Hello guys, this is Jin from universewithme.com
I’ve cycled around the world over 84,000km (52,000mi) on six continents.
In this video, I will talk about how much money you need to cycle the world
with my own experience and other cyclist’s experience I’ve heard from them,
and by internet research.
First of all, let’s talk about What’s cycling the world meaning?
Like how many km? How many countries?
There is no answer for it.
Usually, cyclists are following three main routes.
1.From Europe to Asia or Asia to Europe
(And plus New Zealand and Australia)
2.From North America to South America or the other way around
3.From Egypt to South Africa or the opposite direction
Of course, you can travel in different way.
I am talking about the general idea.
If people cycle on one of those routes
They say “I cycled around the world”
How long does it take time to do one of those?
It depends on the people.
Minimum is 6 months to 8 months
Average is 1 year to one and a half year for one route
And if travel goes longer, it can be like 3 years to 4 years
When people mix two routes.
Real Long trip can be like over five years
When you mix three those route.
Usually, it’s difficult to mix routes
Because crossing the ocean requires extra money, time,
and courage to explore a new continent.
The most popular route is from Europe to Asia.
The next is from North America to South America.
It doesn’t matter which route you are cycling that
the cost of the travel doesn’t much change in every continent.
Here let me tell you why the cost is not changed although it’s a different continent.
There are four main things you will spend mostly in your trip.
First, Transportation
Second, Accommodation
Third, Food
Fourth Visa, Insurance, Tour, Maintenance, and others.
First, cyclists save up lots of money on transportation
Because they don’t need to take a bus, train or flight often.
This is the biggest benefit of cycling around the world.
Second, Cyclists carry camping gears that
they don’t spend much money on accommodation
They only spend like at a cheap hotel or hostel a few times a month.
And it doesn’t affect their monthly expenditure.
Because it’s not that often.
Third, cyclist don’t spend much money on tour
because they are seeing lots of beautiful things
while cycling in the next to the sea or in the mountain.
Fourth, the visa fee is depending on where you are from.
If you have a strong passport
it can be around $200 to $500 per route
Maintain could be like $200 to $500 per route as well.
And all those are similar in every continent
because cyclists travel simple way.
So here the most important question goes.
How much money you need to cycle the world monthly?
You need minimum $300 USD per month for accommodation and food.
That is 10$ a day
$3,600 a year.
You need $1,200 for tour, maintenance, and others.
So, you need $5,000 minimum included everything to cycle around the world.
But then how about an Initial purchase?
It depends on people.
If you don’t have any bicycle and camping gears, you need at least $2,000.
If you have everything already, then you need only $500 for extra stuff.
I always think that expensive camping gears is
more important than expensive bicycle.
If you have a good expensive camping gear, it can make your trip easier.
If you have expensive bicycle like costing $3,000,
it will not change much your travel.
This is not a race that you don’t need to cycle faster.
I saw some cyclist that they travel with very cheap bicycle and all the cheap things.
So it’s possible that you just spend $500 for everything at the beginning.
So, total how much money you need to cycle around the world?
You need at least $7,000 included gears and everything to cycle the world.
I must tell you that this is an extremely small budget
So it can be really tough to survive.
But somehow it’s fun that
many cyclist actually travel with this budget without much problem.
So you can do it if you want.
What kind of other budgets there are?
Some crazy cyclists travel with $2,500 a year.
And I really can’t imagine how it’s like
For me to travel with $5,000 was already very hard.
So, $2,500 can be really really tough.
But anyway it’s possible because some other people doing as well.
With 5,000 yearly budget I could stay at cheap hotel or hostel only sometimes.
And I could get only $1-$3 meal that
it’s very hard to go to a restaurant which costs like more than $10.
For the tour, I had only one or two impressive things per year
like visiting the Serengeti Safari tour for three days, $300.
If you spend around $12,000 a year or more than that,
your trip would become easy
and you can try different dishes at the restaurant around $10 meal.
You can have different tours more.
If you spend more money, your travel becomes comfortable.
That’s obvious.
By the way, if you want to travel with $5,000 as a backpacker,
you have to be a hitchhiker.
Minimum budget as a backpacker is around $10,000
as you have to spend for accommodation and transportation all the time.
The common budget for a backpacker is $20,000 to 30,000 for a world tour.
As you see, the cycling world costs only half the price of backpacking
because cyclist doesn’t spend much money on the accommodations and transportation.
Let’s talk about my own expense on a world tour.
This is my yearly expenditure.
I didn’t get any money from my family.
I’ve started with $10,000 which I made through Canadian Working Holiday Visa.
I’ve spent only $5,000 in the Americas and Africa each year.
I was really worried about surviving in Europe before going there
because I thought it would be too expensive.
As you see, I’ve spent more money in Europe.
But the reason is that I’ve bought winter camping gear,
new camera gear, front bag for $2,600.
If I deduct this, I’ve spent only $5,500 for a year in Europe.
So it’s the same as my first year in the Americas and my Second Year in Africa.
In Europe, thank to cheap grocery stores like Lidl, Aldi, Carrefour,
I could have many good cheap foods.
Cycling in Europe was like going out picnic every day
because of cheap grocery shopping
and easier than cycling in Latin America and Africa.
Since 2016 I’ve spent more money
cause I got tired of traveling with $5,000 yearly budget.
And I realized I could make $200 to $400 per month by creating content regularly
and it was increasingly little by little.
New Zealand and Australia are very expensive.
I remembered that I was always hungry at the first month
when I just came to New Zealand in 2018.
I thought that I had some parasite on my stomach
Because I was starving all the time.
But It was just so expensive to get things at the grocery store.
If you have only $5,000 yearly budget without a working holiday visa,
you need to think about cycling in Oceania again.
In 2019, I traveled six months
and then worked six months with an Australian Working Holiday Visa.
Once I stayed in one place for work,
I’ve spent more money on renting, going out, and others.
As the result, the expense was increasing.
Thank you so much for watching my video
and I hope this video gives you an idea about the cost of cycling around the world.
If you have experience of world tour, please leave comment about your expense.
It will help many others.
In the next video, I will talk about how to make money while cycling around the world.
See you on the next video.
Bye Bye.
Actually here is one funny thing.
I have more good memories
when I traveled with $5,000 yearly budget
because I got more chances to meet local people.
It made my trip rich with full of different stories.
But I don’t think I can do it again
because it was really tough
and I’ve done it already.
That’s enough.
But if you want, Good luck.