Touring - how cheap are you?

For how little do you do extended tours? Please don't get the impression that you need to be the Ozzy of cyclists and recommend frogs and bats for lunch, but is there anyone out there who can keep their daily costs below $25 a person? (My wife and I did eight European countries by bike in four months on $18 per day, Canadian, back in '97. We free camped three out of the four, and spent two weeks with family and friends, the rest in crappy campgrounds. We even gained weight!) So how easy is this in the U.S. of A.? Our next trip will be WAY!!! longer and we wonder how long we'll be able to stay out of the North! Thanks.

It would be hard to compare expenses if you're talking about in general. Besides that, Europe was almost for sale back in 97, whereas now, with the Euro so high, it makes the USA look like a bargain. Could you keep your daily costs below $25 Canadian per day in the USA? I think so, but it would certainy depend on where you went in the USA. If you were trying to stay in NYC the whole time, it would be difficult, whereas if you spread yourself around and went to many states and focussed on states that were lower in cost, you could definitely stay for under that.

Koffee

Wow good deal in Europe. Down here it may cost more. Check for campground prices very little open area to camp. You'll have to buy food and cook yourself ...

Good luck and letknow if you have specific questions. You can camp in my hay field a night or two.

Joe

i intend on staying below 100 a week for my summer tour, which will be about 16 weeks long. i think it can be fairly easily done, especially if there are two of you to split costs and duties.


big thing i'd recommend is to get good at that cooking, cos that's the one that'll suck up $$ faster than you'd like.


cheers...


matt b.

$25 a person? so you have $50/day total to spend. i assume that's only the daily expenses,
not including prorated airfare or insurance or spare parts, etc. we're just talking food and
lodging? i think that outside of major cities, you'll have trouble spending that much.

for the most part, you can camp for free. between the blue ridge and the rockies, most towns
will let you camp at the lion's club park if you ask first. there's also possible free camping at
churches or parsonages. campgrounds will run $10-15 per site. you should be able to find
a motel for $20-25.

out west there's plenty of national forest and blm land for free camping. so much, that i rarely
try to find a city park. motels are cheaper too - sometimes $15.

food is not that expensive, especially if you're cooking out. on those days you want a
filling meal in town, you should always be able to find a $5 all-you-can-eat buffet.

Many people have reported doing extended tours on $15/day and a few closer to $10/day.They usually remote camped and ate out of grocery stores with the higher amount allowing occasional paid lodging and resturant meals.
My longest tour has been 10 days and I have done 25days of touring and my lodging costs have totaled a whoping $5 which was one night at a prmitive spot at a state park .I stopped early due to the low cost but wish I hadn't because it was my worst night of camping due to bugs and racoons.All other nights I have remote camped and this was all in Florida where it is supposedly difficult to find spots.You got good advice above on finding remote spots in various areas of the U.S. of course avoid cities as much as possible they are budjet breakers.Camping the only areas I don't like are agricultural areas with mile after mile of posted fenced farmland.I was in that situation once and was getting frustrated because it was after dark and the truck traffic was heavy on a narrow two lane road and as luck would have it I came upon the Florida Trail a long distance hiking trail crossing through so I had a great night camping under the stars.You may see a lot of this type situation in the midwest(U.S.)but that is generally where I hear camping in small town parks etc. is the way to go. Anyway as to food eat staples out of a grocery as much as possible.If you are stuck shopping at a rural convience store you can get those Little Debbie or similar apple/cherry pies 360 or more calories for around 70cents.Not the best nutrition in the world but cycling you should burn it off quickly anyway.In towns if you do ocassionally go to resturants the cheap buffet idea I also do and I usually make sure I am calorie depleted first and really load up.The fast food resturants have dollar menus where items like salads,baked potatos,chili,burgers,chicken sandwiches etc. are $1 each so you can get a decent meal for $2 which is my goal eating in resturants on tour(excluding buffets where I won't go over $5 ).You can also get whole large cheese pizzas at Little Caesars a national chain for $5 and certain regional chains for $3.99 which will be a feast for two people (though not as much as I put away at a buffet lol)or two more normal meals for two.

My hints:
1. Don't pay for camping unless you have to. Check out the "Stealth Camping" thread.
2. Stock up on food at big grocery stores. If you're carrying a few days worth of food you never get stuck restauranting it or paying convenience store premiums.

I've done several tours in the Canadian Rockies around the $10-$12 CDN/day level.
Sometimes it was more, but sometimes a hot tub at a private campground is worth it's weight in gold :)