Vacation in Germany is much different from the United States. On average, German work 400 hours less than we do. "They put us Americans at 1,841 “average” hours a year and the Germans at 1,473 hours in 2000" While not all this time is spent vacationing, Germans do have a significantly larger amount of time. German and American vacations not only differ by amount, but also by where we vacation. 

Germany has the luxury of being smack dab in the middle of western Europe. With not a larger amount of effort Germans can travel through several countries. Germans have so many different vacation spots to choose from. The Colosseum in Rome,  the Louvre and Eifle Tower in Paris, the many wonders that Germany itself owns, and countless other wonders wait to be fond throughout Europe. This is quite different from here in the U.S. Travel is not cheap by any standards and we have much less vacation time to do that traveling. German vacation time comes in at 24 paid vacation days and 10 holiday days. Americans have on average ten paid vacation days. Rome is one of Germans favorite holidays.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=1812091

http://www.dw.de/germans-favorite-vacation-destinations/g-16941515

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/8/4/why-dont-americans-have-longer-vacations/the-vacation-gap-between-the-us-and-europe-is-wider-than-we-think

http://bigthink.com/praxis/why-do-americans-have-less-vacation-than-anyone-else