Plan your bike trip: where will I sleep?

Deciding your preference for accommodation largely boils down to budget and availability. If you have the money you could ride around the world staying only in hotels of some description or another. Alternatively, if you didn’t have the money, you could go around the world sleeping only in a tent. And the same principle applies to any trip, big or small.

Staying in a hotel can very easily double your daily budget. Travelling around the US for a few weeks, my wife and I budgeted $70 a day for two of us, to cover food, fuel and accommodation. If we were camping that was easily manageable. If we stayed in a motel then we’d have to add at least another $50, and had that been the case for every day of the trip it would have been the difference between being able to go, or not being able to afford it. Taking camping gear also gives you the reassurance that no matter what happens – bike breakdown, not able to find a hotel – then you at least have somewhere to sleep, irrespective of where you have to put it up.

Of course a tent and camping gear takes up a lot of room on the bike and isn’t for everyone. Sites such as booking.com and www.airbnb.com have made it much easier to arrange and book accommodation on the move, still allowing some flexibility but giving you the reassurance of a place to head to at the end of the day. The main thing is not to panic if you don’t have anywhere arranged for the night ahead; something will turn up. For my trip to Iceland the cost of hotel accommodation put it beyond reach, with the plan being to camp the majority of the way or use some of the cheaper hostels, farmhouses or bunkhouses found around the island. 

Read all of BikeSocial’s motorcycle adventure planning tips here.