I posted some time ago about how backpacking isn't really a thing in USA because the country doesn't really have many places to cater to this audience. There are so many regulations that cheap accommodation such as hostels and guesthouses are pretty difficult to find. Even if you do find one (and they are rare) they are still going to be many times the cost of something similar in Europe, Asia, or South / Central America (I would imagine this is true in Africa as well but I have never been.)
Basically, USA is expensive as crap and this is why most backpackers don't even consider it an option. Hostels are all but non-existent but inexpensive TRAVEL actually can be accomplished. Of course I use the word "inexpensive" as a relative term because it is still dramatically more than other countries.
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The fact that train travel is not used more heavily in the USA is just such a tragedy to me. The United States has the most extensive rail system of any country in the world yet almost no one uses this method of getting around. This is because it is slow...dreadfully slow. I once inquired on a 8 hour train ride that is normally a 5-6 hour drive as to why it was taking so long? The very friendly train worker informed me that freight has right of way at all times and therefore on your Amtrak journey you spend a lot of time sitting still and waiting for another train to go past you in the opposite direction.
This doesn't mean that they are all like this though. On the North East coast of the USA, travel between major cities have dedicated passenger lines that never stop for anything except to get people on and off. I am not sure about all of the stops but I have taken the train from D.C. to NYC and it was fast, very comfortable, and only about $50. Of course I probably got lucky with this price but if you look for it, you can find deals like this.
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For example right now on selected routes Amtrak and their affiliates are offering BOGO (buy one get one) tickets and some of the fares are as low as $30 per ticket. So grab a friend and head off into the great unknown for $15. Sounds awesome! Well, kind of. These tickets are limited in nature and the departure and destination areas are all massive cities so the train ride is likely to be the only inexpensive part of your journey.
Another aspect of USA travel that goes largely ignored is bus travel and I have been a victim of the reputation of these types of travel as being filled with loud criminals and while I would imagine that is probably the transit of choice for drug smugglers who don't have their own car, I was pretty delighted by what it was like.
I was expecting something like this fun scene in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, but instead I ended up with a big seat on a very comfortable and wonderfully temperature controlled bus that had free wifi on it.
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The ride was quite luxurious and I rode from NYC to some random-ass small city in Virginia for $22. It was definitely a journey that changed my mind about bus travel in the USA and I would definitely use them again.
There are some great bus only search engines out there that will find prices for trips between basically any city in the USA such as Comprabus. I do not have a car in the States and honestly, if it wasn't for Covid I wouldn't be here at all. I was thinking of heading down to Mexico at the earliest possible occasion.
The point of all this is that inexpensive TRAVEL in the USA is possible, you just have to get lucky and plan ahead unless you are going from major city to another major city. The issue of inexpensive lodging is, unfortunately, far more elusive and is something I will dive into a bit deeper next time.
Very interesting information, I have never been to the US but I didn't imagine it would be so expensive to travel around there, perhaps the State has not been interested in creating policies to promote domestic tourism for all budgets
Travel is kind of a luxury for a lot of Americans and that is very unfortunate.
Sure it is...
Amtrak is a friggin nightmare. I love traveling by train but the nostalgia and really big seat kind of wears off on your when you realize that the train is moving about as fast as a bicycle.
It would be really nice if they could change that. Some trips take 3 days to get for example from LA to Chicago. What that? Like a 2 hour flight?
I was driving on the East coast a few years back when I was visiting the states and noticed a billboard talking about a promotion for a hotel for 59 dollars. It was just some side of the highway dumpy Travellodge or something too. I think it is a bit insane that a room for the night costs this much.
I traveled by bus a few times in the states and they were all pretty decent experiences. However, they only seem to exist between heavily populated areas and the same is true with trains.
I think that Amtrak could benefit by closing 70% of their stations and then streamlining the rest. However, since they are propped up by the government, that will likely never happen. You don't have to do well when the government is basically paying you to fail.
I have heard this exact thing mentioned about Amtrak and also some disappointing news that they spend millions of bucks a year lobbying the federal government to continue bailing them out year after year. So essentially they are paying the government to give them money with the money that the government game them. It's insane.