Originally Posted by
jamawani
Staehpj1 -
I found myself saying $25 ?!?!?!? One motel room per week can easily blow that number - esp. in touristy locations.
Then I realized that you have done your big tours with other people - that's a big difference.
No one has mentioned - but the cost of solo touring (per person) is significantly more than touring with others.
A single motel room might be $60 and only $80 for four people.
Similarly, a pint of OJ might be $1.50 - but a half gallon is $2.50 - divided by 4.
So that $4000 figure might be lowered to $3000 each for 2 - and maybe $2500 each for 4.
I soloed the Northern Tier route last summer and spent $25/day, over 55 days. I got a motel room every ten days or so at an average $50 rate. I mostly free camped, stayed a handful of nights with warmshowers.com hosts, spent about $15/day on food. I'm a middle-aged, retired guy with a credit card so I didn't have to go cheap, but I am frugal. I was surprised that I was able to keep it under $30/day, which was an estimated budget. (I was also planning on 75 days, and that was a bigger surprise.)
I had a warmshowers.com guest a few weeks ago who was in his third year of touring at about $5/day! He was clean, healthy, had all his teeth and great gear and was having a great time. I met folks on the Northern Tier ride who were in the $100/day range and it didn't seem like they were having any more fun. One guy simply had to get to a motel with WiFi every night so he could upload photos and write his CGOAB journal.