RTW for £75'000
 

Was just browsing the Globe Busters web site. They offer a RTW trip lasting 40 weeks for £75'000. Do you think anyone would actually pay this?

That amount would last us 5.5 years at our current spending!!!

Honestly. Thats interesting.

And the rest: £75k PLUS the cost of your own bike incl servicing/ consumables, fuel, own airfares, most lunches and evening meals...

I don't think I'm their target audience.:(

Good luck to Kevin And Julia. I'm sure there are people who'll pay that sort of money.:eek3:

I'll do it for £37.5k and it'll be good ( minimum group size 10 bikes) you would get a lot more included in that price but still need to provide your own bike.

Serious offer!

Or an alternative is 9 days for just under 3 grand Mini Mondo - Austin Vince



There either many 'mugs' out there or many attempted 'muggers' :blushing:

No one in their right mind would even look at that trip after seeing the price. Many folk with that kind of cash probably aren't into adventure motorcycling either....

With that sum, I can go RTW twice! Best of luck who get that. What ever, safe ride always.:mchappy:

I'll do it for £35,000 !!

I saw on ABR site a few people wanting to pay to do trips with you, and thats offers without, BMW, Touratech, hard pannier or GPS slagging! So you may have a new career to look forward to, just don't try and sell overalls at £170 !

I'm SERIOUSLY considering a UK-Magadan organised tour in 2014....

I'm not sure if you can charge someone to go with you on a trip that you haven't done before. It would be a new trip for me also.

What would people expect for their money.. ???

My GF is also talking about buying a small 4X4 to follow for support. Carrying spares, food, luggage etc.

I could easily do another UK-Capetown or a tour around South America.

I don't think you will get many takers from this forum, but I am sure some of the ABR lot would be interested, you would need to be fixer, mum, mechanic minder, doctor and their guide all rolled into one, thats for sure.
:helpsmilie:

You obviously have to charge people for your 'overhead' which is your bike, the support vehicle, wages for the support vehicle driver, INSURANCE etc.. They also have to pay for what you include in the package such as accommodation and meals but also may include a lot of pre trip admin such as arranging visas and carnets depends on how 'inclusive' you want to make it.

Bear in mind that your clients are booking a guided tour because they don't know how to do it themselves so even bike preparation may be outside their experience. I think the route is the least of the problems, you'll be earning your money just wet nursing and spannering.

The problem is forecasting the number of takers so you can split the overhead x ways to arrive at a realistic package cost.

Actually on tour the biggest issue is keeping the grumpies happy. As I've found on the short tours I do around here there is always one (grumpy) and it never fails to amaze me what they can dream up to complain about.

People pay 60k to be dragged up Everest. Come to think of it, they're probably not moutaineers, either.

Touring Ted

Would your fee include an ex-SAS bodyguard and fixers standing by at borders?

You could join me for a year and a half for the tidy sum of £18,000.


That Includes staying in backpacker Hostels around Australia and Europe and some irregular camping episodes of an unknown time frame due to excessive ingestion of alchohol.

The Hire of a DR650SE for 8 months in Oz.

Fuel,Food and fun,fun, fun....well, my kind of fun anyway.

Waking up in strange but very friendly places after a all-night bender.

Working a couple of weeks every once in a while on construction sites and as a second driver to top up your spending money.

Developing international communication skills in the respected field of " talking bollocks to impress the chicks "

Discover that maps and GPS are totally over-rated and taking roads at random are much more fun and mis-adventerous.



Who wants to book with me right now?

WOW 75k for 40 weeks is nuts even for a paid tour,if I had that kind of money don't think could part with that much - it is about a fifth of our budget for out two year RTW trip!!

I think what Mrs Fox meant to say is it's in excess of 5 times our budget for our 2 year round the world trip otherwise, I want to know where this money tree is that is going to magically going to come up with this £375000.00.

:oops2: Maths has never been my strong point evidently.

While this figure does shock many people, and most of us are indeed doing it for WAY less per day, it can depend.

It's 275 per day. A few top end African game parks, and you'll make a serious dent in it. Easy to blow over 1,000 per day there. A few flights and you could burn another 5k to 10k off that (more if all were first class).

When I worked in software, I would tell clients there were 3 variables they would need to juggle. A project could be A) Cheap, B) Fast or C) Good. I let them pick any 2, and the third would suffer. Always.

To do a Good trip, Fast, it will probably not be cheap.


And no, I wouldn't pay it, but that doesn't mean someone else wouldn't take it in a heart beat. And it may be right down their alley.

And there is a difference between surviving, and living. We have decided we want a really good trip, and I'd prefer 18 great months than 24 miserable months (no booze, skip all attractions, no dinners out....). That said, we don't need to drink hundred euro bottles of wine and eat lobster every day either. Ever actually.

What about the folks that buy €250K+ unicat trucks, and use them for a year and park them up. What's cost per day in depreciation? But still it happens.

Merv.

To be fair to Globe Busters it really does depned on what is included in their package.

For some people the best way to go is an organised tour - it's much more time efficient and you probably get to see the best bits without any research on your part.

Looking at their website they do offer a lot of tours at much lower cost but it isn't clear from the site what's included.

My own experience of overland tours is that a lot of time is wasted in administration and whilst it's all part of the 'experience' I would hope that paying £75k for a tour would mean that it was:

1. Quite luxurious in terms of accommodation and food.
2. Stress free - just get up every morning and ride my bike.

But I bet it's not!

In all honesty I would expect an organised tour to be at least double the cost of going it alone, so Globebusters price isn't to far wrong.

At the end of the day they are a buisness and need to make a profit to not only pay a living wage to the owners, guides and administrators but also to ensure the buisness has value for the day Kevin Julia decided to retire and sell the comapany on.

I have no affiliation with GB but once asked Julia who their clients were that paid their exuberant prices and why they were so high. Like many on the HUBB, my holidays are DIY so it's hard to comprehend why someone would spend that much cash.

Customers with the cash tend to be:
1. self employed reaping the rewards of a successful business
2. people spending redundancy /retirement funds
3. people celebrating a special anniversary
4. rich folk

The Price covers:
- full support before the trip. Some include the BMW off road training or advanced road training prior to departure and all the necessary paperwork is outlined
- very experienced guides (such as Tiffany Coates!)
- complete organisation - no need to spend time figuring out how to get to the next destination / where to sleep / where to eat / what to see along the way
- support vehicle and medical assistance
- knowledge of the local language / country or access to one who does
- salary for all: guides, office staff
- pre-selected accommodation
... the list is quite extensive

A huge majority of riders would never organise or go such a tour on their own. It's why many tourists go on package holidays!

It's not something I could afford and even if I had access to such funds I'd still travel on a budget as it's in my nature. But best wishes to those who want to spend their money on such trips - at least they're getting out on the road and supporting a British company :)

This ^


There seems to be an unsavoury tendency on here of late to bash people trying to turn 'our hobby' into 'their livelihood'.

If the price someone is charging for a service seems astronomically high to you, it probably means one or more of the following:

1) You're not their target customer.

2) You've utterly underestimated the time/cost/effort/manpower that it takes to provide that service at a level of quality which is acceptable to a paying customer. It's easy to skimp on things when it's only yourself affected.

3) You're not valuing your time highly enough.

There is also a possibility that:

4) Their assessment of what the market will bear is wide of the mark.

However if that were the case, you might expect to see them radically dropping their prices fairly soon. I suspect that won't happen.


Don't get me wrong, I'm not their target market for this tour either. But I don't begrudge them the right to try and make as much money as they can from the people for whom £75k is pocket change. Similarly, were I hand-making customised 'adventure overalls', I'd be damned if I'd be doing it for any less than Austin is charging - it just wouldn't be worth the time it takes.

Unsavoury? It's a chat forum! = No useful content required. = The same sort of chat you'd have in a real bricks and mortar pub. It's all very civilised and amicable as far as I can see. = Savoury :cool4: = The only savoury food I can think of at the mo :( =

I think is 'in the nature' of the vast majority on here so collectively we do not represent their target market.

I suspect that a lot of people with the ambition of doing a Round the World Tour look in here, spend a few minutes in the 'Trip Paperwork' section and then go off and book a Globebuster tour

A lot of people are just noting how much money they've saved by doing it themselves.

A lot of people need to go the 'organised' route because they need to be told when they're going and for how long, exactly what they need to take and what they have to do to prepare and then they can just get on with earning the money to pay for it.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has found when it's just you the start date slips by a week or two and the trip ends up lasting a year instead of the intended six months etc.

Nicely said :thumbup1:

Nope... Not at all. Where's the fun in that ??

However, I do own a rather powerful, bright yellow water pistol..

To be totally honest, I would go for that RTW trip without hesitation if I had the financial resources to do so, and it would not leave me destitute.

i.e. if i won the lottery.

I went on one of those BMW Morroco trips, years ago when I got a very short notice offer for a place due to a riders cancellation....I was working in a well paid job/owed some leave, so went on it and really enjoyed myself, and yes it did make a relaxing change to have everything sorted out for me.....As I was in a group I did have to modify my usual riding style of wearing nothing but goose fat and a miners helmet ( aerodynamics ) but apart from that it was great.

SO for me, These trips are totally out of my scope in my present situation. But If I become one of the idle rich/internet porn star/lottery winner then I would be spending the rest of my days doing them.

P.S. It also sends you batshit crazy when you travel on your own for a long time...A lot of people and friends and family are too polite to tell you, but you are starting to edge into that " eccentric uncle/aunty " category with every solo trip you do.After talking with myself for several weeks I managed to catch it before I got that far.

Good Point.
 

It's a good point that company and socialising are very valuable to most folk. Perhaps we can start a dating/matching section? I'll kick it off here.

I'd love to travel with a woman on the back of the bike. I'd do all the riding and navigation.

She only needs to be light weight and slim, sexy and smiling. Spoken English not essential. Good cooking and washing skills, but not ironing, and sense of smell not important, or wanted!

Fast and competent tyre changing skills needed or ready to learn these. Good with spanners would be appreciated.

Lastly, financially secure and generous of nature.

She'd be seeking a good natured, courteous, non sexist male companion with a sense of humour. Lindsay.

At £75000 that's £267.85 per day for 40 days sorry but that's nuts
In europe £30 per day tops so where doe's asia come in £20 or £15 per day
and the most important thing is you go where you want.
sounds like a bunch of rich twats to me talking about there mid life crisis and how much money they made from banking
Sorry but i think i would end up hanging one of them from a tree somewhere in afiica.Good luck to Kevin and Julia if there's prats willing to pay that much well done
Happy biking :scooter::scooter:

.. AND have an unlimited supply of 95 octane gasoline/petrol .. surely? :confused1:

:wink2:

.

Give a try first...
 

Ted, I enjoyed your post and idea, but to be honest, I think that the people willing you join you towards Magadan would be other fellow riders not willing to pay. I'm sure you would have great fun, but I'm nor sure thew'd pay for it.

If you consider that option, why don't you try to guide tours with Edelweiss or any other? You will make money, will know better the business, the needs and will be sure you don't want to hang any annoying customer after two weeks. But especially the last one.:taz: After that, you may settle on your own.

GB tours sound expensive, but after having seen one DVD by Globeriders and see their hotels, meals and hassle-free ride, apart from the fact of becoming and adventurous guy featuring in a DVD, I don't think it is that crazy expensive. Just hand your passport and bike (and $$$) and you'll be riding the Silk Road as you commute home, just your gear.

Kevin and Helge deserve to make their money, and have achieved things that justify their "price". If you want to ride alongside Charly Boorman will cost you big bucks; just up to you as well. I've only met one tour guide, Jens, the HU Germany meeting organizer and seen one presentation he made. If I had the money and little time, no doubt I would join any tour he may lead, because it would certainly be great fun. He does well his job and deserves to be accordingly well paid.

So, for me it is totally ok if you want to pay 75000GBP, for whatever reason, no time to prepare it, no interest, don't like to go alone, want a great sleep every night... Just go for it and enjoy it, it's your money, just spend it as you like it. It may only bother me if after that trip you want to teach in the pub what "adventure riding" is. Share your experience, I'd be happy to listen and learn, but please be humble, modest, don't pretend to be an explorer. You are not. Although after seeing some profiles in that DVD, I suspect it may not always be the case.

a tought to reflect upon...
 

£75,000 ...
... would save the lives of 3,125 orphans in Africa.

Just thought I'd mention it.

...is, frankly a rubbish debating tactic.

It's a fact David- not a tactic and perhaps, before you cast the first stone,
(:oops2: too late) you might want to do a little research... then tell us how you are helping. Daydreaming, is, of course, an easier path to travel-

Ad hominem is also a rubbish debating tactic, so no thanks.

oh so predictable! doh good job this is the 'Bar'!

Leaving aside the question of how precisely you determine the life of an African child is worth £25...

The reason your post is, in this context, irrelevant, is that it leads to the question "so how many African children does one have to save before it's acceptable to go on one of these tours to relax?" What if Bill Gates fancied a bit of guided adventure? How many children do any of us have to save before we're allowed to spend more modest amounts on travelling? How many children did you save before indulging in the unnecessary expense of buying a computer and an internet connection with which to question the morality of people you know nothing about (including, it seems, me).

I'm sure Globebusters split their profit with Oxfam!

Erm...Why on earth do you think David would want to help, Not everyone sets out to save the planet, you know. doh

If I had to consider how many children in Africa my money spent on hobbies and leisure would save... no, please, don't make me feel that bad.:helpsmilie: I just try to be honest and coherent and take others into consideration.

Don't ask me either how much I polute when riding and how many trees that money spent in fuel would plant, please. Let's do not make us all feel any more guilty.

PS: The guy spending 75000GBP may still be a great and generous fella (sure he is, he's paying a few pints!bier).

Actually, I'm struggling to understand why you would mention this? So every time any of us go on vacation, or indeed, spend any money at all, we should calculate how many AOEs ("African Orphan Equivalents") were expended? Every time I go out in Moscow I spend at least 2-3 AOEs, god forbid I go on vacation somewhere and spend several hundred.

The cost of your motorcycle would probably save the lives of a few hundred African orphans, so why have you not sold it already and donated the proceeds to the cause? And you could probably move into a smaller or less convenient apartment to contribute additional AOEs, have you done so?

I really don't get why everyone feels the need, or feels they have the right, to comment on how other people spend their money? For some people, anyone who has a motorcycle is unimaginably rich, and so?

Perhaps 'AOE's is the new currency ?


Every other week watching football costs me 1.4 AOE !:innocent:

I think most "proper adventure riders", whatever they are, if they had 75k would spend two years on the road with 50k and the rest on hookers and blow for the farewell party.

Wouldn't they?:innocent:

But.
 

Hi, don't be too harsh with Bertrand, he's only pointing out that compassion ought not to die and excessive payment could be spent in other ways. Lindsay.

I think I'd rather spend the extra £50k on the trip doing amazing on the trip..

Stuff like Hot air ballooning across the Serengeti, climbing Everest, going back to Antarctica, scuba diving, drag racing in the USA, Gorilla trecking etc etc etc

You get the idea...

There is no shortage of great ways to spend 75k GPB, but I don't think that very many would think that spending it on a guided motorcycle trip would be the best thing to spend it on.

That said, I suspect that they would only need a couple of people to make the trip work financially, so who knows, the world is a big place so maybe they'll find a few people. In fact, maybe someone reading this thread...

Er, you mean 25k, don't you Ted?

Too much blow there, young man?:D

The way I see it is that £75k would last at least 5 years, you may not end up doing any more road miles than you would in a 40 week Globebusters jobbie but you'd have one hell of a good holiday - don't forget to keep paying into the pension fund.

All comes down to whether you want to be told what you're doing or whether you're a free spirit.

You sound like your quoting out a travel catalogue, maybe for a 'bickpicker' tour company?

I would also aim to spend the surplus cash on booze and drugs, but I'd do it after leaving and then see what shenanigans occurred 'out there'.

Hi

Fo info we did one year and 66000 km from Alaska to ushuaia
s with a 25000 € budget !
very good margin for globe buster ...

See ya

I know I'm pretty quiet and conservative, but parties, buzz and drugs (especially drugs) are the latest things I would spend a whole "25.000 GBP free package" in if I had the time to travel. I don't know if that also makes me less adventurous, but for sure I hope it would make me less a "sophomore" in his "wild" gap year during his long stop in Byron Bay.

Not at all.. Who wouldn't want to do loads of cool stuff while you're in a country ?? Just because I'm not a "Gap yaaaah" doesn't mean I want to see some of the same stuff.

When going through Africa I was REALLY pissed off that I couldn't afford to go to the Safari parks or climb the mountains etc.

I couldn't justify paying £500 to go into a national park or £1000 to walk up a footpath to Kilimanjaro.



I could easily do a RTW for £25,000... Economical bike, camping etc.

For £75,000, I'd never come home :)

The point I made was offered as 'food for thought' and based on fact.

Linzi is spot on.
IMHO, anyone with the ability/luck/result of their hard work/ whatever- (I do not judge)- to spend £75,000 on a trip has the power and ability, should they wish to, to substantially reduce that amount, still do their RTW dream AND put something back whether before, during or after their travels. If GB have priced their tour at that amount- that's fine by me.

Motoreiter, I am not debating here who does what/where/how etc as this is down to each individual. I have personally invested a great deal of time pro bono as well as my own resources to help me do the projects I did. And no, I didn't sell my old bike to help contribute - it was my new Mercedes amongst other personal things if you must know.

Dash- my 9 year old computer, internet connection, PowerPoint presentations etc were some of the tools I used to help me achieve what I wanted to do.


I'll say no more here but I am always happy to discuss this subject with kindred spirits over a beer.:thumbup1:

Slag off a few 'adventure celebrities' on here and one of them might help you out!

I've been slagging them off for years and they still refuse to sponser me to f**k off !!

Is that you Charlie ??? Can I have some money ?? :cool4:

£75,000 £75,000 £75,000 great name that " wallet busters"
i have been trying that adventure travel guide thing, my experience so far THEY ALL LIE , THEY ALL HAVE A SECRET they are just dying to tell you , and they all think that your there MUM

Zebb

PS and you don't make any money beer