Hi there,
First, my experience has been visiting the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine.
As many of you may know, to enter the United States, you must apply for a permit called ESTA and it costs 21USD per person. I imagine that when you make the application, they investigate your whole life and if they approve it, you should have no problems at the airport.
Also, since in the US the laws change from state to state, we had to ask for an international driver’s license. In New Hampshire it was not necessary, but in the rest of the states we were going to visit it was.
From what some people had told me, I expected immigration to make my life miserable with questions and I was amazed that they didn’t even ask us the address of where we were going to stay.
Going through immigration in Mexico is a lot more hassle in comparison.
In Europe we bought small cars because of the cost of gasoline and in Porto specifically, the cars are rust buckets.
When leaving the airport, the first thing that strikes you is that everyone has huge, like-new cars. Filling up the tank of our Durham car, which is a Toyota 4×4, cost us 45USD. Gasoline in the United States (depending on the taxes paid in each state) in November 2023 cost almost 3 times less than in Portugal.
If you compare how many standard restaurant meals you can have with a tank of gas, in the United States with what you pay for a full tank of gas a person eats once. In Porto, with what it costs to fill the same tank, a person could eat in restaurants 6 times.
It is also striking how wide the roads are and how far apart the cars are.
In Porto the roads are narrow, and the cars are super close together. In addition, there is no respect or education at the wheel; everyone is trying to see who gets in first and arrives a second earlier.
Driving in the USA was a delight since we had an automatic car, almost everything was flat, we almost never found traffic, and the drivers were extremely polite and civil
Leaving Boston airport there was a bit of litter on the side of the road, but for the rest of the stay we were amazed not to see any litter on the side of the road. I can’t say the same for Portugal or Spain. Of course, in the cities of Boston and Portland, the streets were dirtier.
I loved to see all the impeccable hiking trails when in Europe I have always encountered at least wet wipes from when people do their business.
Another thing I really liked was that I did not see anyone smoking. In fact, the only one I saw smoking, and in an area where smoking was prohibited, was European. In Portland was the only place where I saw a couple of people smoking.
At least in the areas I visited, the politeness and civility of the people was admirable.
On the hiking trails everyone said hi, if they were with small children who were maybe walking in the middle of the trail, they would apologize and look like they were embarrassed, if they came with dogs and the trail was very narrow, they would grab the dog and move completely off the trail until we passed.
Again, I can’t say the same about Spain or Portugal.
In the two days that we were touring the White Mountain National Forest, I was struck by the fact that the perfumes that people wore smelled delicious, nothing like the perfumes I have smelled in Spain and Portugal. Besides, all the dogs we saw were the shiniest thing you can imagine, they didn’t have a hair out of place.
The supermarkets were in shopping areas with these giant parking lots like in the movies. The supermarkets were also bigger than the ones we frequented in Porto.
In the United States you find a lot of brands of the same product. This overwhelmed me and I just took the cheapest.
If food already seemed expensive in Portugal, in the USA the prices of food are crazy and let’s not even mention skincare and hygiene products. The most expensive supermarket we visited was Whole Foods and there I happened to see that the green tea that Hopi had left for us at home cost 10USD; in Porto a box of green tea costs less than 1USD.
There were interesting things like some vegan ice cream flavors and vegan sausages; but in general, I like the food in supermarkets in Europe better.
The Kombucha I buy at Lidl I also like better than the one I bought at Whole Foods. Then we bought an artisanal Kombucha in Portland, and I didn’t like it either.
In Europe we have places with cheap clothing options, and I didn’t find anything similar in the states I visited.
I never buy anything when I travel, but I saw that clothing prices are quite a bit more expensive than in Spain or Portugal.
Another thing to keep in mind is that with our Xiaomi phones we had problems with the signal. We thought it would be the sim we had bought but the problem was with our European phones as the bands are not exactly the same.
While in Europe we are making a great effort to limit electricity and water consumption, in the United States they don’t even worry about it. Electricity consumption is excessive; in cities, office buildings have their lights on 24×7.
Where in Europe you have to pay for the bags so that you are forced to carry your reusable bags, in U.S. supermarkets you can have as many as you want, and you don’t see anyone with reusable bags.
As for safety, the country is known worldwide for shootings. Before we arrived in Durham, they had just found a dead shooter relatively close to the house. During our last weekend, there was a shooting at the hospital in New Hampshire.
Despite this, it seemed that in our area the more common crimes, such as breaking a car window to steal what is inside, did not seem to exist. I was shocked to see that the Durham house did not have a security system as seen in the movies.
Although the houses in the USA are also made of plasterboard and when they are being built, they look like they are made of cardboard, it seems to me that in general the houses we saw were of better quality and much better insulated against the cold.
It is also true that the purchasing level in the areas we visited was high.
In the cities we visited, even though it was noisy and even more so compared to the peace of Durham, there was nowhere near the amount of absurd traffic that you find in Porto at all hours.
While in Europe and in many countries outside Europe you can find ATMs that do not charge commission, in the United States this does not exist. The minimum you pay to withdraw from the ATM is 2.50USD.
Something that seems to me very typical of Americans and that we saw a lot in the cities we visited is that they always go with a drink in their hand.
Overall, I had low expectations for the USA and liked what I found. I am looking forward to going back to continue exploring national parks.
Although it was very cold, we only had two days of rain, so we were able to stick to the schedule without a problem.
Even though we were not going on vacation, but rather to go about our normal lives and explore during the weekends, we were left with the feeling that we could have seen more.
We also must take into account that in the USA distances are very long and that is why we discarded several places that seemed to be close and then were 5 hours away by car.
For me in the USA it is more worthwhile to explore nature as you can find unique places. The cities I saw were nothing special compared to the gems you can find in Europe.
Day-to-day life in the house was a delight watching the squirrels, birds and nature in general.
When we were out and about, we also found everything super special. It was even exciting to see the police stop a car on the road just like in the movies.
Having been watching American movies all my life I felt that everything was very familiar, the landscapes, the supermarkets, the music on the radio, the people speaking English with an American accent. It was like being in a place where I had already been.
The reputation that Americans have worldwide is not a good one, and I was pleasantly surprised to find just the opposite.
Expenses:
Flights: 1190, 72 euros
Food: 439,68 USD
Restaurants: 100,43 USD
Car (gas + parking): 187,22 USD
Other: 15 USD