We have travelled by both means of transport. The first trip was 18 months on 2 BMW GS to India and back and now we have travelled some of Europe in our Landcruiser and are prepping it for Africa.

There are advantages/disadvantages to both:
BIKES: less security when sleeping as have to use ground tent, easy to get gear stolen at borders if you do not keep an eye on the bike, can go most places a 4x4 can but requires more skill and harder work at times (some places are only accesible by bike), you can easily leave the bike safely in hotel receptions but when riding your more vunerable.

4X4: not easy to hide from view but can sleep in vehicle when required, gear is safer and of course you can carry more of it (most importantly you can keep cool in a fridge), easier to travel off road, less likely to get injured and you do have a metal shell around you.

As far as fuel, for us its not much different but we did use 2 bikes. For a solo traveller a bike would be cheaper.

Its a personel choice - our website covers bike preparation and over the next month will be updated with our landcruiser preparation.

Land Rover vs Landcruiser - we chose toyota as we encountered a number of 4x4 and the land rover owners complained more!

Becky
www.2riders-1dream.com - join us on our trip around the world