Tezza1551 in the What's the biggest tourist attraction near home thread said 2 hours drive was near.
I would say 15 mins walk was near.
What would anyone else count as near?

Interesting idea.

Where I live you need to drive 100 km to see an orthodontist. 200 km to a professional theatre, or an international airport. So, yes, for me two or three hours drive would be considered "near".

I think it depends on the size of the country that one lives in, and also on how easily one can get around.

In the early seventies, when London Bridge was being rebuilt at Lake Havasu in Arizona, I remember chatting to a couple of American visitors in London. The subject of London Bridge came up, and the American lady said something like “We'll probably go and see it when it's finished: we live in Phoenix – that's quite near, only about three hundred miles away.” In a country the size of the USA, 300 miles probably doesn't seem a great distance, especially if you can travel 300 miles and still be in the same state. In Britain, it's about the distance from London to Newcastle, and no Londoner would say that Newcastle was “near London”: the trip is practically the length of England.

I think I'd regard anywhere I can get to in an hour or so as being “near”. So “near” is about four miles on foot, twenty miles or so by bus and maybe forty miles using the very slow trains that we have in this part of the country.

When I lived in England I thought nothing of going 30 miles to go out for the evening but here people, including me, think travelling to the other side of the island is a long way, the island is 9 miles by 5t miles.

When I lived in Pennsylvania, 10 miles to the next "big" town seemed too far to go for work every day, so I always stayed close to home.
Now that I live in Ohio I go that distance just for a loaf of bread. 20 miles to Walmart, and 35 miles to work, just don't seem so far away. I have no choice in the matter so maybe that influences my perception?

Growing up as I did in the United States Southwest, it was nothing to travel 50-60 miles to go grocery shopping. Unfortunately, people have a distorted sense of time and distance. TabbyTom, Lake Havasu is actually about 190 miles from Phoenix. But the woman you spoke to probably did believe it was 300 miles. I have found that people really don't have any concept of distance. Being in the travel industry as I am, it always amazes me when someone gives directions and tells me to travel "about 12 miles" when in actuality, it may be only 5 miles. I very rarely believe anyone when they give directions anymore.

Travelling as I do for a living, I have found that those that live in the southwest have no problem with driving those 200-300 miles, as TabbyTom says. Considering that it's wide open country in the western U.S. that would be a 3-5 hour drive. However, for the eastern side of the U.S. where it is more populated, especially in the northeast, distances are measured more in "time" rather than in actual miles.

In answer to the original question, I would consider 200 miles as being "near".

tnrees, my nearest neighbour is further than 15 minutes walk !
We are around 30 minutes drive from town, and on that trip, I actually see about 5 houses that are still lived in.
Albany, our nearest city is only 120 km away - we think that is a very easy drive. Perth is around 3 hours drive from here, and thats a day trip most times. On that trip, we go through two towns, one of around 2100 people, and one of around 500; plus 4 roadhouses where there is only the roadhouse.
It all depends on your point of view - my sister in law thinks two suburbs away is a long way !

I remember going to Albany for a holiday when I was a child. My parents decided to make a day trip to nearby Muttonbird Island. We drove out there but had trouble finding the right road (actually a hard dirt track rather than a road in those days). My parents stopped along the way to ask a local if we were on the right road. He assured us that it was and that the island was only about "half a mile" down the road. Dad clocked it and we eventually found it, although after 5 miles we began to think that we'd gone wrong somewhere. Mum's comment was "If that was half a mile, I'm glad I wasn't hopping it".

In Western Australia, "near" can often be a considerable drive. I generally regard anything that I can drive to within an hour, or walk to within 1/2 an hour, as near.

Clarasue obviously doesn't live in Belgium.

I live in Belgium, "near" Antwerp - it is about 10 km (7 miles) from my home. Driving 30 miles north would mean I end up in another country, so 30 miles is not nearly near to me.

For me, it also depends on how complicated the journey is. 15 miles on a straight road is easy. 15 miles wriggling your way along little roads or through a city takes ages.
Near for me is 15=20 miles, but London Bridge is 40 mins on the train. That's near. Driving to London Bridge would take around 90 mins and be very stressful. Not near!

Near to me is China. I do not drive in Hong Kong so , although the Sha Tau Kok Border post is about 5 minutes drive up the road, I would have to go to the railway station (20 minutes by minibus and then go 2 stops on the Kowloon Canton Railway ,walk over a bridge over the river, go through immigration and customs and end up in Shen Zhen from Lo Wu, the next post down, probably take an hour.

If you are on Interstate 10 in Texas, you will travel nearly three times that...and the entire part of that is in Texas! It is ~650 miles to El Paso from where I am, and I would be in Texas the entire time.

I-20 is at Exit 178 on I-10, and I-30 is Exit 421 on I-20. Whether you go from El Paso to Texarkana/Waskom/Beaumont, the distances are all over 800.

El Paso to Texarkana: 822 miles
El Paso to Waskom: 814 miles
El Paso to Beaumont: 880 miles (all I-10)

I drive 23 miles to work each day one way. There are only 3 states that I know of that has any mile markers on interstates over 500: California (I-5), Montana (I-90), and Texas (I-10, I-20, and I-35).

I live 15 minute walk from the 3 Sisters in Katoomba NSW Australia.

Drive in the Ozarks...it can take 30-45 minutes to go between two towns that are 15 miles apart.

Working it from the other direction: Far away is how far space is (100 miles away) and very difficult to get to. So, near would be anything less than 100 miles up.

I live in New Delhi, India...and the nearest is a temple of lord shiva the indian god of destruction...the statue is pretty high and the night lights are very pretty..its 45 mins away by car