This site is more about the former than the latter. Just the same, I am curious. When I tour I use a rough rule of thumb at $100 per day for a tour. Thus, a three-week tour will cost me about $2100. Depending on various factors this may or may not include airfare. For fun, I just perused one company's tours and I found one that sounded interesting... for 7 days it was about $4200... or $600 per day. No airfare included. How often do you do the organized thing? What do you pay compared to when you go indie?

Brent

The only organized tours I do are those put on by local cycletouring clubs. Their prices tend to be much more reasonable.

I did a 43?-day self-supported tour w/ ACA and it was something like $2600, or a bit over $60/day. Not cheap, but nowhere near $100. This was self-supported west coast, canadian to mexican borders.

I've only done ~ 5-day trips independently, so I don't really have a good point of comparison.

$100 per day sounds pretty steep to me unless it includes airfare and you are not camping. I guess that it depends to a large extent where you are, where you stay, and where/what you eat. I have a hard time imagining myself spending anywhere near that on tour though. What percentage of the time did you cook and what percentage of the time did you camp?

I've never done an organized tour, but I did a 73 day TransAmerica for a lot less than $4200 including airfare, a new bike, a lot of gear, side trips to do stuff like rafting, shopping at outlets and sending the stuff home, and all of the day to day expenses. We did stay for free more often than we paid to stay. I could spend more, but $15 per day is possible for a long tour across the US, $20 is quite do-able, $30 would allow a lot of extras and splurging, and $40 would be a luxury tour.

I don't have any experience with doing a motel type tour, so I won't speculate on the cost.

"Organized" tours -even ACA tours - have always seemed pricey to me. Better to study their routes and do them independently with a friend.

Self-supported tours and commercial tours serve different requirements. If you like doing your own thing and being independent, self-supported is great. If you'd rather have someone else take care of reserving the accommodations, working out the routes and relieving you of the need to navigate (some companies do this better than others), and/or you're a bit uncomfortable about being in a foreign country and unable to speak the language, then you might like a commercial tour. Of course it'll cost more than self-supported: you're paying for someone else's time and labor, as well as their overhead (taxes, insurance, rents, personnel, etc.), and some level of profit.

Still the price-per-day varies quite a lot. One tour company, Undiscovered Country Tours, has a page online comparing itself to other outfits offering similar tours: https://www.udctours.com/about/biketourcompanies.html. At $150-300/day, they charge a lot less than most of the "other guys". (Disclaimer: The owners of udctours are friends of mine; however, I have no financial interest in their tour business).

I also operate a tour company, Agile Compass cycling tours (https://www.agile-compass.com/), though my tours are in France and Italy. My costs are largely in euros and so naturally track the dollar-euro exchange rate. Currently, my price for 2009 is under $230/day, which is a lot less than most of the "other guys" -- without cutting corners.

Never


Since I never go on organized trips (unless I'm the organizer), I can't actually do a comparison. But the on-the-ground cost depends mainly on what country I'm touring in, and secondarily, on the type of accommodations and food options. In SE Asia, you can travel like cycling royalty for US$30/day or less. That's with a room with a private hot shower each night and eating every meal out. It can be remarkably inexpensive biking on the coast of Oregon & California and staying in hiker/biker campgrounds in state parks. On the other side of the equation, on a trip to SW France with a friend, staying in a 2 star family-run hotel each night, eating every dinner in a restaurant, stopping in a bakery for breakfast each morning, and eating mostly picnic lunches but sometimes in restaurants, I think we averaged about US$85/day at a time when the US$ was stronger than today. Our dinners per person actually cost a bit more than our lodging per person, which isn't unusual in France, especially when you're sharing a room. The food and drink was fabulous, however. But some of those $1 dinners in night markets in SE Asia were fabulous, too.

Organized tours seem like a luxury item to me. You pay to have someone else do your thinking, make bookings, provide a sag wagon, maybe even do some cooking and wrenching. You also get to meet new people with similar interests. Organized tours have always seemed like something I'd like to try. Unfortunately, I've never had the money so I've never done one. Maybe when both of my kids finally finish college, move out, start paying for their own cell phones and internet and car insurance, and all the college loans are paid off. Lord, will that day ever come?

One reason I started bike touring in the first place was extreme poverty while I was a college student. I had a bike and some camping gear. I could tour on my bike and not pay for anything other than food. (Stealth camping)

I have gotten a bit more bourgeois since. I have a new, deluxe (to me) touring bike with everything on it I could want; a nice set of Ortliebs (including the handlebar bag); camping gear that is the best I could buy for my purposes; even an mp3 player and phone I carry along (I know - who'd a thunk back in 1975 when I started.) When I start a tour I have enough money in the bank to cover expenses plus contingencies. I can eat in restaurants when I want to, even stay in a motel when I feel like it (or can't find a campsite), and I pay for camping most nights. But I still try not to spend more money than I have to, and am still happy when I can find a bargain (like that $3.00 a night biker campsite in Priest River, Idaho!)

I hope someday I can at least try an organized tour, though maybe my inherent cheapness would prevent me from enjoying it.

I'm independently disorganized.

Having organized my own tours, I get turned off by the cost of the commercial touring company tours.

Speedo

An organized tour is always going to be much more expensive than one you plan yourself. This is normal, and to be expected. On an organized tour, somebody has to pay for staff, planning, advertising, insurance, office space, business taxes, supplies, a sag wagon, and that somebody is the person who signs up! Given everything involved in running a for-profit touring company, $300 per day does not seem excessive to me. I don't think that most tour owners are going to become fabulously wealthy.

I have never gone on an organized tour. But I might in the future. I have always been okay with the ambiguity of self-guided tours, and there have been times when I almost did not find a place to stay overnight. (I always stay in motels and B&Bs, and don't carry camping equipment.) That might be fine for me, but I don't think this kind of traveling with go over well if I were touring with my family.

I agree that it is probably not unreasonable given what is involved, but I suspect that most self supported tourists are pretty frugal and would balk at $300 per day. My brother is fond of cruises and I don't think he typically spends that much for a trip where they wait on you hand and foot.

I think the only way I might consider it would be if it were a sagged fast tour. I am at least a bit curious what a trip like that is like. Still I am not sure if I would like that or not. The cost will most likely keep me from finding out. I just can't see spending as much for a week to 10 days of organized touring as I did for a whole summer of self supported touring on my own.

Interesting feedback. I certainly am not attempting to criticize anyone or anyone's company for earning their living. It must cost a lot to organize, plan and operate a tour company - not to mention that in these times it must be pretty risky financially. My opening comment was really just an expression of "hmm, that's interesting, I wonder what others think or do?" In my tours I choose to neither camp nor cook - I enjoy a warm comfy bed too much and enjoy the pleasures of eating a wide variety of foods. Thus, my tours can easily be $100 per day, depending on where I am. Some places are more and some less, but so far, that is my average.

B

Thanks for the info on your tour costs. I kind of wondered what folks who mostly ate in restaurants and slept in beds spent. I can see where $100 might be about right for that type of touring. I may try it some day.

I agree with this and should have noted that I don't begrudge the tour operators their business. They do a lot for their clients, and probably get people on a bike tour that wouldn't otherwise attempt it.

It's just that once you have organized your own trip, and seen how cheap it can be, it's hard to get over the sticker shock of a commercial trip.

Speedo

I thoroughly enjoy planning and organizing my trips. Just give me a good map, a good guidebook, and google. I'm much smarter about route planning than I was when I first began to tour. It also can be extremely helpful to get input from other cyclists you meet on the road, as well as on forums like this. While it would be an interesting experience for me to be waited on hand and foot with one of the high-end touring companies, I think I would feel frustrated not being able to plan my own route or select where I was going to eat in the evening. I probably would enjoy not having to look for a place to stay at the end of each day, however. But even that is only a problem on rare occasions.

I have done organized tours with cycletouring clubs. On those tours, they provide a sag wagon to carry your gear (a limited quantity), they provide a bit of land to put your tent on, and they provide the food ... and the ones I've been on do an excellent job of providing the food.

The tours are also short - done over a long weekend - and have been in an area and on a route I wanted to go anyway.

The cost of those events has been relatively low. One I've done twice worked out to about $50/day ... the one I did last year worked out to about $40/day. That's not counting the 2 tanks of gas it cost me to get to and from the start/finish area.

I enjoy doing a tour like that once a year or so ... it's nice to meet other cyclists, to talk to people who have travelled and toured other parts of the world, and it's also nice not to have to haul all my stuff up and over mountain passes. Plus the food has been incredible!!

But I'm not sure I'd want to do a tour with a whole group of people that was much longer than that. I think 3 days is nice, and about my limit. I also like the freedom of changing my mind and deciding to go over here instead, or stopping at this town rather than the next one down the road, and so on.

I agree but organized tours can also insulate you from meeting people. I have met so many nice people through Warmshowers, at B&Bs, hotels and hostels and just asking for directions. Some of my fondness memories of tours was the people I met in asking directions. There was a police escort in Cremona, a funny argument between an old Italian couple on the way to Lecco and the realization that you can still experience a language barrier problem even when traveling inside the U.S on my tour of the Pacific coast.

On an organized tour you get to know the members of the group fairly well but you most likely won't meet other people because there is no need.


One huge advantage of a supported tour is that a good company is going to get it right. I love planning my own trips and I love doing my own navigating but you can make mistakes. My first tour wasn't the best it could be. Had I chosen an organized tour, I am sure things would have gone smoother.

For a great deal and an epic adventure of a lifetime check out the trans Africa, South America, and Asia expeditions offered by Tour d'Afrique Ltd. Disclaimer - I work part time for Tour d'Afrique but Ive done the research and in terms of long distance tours in far flung locales they are as good if not better than others in terms of price per day.

I love cycling and i enjoy touring, but for $600 a day, I promise I can have a lot more fun in Vegas.

I'd say that organized tours, by and large, are a better value than the DIY ones. Really. Good tour companies can get you great deals on food and lodging, plus all the added support of a sag wagon, mechanical help, great riding friends, ect. If you want to go ride your bike in France for 2 weeks and you have a real career that makes you good money-- don't mess around. Do the research and pick a top shelf tour company and enjoy! You will have the time of your life, believe me.

I'm not saying that the DIY tour is garbarge-- it's not. There's nothing wrong with rolling your brother's old 12 speed road bike out of the garage, strapping on whatever camping gear happen to have lying around and heading off for Uncle Mort's place Upstate. That's totally fun as well! Enjoy!

The thing to think about is....do you have extra time, or extra money? If all you can manage is two weeks away from the office all summer-- pay someone else to organize a great time for you, because it's worth it. If you just finished collage and you have a whole summer to ride, but you're short on funds, heck, ride coast to coast eating peanut butter and camping.

In the end-- it's all about the ride. Nothing else matters really.

X2 We would never consider spending $100 a day on a tour, let alone $600.

For me, independent trips provide a great deal of freedom. I travel solo so I'm not tied to any specific schedule. If I'm feeling energetic and want to ride until dark (or later) I can do that. Or if I suddenly get the urge to change the entire route, that's fine. I also like the independence of hauling my own gear and camping for the night where I choose.

At the same time, I won't write off the idea of organized tours. There are times and places where that experience could be good. If I were to do a group tour, I'd want to check the company carefully before joining up.

OK, you do realize that there is something in between the two options you've mentioned.

A DIY tour does not mean that ...
1) You ride your brother's old 12 speed road bike out of the garage ... I ride a custom-built touring bicycle.
2) You strap on whatever camping gear you have lying around ... I have a fairly well thought out collection of things I bring.
3) You head off for Uncle Mort's place Upstate ... I've toured Australia, France, Wales, England, and places in Canada and the US on my DIY tours
4) You have just finished college, have a whole summer to ride, but are short of funds ... when I toured Wales (and a bit of England and France) I was working full-time in my profession and certainly wasn't short of funds, and when I toured Australia the first time, I was about to embark on another degree, and decided to spend some of the money I had put away on the tour before I did.
5) You have to camp at all or all the time ... I prefer camping, but could easily have stayed in hotels and eaten in restaurants if I'd wanted to.

A DIY tour can be as fancy or as basic as you want it to be.

A few years ago I planned and executed a 7 week, self sustaining, non-supported cycling tour of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. I've still got maps, map books, etc. Just get ahold of the Irish Tourist Board and ask for a kit that includes Independent Holiday Hostels. Not just the 'Guiness' one. There're 2/3 more not as well known, but cheaper. They're ALL equipped w/kitchen utensils and good cheer. International Youth Hostels membership is a good idea, too. Try to stay away from ones that have 100+ beds as they can be a bit on the busy side. My ride was called 'The Grand Tour' and I did it clockwise. I would do it counter clock wise as the first hostel north of the airport is only 28mi in Slane and one doesn't want to take Swords Road into Dublin...it's pretty nuts. I did the whole trip for about 2500.00 including airfare and I bought a mandolin while I was there. I shopped at the local 'Spars' and was able to get a good balanced diet of pasta, veggies, chicken(upon occasion), OJ, Milk, Meuslix and the odd pint o' guiness when I was feeling the 'craic'. I did 2200 miles in 7 weeks and am looking forward to the day I can do it agian.

Decided against 'camping' about 3 days into the tour as the rain is pretty significant and I simply wasn't prepared, so I did a 'modified credit-card' tour. The Irish are keen on Yanks, but when you're in NI and in the pubs you may want to say you're Canadian as the talk then doesn't degenerate into strong polital discourse.

BTW, I based my trip off of a book...still in print, I think called 'Cycle Touring Ireland' by Brendan Walsh. I found it to be very informative and filled w/side trips only a 'true' local would know about.

OH yeah, if you make it to Wales there's a place callled Betws-y-Coed in N. Wales. From my Anglo
-English pronunciation it seemed 'Betsy co-ed' made sense...the correct pronunciation is 'Bet-oose-uh-Coyd' W is a Vowell in Welsh w/t 'oooh' as in smooth and the 'oe' as 'oy' as in 'boy'. They'll LOVE you for it...trust me. It means 'Place in the Woods'. Enjoy!