Bicycle Travel > General Discussion

Costs of Touring

(1/4) > >>

JLMcK4:
Sorry if this has been asked before, but I was just curious as to how much a tour like the Trans Am or other cross country rides are. I am interested in riding the Trans Am at some point in the future and I want to save up enough money to cover it. I know this is a pretty broad question and varies greatly between each person, but I'm just trying to get a good ballpark number so I have some kind of idea. Thanks!

staehpj1:
Do you plan to camp the whole way?  Get a room every night?  Something in between?  What/where do you plan to eat?  Do you drink much alcohol?

Those factors can make the numbers swing a long way either way.

I know that on different tours I have averaged anywhere from $15-30 per day.  It is possible to go a little cheaper and also possible to spend a lot more.  I have heard some folks say they spent over $100 per day.

We took 73 days to do the TA and that is probably a fairly normal number of days.  I think that I could fairly comfortably manage to do a camping only (and no fancy restaurants) TA on $1500 not counting air fare or any pre trip expenses.  That said I'd plan to have $2000 or more available even if I didn't intend to spend it.  It is much more pleasant to have more time and more money than you need.  Budgets and deadlines suck!

One nice thing about the TA is that you can pretty easily manage to camp for free (with no need for stealth) a pretty good percentage of the time.  I think camping averaged about $5 a night, but we did save a bit by sharing a campsite between three of us some of the time.  The savings by sharing were not huge though since many places charged per person.

JLMcK4:
Thanks for the response! I think the debate between camping and getting hotels every night would depend on how expensive it would be to do either. I wouldn't mind camping every night, but there undoubtedly would be a few nights where I'd like to stay at a hotel. I'd like to get a beer or two a couple times a week, but I'm not a huge drinker. For food, I'd like to eat at local places, but nothing too fancy. Probably a lot of granola bars, fruits and other food to help me go each day.

John Nelson:
I did the TransAm solo on $16 a day ($14 a day for food and $2 a day for lodging). I did the Northern Tier solo on $33 a day, mostly because campgrounds were considerably more expensive there.

It depends on many factors: your dedication to finding free (but legal) places to sleep, your willingness to eat our of grocery stores (which are about half as expensive as restaurants if you buy ready-to-eat food), etc. Cooking (which I did not do) can save you even more. Free and legal places to sleep are plentiful on the TransAm. Avoiding paying to sleep is the most efficient way to save money.

You didn't say whether you are going solo or not, but sharing expenses can save even more.

I only count expenses from wheel-dip to wheel-dip. Obviously the cost of buying equipment, getting to the start and getting home from the end can drive up the costs.

staehpj1:

--- Quote from: JLMcK4 on December 25, 2012, 09:45:52 am ---Thanks for the response! I think the debate between camping and getting hotels every night would depend on how expensive it would be to do either. I wouldn't mind camping every night, but there undoubtedly would be a few nights where I'd like to stay at a hotel. I'd like to get a beer or two a couple times a week, but I'm not a huge drinker. For food, I'd like to eat at local places, but nothing too fancy. Probably a lot of granola bars, fruits and other food to help me go each day.

--- End quote ---
Based on that my best guess would be $30 per day or a bit more, depending on your food/drink choices and how often you get rooms.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page