Our 2021 bike tour in numbers
We have been back for several weeks now, and finally have found the time to crunch some numbers. With this post we hope to answer some of the most frequently asked questions (apart from “are you two crazy?), like: how much does a trip like that cost? And, how many kilometers a day do you cycle? If you have any questions after this, please let us know in the comments!
The cycling itself: how long? how fast?
Important disclaimer; this only reflects how we did our trip and is by no means ment as a how-to-do-this-stuff guideline. But perhaps it helps you to get a rough idea!
We have cycled in total 18221 km in 213 days and we had a grand total of 23 rest days. Sometimes we actually would not move much at all, only to go back and forth to the supermarket to get more food, or we would go for a walk. All in all, a bit of math leads to an average of 95,9 km a day. Of course there was a huge variation here, our shortest day was 14 km and our longest day 167 km. We did not write down our average speed for all days, but based on the numbers we do have, our average speed overall was 14,96 km/hour. Our slowest day was in Bosnia with 11,1 km/h, as we had to do over 2000 high meters, over bad roads and we had to take care of a pitbull that followed us in the heat. Our fastest day was in Finland, with 18,3 km/h. Calculating with these averages shows that we were on average 6 hours and 20 minutes a day in the saddle, and that was indeed the case. We normally took 1,5 hours in the morning to get ready, have our coffee and breakfast, pack everything and there were numerous breaks during the day. We would never cycle in the dark and would try to find a camping spot at least 1 hour before sunset. Speaking of camping…
Camping, hotels and other accommodation
So, in total there were 213 nights and we are happy to report that every night we found a place to sleep. In most cases it was wildcamping, except in the countries were it was explicitly forbidden. Poland is a grey zone, but even there we managed to find some well-hidden spots some nights. In Turkey we have used hotels every once and a while (11 nights) to shower, do our laundry and charge our devices, as hotel are relatively cheap there. In other countries we used official campsites for this (14 nights). Then there is of course Warm Showers, where we connected with bike tourers offering a place to sleep (25 nights). In Austria, Estonia and the Netherlands we stayed with friends or family (11 nights), leaving 152 nights in our tent while wildcamping (including the nights in Denmark, where we slept in shelters). This is also the reason that our trip was well…relatively cheap…
How much did it cost?
Ah, the most common question! No worries, here is a break down of all our costs. In total we have spent €6049,13. The cost of the bikes is not included here!
- Transportation
We flew into Istanbul, with all our lugagge and of course the bikes. Everything included, we paid €174, plus € 140 for corona testing. During our trip we have taken the train once (in Izmir, Turkey) and countless ferries. Some were very cheap or even free (in expensive Norway!), but for the international ferries, like from Estonia to Finland, we had to pay a bit more. In total we have paid €550,60 for transport. - Accommodation
As described above, we managed to keep these costs to a minimum, with an occasional splurge. The hotels in Turkey were relatively cheap (between 15 and 30 euro a night), on the other end of the spectrum we rented a small cabin once in Norway for €61 (1 night). All in all, accommodation costed us €623,25. - Insurance
Travelling during a pandemic and on a bike, we made sure we were insured well. We both had a health insurance at Young Travellers, a German company. Julia had a higher premium, because she is older (and wiser), and paid €516 for a year of coverage, Kevin paid €420 . The best part was that we only travelled for 7 months and were reimbursed for the 5 months that we didn’t need afterwards; in total we paid €476. We both have household insurance, which includes damage to and theft of our bikes, but as this is a general insurance (not just for the trip), we have not added it to the costs here. - Spare parts
We did order some spare parts along the way (chains, brake pads, a new tire and pedals, assorted bits and pieces). Cycling this distance just means things break or are worn down. We also got extra cooking pots and other stuff at Decathlon. In total we have spent €365,85 in this category. - Food
Most money was spend on food. And that was a lot; we were hungry all the time and we did not pay attention to prices much. We did cook ourselves, making everything a bit cheaper though. Only in Turkey, where the food is awesome and cheap, we would eat out or take away. In all other countries, we would often get delicious stuff at bakeries, but we would hardly go to restaurants, as we would leave hungry most of the times. We also didn’t drink a lot of alcohol, which saved us quite some money, especially in Scandinavia (where we were gifted a bottle of wine for reaching the North Cape). We went through all the receipts of our credit card and came to a grand total of €3900,63 for groceries, restaurants and take out. This also includes the gasoline for our cooker. - Miscellaneous
We both spent money on random stuff, like souvenirs, the occasional museum visit and we bought a SIM card and top-up in Turkey. In all other countries we used the data included in our normal phone subscriptions (not included here) or found free Wi-Fi along the way. This category amounts to €133.
How do you pay for all this?
Well, we saved for it! We knew we would like to travel for a longer time, and have set aside money where we could. For the last 3 years, while living and working in Eastern Germany, we kept our expenses low. We did own a car, but have used it rarely. To be honest, the lockdown during the pandemic helped too… While travelling we had no further costs, as we gave up our appartment, sold the car and stored all our belongings at Kevin’s parents. There was no magic involved, just planning!
