Hmmm, what about Toronto? Vancouver? San Francisco? Los Angeles? Honolulu?

I think some people make the mistake of thinking that "foreign travel" means museums and cathedras. "Well, I hate going to museums and cathedrals here at home, so I would be miserable on a trip."

Forget the museums and cathedrals if your wife does not enjoy them. What does she enjoy at home? Crafting fairs? Flea markets? Golf? Laying on the beach with a fruity drink that comes with a paper umbrella?

Then, do exactly that in a foreign country. There are plenty of crafting fairs, flea markets, golf and beaches outside the US. I am good friends with a German woman who LOVES any kind of crafting fair or folk art exhibition.

My own foreign travel:

1. Mexico age 15
2. USSR age 24
3. UK age 34
Then, I got a job in international marketing and went all over the world, mostly by myself. I visited several foreign national capitals before I ever got to Washington DC. (Mexico City, Moscow, London, Madrid, Wellington, etc.)

I didn't travel "abroad" until I was in my 30s. I grew up in the Toronto area, and other than trips down to New York state and over to Montreal, hadn't been anywhere until I was into my mid-20s. I'd taken a few business trips to the USA and a few places in Canada when I decided to spend a week with friends down in Cancun, Mexico when I was 31. Even then, I wasn't impressed, and put off more international travel to the undetermined future.

It was really my trip to Cuba, and specifically Havana when I was 32 when I caught the bug to travel. The mix of the way the city was architectural and the people I met there really made me want to see more. I started travelling after that, nervously at least but eventually building more and more confidence.

Part of what kept me from travelling internationally is fear of the unknown. The world was a scary place, and being at home was always safer than being away.

Perhaps your wife is like me, and will warm to international travel after getting a taste. As others have suggested, a "safe" destination like the UK or Europe might be just the appetiser she needs.

Enjoy your travels!
Greg

I was born abroad - UK citizen, father on Crown Service (diplomatic) in the Sudan.

My first journey outside the Sudan was at 3 years old, when I accompanied my (very pregnant) mother back to the UK at the end of World War 2. She had been told that she would die if she did not go back to the UK to have the baby, as she only weighed 75 pounds and conditions in the Sudan were below par.

We traveled by train from Khartoum to Alexandria, where we were put on a ship carrying troops returning from the Middle East.

At night, in the middle of the Mediterranean, our ship hit a floating sea mine and we had to be transferred (me via a cargo net) onto another ship in the convoy. I still remember that. The rest of the journey was uneventful.

On post-war, rationed, UK food, mother gained weight fast and had a healthy son a month later.

Naaah. Leave her at home.

....all of those places would have white as the #1 ethnicity in any census...OK maybe not Honolulu.
My only point was why go somewhere thats similar to home.
The absolute worst vacation of my life was going to Cancun, it was just Florida with a slightly higher percentage of Mexicans.
All the mall chains, restaurant chains....it was awful.
Look I like the UK (I studied there) but honestly other than they drive on the wrong side of the road, they have a much more saner tipping culture and they can show boobies on network TV, its not all the different.
Of course its a much older culture with the castles and great military history, but in my mind its a place you go in your 60-80 year old travel period....its easy when you dont want/need as much adventure.
In my mind if you are young C or S America or SEA is a good place to start.
My 2 cents.

Seattle is still in the United States last I checked.

Now, as for SE Asia... Hong Kong wouldn't be a bad inaugural overseas trip; there's English everywhere but it's a decidedly different place. I still wouldn't drag someone all that way if she wasn't enthusiastic though.

My first trip was London/Bath with my grandmother (quite the Anglophile) when I was 14, and I haven't stopped since then. I agree with the posters that the UK is an easy starter trip and tossing in France could also be okay.

When I was 21 I backpacked Europe with a friend who turned out to be incredibly homesick and a very bad traveler. She ended up feeling much happier in the smaller towns - they didn't need to be English-speaking towns, just not big cities. They felt much more manageable to her. Brugge was a treat. Wonder if your wife might feel the same.

Actually being from Toronto I find Quebec City almost more foreign than my favourite city to visit: Munich. I've forgotten all my high school French so it's a bit of an adventure visiting there. Nice city to visit and the locals like Americans a lot more than Torontonians.

My first trip overseas was to the UK in 2000.

The UK is a nice introduction to foreign travel for Americans - cream tea and roundabouts are about as exotic as it gets. Europe gets more fun and different the farther south and east you go.

That would mean plurality, not majority. Actually, in Los Angeles, the white non-Hispanic population is less than the Hispanic / Latino population as well.

It was more in the context of a hesitant spouse, so starting with "baby step" trips that are only a little different may be useful to make the hesitant spouse less hesitant.

fly in and out of london. take easyjet to france and italy. take in every minute, its an experience that will change you. when you get frustrated about the language barrier in another country, take a breath and keep going. it gets easier and its nice to come back to london on the way home to hear english being spoken.

my first trip was london and rome, i was 22 at the time and went solo. great experience. ive gone to europe with friends since and its not the same. get your wife some city guide books to spark her imagination. venice, gondolas, eiffel tower etc etc.

How wonderful!

My thought is ... where do you want to go? When you read the newspaper, or watch a movie, which country/scenery/sight stirs your fancy, gets your heart beating a little faster? When you close your eyes and imagine yourself in a foreign land, where do you imagine yourself? Go there. It will be wonderful.

(A more structured approach might be to think about which of the following are important to you: historic sights, new cultures, meeting different "natives," meeting other travelers, hearing new languages, trying new foods, seeing exotic animals, seeing exotic greenery, seeing beautiful seas/mountains, physical adventure, etc., and choose accordingly.

NZ, Peru and Viet Nam are three popular destinations that score very differently on the criteria above.)

My first trip abroad was to Greece and I loved it!. Since then I have traveled to 51 countries and lived in 4 of them (besides the US). My mom was never really interested in travel but one year I took her to Turkey with me and she was just thrilled. She said she would have traveled more when she was younger had she realized what it would be like (I honestly don't know what she was expecting).

One thing that you might want to consider is if you or your wife has information on family history. Some people really go into great detail about that and visit the home cities of their ancestors. Your wife might be more likely to consider foreign travel if she could research her family history and visit the places where her family came from.

I was 2 years old the first time I went to Florida. Took my first solo trip, at 18, to Japan and have been traveling alone ever since