If you’ve seen my blog – how much do my expeditions cost – you will know that Kicking the States is the most expensive expedition I have done. I always knew it would be. Travelling in the US and in an urban (rather than in a remote) environment was always going to cost more. But how much exactly did we spend?
Breakdown of expenses
These were the total costs spent over the course of a 81-day expedition kick scooting the length of the USA from Vancouver to Tijuana.
Flights – $1,250
International flights return London to Vancouver.
Return train – $244
To reduce our carbon footprint we decided to take the train back to Vancouver for our flight home (which was the best decision!)
Accommodation – $437
Campsite fees, Airbnb and hotels. Because we were doing a charity challenge we would always ask if they would give a discount and usually received 10%. Most nights were spent with hosts who offered to put us up for a night.
Meals – $1,397
A lot of our hosts fed us. For lunches we’d normally grab food from a supermarket if we passed one, otherwise we’d just eat meals at restaurants and cafes we passed along the way. We definitely could have saved a lot if we’d brought a camping stove and cooked for ourselves. We didn’t have the space for this in our small panniers though!
Transport – $917
Getting busses and using Uber to get around. Most of this was to get to and from fundraising talks that we were delivering.
Phone bills – $106
We used a local SIM to organise staying with hosts and for speaking with press.
Other – $943
This included gifts that we bought hosts and postcards we sent at the end to say thank you. Doing fun things on our days off – museums and going to the cinema. Also buying toiletries or replacing clothes along the way if they got too worn.
Repairs – $60
We had 9 flat tyres throughout the entire trip with no other repairs needed.
OVERALL TOTAL – $5,354 ( roughly £4,180)
As we were travelling 2 people, thats about $2,677 or £2,090 per person.
Not included
Not included in this budget is gear (most of which we got sponsored). Also insurance plus the 2 weeks we spent after our expedition exploring the US and Canada having a very good time!
Also the extra money we put towards filming the expedition.
As we were doing this expedition for charity, we received a lot of generosity from people along the way wanting to support our efforts. This included things like being given a bed for the night or having people cook for us.
Read more about my Kicking the States expedition:
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