How much will an independent bike tour cost?
In Australia and New Zealand, as with many developed countries, it’s easy to spend as much as you want but there are also plenty of options for sticking to a budget.
Scroll down to read about bike tourists who’ve recently been there, and their experiences.
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The Cyclist & The Trip: Guy & Freddie cycled from the UK to Australia. They arrived in Australia in 2011, and cycled a total of 5,000km there at the end of their journey.
The Cost: Around $23 Australian dollars per person, per day.
Australia is generally very expensive but as we cycled mostly through the Outback we were able to wild camp a lot. Most of our money as spent on food (we like to eat well) and camping fees. We camped for 3 months straight as hotels are unaffordable. On average we probably wild camped 1/3 and stayed at campsites 2/3 of the time.
Tips: “If you are happy to eat only very simple food and wild camp all the time you could get by on less money. Some of the roadhouses have shower facilities, saving on campsite fees.”
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The Cyclist & The Trip: Andy lives in Australia and frequently bike tours around his home country.
The Cost: Around $20 Australian dollars per person, per day.
I tour quite a lot around Australia and very rarely stay in a hotel but I do like caravan parks rather than free camping. I’m a sucker for a shower at the end of the day’s riding. My budget is about $15 Australian dollars per day for a campsite (up to $30 if it is on the coast or in a popular place). I only spend about $10 per day for food.
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Can You Help?
Keeping these sections up-to-date and adding new sections relies on the community. That’s you!
If you’ve recently been on tour and can tell us about your daily budget, please Get In Touch and share your answers to these 3 basic questions:
1. What did you spend per person, per day on average? This is for daily expenses like food, hotels, public transport within a country but not exceptional extras like bike repair, flights to/from the country.
2. Can you briefly describe your style of travel? Are you ultra low budget (e.g. a devoted wild camper, cook all your own food) or more medium budget (e.g. will occasionally splash out on a hotel, meal in restaurant)?
3. Any tips you want to share related to costs in this region? Was something particularly cheap or expensive? How would you recommend others save money?
We’ll add your answers to the relevant page, along with a photo of you on tour and a link to your bike touring blog (if you have one). Thanks!