Most of Europe is comparable to California in terms of density and terrain. A few sprawling megacities, a lot of smaller towns on the way to and from them, and a couple of mountain towns that are a bitch and a half to get to.

And California and The East Coast actually have solid public transportation. More buses than trains but… yeah.

But what Europe largely lacks are “the flyover states”. Like, I love to reference https://www.amtrak.com/plan-your-trip.html because it really highlights this. The East coast is pretty dense and you can more or less get anywhere within a day or two of train+buses. Which is very reminiscent of (the) Europe(an Union). That is true to a lesser degree in California.

But… fuck Wyoming. Also, there are almost no major routes going in because the vast majority of that state is nothingness and empty land. Which is when you use an airplane and then a rental car. Same as if you are going to a remote part of Norway or Sweden

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Just adding on a rant here. People who are obsessed with public transportation to eliminate all need for cars are, at best, ignorant. They watched a youtube channel about some rich guy living in Amsterdam and think that is the entire world. That ignores anyone who lives in a small town where bus service is the only option and there just isn’t enough traffic to justify any form of a commute so that they can make a living.

It is still privileged as fuck, but I strongly encourage anyone with the ability to do so to ACTUALLY go on a trip to the UK or Europe or Japan and then navigate via public transportation. Staying in a city and life will be amazing (which is true of most US cities as well). Going to a few touristy hot spots around the city may be a hassle, but is doable. But look in to doing a day trip or even going cross country. It is still a LOT more doable than in the US, but you start to have much tighter connections and start to get worried about a delay.

And then you realize that “cross country” is a lot closer to “one state over”.

I would LOVE to have more public transportation options and very much enjoy not renting a car on a holiday (or only getting it for one or two days on an extended one). But even if we had full on Civ3 endgame levels of rail coverage, simple demand would still mean people need cars. Because having a train track go right to your front door doesn’t mean that you have a train waiting for you to take you anywhere you want to go the moment you want to (… that is a car, by the way). You are still at the mercy of there being a sufficient number of people who want to make the same trip that it justifies running a car on that route at a frequent enough rate that you don’t have to sleep in a bus station after sharing a bowl of soup with your grade school crush,

I have, on numerous occasions, had to throw water on European’s plans to visit all of the big sites in the US in one visit. Wanting to see the Grand Canyon, the Everglades and DC in the same visit is not terribly practical. My advice has been to pick a region and see everything there. Pick a different region of the US on your next visit.

What was throwing them off was a day-trip can drive across several European countries, but will only get you through a few states in the US.