Canadians Travel

A few months ago when I was leading an exercise class, one lady had mentioned that "Canadians travel and Americans just stay home."  At the time I thought there was probably some truth to that statement -- of course a huge generalization -- but it seems to become more apparent the longer we are here. 

Part of the reason Canadians travel is because they have more vacation hours to allow longer get-a-ways.  (in the health region, you get 4 weeks at 5 years, plus all statutory holidays...13 paid holidays in Saskatchewan).  Another is that they set aside money specifically for travel.  It's not that they have more money to travel, because the cost of living here is really high--and the salaries do not match--they just put more value in spending money on travel.  Most people sound like they go somewhere 2-3 times/year.  A lot of Saskatoonians also own a cabin north of here & spend almost every weekend there in the summer.

• Cuba is by far the most talked about destination. They say it is gorgeous, has beautiful beaches, and is safe.  
• I've heard a few Jamaica & Dominican Republic stories too; most sounding like they do the all-inclusive resort thing...Canadians love the sun.  
• Mexico is also another hot spot, and speaking of hot spots, they often go really far south in Mexico to some of the hottest areas.  I had never heard of many of the places they tend to go.
• Arizona is the snow bird location, and a lot of families own a condo or have extended family who own property in Arizona. 
• A quick get-a-way tends to be Las Vegas, doing package deals such as $600 for flight, hotel, and show for 4 nights (Tues-Sat), for example.  It also seems to be a long get-a-way at times, as my co-worker is going soon for 7 days.  I told her that seems quite long for Las Vegas, but she said they go for a relaxing trip, spending days by the pool or they head of of town a bit, not running around the strip.  They also love shopping, because everything is "so cheap."

Age and abilities do not seem to deter Canadians from travel either, which is quite inspiring.  Our friends Curtis & Gertrude from church, who are in their early 90s just returned from a 3 week trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with their daughter & son-in-law.  Some of my patients have talked about just returning from a tropical "holiday," and they were clearly in pain or had decreased mobility on their trip as they were planning on having a knee or hip replacement in the next month.

Canada has been trying to encourage more travel within the country, but with their high flights, it just isn't worth the $1000 ticket to fly to Quebec, when you can go to Las Vegas or Mexico for a deal.  I found out that it's the Canadian flight security taxes that makes it so expensive.  The U.S. has increased security, but it is federally funded.  Canada charges security taxes on each flight, to charge only the users, so often $400 of a flight is strictly security taxes.  It's just a different system.

Our friend Brent came to speak at the university so he stayed with us Thursday and Friday night.  His wife was hoping to join to see us, but the ticket price was soooo high.  Brent had recently flown to Nairobi in Africa from Michigan and paid the same ticket price.  It's one of the downsides of living here, but I guess we are just going to have to adopt the Canadian mind-set & set aside more money for travel expense.
What do you all think?  Do Americans just prefer to have something tangible to show for an expense instead?