charliewilliams

I'm a 3rd year university student from London and have never had the chance to cycle more than a couple of hundred miles but spent all summer last year stuck in an office and would absolutely love to spend this one than cycling the USA's Pacific Coast.

I would be incredibly grateful of some general advice from someone who's got experience in this area and (unfortunately) most importantly a vague idea of how much this kind of thing would cost, I've manged to save around £1500 including my overdraft (but that would have to include flights/visas/anything else I've not thought of) and no where on the internet's been particularly helpful.

Thank's for your time, Charlie

staehpj1

I answered over on CGOAB, but will post my answer here as well for others who may follow this thread:

It depends on how much of that £1500 needs to go to airfare and how frugal you are.
Camping is pretty cheap on the Pacific Coast. Unless things have changed in the last couple years I think you can expect to be able to camp for $6-8 per night most of the time. You can probably also manage to stay with warmshowers hosts a few times.


Food is widely variable in price with the area. There were some very reasonable towns and some tourist traps that gouged badly. If you choose carefully where you stop, there are reasonable groceries and inexpensive diners.


I think if you are fairly frugal you could do the Pacific Coast in reasonable comfort but watching your pennies for about $20 per day for daily expenses. It is possible to spend less ($15?) and some spend a lot more ($30, $50, $100?), but I think the $20 figure is good for a low budget fairly frugal tour (the kind I like).


I find it is nice to have a cushion so I don't have to worry as much. If I expect to spend $20 per day I really like to have $30 per day available.

raybo

As Pete said, it depends on what you eat and where you spend the night.

Will you be camping? Will you bring cooking gear?

If you camp, there are special campsites in campgrounds along the coast in Oregon and California where bike riders can set up camp for $5 -$10 a night. Note that this will require some planning as these aren't necessarily a day's ride apart. Washington State has a few such sites: Washington state lists parks with bike/hike campsites » Biking Bis

While you don't say where you plan to start and stop, you will most likely pass a place to buy groceries every day, though it might be only a single small one as would be the case between Carmel and Cambria (the Big Sur coast). With a bit of planning ahead, you should be able to keep yourself in inexpensive, healthy food. If you are carrying cooking gear, you can likely even eat well.

If you haven't already, you should check out couchsurfing.org and warmshowers.org. These websites are full of people who may be willing to host you for the night for free.

Given the current prices of flight to/from the US, your air fare will eat up most of the money you've saved. Check out as many cheap air fares as you can and see what you are likely to have left over. Don't forget to figure in the cost of bike transport, which will kick up the actual fare you are going to pay (both ways).

It would be a shame to attempt this ride and have money worries the entire time. It is such a pretty place to ride that being distracted by saving every pence along the way will take away from the enjoyment.

One last thing. The UK pound is falling against the dollar. While this might not affect airfare all that much due to competition/collusion between the airlines, it will affect how far your pounds go.

It would help if you posted more details about your trip, such as, when you plan to do this, where you plan to start and end, and if you are camping and cooking.

Tourist in MSN

I agree on the comments on camping cost. Last May and June, we spent $5 or $6 at most of the parks we stayed at, one cost $7. These costs are for one person at the state parks where there are hiker biker sites. We only went to such parks, we did not stop any any parks where the cost is for an entire site. Oregon they were proud to say that they never turned away a camper in a hiker biker site. Oregon parks had free showers, California they were coin operated.

If you choose to site see in San Fransisco, we stayed at the HI Hostel at Fishermans Wharf. That is not too far off the coastal route if you are going past. They had a room in doors where we could store our bikes and they had a Safeway store a couple blocks away. They fill up, need reservations.

I wrote down several comments I had on my trip at this link:
https://www.bikeforums.net/touring/95...l#post16933424

We made no attempts to limit our costs, we often stopped at restaurants. But we stopped at the larger grocery stores every few days, most suppers were in the campsites but we often ate breakfasts in restaurants, lunches was sometimes in restaurants and sometimes the food we carried with us.

We were extraordinarily lucky with weather. Astoria when we were there historically should have had 60 percent chance or rain every day, Crescent City 30 percent, San Fransisco 10 percent. But we only had 2 or 3 days of rain and then only one day did it rain hard enough that I put the rain cover on my handlebar bag.

I have no idea if you can order the guidebook with a reasonable shipping cost to UK, you might try that on Amazon. I think the fourth edition is still the current version.
https://www.amazon.com/Bicycling-Paci.../dp/0898869544

I prefer to use a rear view mirror on my helmet. Since we ride on the right side of the road, mirror is on the left side of the helmet.

Good luck.

fietsbob

You a Member of CTC over there ? I expect there are resources to call upon there ..

FWIW U$D is always less the £ so you gain in the currency exchange Rate.

Doug64

You might also search this forum, as there has been a lot of discussion on the topic.

Plan on riding north to south! Depending on time, starting in Vancouver, BC; riding north to Powell River, BC; Across to Vancouver Island; then south; it will let you cover the entire Pacific Coast Route. It is also one of the nicer sections of the route.