You guys that have made the Alaska trip, if you don't mind posting your expenses and dollar amounts for budgeting purposes. I talked to an old guy that did the trip in 2012 and I could buy a new bike for what he spent. I have to wander if his memory is any good. Thanks
I see John already posted my thread asking the same thing awhile back. This is a very random number you are asking for as a lot of information needs to be considered. Are you camping or using motels? What's your gas mileage like? Are you doing the McDonald's dollar menu, eating at a campfire, or what a specially prepared steak every meal? Do you have your gear already? Are you planning any excursions or tours? There are just way too many questions for anybody to give you a specific dollar amount. If it helps, I figured out my rough estimate on what this trip will cost me when I leave in six weeks (damn, that's coming quick!) For everything I'm spending prepping bike, myself with gear, and for my planned eating/sleeping/fuel budget, I could easily buy a brand new DL650. But I'm giving up a new bike so I can ride in tons of rain, have nightmares about bears while camping, lose much of my blood to mosquitoes, and to brag to people that won't understand when I get back. But to me, the smiles for the rest of my life of completing this makes it all worth it.
I don't think I actually ever put together a number, but 4 weeks was around $7k but that included gifts, which included gold, and I stayed in hotels all but like 4 nights. I do however re-live the trip in my mind regularly!! and it always brings a smile to my face.
Sounds great. I'd rather spend my money on riding. Buying a motorcycle is required but buying motorcycles is not the purpose.
My wife and I did it one up back in '13. We spent about 1,000 per week over 3 months. Our goal was $100 per day for both of us, not each and we were pretty close except for some bike repairs that came to about $1,000. We camped 80 out of 100 nights and stayed with friends for about 10 of the other nights. Great trip, hope you can set a leisurely pace! , Tellicotom
I did some riding up there this past summer. Travel costs for 30 days were in the last page of the RR (It's pronounced In-You-Vick. I think...): http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=988579&page=8 I brought only $800 (US) cash; I used all but $20. Credit card charges totaled $2425 (plus $40 in fees). Apparently, Visa charges fees for using a credit card in Canada, whereas Discover does not. (Wish I would've known that ahead of time!) Those charges were largely for fuel and food (and one hotel room). So, I spent $3,200 to travel from San Diego to Inuvik and return (9,600 miles). I hope that helps someone.
I spend $1,000 a week when riding to Alaska and back for motels, restaurants and gas. I do not camp anymore. I do not have expensive tastes. I can save money by sharing a room with a buddy. Going solo is fine with, too.
It's the bank, not the card. I use a Visa card from Capital One which does not charge fees for use out of the U.S. I rated my rates of exchange in Mastery's thread that s.s.face mentioned above.
I applied for the the Capital One card just a few months before my trip because they advertised it as having no fees for foreign transactions. Indeed I spent Cdn$533.01 on the card and paid US$525.03 with none of it identified as fees. A few places where my Capital One Visa card was rejected by the machine, I used a Bank of America Visa with foreign fees. Of the Cdn$40.58 that I spent, I paid US$41.11 of which US$1.18 was foreign transaction fees. I tried not to use this card because of the fees. Roughly, I got more than a dollar Canadian for every dollar US I spent with the Capital one card and less than a dollar Canadian for every dollar US I spent on a different Visa card. I'd say phone them before you go to out of the U.S. again. EDIT: Of general interest for everyone going to Canada: two or more cards may be a good idea. Not every machine in Canada accepts every U.S. Card. I recall having the pay-at-pump machine along the Campbell Highway reject my first card and accept the other Visa. It was Sunday, so paying with cash was not an option.
I dont remember the exact dollar amount, but it was in the ballpark of 6000 including the ferry ride back down. Includes new tires and an oil change as well.
WOW !!! If I knew it cost that much I wouldn't have made 3 trips so far.:eek1 I prefer hotels and nice dinner after day of riding so with fuel, meals, bike maintanance /tires, attraction/park fees and beer I budget $200 per day. Alaska is worth every penny, amazing riding but unfortunately it takes several trips to see it. Safe Travels
Holckster- I live in VA and riding 10hour days, it is a 7 day ride. That is 14 days on the road, and once I get there I figure at least 2 weeks seeing the state, maybe longer if I can swing it. That totals 30 days @ $200 = $6,000. I think I can do it on $150 a day, so 30 * 150= $4,500, that is if everything goes right and there are no break downs. How many days are you making the trip in? If I do the trip right the first time, I will not need to go a second time, only if I want.
I've got a completely different idea of my ride. I've done a lot of camping trips by motorcycle and, while in the lower 48, I average $10-$10-$10. That's $10 for gas, $10 for food and $10 for a campsite. How do I do it? I try to travel only 200 mi. or so each day. That takes me about 4 hours. I'm averaging about 55 mpg with my KLR, so that's about 4 gallons a day. If gas prices go up, I'll probably have to adjust the gas budget. After setting up camp, I've got plenty of time to hop on the bike and go explore the area. If I decide to stay in the area for a few days, I will usually save money on the gas -- admittedly though, not much. Food is bought at grocery stores along the way. $10 will buy a lot of food at a grocery store. I normally keep a couple of days of canned foods for times I don't find a grocery store. I can usually find a campsite for $10. I've got a senior (for life) national park pass and I usually stay at state, city and county campgrounds when I'm not near a national campground. Not most of the time, but often, I can find state/national property where I can camp for $0. Overall, again, in the lower 48, it's pretty easy to average $10. When I reach Canada, I'll have to double my gas budget. When getting to Northern Canada, probably have to triple the gas budget. So, $30 for gas. Food should stay the same in Southern Canada, at least that's my experience, but will double in Northern Canada. So, about $20 a day. Camping, I think, will be about the same. Most of the prices I've seen are a bit higher, but the exchange rate is good, so I think it will be a wash. So, while in the lower 48, my budget will be $30 a day. Once in the more expensive parts of this trip, I'll budget $60 a day. I'll keep $500 for maintenance and a new set of tires and $1,500 ready for emergencies. This is a very optimistic budget -- I understand that. However, this budget is well within my personal normal, everyday, budget. By traveling on this budget I will have complete freedom to go where I want and stay on the trip as long as I want. That's important to me and that's the way I like it. As far as trying to see everything, I don't think I'll have time to see everything and I'm already planning on future trips to the North. Later, John
John, What kind of canned foods do you find for camp cooking? I eat at restaurants but I camp most of the time. I average 350-450 miles a day so my daily gas budget is more. I've got the National Park pass too(its great). I'm planning to ride to Alaska from Kentucky. Departure is July 10 and return date is sometime August 7-13. Thinking of doing some cooking at camp but that all new to me. Researching cook stoves now. I have lots of storage on the bike but dont want to get too heavy. KOA camping gets expensive, but they usually feed you some kind of breakfast cheap. NP camping is danged near free with the NP pass. McDees for breakfast after ridng a couple hours is good. My costs have been averaging 70-100 a day depending on if I get a hotel once a week or not. I budgeted about $3k for the upcoming four week trip with $1500 in reserve. Probably total about $2000 if I cook.
Travel costs can be greatly reduced by camping and using the hospitality of others (aka couch surfing and The Tent Space List) as hotels are half the daily cost. Impossible to escape food, fuel, tolls and maintance costs but be sure to plan $$ for the unexpected. 2007 From nor-cal I've done a 28 day loop to Glacier NP, Baniff , up the Alcan, Inuvik, Top of the World Hwy to Fairbanks, up to Deadhorse, down to Homer, ferry from Whittier to Skagway (extra $$) returning via the Cassiar Hwy 37 , Hyder and home. 2010 Then made a 18 day round trip to D2D (http://dawsoncity.ca/event/dust-2-dawson-motorcycle-ride-rally/) up and back the Cassiar. 2013 Most recent trip was 30 days up the Cassiar Hwy going out to Telegraph Creek from Dease Lake, Cambell hwy via Ross River too attend D2D, then TOW and across Denali Hwy, down to Anchorage with stop in Talkeetna to take plane flight over Mt. Denali landing on a Glacier (one of those extra expenses $$), then to Haines going out to the Kennicott Mine and back down the Cassiar. Have a great trip and stop stressing over the cost. Pay off the credit cards as fast as you can upon return and concentrate on the life time of memories you will be accumulating. BTW Watch for wildlife crossing the Hwys and frost heaves in the pavement that have thrown some riders off their bike.
Bikerbill, Get some dehydrated meals at outdoor sport store; approx $6 a meal. Boil water with stove, pour in bag, mix, eat. For portability, it's the lightest and simplest. That's the emergency meals I carry for times a restaurant isn't near. Cheers, Marc ps: less than 2 weeks I'll depart