I was assuming you could travel for 100/day fairly easily, so it will be interesting to see how close that estimate is.
My 6 day 1200 mile trip includes three motel stays. So lodging works out to about $40/day for the trip. I'll use about 30 gallons of gas so that is $15/day. That leaves me with $45/day for food and incidentals. I'm assuming my actual food cost will be less since my dining plans include peanut butter sandwiches, fruits, nuts, soymilk, juice and coffee.
I'm spending 2 nights with family and the last night at home so it works out to be similar to a road trip of alternating days of camping and staying in motels.
If a person was retired or worked part time they could spend six months on the road traveling by motorcycle for 18K. (I'm trying to figure out how much money I need if/when I retire...and keeping my fingers crossed, working out, eating healthy foods - hoping that my health holds up to allow me to be out and about in my advanced years)
You could take a lot of trips by car, airplane, train or boat for that much money of course so it all depends on what you prefer. A several month cruise falls into that range if you go the cheapest berthing on a cruise line and less if you are more adventurous and would ride on a cargo ship. A road trip by car with some camping thrown in would be similar. You can get rail passes...so there's all kinds of ways to get off the couch.
The motorcycle travel estimate is a bit of an oversimplification since it doesn't include the one-time costs for a motorcycle, tax/title, accessories and clothing - or the ongoing cost of motorcycle maintenance/oil/tires and insurance/licensing. A motorcycle set up for touring runs anywhere from about 3,000 to 30,000. I'm pretty confident 1000 dollars a year would cover the ongoing costs if you do the routine maintenance yourself.
All in all it seems like a fairly inexpensive way to travel and a wonderful bargain when you consider how much fun it is just to ride a motorcycle...no matter where you are going.
