Let us be honest: it will cost a lot of money to take a few years out to go cycle around the world. Mark Beaumont’s latest world record cost over £250 000, placing even an attempt well beyond the reach of most people.
Even if your budget was to survive on just £10 per day, for a two-year trip, that still adds up to £7 300. Of course, that figure’s just your daily subsistence allowance. Then you will need to factor in visa costs (incl travel to and from visa centres) accommodation, medical insurance, plus more. Additionally, you will inevitably need to take ferries, or planes, and that will balloon the costs more. And that’s before we look at bicycle and kit repairs.
With all that factored in, £10 000 can be seen as a minimum starting point, and few people today have a spare ten grand just lying around, gathering dust.
Travel for ordinary people
The moment you talk about travel, most people start thinking of flying somewhere. I accept that, when you need to get to New Zealand, flying is for practical purposes your only choice. That’s not true for so many locations, though.
Besides, climate change is real, and accelerating faster than scientists expected. The very last thing any of us need right now is for you or me to jet off to some exotic location. If you’re still unconvinced about just how bad flying is, I suggest you go spend some time over on the Flightfree website.
That brings us to the question of what travel options there are, for ordinary people. However, alongside that, I would ask that you review where you are planning on going. The UK is exquisitely beautiful, and when explored by bicycle, you will see it like never before.
Cycle touring on a budget
Some people prefer to do “credit card touring”, carrying as little as possible on the bike, and staying in hotels, or B&Bs every night. There’s nothing wrong with that, but you’ll rapidly discover a ten-day tour can easily cost upwards of £1 000. That’s not exactly a budget option.
Camping is undoubtedly cheaper, though it’s not uncommon for campsites in the UK to charge you £30+ per night. Some charge considerably more! At £30/night, your ten-day tour would still cost you £300, just for camping. In addition, you need to factor in food and drinks. That means your tour can easily cost well over £500.
Wild camping
My preferred way of cycle touring is to do wild camping. The reasons for my preference start with the fact that I dislike campsites heaving with people, several of whom will be inebriated. While I have nothing against children, I also don’t appreciate camping on a site where there are several kids, without any manners or respect for others, running around and causing mayhem.
I’m quite aware this might make me sound like a grouchy old man. I’m neither grouchy, nor anti-social, but I do appreciate peace and quiet when camping. And to be honest, I like the solitude, too.
Wild camping doesn’t cost me a penny, and welcome as that saving might be, that’s not why I choose to wild camp. However, wild camping undeniably reduces the cost of a cycle tour significantly, meaning multiple tours per year are (usually) not a big deal.
Food
There’s no escaping three facts: 1) food costs money, 2) as you’ll be burning serious amounts of calories, you need to eat more, to replace those, and 3) often you may simply not want to cook.
I tend to always carry my camping stove, and my AeroPress Go, so I can have decent coffee, no matter where I wake up. I often would have cereal of some sort for breakfast, precisely because I don’t need to cook it. However, lunch and my evening meal tends to be different.
As a coffee addict, I often stop for coffee along the way. Yes, despite carrying an AeroPress. I also often just grab something simple, and easy to eat, such as a pasty or sausage roll (or three) from some shop along the way.
Evening meals vary for me. Depending on where I’m planning to camp, there may, or may not be anywhere nearby to buy a meal. In such cases, I’ll cook for myself. I’m rather determined to start doing more whole-food cooking when camping, and to this end I’m working on a single-pot cookbook of vegan and/or vegetarian recipes. I still have several months of work to do, before that will be published, though.
If you cooked every meal yourself, you will end up eating better, and more nutritiously, and saving yourself a small fortune in the process. It also means you’ll be less reliant on shops nearby, and that impacts on route planning.
Equipment
Expedition-grade camping gear costs a lot of money! Now, if you wanted to spend £750+ on that Hilleberg one-person tent, by all means go ahead. However, for camping in the UK, especially late spring, summer and early autumn, you don’t need expedition-grade kit.
I went cycle camping for years with a (supposed) 2-person tent I bought in Tesco for £10, and to be honest, I still really like that little tent. It’s just big enough for me and my kit, and I can sit upright inside it. I even camped on Dartmoor, mid-winter, in that tent.
More often than not, I now go camping with a tent that cost me £30, from Aldi, and it’s perfectly fine for my needs. My stove is effectively a copy of a Jetboil that I bought cheaply from Planet-X, and my sleeping bag cost e next-to-nothing.
As a result, especially when cycling to and from my front door, I can easily go on a five-day cycle tour for well under £100.
In summary
Travel can be for the rich, but it doesn’t have to be just for them. You and me can still have affordable adventures. In fact, by doing wild camping, you’re likely to have a better adventure, too.
Don’t be fooled into thinking you need to spend a fortune. The UK is stunning, so get on your bike and go explore it!