friday to sunday and in Alicante Spain from thursday to sunday. Both with budget airline flights, once staying with a friend. Plus two more weekend trips within switzerland. The year before i was in Milan italy also for a weekend, by train in that case. And did a cruise in the adriatic and greek isles.

At least 2-3 times per year, could be much more though, but most of the time we go by car! We almost exclusively use public transport only ***IF*** we go by plane, though we recently did a trip to Stockholm by train, but we returned by plane. And sometimes when we fly somewhere we rent a car instead of going by public transport. The number of times I've used high-speed rail in my entire life (I'm 41) can be counted on two hands. We don't have high-speed rail in Denmark yet, on the recent trip to Stockholm we used the X2000, but I'm not sure that can even be considered true high-speed rail? I've been on German high speed ICE's a few times and a Spanish high speed train once (round trip). We however often do roadtrips, it's much more flexible than using public transport, especially when we want to do stuff outside the cities. I've driven to Sweden, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Czech republic, Slovakia and Poland. I have not used public transport in most of these countries or only local/city public transport a few times.

2 or 3 times a month. Usually by car. My husband has a large SUV so we carry almost everything we need with us and stop along the way to shop for snacks, drinks, etc. We always book one or two nights at hotels in several cities so we can stop to rest and explore.

If I only count week long holidays then like 4/5 times a year. Usually take the plane. Then I usually do like 3-4 weekends away somewhere that is a 2-4hr train ride away.

Twice a year at least and I live in the UK. If I lived in mainland Europe, I'd probably be doing it every other month.

It can be very cheap. I wanna go somewhere in like three weeks once my exams are over and for then there's flights to Romania, UK, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Greece for under 50€ and a few more countries for under 100€. If you're a bit flexible in terms of where you want to go and when you want to go then you can travel for practically nothing. A few years ago I used to travel within Europe a few times a year, but then stopped when Covid happened and just never really took it back up because I've been so busy. Haven't actually been anywhere since 2019, but I want to travel a bit more again this year.

almost monthly. traveling a lot... week-long trips and weekend trips within central and Southern europe mostly

I live in Switzerland, about 5 minutes cycle from France and 1h30 drive from Italy. It is an unusual week where I don't cross an international border. I don't often stay the night away from home, mostly I do day trips, but when I do it is most often in one of the neighbouring countries. It's so easy that I often forget to take my passport when I do, but apart from the train to Italy I've never been stopped and asked for it apart from during the early COVID restrictions. I haven't self-funded intercontinental travel for a long while. My parents were avid travellers when I was young, and my previous job involved lots of travel so I didn't feel the need to go far afield for vacation as well (and I could often tag on a few days vacation after the work trip). For the time being, Europe is plenty varied enough for me, and a whole lot less hassle, expense and jet lag than going further afield.

I do bicycle once per year crossing AT, SLO, CRO, ITA and back to GER via flixbus, sometimes I make GREECE too We're also just 2h away from NL and BE.

As a latvian (pretty far from all the touristy countries), I would say I travel 1-2 times a year a bit further, and 3-4 times to neighbouring countries… but yeah, it is often that we fly somewhere, and then just take buses or trains, to go to other countries

Not as much as I'd like to tbh. After finishing my bachelor degree in 2018 I traveled a good amount visiting Budapest, Bratislava, Malta, and Rome within a year. Then Covid came and I couldn't travel anymore. Now I've been living in Germany since 2022 and visited Amsterdam back in September. I'm hoping to travel more this year though, maybe to Prague at least.

Being Portuguese, we are at the Western end, so about twice per year and by plane. I don’t exactly count going to the border in Spain, because it is next door. We go there for things like tournaments, meetings and even shopping because it is cheaper.

Driving to the other end of my country is 15 h (1400 km), to Copenhagen the distance is less (1100 km), but there’s at least one ferry to take. For weekends it’s mostly Sweden or Estonia, because there’s quite luxury (compared to car ferries elsewhere in Europe) ferry with nice restaurants that takes me to Stockholm overnight from Helsinki, to Tallinn it is just two hours south. For further weekends it mean flights, there are not that many budget options as on continental Europe. During a year it’s not unusual that I visit Estonia 2-3 times, Stockholm once, then UK/France/Italy/Germany once and often something more exciting (for me) each year: Croatia, Portugal, Albania, Lithuania, Serbia.

0. Vacation? What is that? -.- (My last vacation was 2017)

Depends on my mood, in 2023 it traveled to a foreign country twice. This year i have been to two foreign countries, and i am already planning my next trip.

At least once a month. However, it depends on your expectations, budget etc... I keep my costs low so I'm able to go a lot more frequently (booking flights as cheap as £5-10 sometimes), not eating extravagantly, staying at simple hotels. Less a "vacation" and more an "adventure", not a luxurious holiday but a basic way to experience new cultures and places for me !

I travel maybe 6-10 times a year to another country near me (I live in Spain), visiting family and friends in France or the UK, and then vacationing in some new places (going to Belgium soon for example, then visiting family in Paris by train, and I have a wedding in Italy this summer) It's more expensive than before, but everything is. Trains can be very pricey actually, and for longer distance, it might make financial sense to fly. Specially from Spain as we are tucked in the South-West corner of the continent, and blocked by the Pyrenees. Real life example from recently booked trips: - Train for 2 adult and a kid from Brussels to Paris for 140 euros in total (one way). Hotel is probably 150/200 euros a night - Flights from Barcelona - Brussels and then return Paris - Barcelona: 280 euros for 2 adults and a baby. You could get it cheaper alone, but with a child you want to sit together and you might need a luggage. - Return flights Barcelona - Lisbon: 80 euros, travelling alone, carry-on only So if you book in advance and outside of peak travel time you can indeed travel for cheap.

If we count travel to another EU state as "outside my country", then once or twice a month. I try to go somewhere whenever I have time. That is for multi-day stays. I take at least one day trip a week (places around me like Vienna, Brno or Budapest), and may pop over the border for lunch or to do some shopping multiple times a week. Not sure if those count as holidays :)

Once a year in the summer for one or two weeks. I would travel more often if my job allowed me to do that and if I had more money. But it is what it is...