Originally Posted by
spinnaker
It is a lot more than just riding with a group. They arrange for each nights stay and meals. They haul your bags and they are there if you need them to get you to the stopping point for the night. That is huge. It makes it easy for those that are not entirely sure of their abilities and don't like facing the unknown. .
I've found more than cost, this is perhaps the biggest difference between an supported vs. unsupported extended trip. It is also going to be a personal preference thing. Some will find it liberating, others will find it really frustrating.
On the liberating side, some like the fact that you mostly can concentrate on showing up and riding. Everything from mapping out the route, arranging accommodation, hauling gear, buying groceries/picking restaurants might be done for your payments. If something comes up, you've got backup of a support vehicle.
On the frustrating side, to keep logistics of a group going, there are often fixed schedules and other choices. Today's route is X miles even independent of weather, how you are feeling, mechanical issues, etc. For some finding routes, accommodations or food is part of the adventure and the otherwise fixed nature can be frustrating.
For the frustrating reasons, I can't ever see myself doing this type of extended trip in the US (a few days is different). I have however, taken supported rides outside the US including TDA across Africa. In that case, I was willing to trade off some structure for logistical help crossing Africa. I probably could have done it on my own, but the structure provided by TDA gave me some confidence in traveling I wouldn't have had on my own - even after crossing four continents prior to Africa.
So I'm willing to believe that there are personal differences that come into both confidence and willingness to make different tradeoffs here.