July 25, 2022
What It Cost
In some idealized "old days" cycle touring might have been pretty cheap, as people hopped on their existing bikes, threw a garbage bag over some old packs and headed off camping, with a few bags of rice and noodles.
If we ever were "those people", we sure aren't now, as we hop first onto expensive international air flights, and then jump on $5000 bikes with waterproof packs, GPS, hotel bookings, and stops at every eis cafe out there. And when we are done, we get set to go again!
Even compared to more recent days, things have gotten more expensive. Compared to 2018, we feel we have seen a least a 20% increase in general costs.
That's how cycle touring, once a fairly cheap annual vacation, has for us become a costly sort of addiction, one that puts a noticeable dent in our bank accounts.
How much are we talking about? In 2018 for our standard approximately 90 day outing in Europe (Grampies Tour de France) it was just under 10,000 euros, excluding airfare and health insurance. This time, the quest for the Meaning of Life was 11,500. Add in air fare of about 2038 euros and health insurance of 1200 euros, and you come to about 15,000 euros. Is that quite costly to find the Meaning of Life? I just asked my phone (for free) and it said the Answer is "to be excellent to each other, and party on"! Well, ok, maybe the 15,000 euro version is worth it!
That 15,000 euros is about 164 a day. Tricia Graham wrote in the comments that while she was still tracking costs (now too scary) during their 2009 London to Rome expedition, she came to 147 euros a day, including airfare and everything else. That makes our 164 euros thirteen years later seem not too bad. But still, how did we reach this cost?
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Clearly hotel costs were the major factor, but that's a little misleading. We almost always went for the breakfast included option. In Germany that represents an awful lot of food. We would make breakfast our main meal, and take along some snacks for later as much as possible. If you pull this food value out of the hotel figure, hotel could drop to as low as 35% of the total. But the "food" total and percentage would rise of course, and maybe a lot, if restaurants would be brought more into the picture. This effective use of breakfasts really is a central European phenomenon, though. In France, for example, breakfast whether included or not is generally worthless.
A "food" item of note is "Bakery and Eis". Although 3% might look like a low number, in absolute terms that is 450 euros. That is sort of a hunk of change, but on the other hand only about 5 euros a day on average. This is also thanks to the quite low cost of eis in Germany, and pastries too.
Another interesting percentage is 4% for bike repair. About half of this went in repeated visits to bike shops to fool with our Magura hydraulic rim brakes. These brakes are powerful, but clearly trouble prone. and about half the "repair cost" was for several hundred euros we left with a bike shop after the ride was over, to overhaul the bikes, which now have covered 15,000 km since new.
We used to pick up every map and pamphlet we ran in to, to then mail them home at significant cost to be put on a shelf to be looked at again seldom or never. We have quit that now. But we still need to send postcards to grandkids and friends! Cost for that (plus one legitimate mail back), over 200 euros, but still just 1% of the budget.
When we came around to the Bodensee area, we began to despair, because we could seemingly not find reasonably priced accommodation. We thought we might have to abandon the tour just for this reason. But instead, we bit the bullet and paid a few high prices, later to find we were in more economical areas. Bodensee ranks second only to Munich for high hotel prices.
The average hotel room cost us 97 euros. The most costly was 214 just before Munich, and there were some 184's in Munich. Lowest costs were 50's along the Elbe and some 40's in Czechia. These are former Soviet bloc areas, still showing some signs of those times. A couple of times a little lower rate was found in a place that was a "hostel" of some sort. But we decided the limited space at such places (even though we had our own room), lack of electrical outlets, and weak breakfasts made them not really worth it.
Looking at the hotel costs spread out along our route, you can sort of see the regions going by. But as time progressed we were also moving into higher season, so the picture is a bit clouded.
Now back home, we find that our bank balances have grown while we have been away. The thing is, at home you have a lot of latitude to dream up expenses. That lawn mower probably needs an upgrade, and the car needs repair, because it has been busy going shopping in the city, and incidentally burning up costly gas, and so on.
So we find we once again have some money to squander on cycling. Where will it be? Likely Spain/Portugal, or maybe Mexico. And when? Good question. We would want it to be cooler. And oh, what about Omicron BA.5? But, it will happen. Stay tuned!
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2 years ago
As Dodie has found, it's hard to tell me that any one specific pastry or eis is not needed.
2 years ago
p.s. Been reading your 2009/2012 Greek odyssies, but did not find too much Grampie type encouragement in it, True?
2 years ago
We’re almost exactly half way through our tour of the UK. We’ve for the most part enjoyed it the whole way, although the fens grew a little monotonous after awhile. The north though is fantastic. We’re already talking about when we’d like to come back. Stellar scenery, appealing market towns and villages, and tons of history of course.
We’ve had an unusual experience because it’s been such an unusually dry summer this year s the weather has been unusually pleasant. Great for us (so far), but of course the underlying message is dire here as everywhere.
Costs are reasonable (especially with the exchange rate the dollar is getting this summer), people are friendly, open and interested. It’s a refreshing change to travel in an English-speaking lane for a change.
Road quality/safety/signage is hard to characterize. We tend to find our own routes and not rely on other resources so much, but there’s certainly a robust, well marked and well documented cycle network in the NCN. If you just followed their routes and kept an open mind I think you’d do well, as long as you did at least some research to steer yourself away from the most scenic (often horribly hilly) terrain.
There’s not the impressive investment in cycling infrastructure you find in Germany/Austria/France for example, but I’m sure a big cut above places like the Czech Republic or Croatia. Maybe more like Italy and Spain, meaning oftentimes great, if you’re careful with your route selection.
And maybe it wouldn’t live up to your breakfast expectations. Forget the 10 jammers, and think standard English Breakfast: egg, sausage, ham, a wedge of grilled potatoes, stewed tomatoes, baked beans, and possibly black pudding if that’s your thing. Tea or coffee, OJ or tomato juice, an array of cereals, one or two varieties of jam, generally prepackaged. So that’s a thing to be aware of and prepared to accept as the norm.
2 years ago
Now just into my second month of non weight bearing and am hopeful that by the end of three months I will be ready to tour again
2 years ago
I've been reading your London to Rome - still interesting!
2 years ago
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2 years ago
Perhaps those trips seem expensive, but we spent $2,000. this August visiting the new grand baby for a weekend (includes airfare). So - going by the day, bicycling is a great deal!
1 year ago
1 year ago