We’re two people, will mostly be camping/tenting and going to an occasional hotel every now and then. Focus will be on nature/national parks, but also cities, towns, and cabins every so often. Will mostly be cooking our food but go to restaurants every now and then.
Cost includes everything except car payment. Hoping to do $40-50 a day for two people!
Do you think this is doable?
Do you already have a car you’d be living out of?
If you stay primarily on the west coast you can stretch that budget pretty far by staying in national forests. You can drive in and set up a tent anywhere for free for up to 3days before changing your camp site. You will pretty much have to buy food in bulk (think rice/beans/pasta) and some hard cheeses that won’t need to be refrigerated… some soy sources of protein like TVP… Get a camp stove to cook on. Where you can’t sleep in a forest you will have to stay in highway rest stops and the like. It’s a pretty rough way to travel but it is fun if you don’t mind getting grubby and being looked at funny.
Cities, hotels, etc… anything not camping will really cut into your budget. Not sure if you will really get 4 months out of that kind of money though. Shit happens and you are going to want a reprieve every once in a while.
I think 2 months is the max they can do. Not to mention how tiring will camping trip this long be.
It would be nearly impossible unless you really limited yourself to dispersed camping (so no paying for camping spots at NPs) and were really frugal when it came to restaurant outings and fun activities. Gas alone is such a huge factor and depending on your route and any detours you may take, you could easily blow your entire budget in just 2.5 months.
No. That’s per month. We did it.
If you had a camper or something and were going to be staying at truck stops and walmarts, then you would be fine.
But if you want to pitch tents at camp sites, it’s a lot harder.
And gas really adds up.
If I were you, I’d build a DIY camper you could pull behind your car. Or try to get a truck you can outfit for sleeping and prep to do the trip in a year or two. But you’re probably going to need a bit more of a budget for it. Especially if you haven’t factored in your vehicle yet to costs…
Not for 4 months no this country is expensive
Sleep in your car; prepare by having a second battery, a microwave, a fridge, shopping at Costco, and filling up on gas.
Campgrounds at typically $30 a day, if you want a bathroom. I see no way to do $40-$50 a day unless you sleep under a bridge and eat only rice
No
If you planned out places to camp for free, and budgeted your food I think you can do it. In-season produce in the southern half of the us is not expensive.
I don’t think so. Not for 4 months.
I’ve spent extensive time hiking across the US, 14,000 miles over the course of years. That’s about as cheap as you can get, sleeping mostly in the woods, eating ramen most nights.
And even then a hiker budget is 1k-1.5k/month, for one person.
Considering you’ll have the added expense of vehicle, gas, paying $20-30/night camping fees, and then hotels ontop of that. Just food alone in the US it’s hard to get under $20/day per person anymore, and that’s with minimal restaurant meals.
I think this budget would be doable for 2 months, but 4 is really pushing it.
That’s awesome, mind saying a little bit more about your experience? Appalachian trail/PCW? What was your favorite area?
food alone in the US it’s hard to get under $20/day
This is crazy to me because I’m routinely under that, even accounting for $6 a day in energy drinks.
A microwavable bag of broccoli ($1.20), a can of beans ($1), a pound of chicken/beef ($3), and a cup of rice (<$0.50) should cover anyone’s caloric needs while being quite healthy. Maybe add in a few eggs if needed and a multivitamin to be safe, but we’re still well under $10.
Even without access to a kitchen, $20 is still a lot. I’m a 6’2” man and $8 on the Taco Bell value menu is overkill for me.
But what about the therapy sessions a normal person would need after only eating that day after day?
If eating a simple but nutritionally complete meal sends you to therapy, you’re incredibly weak-willed or have never heard of spices.
agreed
Where did you spend the 1- 1.5k on? Since accommodation and travel was basically free
I’d probably triple that. Or live out a van/cheap RV. It’s somehow more expensive usually to travel this country then to live in it, which is already too expensive.
Somehow? I think it’s always more expensive to travel a country than to live in the same country.
Wife and I traveled for about a month, driving from CT to AZ by way of the south (furthest south we hit was Destin, FL). We were able to stay with some relatives, for free nights.
Camping ranges between 0-35 a night. At 0, you don’t get running water toilets usually. Most of the time, state parks were 20ish a night with bathrooms and showers.
Gas was the killer for us. My old Ford ranger only gets 23ish mpg on a good day. We were spending easily 50/day on gas when we were moving.
We occasionally slept in hotels, when the price was right and we just needed a recharge. They were 40-60/night. Or if we wanted to go to a city. If we did free camping, we’d hotel the next night usually to get a shower, for instance. Although showers are available in truck stops, too, I think it was like 7/shower so it’s almost cheaper to just spend money on a camp site with a shower. Occasionally you’ll find a free Campground with running water, but never shower unfortunately. Like there’s a great one near the Navajo national Monument.
Food… We would usually skip at least one meal to keep costs low, usually breakfast. Or we’d just make oatmeal with morning coffee or something. Lunch varied in prices. Cheapest was Texas, where we found sausage sandwiches at a BBQ place on the side of the road for a whopping 2.50. We would generally spend 10/person per meal though for dinner or lunch if eating out, and that’s including going to the grocery store for things like a rotisserie chicken plus sides. Tipping adds up, too.
If we cooked ourselves, we did better, but that was mostly beans and rice and lentils with few fresh meals.
Our grand total ended up being about 110/day. We didn’t do hardly any attractions, and we lived pretty minimally, but we could’ve gone more minimal. Camping wasn’t great until we hit new Mexico. It was too hot in the south (August) and too expensive in the north (30+/night).
4 months for 4-5k is possible I think, but you won’t end up really doing much imho. Definitely pickup America the beautiful Pass though, at least you’ll see the parks. Beyond that, you won’t have budget for like, Disneyland, or universal studios, and you’ll need to be quite minimalist if you want to go to cities.
New Orleans, for example, destroyed our budget for a while, and we did free walking tours, free Sazerac tour, etc. But having to eat out so frequently was expensive and staying in a hotel. We couldn’t afford to go to any music shows and we could only afford to get one traditional new Orleans meal, at mother’s. Besides that we ate tacos and street food mostly, po boys in little bodegas, and our hotel provided free water and coffee.
i agree it is possible if you spend most of your time in nature. i did 6 weeks solo off 1.5k driving up and down the east coast this past summer. i did some cities and enjoyed free museums (washington dc), skateboarding, and catching concerts. if there are any big events (music festivals, conferences, etc.) that you want to attend, then hit them up a month or two in advance to see if you can volunteer in exchange for attendance. everyone could use help collecting trash lol.
I’m gonna say probably not?
There’s a lot of variables not specified here - what region(s), total mileage, how often is “every now and then” for hotels, restaurants, cities, and towns. I think you absolutely could do a 4 month trip on that budget, but it would involve a lot of planning and limit your options - some combination of a lot of free/primitive camping, low total mileage, relying mostly on annual park pass and free activities for entertainment, sticking to cheap areas of the country, etc. (For some perspective, in many areas just getting a campsite could be half or all of your daily budget). So I have a sense your budget could get you a nomadic experience of some kind, but not everything you’re looking for.