Hi

You hadn't quite reached Folkestone when you stayed at the Ship Inn, as doubtless you realised when you tackled the hill next morning.

The Ship Inn is in Sandgate, where the tunnel beneath the Channel runs under your feet. It has great significance for me - the Ship, not the tunnel - because it's where I drank my first pint. I spent my last family holidays in Sandgate, a town I still love and visit on the rare occasions I go to England.

You didn't have the weather but, in summer and on a good day, you can just about make out traffic in France. I used to look out and wonder what was over there. Now that I live in France, I look out and see it as home, of course.

Had you gone through Hythe, you'd have seen the wonderful model railway that runs something like 25km along the coast to the Dungeness peninsula. That is a regular for me. A man with a lot of money bought the land and built the tracks along it, complete with signals and stations. The locomotives are largely models of the expresses that ran in England at that period - the 1920s - but there is also at least one Canadian engine.

No need to fear any future English breakfasts, we are NEVER going back there, ever.

I was interested to read this comment. Our experience in Britain was quite different than yours, of course. We loved Britain and definitely hope to go back. If you do return you should try to stay further away from London. The further away we were from the big cities, the better the experience.

Of course distance from London won’t help with the full English breakfasts. Personally I thought they were great, but then I can’t taste or smell.

What an ordeal getting home! We know all about that. But I'm glad you made it. Congratulations on yet another wonderful trip. You guys are pretty damn amazing!

Bruce

Congratulations to you both for your amazing trip. Enjoy reading about it, although I'm hoping to enjoy a deeper read over Christmas when we get a break from the bike shop.

We still talk about you both as the inspirational couple who brightened our otherwise foul-weather day when you visited us with bike problems.

Best wishes to you both,
Paul and Brian
The Dutch Bike Shop.

Many (about half) of my nights were in campgrounds or RV parks (Forest Service campgrounds run $15-20/night and the hiker biker campsite in Yellowstone was under $10) and a few more were in low cost hostels.

Airfare was one way from Cody to Dulles.

No insurance cost, as you noted, since I was strictly on domestic soil.

Lodging and food were each in the $1,300 to $1,500 range for the month. I can't say for certain because my accounting only covered credit card charges and most camping was paid for in cash. Most meals got charged as did most groceries but there were some cash transactions as well.

The blog sort of cuts the cost, because with it we can go back and remember stuff, without charge.

Speaking of going back, from the safety of home, England is looking way more quaint and attractive!

Yes, the French clearly keep thin through their skimpy yet costly restaurant meals.

Hmm, your percentages differ from ours quite a bit. Maybe accommodation is cheaper is the States, airfare is less than for trying to get overseas, and health insurance would not figure for you as an extra expense. How much in dollars do you think it cost for accommodation, and for food?

It's gratifying to see your figures basically jiving with ours. I suspect that "ordinary" tourists would have similar figures, although they need to pay for city to city transport, and not having cycling to occupy their time, would be squandering money in museums, and possibly shopping.

Something to consider, cycle tourists need time to get anywhere, and therefore I suppose their trip lengths will be longer on average. That would possibly establish cycle tourists as a high total spending category. That's at odds with our possible image as low budget transients trudging up hills along the roadsides in the rain. The thing is, I rather prefer that latter image!

For comparison purposes our 52 day tour of Portugal/Spain totalled approximately 156 euros per day comprised of 110 euros for accommodation, 39 euros per day for food and beverages, and 7 euros per day for miscellaneous. Figures do not include airfare, insurance, cell phone plans. Breakfasts were included in the hotel costs for over 90% of the time. Do remember we do have the odd beer or glass of wine unlike the clean living Grampies!

My very wise older brother pointed out that "Money is better spent on having experiences, than on things." You can't take it with you so, assuming you've been careful enough to shepherd your resources to cover known and likely future expenses, whatever's left is fair game for having those experiences.

In my 33 days on the road this past summer my breakdown by category (credit card charges only; things paid for with cash are not included) was:
* Merchandise: 19%
* Lodging: 27% (several nights of camping at $10-$15/night are not included here; also omitted are the cash donations made to various hostels)
* Dining, snacks: 25%
* Airfare: 11%
* Other services: 7%
* "Other travel": 6%
* "Other": 3%

I never took a train or rode a bus, so my "Transportation" was zero.

The "Other Travel" category covers a substantial FedEx charge for getting two spare/replacement tires sent from home to where I was stranded in Idaho, in a time of need.

This summary also excludes the expenses incurred during a side trip to Bozeman, MT to attend a family event. Although it's true that I'd not have made that trip had I not been in the general vicinity at the time of the event it's not (in my mind) really a tour-related expense.

Those numbers sound right to me. We see that prices for hotels have gone way up since Covid. Fortunately, we have neither air fare nor additional health insurance to burden the budget. We do spend more than you in restaurants, though, which are much more costly in France than in Germany.

Looking forward to reading where you will be touring next!

This doesn’t look unreasonable to me. We’ve not kept track of expenses for a long time, but I’m pretty sure our own expenditures are higher than this, especially in the food category. There’s no doubt we’ve gotten more casual in our spending since going vagabond. I’m pretty sure it’s still less expensive for us to travel in Europe than it was to maintain our home in Portland though.

If we still had a home we wouldn’t be traveling nearly as extensively of course. Back then we were starting to feel like it was too extravagant after being on the road for even six weeks.

Very useful information Thankyou

As you know you can’t put a price on all the fantastic places you visited, the experiences and the random people you met…..priceless….but good to know post Covid Europe costs


Bakery…….priceless……loved all the bakery photos and your choices…….eating bakery items ……priceless

Look forward to your future tours

Sandy