I recently took a 4 month roadtrip around the US. The sights I saw were unbelievable and I've never said "wow" as much as in the US. My trip was concentrated in nature/national parks and wilderness and some places brought tears to my eyes.
I've been to the countries in question before but for a short time (2-4 days) and saw some main highlights but I was never wowed by anything to the same degree.
I constantly try to tell people how beautiful the US is but it's like nobody believes me and those other countries are always the popular countries when it comes to "beauty." People even say the natural beauty there BURY the natural beauty in the US and I just can't believe it! Heck even defending the US gets me downvoted.
Is there really a country with place more beautiful than the combined beauty of Glacier/going to the sun, Mt Rainier, the hikes in Washington, the oregon coast, Colorado, sequoia, fall in New England, the views in Alaska, scenic views of Blue ridge parkway, I can continue lol and I've only seen 10 States so far!
I think a lot of Americans don’t consider the USA that “beautiful” because it’s their own country, and other countries are perceived as more “exotic,” exciting, and beautiful. I am American and I know I’d often rather go to some shitty little town in Central America and ooh and aww at standard buildings and standard jungle than take a road trip across the USA. And I’ve seen a lot of the truly breathtaking scenes in many national parks here. More of that USA stuff is on my bucket list, but still, other countries and their sights rank higher on my list most of the time because that stuff seems less attainable, somehow. The USA is my home country and will always be here. Lower barrier to entry for me to see stuff here.
I wonder if national pride comes into play at all here. If you’re speaking to Europeans, maybe they’ve got some cultural thing where they’re super proud of their own natural beauty? Like how Mexicans treat their Aztec, Mayan, etc. archaeological zones. Americans don’t really have that, I mean we think our national parks are cool and appreciate them, and those of us who are outdoorsy certainly recreate in them, but we don’t obsess over them as a point of national identity, y’know?