Advice on RTW trip costing

[seanefc3]

I wonder if anyone can help me, I'm looking for some very rough advice.

Planning on a RTW trip, but it will take me around 5 years to save up enough.

Now would £50,000 be enough for a 2-3 year trip, including the cost of the bike?

I realise that its very much a 'how long is a piece of string?' type question, I just need some guidance that the figure i'm aiming towards is realistic!

The proposed route would be as follows...

Leave UK, down through Europe pretty quickly, through Turkey, Syria, Jordan. Ferry to Egypt, down to Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa. Then I plan to ship the bike to Brazil; travel down to Argentina and Chile, then up the Pacific coast through Central America if possible, to the states and possibly Canada. From there the trip is a little hazy...

The prefered option is ship to Aus, then Indonesia, Malaysia, Thialand, Laos, Vietnam, China (I understand there are issues re needing a guide there? - the costs may rule China out), then India and back to Europe via Pakistan and Iran.

USA - Russia - Europe would also be an option, but i would rather the Asian route shown above.


I wouldnt consider my living costs to be that excessive, cheap hostels/hotels are fine, and i would certainly force myself to start liking camping before I left!

My current estimates are as follows...

35,000 miles, 3 years or 1095 days

Fuel = £6,300 (from 30mpg at £1.20 per liter (high british prices!))
Food = £16,425 (£15 per day)
Accom. = £10,950 (£10 per night)

Carnet = £5,000 using insurance
Visas etc = £2,000

Bike & Kit = £8,000

Other = £2,000

Total = £50,675

Would be great if anyone has any observations or advice! Budgeting for how much i'll be spending each day in the middle of say, Zambia, just blows my mind.

Also the 3 years is totally a stab in the dark at how long it would take!

[seanefc3]

Just realised that the one major item missing from that budget is shipping costs!

[hmadams]

You can aways park your butt a few months somewhere cheap and maybe even work a little. That's $80,000 USD at $50 a day, that leaves $25K for all else. I could do it on that. Worse case you run out of money after 2yrs, still a lot of travel.

[dave ett]

Don't know what bike you're proposing to use, but if you swap it to a BMW F800GS you'll get nearer 60mpg, halving your fuel bill.

Swap it to a much smaller bike and you'll get even more - Simon Gandalfi uses a 125.

Buy a cheaper bike and your carnet costs will plummet too.

Accommodation in Africa will be much cheaper than Europe of course, and you can wild / free camp in a lot of countries, even places like the States. That will allow you to spend more on a nice hotel now and then to have a good spruce up. Your food and accommodation prices look a little stingy but I've not done much travelling in the more remote places so perhaps things will average out as you have guessed.

One thing I have heard is that the slower you travel the cheaper it is.

[Gummikuh]

Hi!

I just calculatet how long we could travel on 50K EU. Around 2.6 years for us both on 2 old BMW's


We try to do bushcamping as much as possible, we usually eat on the road where the locals eat.

Biggest cost's : petrol, visa's and flight's/shipments

Werner+Claudia

[seanefc3]

Originally Posted by dave ett

Don't know what bike you're proposing to use, but if you swap it to a BMW F800GS you'll get nearer 60mpg, halving your fuel bill.

Swap it to a much smaller bike and you'll get even more - Simon Gandalfi uses a 125.

Buy a cheaper bike and your carnet costs will plummet too.

Accommodation in Africa will be much cheaper than Europe of course, and you can wild / free camp in a lot of countries, even places like the States. That will allow you to spend more on a nice hotel now and then to have a good spruce up. Your food and accommodation prices look a little stingy but I've not done much travelling in the more remote places so perhaps things will average out as you have guessed.

One thing I have heard is that the slower you travel the cheaper it is.

Yeah, my hope is that the costs will average out. But to be honest, the three year plan is looking more like two years in my eyes now, which would allow a bigger daily budget for food and accom.

Ive read a few people on here talk about saving money on the bike, am i likely to run in to issues using a bike with a smaller engine? I would hate to get to a point where the bike just couldnt cope.

In fact, the bike is really what i've put the least thought in to, the F800 has crossed my mind though!

[seanefc3]

Originally Posted by Gummikuh

Hi!

I just calculatet how long we could travel on 50K EU. Around 2.6 years for us both on 2 old BMW's


We try to do bushcamping as much as possible, we usually eat on the road where the locals eat.

Biggest cost's : petrol, visa's and flight's/shipments

Werner+Claudia

Nice to hear of someone else with a similar budget, and thats for two bikes!

What route would you take with the above budget?

[markharf]

Include shipping and you're probably fine on budgeting, particularly since you don't really know how long you'll be gone for, what bike you'll use or what your route will be. Adjust accordingly as things firm up.

But what I really think needs attention is your mileage. 35,000 sounds awfully scant to me. I'm over 40,000 just in the Americas....and that's without Alaska. Before this trip I put on 35,000 mostly in Europe and North Africa. Unless you're planning the most direct (i.e., boring) possible routes, double your mileage allowance.

US$0.02

Mark

[othalan]

For my upcoming trip I am estimating around 2.5-5 years on the road with about 20% more funds than you are planning for. The wide range depends on how fast I travel (how much gas I use each day), how often I stay in hotels (instead of camping), and how much time I spend in the most expensive parts of the world (USA, Europe).

I may also try to extend this by earning money on the road, either as I travel or by stopping in Europe and finding work there.

[seanefc3]

Originally Posted by markharf

Include shipping and you're probably fine on budgeting, particularly since you don't really know how long you'll be gone for, what bike you'll use or what your route will be. Adjust accordingly as things firm up.

But what I really think needs attention is your mileage. 35,000 sounds awfully scant to me. I'm over 40,000 just in the Americas....and that's without Alaska. Before this trip I put on 35,000 mostly in Europe and North Africa. Unless you're planning the most direct (i.e., boring) possible routes, double your mileage allowance.

US$0.02

Mark

Thanks for the input!

I was planning on a pretty direct route to be honest, but i think there is already a bit of flexibility in there as the mileage budget is worked out from a very low mpg figure, and a very high fuel cost estimate.

So in reality, i hope that average petrol prices will be lower, and i'll get more mpg than 30 - which should allow for more distance!

[seanefc3]

Originally Posted by othalan

For my upcoming trip I am estimating around 2.5-5 years on the road with about 20% more funds than you are planning for. The wide range depends on how fast I travel (how much gas I use each day), how often I stay in hotels (instead of camping), and how much time I spend in the most expensive parts of the world (USA, Europe).

I may also try to extend this by earning money on the road, either as I travel or by stopping in Europe and finding work there.

Yeah, working along side traveling is a good idea if you can find the work.

My plan is to move quickly through the more expensive countries. To be honest, for me, the trip is not really about Europe, USA or Aus... Its Africa, South/Central America and Asia that im most interested in!

[ozhanu]

if you can cook you can spent less then 6-7 GPB/day for food out of developed countries.

[kito]

i could travel for 4 years on that budjet you have .the slower you go the cheeper things get .ship the bike and work for a month at the end of each continent if you can .i just did a 14 month RTW trip for about £12,000 .camp for free in all the bast places .once out of europe every thing starts gettin cheep .petrol in ecuador is $1.48 a gallon and in venezula it is almost free .i could do 800 miles for the cost of a can of cola .1 other thing is that i would do some reserch on the shipping to brazil because i here it can get expencive and dificult doing customs there. good luck with the trip .

[mcgiggle]

UK to India and back, 27000 mls, 9 months, Mr & Mrs, 2 f650gs, next to no camping, 2 months parked up in Goa.............. £22000 (Total money spent after stepping out the front door on day one so not including bikes, camping gear etc etc but approx £1000 on shipping 1 bike from Pakistan to Goa, 1 passenger fly for the same and medical expenses for a broken arm).

Cheers
Pete