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Just putting some ideas together for a 'special' biking holiday for my 50th birthday (wife has offered to pay a big chunk of the cost as a pressie:) )
I've liked the look of the riding in Idaho since seeing it on TV ages ago (RideGuide?) - and then the recent article in ST. I really fancy the idea of hiring an RV and touring around Idaho and perhaps a bit further North, maybe hire a local guide for a couple of days etc. However, I've absolutely no idea of what sort of cost I'd be looking at for 2 adults for 3 weeks or so.
Having seen the other recent 'riding in the US' thread, it looks like some folk on here might have done this sort of road trip - if so, can you give me an idea of the sort of cost I'll be looking at?
I did a 3 week odd trip from San Francisco around to LA via Las Vegas and the grand canyon etc in a RV with my family. ( 2 adults, 3 children) and I think it came to around £6k to £6.5k. It was incredible and I definitely would recommend the RV. I would Guess around £3.5k for you. Depends how careful you are and what deals you can find for things. It can become very expensive if you are not careful
I've found it usually costs around £500 more than I budgeted for...
I did the same in 2010 & 2011 - cost breakdown:
2010 (2 People Traveling in RV): £3740
2011 (3 People Traveling in RV): £4750
Both included:
RV Hire (inc. Insurances/Taxes/Mileage)
Flights
Hotel (first night stay in hotel - legal requirement of Insurance on RV)
Fuel
RV Park Hookups
You will need about $500 on a credit card to pay the deposit on the RV, but you get this back when you return it.
The increased cost on the 2nd trip was bigger RV & additional flight. If you fly with Virgin the bikes are free (or at least they were in Sept 2011)
If you are going with your own bikes, I would recommend hiring a bigger RV than suggested (we took a 25' for 2 people & 30' for 3 people) - both sizes were spot on.
We took about £250 each for food and beer and as long as you don't eat out every night (we ate out about 5 nights), which we didn't because its great getting the fire pit going and doing your own mahoosive steaks! That will about cover it.
We did about 2500 miles on both trips. We covered California (and on the first trip we did Las Vegas as well). California comes highly recommended!
If I can help anymore, my email is in my profile.
Return flight £800.
Motel £50 per night. Up to 4 per room.
Hire car. From £150 per week.
2 weeks should come in at under £1500.
RV maybe makes sense if you have a large group. Maybe...
Thanks for the info guys. The size of the RV's makes sense now - my wife had mentioned something about one she'd seen listed that has an internal shower, and the side of the RV pops out to form a proper double bed...I think she said that was a 27' (er..I was listening to her.....honest :wink:). My wife pulled one of 'those faces' when I mentioned that it might be a lot cheaper staying in motels etc., so I think it's either a decent RV or posh(ish) hotels - realistically, we can't afford the hotels that we both like, so RV looks a good compromise (chilling out by a campfire appeals too).
We'd thought about taking our own bikes, but must admit, I hadn't thought about storing the bikes & bike bags...duh! I guess the best bet would be temporary packaging that could be thrown away, then scrounge bike boxes from a shop over there for the return journey(?).
Hmmm...I'll have to see how our 'share save' scheme goes (fingers crossed the World economy doesn't go into another nosedive!)
Thanks again for the info.
bowglie,
Do your sums a carefully.
An RV does 8mpg at $4 a gallon.
A minivan (Dodge Grand Caravan) does a real 30mpg at $4 a gallon.
Cheap Motel is $50 average for 2 people.
RV Hook-Up is $25+ average and you cannot just park wherever you want in the wilderness.
I have done several road trips in the USA, nearly all with a minivan and found it excellent.
RVs are also prohibited from certain roads and no fun in the towns.
PaulD
There's no way that either vehicle will do anything like that mpg.
A US gallon is only 3.2 litres, not 4.2. And a Dodge Grand Caravan in the US will be a 4 litre petrol V6.
I never get more than about 18 mpg from the Minivans I rent over here, and I got 12.9 mpg from a Suburban last year driving NY to Chicago at a steady 55 mph. I would guess you'd do better assuming 4-5 mpg for an RV.
We'd thought about taking our own bikes, but must admit, I hadn't thought about storing the bikes & bike bags...duh! I guess the best bet would be temporary packaging that could be thrown away, then scrounge bike boxes from a shop over there for the return journey(?).
Perhaps the RV rental company would store your bike bags for you during your trip (this assumes you are returning to the same drop off point). Or you could check put MTBR Forum for Idaho and I'm sure someone on there would let you store the bike bags and/or do some guiding for you.
Update:
Price of gasoline in Oregon cities averages $3.70 according to several US sites. It is always much dearer in the 'wilderness'.
A US gallon is 3.6 litres not either value suggested by growmac.
Mileage for RV based on an old model imported into UK that did approx 6mpg, so I figured they must be a bit better...seems not to be.
Mileage for a Grand Caravan with 2-5 people over 12000 miles was better than 30 miles per UK gallon so only 24 miles per US gallon....I keep receipts for this sort of thing.
Mileage costs will be either $0.60 or $0.16 per mile, so a huge difference of over $800 if you do 2,000 miles.
Motel and RV hook up based on over 150 nights in the USA since 1995.
Pay your money and have a super time.
PaulD