Sure--hike and bike sites, alcohol stoves, ramen noodles, mac 'n' cheese, eggs, plus veggies, fruits, pastries, french bread or rolls, and small steaks, pork chops, or precooked chicken from grocery store delis if available. Easy enough to do if you avoid restaurants. Hike and bike sites in CA average about $5 away from the busy coast, where they are more like $10.

I'm sorry but what are hike and bike sites?

Basically if you eat grocery store food (or better), that is what your body wants, and it costs marginal zero, since you have to east something. It probably is more expensive than that because some foods i prefer to eat on the road like say a peach, I might actually be eating something cheaper like home made bread if I was at home. And as far as sleep, if it is wild or stealth it's free.

But if one ramps it up even marginally, it gets real expensive around here. I am visiting my parents at the moment. My daughter and I stayed in a motel, and it cost 70 for one night. I would like to say how nice it was, but it was bottom of the barrel, that doesn't have roaches. Campsites cost 35, and they may well be worth it, but that is what I would prefer to spend on Motels if I could find it (I mean I prefer camping, it is just the lower price I feel I should be able to find).

The idea you can eat anywhere for 4 bucks without eating the kind of crap from Super Size Me, or dumpster diving, is pure fantasy. I just said the kind of crap, you aren't getting out of McD for that. People pass on their best day ever like it was normal, they also average 20 MPH.

The complication I have is finding wild camping, etc... in the same kind of place I find easy access to decent food. Going past a large market every day, usually means area build-up (small markets around here are just convenience places, they don't have food). But getting easy access to nice wild camping moves in the opposite direction. That is what I prefer about kiking and boating the opportunity to go all wild. Around here you can do that on some snowmobile trails also by bike, but usually only pretty short trips. Any day out is a good day, but it can be expensive. My favourite areas to bike tour around here have decent food access and pay camping, but that is 35-50 a day. Over several weeks that ads up.

I just traveled a short distance with a guy from Argentina, we camped in the same place a couple nights. One night was in a city park, the next in a Hostel. He told me that his average was 10 dollars a day. He had about 8,000 miles through north America done, with a couple thousand to go.
Personally I would go nuts eating as simply as he was, rice one night and pasta the next, with bullion and it looked like the occasional hot dog. He had a bag of pretzels.
I spent enough on the three weeks I was out to keep him on the road for months. Not bragging, I usually go cheaper but figured that I was on vacation.

As to my costs on tour, I find it varies a lot from day to day. When I pass a grocery every few days, I stock up on some ramen, those alfredo noodle packet things, bread, pop tarts, some cream cheese or cheddar, crackers, oatmeal bars, possibly some apples. I choose the generic brands if possible. Usually about four days worth of food comes to 25-30 bucks.
Sleeping is anywhere from free to 80 bucks. On my last trip I was in a nice hotel one night, and sleeping in a tent in a patch of woods next to some train tracks the next. One night a campground was ten dollars, another it was 15. The cheaper motels I stayed at were in the forty dollar range. Some nights were wild camping. Over the last few nights there was less of that as hunting season was starting and there was a bit of shootin in the woods all day and night.

I think you should give us a clue as to what sort of touring you intend to do.

I can go touring from my front door for a two-nighter out-and-back, and not spend anything because I can free camp and take the food I will eat with me, along with associated cooking stuff.

Or it could cost me $200 for two nights with a cabin in a park for accommodation, and eating out at a restaurant, and picking up takeaway food during the day.

The older hands who have been touring for a while are wise as to how to "pace" their expenditure with their speed on the road. A really significant factor is that they know what level of comfort they can sustain with their accommodation and food. That comfort level includes things such as whether "stealth" camping is acceptable, being alone, cooking food, repetition in daily "menus", using warmshowers, and being able to handle repairs.

As I said in an earlier post, my average long-term touring cost is $25/day including one motel stay a week. That also includes one inexpensive restaurant meal per day, generally an $8 breakfast a $5 sandwich, or even a $4 pint of ice cream at a C-store. If I cut out the motel stay and the restaurant meal, I'm under $20. But I'm a middle-aged guy with a credit card, and though I am frugal I will pay for some comforts. My food cost was $15/day, mostly buying groceries.

I also mentioned a cyclist I met (warmshowers guest) who's been living on $5000/year for the last three years. He's an exception--a freegan, a dumpster diver, and a road-kill eater. The option is there, though not for me, thank you.

Eating road-kill is very not cool.

Why not?

Aaron

Myself, I plan on retiring in a couple of years and spending a year Touring through the US then off to Europe. I don't think I would be able to do it on $20/day, that just seems so low. Especially if I'd want a Motel/Hotel once per week. And to eat pretty decently other than Mcds and such...

No clue the only place I have eaten in Canada was the Toronto airport when we got diverted

My current grocery budget is $85 a week for 2 adults, that even includes some convenience foods. We do a lot of cooking from scratch. If you buy a few staple goods in bulk and prepackage them ahead of time I wouldn't be surprised to see food costs in the $3 a day range. I have gotten vegetables and fruits for free or greatly reduced costs because they were "damaged". They don't look perfect so they can't sell them at full cost. In a couple of cases I have gotten veggies for free by gleaning, we were allowed to comb a field for leftovers after the mechanical harvesters had gone through, it is amazing how much stuff they leave behind.

Here is a blog post that is an interesting read.

Aaron

Hmmm.....yeah, if I Camped or used Warmshowers each night, I could see $20-$25 per day. Hmmm...maybe this World Tour for me may not be as expensive as I first thought.

And reading Journals from people on CGOAB, going through Mexico, Central and South America is very, very cheap. Could easily do $20/day down there

Those are special sites, almost always at a big discount, for non-motorized travelers. They can't be reserved, may only let you stay one night in busy parks, and may have time restrictions (i.e., no checkin before 4 PM, must be out by 9 AM) The ranger may turn you away if they are full. Some parks don't have special sites, instead you camp in the day-use area. (Grover Hot Springs and Cuyamaca State Parks are examples.) Most state parks along the Pacific Coast offer them, and I know most inland California state parks also offer them. They can also be found in Yosemite (backpackers' camps), Yellowstone, and Grand Canyon National Parks that I know of, probably many more. Certain San Diego County Parks offered the program years ago, discontinued it, but have reinstated it again, according to a trip journal from last winter. Finding info on that online is impossible--who knows how many other programs like this are unknown and unused.

Private campgrounds may also offer discount sites for cyclists, especially if along an ACA route, but that's also hard to find out about online.

I expect that the West Coast programs were developed by touring organizations such as the ACA or LAW, the national parks probably began as backpacker's sites. Perhaps in other parts of the country, cycling organizations can also see if they can get these programs started. It would cost nothing extra to let you put up a tent at dusk in a picnic area, use the table & showers, and then be gone early in the AM.

Back in the 80's, sites were 50 cents to a dollar, now they range from $4 to $10. The closest two beach sites to San Diego, where I live, are by far the worst on the coast in terms of noise, facilities, and foot traffic through your camp. (Doheny and San Elijo) By contrast, Cuyamaca State Park inland is wonderful, but the program is hardly ever used.

Thank you for the information. This is something we don't have up in Canada, sounds wonderful. Are they listed somewhere? ACA Maps perhaps?

If you are going to Europe, be prepared for sticker shock on everything, but especially food. I am not saying that every country is expensive, and I suspect that some in east that I haven't visited may be cheaper. But France, Germany and Britain and particularly Switzerland, are a cut above in food prices. Again, cooking your own reduces that cost considerably.

Switzerland was a real shock for us. McDonald-type meals that we would pay $7 or $8 at home for were the equivalent of $15. I'm using it just as an example, because we did try it as a treat once. Staple foods in the supermarkets were OK, but still more than what we would pay at home.

Transport by trains also can be a bit expensive, but is a pretty efficient way of getting from one good cycling location to another.

I'll be cycling location to location, no trains for me. And I will bring a stove to cook my own meals as much as I can in Europe.

I believe the ACA maps will mention them--most cyclists doing the US Pacific coast route come to depend on them. You can go to the California State Parks page and search for the parks that offer them by Activity/Facility: https://www.parks.ca.gov/ParkIndex/

This show most, but not all, of the parks that have the program.

I've also added sites that I've stayed at to this site: https://www.biketouringtips.com/searc...ping&subtopic=

Hey, here's a small town in Montana that built their own little bike-only campground on the ACA TA route a few years ago--they asked for suggestions on a thread here on bikeforums, and now here's a video from a user: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85etYUg6CaY

https://www.adventurecycling.org/adve...ays-dividends/

It would be nice if other folks would pool their knowledge and add to this site if they know of any local bike campsites.

Very nice idea..I will definitely stop at Twin Bridges on my Journey through Montana...

Over on CGOAB theres a family of Four Touring the World(LA to South America on two Tandems and onward to Timbuktu). They've been gone five years. Their average spending is $27.50/day. For Four people. Amazing Journal.

Got a link?

Aaron

https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/..._id=4438&v=7uV


Here you go...

Thanks... read it when I get time, but looks like they are having the journey of a lifetime.

Aaron

There is one outside of Winthrop, WA on ACA's Northern Tier Route:

https://barnbicyclecamping.blogspot.com/

There is also a couple who has something similar near Republic, WA, which is also on the NT route. I believe they were also trying to open a bike shop but were having some trouble getting approval. I think they posted details on ACA's forum a while ago.

As I noted in a different thread, I have stayed at the Twin Bridges site. It's very nice.

Nothing wrong with it if it's done correctly. If you hit and kill a squirrel or a rabbit and have the know-how and the means to dress it, how is that any different from shooting one? A couple of states permit road kill salvaging. There is a push in MT to make it legal. Don't know if it passed.

Crossing the country we came upon a pheasant in ND that must have been very recently hit as the blood from its nose had not congealed or yet. A woman in the group remarked that she wished we had a way to transport it and prepare it for dinner. Instead, she plucked feather for a couple of us and we attached them to our bikes.

I stayed at both of those places, the barn and the yurt, in the first few days of my NT ride. Both were fantastic. Places like that helped me keep my costs down, and reaffirmed my faith in humanity. They also made the purchase of the ACA maps worthwhile.