How much would it cost to cycle round europe?

poolzey89

I am from England and I am thinking about cycling round europe next year, and just wanted to get a rough idea of how much it would cost?

I would be cycling approximately 9000km, hopefully taking no more than 5/6 months. The costs would be made up of basically food and accommodation, (the cheapest available).

The route would consist of a loop round europe starting at calais in france, going down to Sofia in Bulgaria and back up to Paris, and finally back to Calais, crossing about 15 countries. The distance would be 9-10,000km.

At the moment I'm just really looking at pricing, but if you could give me any more inforamation and tips, that would be great!!

THANKS EVERYONE

amaferanga

No less than £25 /day would be my guess if you were camping most nights.

cycladelic

I spent 6 months cycling around Europe this year and reckon I got through about 80 quid a day on average.

Accomodation is a big money eater.

I stayed in my tent a bit, but I am not a big camper and really like a nice bed. The problem is usually you pay for a double room, even if you are by yourself.

Youth Hostels are cheap, so get a menmbership card and try to plan your route around them if poss.

I usually had a picnic lunch and then a meal at night, washed down with a beer.

You also have to budget in train rides and other stuff, like bits for the bike and museum fees etc.

jc4lab

Hostelworld and Hostelbookers are great sites for cheapo accomodation....Try also the Lonely Planet Thorntree forum for general chit chat
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/index.jspa
http://www.hostelworld.com/hostels.php

andymiller

amaferanga wrote:

No less than £25 /day would be my guess if you were camping most nights.

And cooking for yourself as well.

My quick rule of thumb for France would be an average of 7€ a night for campsites. Say 5€ for dinner and 5€ for lunch and maybe 3€ for breakfast, and the other 5€ for coffees etc along the way. That's pretty frugal. It would be fairly easy to go higher.

If you're staying in youth hostels and gîtes d'étape I'd allow 35-40€ for the bed, dinner and breakfast plus another 10€ for lunch and extras.

xilios

My wife and I always average about 50 euro a day.

cycladelic

It's not for me - but there are couch-surfing websites you could try.

megilleland

You could try using the WarmShowers website to help out on the costs. A good way to stay with a local host and other keen cyclists. Coverage of Europe looks pretty good. I have hosted Canadians on their worldwide trip last year travelling with a tandem and trailer!. There is also a website called the Hospitality Club recommended by the Canadians.

El Gordo

I did just this a few years ago (10,000 km, 7 months, home - Gibralter - Poland - home) with my wife and got through about £5000 between us. That was camping almost every night on proper campsites and cooking our own food.

poolzey89

thanks everyone for all your replies!
They were all very informative, and helped me out a lot.

Cheers!

lae

I think I have been to every country in Europe apart from... Norway, Serbia and Montenegro...
I think. I spend all my money on travelling

The cheapest accomodation is in central and eastern europe, where you can usually get a hostel with internet, shower and breakfast for around £7. Some big cities will have places for less than a fiver.

The balkans is a little bit more expensive, because you usually have to rent a room in a house because they don't really have a youth hostel culture there. Still, I've been to Bulgaria and it's RIDICULOUSLY cheap. I was in a restaurant with seven friends, and we just asked the waitress to bring us everything on the menu. It still didn't cost over a tenner each. We did stay in a shack that had the biggest spider I've ever seen though. It was so big that when I heard it crawling around and I thought it was a mouse. Then I moved the bed and this thing was literally four or five inches across. I think it might have been a wolf spider, someone else said it was a dolomedes, other people have said different things. I still don't know what it was, but I didn't sleep well that night! Anyway, Bulgaria is famous for massive spiders and other insects.

Although I can't give you any bike-related advice, I'd definitely recommend the following places:
Varna, Bulgaria, if you like eating seafood
Dubrovnik, which has amazing architecture (although I found that good food was expensive in Croatia)
Budapest (my favourite city in Europe) because there's just so much to do, and a really strong bike culture too. The food is really good too (soup in a hollowed-out round breadloaf is very popular and very cheap)
Lodz, really strong bike culture again, and great arts culture too
Krakow - good nightlife, great markets and really close to Auschwitz which I recommend going to, even if it does put a bit of a downer on you for a couple of days
Lake Bled - to get away from the big cities, it's really REALLY picturesque and has a cheap campsite on the north shore of the lake, usually with some nice friendly hippy/student people
Berlin - loads to see and do and great nightlife

Places to avoid
Bratislava - there's a castle and a big tower, and the worst food I've ever experienced.
Croatia - apart from Dubrovnik, it's basically like a bad version of Italy and not any cheaper. Also cafe and restaurant service is awful. I was stuck in Zadar for three days before my plane got there, and I think literally every time I tried to eat or drink in a cafe or restaurant I would have to walk over to the waiters to get them to come and see me. I once asked for the bill four or five times, and then after waiting for another 30 minutes, just walked off. So it's not all bad I suppose.

I'd always recommend that you book your accomodation in advance too. Almost all hostels have internet where you can search for hostels in the next town. Do make sure you read the reviews before you book (more than once I have booked somewhere, then turned up in the middle of the night to find that it has closed down!). www.hostelbookers.com is a useful starting point, there are some other comparison sites too

jibi

have you considered couchsurfing or warmshowers...both websites for travellers...warmshowers is for cyclists...I did gibralata to John O Groats for less that 10 quid a day ( average spend)

tailwinds

george