Budget and Sleeping
 

Hi,

Me and a friend of mine want to travel per bike from Argentina (Buenos Aires) to Canada (Vancouver). Long trip but we have the time…
I can find all the information I could wish for on horizonsunlimeted.com. There are 2 things I can hardly find:
1: NO one will tell exactly how much money they have spent on there long distance trip(s). I’m talking about living on the road: Sleeping, fuel, food, drinks, tolls, etc.…! Not flights, shipping, bike purchase or bike break downs.
2: Spending your nights, how many miles is the average drive until the next place where there is a possibility to stay in a hotel, hostel, motel or guest house?

Please can someone give me some kind of indication of these topics, I have the feeling I’m not the only one asking him/her-self these two questions…

Thanks in advance.

Hi..

The reason no one tells you exact numbers is because no one is the same... There are just too many variables.

Someone who likes a beer or two at the end of the day will spend an extra $100 a month, someone might prefer camping to hostels etc and save $300 a month etc.

Taking ten months is obviously going to cost more than someone taking six.

All you can ask is an average price someone spent on the same trip. Ask ten people, make an average and use that as your base mark..

So okay, I'm going to guess your trip will take you 9 months, which I class as a sensible time to enjoy that trip.


From Buenos Aires to the USA you will probably take about 6 months and you will probably spend 'something' like $10,000-$15,000 USD. Lets assume you camp a few nights and use hostels a few nights. Maybe a night here and there in a nice hotel when you're tired.

Crossing the USA and Canada could easily take 3-4 months and it is WAY more expensive. Canada more so.

Add another $10,000...

So as a ROUGH GUESS... You should probably budget $20,000 USD for that whole trip, including shipping.




BUT ! You haven't mentioned if you're two bikes ?? How long your trip is ?? Have you already bought the bikes ?? What you want to see ???

See, it's an impossible task...

Not so: there is plenty of information out there with detailed costings of trips - all the most detailed info I have seen has been posted in individual blogs and there are loads of them within HU, and elsewhere.
Apart from these individual trip reports there are also postings with detailed info about costs of things such as fuel, but what you won't find is some overarching data base which pulls all of this together.
It's logical to not dwell on this in any case - quite apart from the points made in the previous post, costs lose accuracy over time if only because of inflationary effects, never mind the variable of currency exchange fluctuations.

Hi,

Of course most of the people tell how much they spend you just have to read travel reports such as:

Adventure Motorbike trip around Southamerica: Chile and Argentina part 1

I spend 2500 Euro including the bike to travel 28.000 km around Southamerica wild camping and staying with cool people who invited a stranger. Two years around Afrikca were 5000 Euro also bike includet.

Adventure Motorbike expedition through africa - Transafrika part 1

Hotels will make your trip more expensive but along the westcoast of africa there are no hotels ;)

Travel save, Tobi

budget and sleeping
 

Good morning,

Thanks for the responses!
I understand that every person and trip is different, I will tell you more about us and our time schedule.: We are two 23 year old guys who want to go traveling for 6 months. 4 to 5 months traveling South America (drive mostly on the Pan American) maybe this is a little naïve, but I think I can be done?! We will both be on a Honda Transalp xl650.
We want to go low budget when it comes to sleeping but we do not want to leave that pint at the end of the day!! From the US border to Vancouver is about 1500 miles, we will drive that as fast as possible. The last month of our trip we will stay in Vancouver, visit family, friends and try to sell the motorcycles.

Any advice and info is welcome!

Cheers…

I don't think you have enough time.... You CAN do it but you'll be riding a lot on boring roads and missing out on a great deal.

I say stay in South America for six months. Do North America another time. It's not going anywhere.

Hi,

If you split South America and North America into two trips you also save the shiping cost from Columbia to Panama. Shiping will be the moast expensive part of your trip anyway.
Rather buy a small bike in Chile or so insted of bringing your big transalp. Selling a bike in a foreign countrys is not easy...

Travel save

I spent ~$7000 usd for a 6 month trip from USA to Chile for two people (one bike), including shipping across the Darien gap. This was camping as often as possible, not entering countries with expensive Visas (Bolivia and Brazil) and spending less time in expensive countries.

In my opinion:
6 months all the way from South America to Canada is going to be very rushed. I felt our trip was pretty rushed already and it didn't include the whole Northern leg you are planning. We travelled fast because we had relatively little money and wanted to see as much as possible, but we missed much.

I much preferred South America to Central America. It was much easier to camp, the landscapes are incredible, and for the most part it was cheaper. I believe you could spend years in South America and not have seen a fraction of it. It is an incredible continent. If you really have to stick to that 6 month deadline I recommend you spend that time exploring South America. Or better yet, give yourself a year to do the whole trip at a moderate pace.

Forget the Pan-American. It's good if you want to make time but the most interesting sights/places/people/roads/adventures will always be away from there. The only section I might recommend (if you're a masochist) is the Attacama desert, from the Chile/Peru Border to Santiago. It's pretty much a straight, mind numbing 1,000 mile stretch with virtually nothing but dirt, sand, rock and the occasional settlement. A lot of people hate it, I loved it.

Where to start
 

Thanks for all your information, it really helps.

I understand splitting North and South is the better option, but we have had plans to visit family in Canada for quite some time now. Where do you recommend to start if you have about 5 months to get from south America to Vancouver. The first Idea of starting in Argentina is just an idea!

looking forward to receiving some advice!

Cheers

Panama.

:eek3:

Inexperienced
 

Woow I didn't see that one coming!

Anyway thanks again for the replays, I saw someone say the pan am is boring? What about for very inexperienced riders like my buddy and I who have never been to SA??!

I hear and read allot of different advice about bikes, what kind of bike do you guys recomand and why?

Tanks looking forward to some advice,

Cheers

Wooah! now you are opening a can of worms - the opinions, biases and plain old fashioned bigotry are all on display over in the technical bike forums - take your chances in there - and the "which bike" forum.
However, in among them, there is a lot of good experience and advice.
Good luck with making your choices!!