How long do you ride/ how long will the trip take?
 

How many hours do most riders clock in the saddle when doing a RTW style trip? Is it highly variable?

How many detours do you take (ie taking the scenic route or weaving through a country to see more of it)?

I'm considering doing a long bike trip (Vietnam to Portugal perhaps) and am wondering how long it would take me. How many hours I would have to ride each day/ how many 'side trips' I can take.

Hello,

No real answer, It all depends on how many miles you want to clock, how tired you get? The road / weather conditiosn and the countiries you travel in. IF you take it nice and slow and do about 600 / 700 miles a day then you should be able to get from Portugual to India in about a month.

This does not sound "nice and slow" to me. Even if I assume you meant kilometers, not miles, it's far faster than most riders would sustain anywhere in the world. Could you clarify?

To the OP: yes, it is highly variable, and depends on your interests, abilities, available time and money, specific routing, and other factors. Reading some HUBB ride reports (or blogs elsewhere) would give you some ideas. I haven't done the route you're thinking about, but I've averaged 150 miles a day (±250 km) for long periods elsewhere in the world and found it plenty. And most areas feature lots of side trips--if not for the scenery, at least for the people.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

Yes sorry, I meant kilometers abt 350miles. Its long ride but with breaks it should be a days ride.

Hi,

I do as many d tours as i want to and sometimes if find nice places and friendly people I spend even a few weeks there only if visa are runing out or it is raining too much i ride up to 10 hours a day to find another nice place again but depending on the road condition to ride for more then 3 hours per day doesnt make fun anymore. I dont travel to count the countrys i have been visiting but to really experience them:

Riding the rough west coast through Africa - Transafrika part 3

Travel save, Tobi

My brother and I did 6 weeks around Australia last year averaging 270km every day, but we had a limited window of opportunity, and a number of specific places we wanted to visit. In retrospect I would have liked to do more on the 'travelling' days and had more 'days off' which may have worked out the same in the long run.

In general it will depend a great deal on road conditions and also whether you are pitching a tent every night and cooking for yourself as this takes a considerable portion of the day. Also, we chose never to ride in the dark due to the risk of 'roo collision.

...to pitch a tent does not take longer then 2 minutes and to find a place for this you just keep your eyes open while riding dont you? And to prepare your own food is quicker then to wait for the order to come in a restaurant HAHA

If riding in your own country you can do lots of distance quickly. You speak the language, know the places to get fuel, food and sleeping places. Say 400 km a day.

If your riding where you don't know much you can expect to do a lot less.. unless you don't want to see anything but just want the kudos of having 'done that'?

Plan on at lest having every 7th day 'off' - non riding, doing the washing, bike service, visas etc.

If you want to visit things then plan on having some days at each site ... how many times will you visit there in your life? May as well get some time there while you are there?

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Some will 'travel' a lot faster than this ... but what do they see and experience? Not as much as someone traveling slower. It is your trip, don't let others dictate it, and be prepared to change the plan as things change (floods, fire and so on). Some don't plan at all, others plan too much.

Me? A rough list of things I want to see/do. You may have time constraints. Visas, job etc .. those will put a limit into your plans. Try to keep lots of 'free' days.. for siting and looking at the passing parade.

We average about 100 miles/day & have been on the road for almost 8 months UK - India so far. I'd say we are pretty slow, we detour like crazy people and dont really follow any kind of straight line...The first 4 months were a lot faster though. We had some breaks more recently for trekking and other stays. Without that I'd say averaging 150 miles/day is comfortable if you like to see lots of sights, meander.