it's not expensive to get in a car and drive somewhere. If you live on the East coast you have 10+ states within a 12 hour drive
Gas prices, the opportunity cost of not working the days you spend traveling, paying for food and rooms, all that adds up quickly.
you always have to eat, so that cost isn't real. You aren't working every single day of the year(usually), so you can travel on your days off or weekend, and you can sleep in your car or at friends houses or at a campground, etc
you can drive 300 miles for $20ish in most economy cars.
Provided I have a car or a friend who has a car, I could plan a weekend road trip for less than the cost of a video game. It's not crazy to do if you really want to.
I understand there are people who are in poverty who don't have access to cars or friends with houses, but most people on this board don't fit that description.
1. You can only pack so much food and restaurants, even fast food restaurants, are more expensive than eating at home 2. Sleeping in the car can get the police telling you off, if not charging you with something, in many locations, and more often than not you travel through areas that don't have campgrounds. (I'm talking more about traveling through several states to get to another state, for the record. Not just hopping over to the next state.) 3. $20 isn't a lot of gas. And are you factoring in the time spent in a traffic jam? Because every time we've *done* traveling, like to one of the states mentioned where family lives, we've ended up in a traffic jam on the way home or something.
When I comment on people affording to travel I mean people who have been to half the states in the country.
The great thing about living in the year that we do is that it is easier now then at any other point in history to travel.
The only thing holding people back from traveling is their will and excuses. Unless you are literally living paycheck to paycheck
Depends where you are though. It's more expensive, and far more complicated in other parts of the world. ---