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People ask often: “how do you travel for a year without working?” Easy answer, we spend way less money on the road than while working in Europe.
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« You’re so lucky »
We’ve heard that sentence many times, but it’s not linked to any kind of magic or chance. It’s a choice. The choice to hand in your resignation, leave a flat or sell a car. The hardest part has been to pull the trigger and it isn’t easy when you’re stuck in a routine. However, quitting everything and resigning helps you to start on your new project.
Since the beginning of our trip, we decided to not limit ourselves and allow us some pleasures. But most of them have no cost. The freedom of going anywhere is what we need. We’re our own masters when it comes to cycling, having a break, camping and enjoying each and every moment on the road.
The essentials, nothing else
We cannot say that we were spending much before the departure. We both like to be in the nature and enjoy what the earth has to offer. We’ve always given the priority to minimalism, but now even more.
Our goal isn’t to tick a check-list of places to see and pictures to take. We don’t cross as many countries as possible and we’d rather skip big cities or huge tourists attractions. You’ve probably already understood that when reading our blog, we prefer local life.
Does travelling as a couple help you to save money?
It isn’t easy to live with someone, it’s even harder to travel with. We’re 24/24 together. Everyday we have to take decisions like where and when to find food or water, where to pitch the tent, going left or right? But that’s also exactly when bond and affection expend.
Concerning our budget, we see a clear advantage when booking a place to sleep. We pay less when there’s no youth hostel as we can share a double bed and it’s often even cheaper than two beds in a dorm. However we eat more as we always share three plates (or more) in restaurants.
What about the figures?
days
overnights wild camping
overnights hosted by locals
overnights in a hotel
In one year, we’ve been hosted by the most generous people in every countries, we slept in wonderful wild camps with amazing views, we took hotel rooms when the weather was too bad or when we were too tired.
When you’re carrying your house on your bicycle, you meet plenty of people doing the same. The connection is immediate as you share so much. We’ve spent 70 days and nights with cyclo-tourists from 8 different countries.
Where goes our money?
%
Accomodation
%
Tourism
%
Transport
%
Bike repair
%
Visas
%
Others
%
Food
Yes… we eat a lot as cycling makes you hungry. We also love to eat and eat good food. We’re always happy to try food on the side of the road or in restaurants. Since the beginning, we’ve never said no to food.
When camping, we spend time cooking. We buy veggies and we always have spices to accommodate them. We don’t cook meat when camping and very rarely eggs as they mostly broke while being transported.
How much per month?
Our average per person per month is:
€/month/pers.
€/day/pers.
In other words, we live a life of indulgence with the money that we would have spent in France for a rent.
Before the departure?
On the contrary of a backpacking trip, we invested much more before the departure.
Angélique
- Koga Miyata
- Bicyle gear
- Camping gear
- Paniers
- Clothes
Xavier
- Fahrradmanufaktur T400
- Bicycle gear
- Camping gear
- Paniers
- Clothes
Shared
- Tent
- Stove and mess kit
- Water filter
- Business cards
- Computer, website hosting
Xavier has always been in love with the mountains and had essential gear for winter travelling. Angélique had to spend a bit more. We both bought second hand bicycles. When searching on the main second-hand German website, we found two touring bicycles for 400 € each. They use to belong to a retired couple who decided to sell them, in perfect condition.
For more informations, you can take a look at our gear page.
Soon we’ll write about how we started this blog. If you’re looking now for recommmandations, check WordPress to create your content, Elegant Themes for its layout and Infomaniak as a web hosting.
As another important source of cost, we had to get vaccinated and find insurance before leaving. Take a look at the recommandations on vaccinations depending where you’re going to, but don’t limit yourself for later. As an exemple, we didn’t know if we would go to South East-Asia or not at the beginning, but here we are and glad we did the matching vaccinations.
Insurance for 1 year €/pers.
Vaccinations €/pers.
Which gives an average total of spent before leaving of:
€/pers.
Payment advices
The first thing we did was to open a joint account, as we didn’t want to bother keeping notes while travelling. We got a Visa Gold card which allows us 3 withdrawals without fees in non-Euro currency.
On top, we use and recommend:
- A Revolut card
- No fee when paying by card
- £200 per month ATM withdrawals with no fee (2% after that)
- Wire in different currencies with no fee (at the exchange rate of the day) to any other Revolut member
- For example, we used it to pay an diving open water course. The owner of the dive center used Revolut so we connected our accounts. I changed my euros in thai Baht on my account and sent the needed amount to him through the application. No additionnal fee.
- Bonus: If you haven’t set up an account yet, you can get sponsored by us, and get your Revolut card for free.
- A Transferwise account:
- Best rate we could find for international transfers
- For example, during the Covid-19 crisis, we had to book an appartment for more than a month to quarantine ourself. It was a bigger bill than usual. To save cash we asked the appartment owner his bank account information. We asked our banks to do the wire but Transferwise offered much better fees.
- Bonus: If you haven’t set up an account yet, you can get sponsored by us and get your first wire at the exchange rate of the day with absolute no extra fee.
- Best rate we could find for international transfers
Interludes
Several times over the trip we stopped cycling and switch our bicycles against climbing shoes, a backpack or hiking shoes and ice axes. This happened when we met some friends, stop somewhere to get new visas or just had a parallel adventure idea in mind. It costs a bit more than usual but it’s such a boost for your motivation, energy and spirit.
We’re not the cheapest travellers, but after speaking with other cyclo-tourists we’ve realised that we’re quite in the average. We hope our experience can support you while planning your own trip.
What are you waiting for to start travelling?
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