"What It Cost" is not really a good title for this page. "Cost" is a word that seems to invoke loss, and there are no losses involved with these trips, only amounts of money that have been used for several months of flat out fun, and memories that will live forever, thanks to these blog entries.

Despite this attitude adjustment, it is true that our resources (and yours,no doubt) are far from unlimited, and it is only prudent to tally what the outgoes have been, so as to know how many future trips may still be in our piggy bank.

Dodie is quite diligent in accounting for the outlays. And she has to keep tabs on me, who takes little notice of spending. In fact, on the necessarily rare occasions that I go into a store on my own, I may not know how much I spent, by the time I reach the exit, and I am adept at losing receipts between the cashier and the door. It's fascinating how those melt in! 

We were gone this time for 73 days, counting the day we walked out of the house to the day we walked back in. So that includes some preliminary and ending  traveling time, during which no cycling was possible. Over the time, our expenses (converting a few from dollars to euros) were twelve and half thousand euros. Pulling put airfare and health insurance of three and a half thousand, the actual cycling time cost 9,000 euros. That is 124 euros per day.

By far the greatest share of this was taken up by hotel cost. This makes us nostalgic (but not much) for our camping days. But those guesthouse fluffy quilts (or at least, clean sheets), heated or cooled dry rooms, and often buffet breakfasts are just too tempting!

One reason that hotels come out as the major expense is that we are not big on restaurant meals. We are very reluctant to give up the time needed to sit in a restaurant (especially with this blog to write) and we find we are fine with loading up at breakfast and then finding sandwiches and goodies at bakeries. It is also the case that grocery costs are commonly low compared to what we are used to at home, and grocery prepared salads, plus pudding products, like creme caramel or tiramisu are available and good quality.

Another key to assessing the hotel cost and food cost situation is the extent to which the hotel rate includes breakfast. In such cases, the hotel amount obviously includes some food as well. 

Sometimes a rate is just simply given as "includes breakfast" and sometimes the breakfast cost is stated separately, and you can choose to take it or leave it. In our records, if we paid a known amount for breakfast, we just included that with other food costs, as with  grocery. But if breakfast was built in, we have tried breaking it out just by simply valuing breakfast at 20 euros.

Fooling with the numbers like this, hotels come in at 47% of the total (vs 54% using "raw" numbers) and food comes in at 17% (vs 9%). 47% is still a big share, we'd say, though we are also including airfare in the calculation, and food remains very modest.

EXPENSES BY TYPE (HOTELS shown at breakfast included price when applicable):

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Girish HemashettarI love the opening of this post where you accurately highlight that the cost doesn't truly reflect the invaluable returns these long rides provide. What we gain is genuinely priceless, notwithstanding the expenses, risks, and the significant amount of effort—both physical and emotional—we invest.

Additionally, I appreciate how effectively you (Dodie) assist other enthusiasts and dreamers by meticulously tracking expenses and calculating costs.

I've been intending to undertake a similar cost estimation for my current India trip but haven't had the chance to do so yet.

Once again, thank you for sharing your inspiring experiences.
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Girish HemashettarHow nice to hear from you, and thanks for your kind words. Dodie carries a small notebook and a pen in her handlebar bag and is very disciplined about recording every expenditure in real time (in the currency of the country). This makes it very easy to analyze costs at the end of a trip.
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1 year ago

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Some other things of note in here are that none of postage, postcards, souvenirs, tourism, and treats, and bike repairs jump out as major categories. That is on purpose, where we have tried not to go crazy on buying these things. However even at a rounded 1%, an item like "postage and postcards" is still 116 euros. Is that a lot?

Looking a little closer at the hotels, while of course some were nicer than others, with bigger rooms and more electric outlets perhaps, all suited our needs. The cheapest we found was Hotel du Centre, in Chalus, south of Limoges, at 60 euros with breakfast. Ok, the room was basic and the breakfast was basic, but there you go. Chalus, by the way, was the spot were Richard Coeur Lion was killed. There was also a plaque by our hotel that said Lawrence of Arabia slept here. Did he get the included breakfast?

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The most costly hotels were in Barcelona and Valencia, where the price approached or hit 200 euros. The Barcelona one was half way between the Rambla and the Segrada Familia. That was convenient, but the neighbourhood of the hotel itself was blah. We later saw that we could have stayed on the Rambla at the Oriente for the same price. We do admit, at the expensive hotels the breakfasts were a joy. 

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