Is it true that American travelers are much more likely to sticks in the mud when it comes to adventure vacationing? Granted, the survey conducted by the UK company Opinion Matters only questioned citizens of five countries – United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom – so can’t be claimed as definitive, but it does give one pause to consider: Are we a bunch of wimps?

For the survey, 1,000 travelers in each of the five countries were asked a series of questions which included such gems as, “How likely are you to…”

1. eat a fried tarantula
2. sleep in a hilltop village hut
3. go on safari
4. explore ancient ruins

Without going into all the mind-numbing details of the survey, New Zealanders were far and away the most likely to engage in something adventurous, while United States travelers lagged far behind. This is not to say there are no adventurous Yankees – names like Andrew Zimmerman and Anthony Bordain from the Travel Channel come to mind. One point in our national favor is that 65% of Americans think it is important to contribute to the local economy when traveling. See? We’re not complete ingrates. Perhaps we have become too fat and sassy, in general, and no longer crave the spirit of adventure that once coursed through our forefathers’ veins, causing them to cast off the English chains of oppression and set sail for a New World across the sea.

And then proceeded to soundly kick the rear end of any European country who wandered past. Perhaps it’s not that we’ve lost our spirit of adventure; perhaps rather the case is that we don’t have as much vacation time as the rest of the world, or maybe we think eating a fried tarantula when not expressly required to for the purpose of survival doesn’t qualify as “adventure” as much as it does addled. And there must be some reason the Kiwis are so eager to

engage in “adventurous” behavior. With a perfectly beautiful country at their beck and call, small though it is, there’s no need to resort to eating arachnoids to prove anything to us. After all, the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed there. What more do you want?

The Jetsetter Team

Flickr / The U.S. Army

Tags: travelers