Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
112Kviews
“Americans, What Do Europeans Have Every Day That You See As A Luxury?” (30 Opinions)
A huge part of travel means expanding your horizons and looking at how other nations and cultures live. Wherever you go, you’ll see lots of upsides—as well as a ton of downsides. It gives you perspective. Ultimately, what you like about life abroad will depend on your personal priorities, whether that’s good food, affordable healthcare, rapid travel, or something else.
The American members of the r/AskReddit community recently opened up about the everyday things that people living in European countries have that they consider to be luxuries. Scroll down to read their personal opinions.
This post may include affiliate links.
RELATED:
#2
I'm an American living in Europe, so..
Affordable healthcare
28 days paid vacation
Sick leave
Affordable quality public transportation
Higher food/water/environmental standards
Seriously, I can never go back. Americans should be raging in the streets all the time.
#3
Being able to walk. To the shops, gym, school. Just f*****g walking anywhere without needing a car.
Skara Brae 11 months ago
It didn't occur to me until now, but shopping malls essentially simulate shopping, on foot, in a town. Except you have to drive a car to get a mall, malls are impersonal and bland, offering the same things as other malls, and they rarely have good restaurants.
Some of the main things that tend to come up whenever someone compares and contrasts life in the United States and life in the European Union include the healthcare system, as well as paid time off. These are extremely important factors to consider before you plan to settle down somewhere.
The US is the only economically advanced country on Earth that does not have statutory paid leave, while the global average, according to Business Insider, stands at 18.2 days. Meanwhile, around half of Americans simply aren’t taking time off, which can lead to additional stress and burnout.
#4
Not having to worry so much about getting shot at work or at school, or anywhere for that matter.
#5
The bread. Coming back from Germany recently and all the bread back home in the US feels like I'm chewing on a kitchen sponge instead of giving my jaw a workout.
#6
Less sugar in products.
Jrog 11 months ago (edited)
Not only "less sugar", but also "better sugar". High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), one of the main drivers of the obesity epidemic in the USA, exists in Europe but it has HALF the sugar content of the american version, and it is not nearly as omnipresent. European food industry prefers cane and beet sugar (sucrose), and they use much less of it in any product. The average pro-capite sugar intake in the USA is 25% higher than Germany's, that is the EU state with the highest sugar consumption by a good margin.
CNBC reports that the average American employee gets 11 vacation days each year. Meanwhile, people living and working in the European Union get at least 20 paid days off each year, mandated by law. That’s before public holidays are accounted for.
A recent Morning Consult survey shows that many Americans aren’t certain that they’d actually like longer vacations. However, what they do want are longer lunch breaks and shorter workweeks.
#7
Chocolate. I lived in Finland for a bit at 18 and their basic Fazer chocolate made our Hersheys taste like wax. They had no idea how much better it was.
#8
Fewer additives in their food. There’s a reason I lost 19 pounds when I studied abroad in London. The only way I was able to lose weight in America was through weight loss surgery!
mochahotness:
Food not filled with crazy chemicals. A lot of additives allowed in the US are banned in other countries
#9
Appropriate drinking age (this whole have to be 21yo is f*****g stupid. Can die for the country and drive a killing machine, can own a killing machine, but can't handle a drink? Stupid).
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 11 months ago
Well American drinking culture is pretty messed up. In Europe, you might give a kid a bit of small beer or wine with dinner, but in the USA that is borderline child abuse. So the kids don't learn to hold their booze until they're on their own and have no guidance from their family.
Where healthcare is concerned, the United States has a very bureaucratically overloaded and wasteful system. It needs to be overhauled to make it more effective. The Peter G. Peterson Foundation reveals that the US spends more on healthcare per person than any other wealthy country in the world.
This number stood around $12,555 per American in 2022. That’s nearly twice as much as the average in developed nations ($6,414 per person). The issue is that even though the US spends so much money, the utilization rate isn’t much different from elsewhere. It means that you get less for each dollar than you would abroad.
#10
Reasonable gun laws.
S. Maxudov 11 months ago
When it becomes "lavish" to expect that kids will come home from school every day, something is deeply wrong.
#11
Rad architecture, lots of great food, exposure to a bunch of different cultures and languages without having to take a long flight.
Janos Schumacher 11 months ago
Exposure to different cultures? My neighbors on one side are Korean, my neighbors on the other are from Myanmar. The couple 2 houses over is from India, on the other side is a Russian gentleman. The grocery store on the corner is Somali and next to that is a Sushi place run by Mongolians. And I live in the suburbs. What culture were you looking for? I haven't even gone over the restaurants.
#12
Good cheeses.
OddConstruction116:
As a European that was what I missed the most, when I spent a few months in the US.
Hospitals in the United Sates are consolidated, meaning there’s less competition. There’s also massive administrative waste due and inefficiency. The US spends roughly $900 per person per year on administrative costs alone. That’s four times the average admin cost in other developed nations.
Overall, despite these costs, the American healthcare system does not perform better than in other developed nations. In fact, it performs worse in areas like life expectancy and unmanaged diabetes.
#13
More time off. When my wife gave birth to our child, she had to use all her vacation and sick pay as "maternity leave". This was a government job.
#15
I'd like to add: no high fructose corn syrup in pretty much every product must be nice.
#16
Job security. In the EU, there are certain rules employers must comply with for terminations, including advance notice. There is also a works council process in some cases that employers must comply with before layoffs can take place.
In the US, they can pretty much terminate you same day in many cases.
Adam S 11 months ago
I always find this a crazy situation. No wonder so many Americans are stressed out the whole time as they have to always be better than most of their colleagues to be relatively safe from dismissal. And it just takes a personality clash or your boss having a bad day to lose your job 😕
#17
The ability to fly out to major world cultural and historical sites for just a weekend and have it cost relatively little. I did a study abroad program in London, and the ability for me to book a weekend trip to Berlin on RyanAir for like 40 pounds never got old.
#18
Pretty sure some European countries have free university and that sounds nice, I wouldn't mind going back and learning more skills but it's crazy expensive here.
#19
European here but Americans won't come up with it, so I'll help.
*the Erasmus program*
It isn't reserved only for Europeans (I met a Mexican girl and a Korean girl and plenty of Turks who are and are not European depending on who you ask) but generally it's mostly European centric program and a major privilege IMO.
For student exchange - you can broaden your studies and move to another uni to have an entirely different skill set than anyone in your coutnry. The system of international events is so well developed that you'll do things you've never dreamed of. Social aspect is also important. It's fun of course, but you also build an amazing network without having to be rich. You find a short event in Paris two years after exchange? No problem, your friend Pierre will lend you his couch. You get a monetary scholarship so you aren't really that worried about money you'll need to move. It's really amazing.
There's also Erasmus internship which helps with the problem of unpaid internships. As long as you're a student, you can take part in an internship and Eramshs will give money to you and your employer. They now have a reason to actually teach you and you actually get paid for your full time job.
Erasmus also does plenty of other shorter projects for younger and older people so it's not only reserved to uni students. The accommodation and food is usually paid and you do amazing things.
#20
Access to ubiquitous and fast rail travel.
Natalie Bohrteller 11 months ago
Since this is a German train in the picture: fast maybe, but not on time 😜
#21
Affordable and effective public transit.
I love visiting Europe. I can pop on a street car, bus, or underground and get to where I need to go. No dealing with traffic, no money for gas, no worry about being late. Europe public transit is very time efficient.
Not just speaking of city public transit either. For the price of a tank of gas or two in America I can pop on a train and go through 3 countries.
Not to mention Japan’s public transit with the Shinkansen. Couple hours and you’re hundreds of miles away. It’s wonderful and very easy to do.
BrownTabby 11 months ago
I don’t miss much about living in Japan, but my god do I miss the public transport.
#23
Mandated employer supported vacations.
keyboardtek 11 months ago
All these European government benefits are affordable because those countries are not obsessed with ruling the entire world. A huge military budget kills everything that might help America actually become great again.
#24
Historical sites.
JessieJ&LilyLovebug 11 months ago
There were people here before 1492, and they built structures...even pyramids.
#26
Long as hell lunch breaks.
I once worked in the US office of a French company. Folks in France would see movies on their lunch break. Some would play full tennis games, shower afterwards, then return to work. Some would go home and take a nap.
My lunch breaks: I consider myself lucky if I can squeeze in a quick walk, quickly jam some food down my throat, and maybe take a leak and then get back to work before folks start looking for me.
Jrog 11 months ago (edited)
This misconception is common among Americans, for some weird reason. The usual lunch break in Europe is 30 minutes to an hour. Some places in southern Spain, Greece and Italy have a longer break, to provide shelter during the hotter hours of the day, but it is limited to a few regions, jobs and is not so common anymore. Something notable, Greece has at the same time the longest lunch breaks (up to 3 hours) and the shortest average lunch break (19 minutes) due to over 40% of the workers opting to skip lunch break and a further 35% opting to have just a 15 minute break, but go home earlier.
#27
Excellent coffee and pastries in close physical proximity.
Daniela Lavanza 11 months ago
Especially when you leave near the french-italian border: you get the best viennoiseries and the best coffee in the same places. This is heaven to me.
#28
Bike-able cities. When I lived in Munich it was a paradise for biking. I could take my bike almost anywhere in the city and region without much concern and I loved doing it. Not every city in Europe is like that obviously, and Munich is probably one of the best, but almost every major city I visited in Europe had a lot of people on bikes, and good infrastructure for it. Also intercity rail and bus travel. The US has both of course but just not in the same league.
#29
Cubicle toilets. Public bathroom door gaps are uncomfortably wide.
Wintermute 11 months ago
Well, in the US we've decided that the war on drugs is so important that we need to take drastic action. No, not like invest in ending poverty or treatment programs or decriminalizing addicts. We just thought it was important to not give people a place to shoot up in public, and for that we're willing to watch other people take a s**t. It's called sacrifice! *insert crying eagle here*
#30
I was gonna say those fresh squeezed orange juice machines in all the grocery stores, but I just read all the comments about healthcare and vacations and remembered I live in a delusional hell.
What do you think ?
Wubedhheij 11 months ago
More than half of this isn't true or at least a huge majority.
Load More Replies...
Multa Nocte 11 months ago
About 24 hours after the last USA-bashing article. BP, even though I live in France, I am losing my will to continue reading articles on your site when all this looks like is that editors at BP have a personal issue with the US. Try taking a hot bath to relax or talk to someone. This bitter jealousy is so unbecoming.
Juririn 11 months ago
Yeah, these articles seem more and more like Russian/Chinese propaganda...
Load More Replies...
Rostit. . 11 months ago (edited)
Dear editors, especially Jonass. Sincerely and with a full heart I offer you a thorough f**k you and your brainless xenophobic threads about nothing. You're all pathetic and disgusting with this content. The majority of it's wrong and you repeat the same things. Your website is devolving into festering reddit reposts and xenophobic trash. Downvote
Wubedhheij 11 months ago
More than half of this isn't true or at least a huge majority.
Load More Replies... Multa Nocte 11 months ago
About 24 hours after the last USA-bashing article. BP, even though I live in France, I am losing my will to continue reading articles on your site when all this looks like is that editors at BP have a personal issue with the US. Try taking a hot bath to relax or talk to someone. This bitter jealousy is so unbecoming.
Juririn 11 months ago
Yeah, these articles seem more and more like Russian/Chinese propaganda...
Load More Replies... Rostit. . 11 months ago (edited)
Dear editors, especially Jonass. Sincerely and with a full heart I offer you a thorough f**k you and your brainless xenophobic threads about nothing. You're all pathetic and disgusting with this content. The majority of it's wrong and you repeat the same things. Your website is devolving into festering reddit reposts and xenophobic trash. Downvote
You May Like 99 Places In Europe To Add To Your Travel Bucket List 35 Examples Of Things Banned Around The World To Help You Avoid Awkward Situations While Traveling 132 Culture Facts Reflecting The Diversity And Beauty Of The World
Viltė Domkutė
Aivaras Kaziukonis
Justina Čiapaitė
Related on Bored Panda
