Micro tour costs.

[MarkF]

I love short tours but find the UK's costs prohibitive, I like a bed and I can turn up anywhere in Spain and get a room for £15/20, I use a good clean pension 5 mins off Las Ramblas for only £20! Plus, I live mins from LBA airport. It's like when we fancy a trip to London, we usually end up in France/Italy/Spain, it's far cheaper for us to do.

 

[bigjim]

The UK is expensive and due to volume of traffic not always pleasant cycling. Travelling alone is worse as b&bs are only bearable when sharing the cost. Hostels are great value. I have managed to pay -£10 a night. Much nicer and cheaper in Europe but when rynair are charging £120 return for the bike it spoils the experience. I'm off to mallorca next month for £45 return. The bike is not coming.

 

[tyred]

The other thing I've found as I quite often re-trace my steps and return to places where I enjoyed staying, maybe by different routes, is that if you stay a few times at the one hostel they will often do it cheaper after that and even try their best to fit you in during busy periods.

 

[MarkF]

The UK is expensive and due to volume of traffic not always pleasant cycling. Travelling alone is worse as b&bs are only bearable when sharing the cost. Hostels are great value. I have managed to pay -£10 a night. Much nicer and cheaper in Europe but when rynair are charging £120 return for the bike it spoils the experience. I'm off to mallorca next month for £45 return. The bike is not coming.

For a long tour (more than a week say) I still prefer to take my own bike via Jet2/Vueling or Ryanair, I think the cost is ok tbh and, I can recoup it via 2 or 3 nights kip in Spain v the UK. For shorter tours I now rent, did Catalonia in June on a B'Twin hybrid with no problems, think it was about £8 a day, so £64 for my tour and no hassle.

You don't. I could fly to Berlin (for example) next weekend (returning a week later) for under £60.

Yep, I could fly out to Barcelona next Mon and return on the Friday for the same cost, £60, price of 1 night in Leeds Travelodge.

 

[Blue Hills]

You are particularly lucky though Mark - many folk have to spend an extra £20 to £25 just to get to the airport and back.

 

[bigjim]

The trouble with Ryanair is that they charge £120 return for the bike but the likes of Easyjet etc charge £70 for the same service. I will now always rent if possible, but of course once touring from different start and finish, your own bike with the associated hassle is the only option. I am seriously rethinking my touring habits due to the increasing hassle and cost of flying with the bike.

 

[psmiffy]

I never really take the cost and hassle of flying with a bike into account when planning tours - its a pain but it is like everything else - if I want to do something enough it is worth it - the cost is just something that goes into the overall budget - only adds a few quid a day if I add it all up - normally less than a fiver a day at worst over a two week tour - the hassle side I can mitigate by preparation

 

[jay clock]

I stayed at a B&B in Taunton last year and it was £80 or 90.... Accommodation is pricey in the UK. Have you looked at Warmshowers?

 

[jay clock]

on reflection I am of the "go abroad" view. If you really want to do it cheap ( assuming you are in London) cycle out of London or get a local train and do the Home Counties maybe with a few friends or Warmshowers. Camping in March doesnt appeal. But in reality having done a lot of tours what I like is the foreignness of a trip and West Country has the same shops, food, etc as everywhere else whereas France and Spain are different.

check this out https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1M2&doc_id=19047&v=3f rent a bike, accommodation from my experience about 25eur a night, cheap food

You can fly 21-24 March return to Malaga for well under £100 with Easyjet (did not look very hard to find £70)

 

[bigjim]

I never really take the cost and hassle of flying with a bike into account when planning tours - its a pain but it is like everything else - if I want to do something enough it is worth it - the cost is just something that goes into the overall budget - only adds a few quid a day if I add it all up - normally less than a fiver a day at worst over a two week tour - the hassle side I can mitigate by preparation

I think much depends on the length of your tour. I never tour for more then 14 days, so the hassle is important to me. I mitigate this by renting a bike as often as possible.

 

[bigjim]

If you fly with a full service airline then a lot of those hassles (and costs) disappear.

For example, I was looking at flights to Barcelona in September. The flights with BA cost £30 more than with Ryanair - but I could take the bike as my piece of hold luggage at no extra cost (as opposed to the £60 quid each way that Ryanair wanted).

Fair enough. I've used BA in the past for the same reasons, but many small airports are only used by the budget airlines. The ones where you can just ride away down a lane or into a smallish town rather than a major city.

 

[Blue Hills]

I never really take the cost and hassle of flying with a bike into account when planning tours - its a pain but it is like everything else - if I want to do something enough it is worth it - the cost is just something that goes into the overall budget - only adds a few quid a day if I add it all up - normally less than a fiver a day at worst over a two week tour - the hassle side I can mitigate by preparation

Very true psmiffy - but the OP was thinking of a far shorter trip - changes the cost/hassle ratio of the trip

 

[psmiffy]

Thread creep innit - Ive never done a proper tour less than two weeks - short weekend or longer tours up to 5 days I take the car and dump it at a port or somewhere convenient

 

[bigjim]

Thread creep innit - Ive never done a proper tour less than two weeks - short weekend or longer tours up to 5 days I take the car and dump it at a port or somewhere convenient

Great if the port is not too far. From the North of England it is not so easy. I'd love to just wheel my bike onto a ferry.

 

[psmiffy]

Not actually too easy from here either - a couple of times i've been to France for a long weekend and when ive got back to the car discovered that the South of England is snarled up - slept in a layby on the downs - to the office in time to unlock the doors