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I know this is going to be a hard-if-not-impossible-to-answer question, and probably does not have one unique answer, but I do think it is relevant at some level for many people visiting this site.

What is the absolute cheapest means of travel, if the objective of the journey is the journey itself? This means at least the following:

  • a small amount of people (friends, wife+kids, ...) will be traveling always together

  • the various destinations are usually improvised, far and widespread. E.g., there is no predefined course or plan to it

  • The total duration of the journey will be several years

With these constraints, hitch-hiking is out of the question (who'll take on 4-7 passengers? it's unpredictable where you'll end up, e.g., virtually impossible to plan anything, etc.).

I have read many stories about sailing trips with this philosophy. It makes intuitive sense -- sailboats do not require fuel, hence the distance can (when the winds are right) be covered at no cost at all. But somehow I question whether this is true from an end-to-end perspective -- in general, sailboats at the size you'd need them don't come cheap (you'd have to rely on selling the boat when you're "done" traveling), there are costs for harbors around the world, you'd have to bring "special" food that stays well longer, the boat also requires fuel, etc. Plus you'd be kind of limited to islands or places near the shore.

An alternative I thought of would be to travel by car, e.g., buy a cheap car, travel, and sell it again (possibly at higher value). This of course assumes cars are much more easy to sell; not an unreasonable assumption I'd say. The only costs would then be fuel, which is only cheap in the US and some smaller states scattered around the globe. End-to-end, would this be cheaper?

In summary, I'd like to hear reports/stories/etc of the true globetrotters reading this question, regarding the cost of their means of transportation, how they compare, and in the end, which means of travel (or combination thereof) is generally the cheapest.

Rody Oldenhuis
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  • Be independently wealthy. *or* 2. Split up into smaller groups while hitchhiking, but make sure each group has one of the people that drivers are most likely to stop for (female and/or blonde and/or young). If one group has only shabby hairy old bald guys it will be difficult to meet up in a given timeframe (-:
    • – hippietrail Aug 12 '12 at 10:17
  • Sorry but I have to vote to close for now because as you expressed it doesn't have one right answer and our bosses, the good people of Stack Exchange, specifically tell us such questions are not allowed here but belong either in our chat room, or in a travel forum (as opposed to Q&A site) such as Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree. Your other option is to edit your question to focus. – hippietrail Aug 12 '12 at 10:25
  • @hippietrail I half-expected this question to be closed. I had vague hopes that, since it is a single and specific question, although broad in scope, still fits with the QA format. – Rody Oldenhuis Aug 12 '12 at 10:40
  • @hippietrail Regarding hitchhiking: would you do that with your kids? – Rody Oldenhuis Aug 12 '12 at 10:41
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    What about Cycling? You can go fairly long distances, you have complete control over where you go, it works well for medium sized groups, buying a bike is fairly cheap, and on-going maintenance is pretty cheap too – Gagravarr Aug 12 '12 at 10:44
  • For hitchhiking, like with anything, the responsible people have to make the decisions about safety. A group with two adults and one kid would get a ride much more easily than me on my own in most countries. You could accept rides only with families for instance. But as you see we are now chatting rather than me giving you a specific answer. I'm in the chat room by the way! (-: – hippietrail Aug 12 '12 at 10:45
  • @Gagravarr with cycling, you'd always have to pay for lodging unless you always camp in the wild. This last bit is possible in principle, but not allowed everywhere, so in the total cost you'd have to factor in at least some fines :) Nevertheless, good answer (why not make it an answer?) – Rody Oldenhuis Aug 12 '12 at 11:23
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    I think you've pretty much answered your own question Rody. There simply isn't one answer for this. Besides, unless you wife is one of those traveller types let's just say she's not going to be very happy about hitchhiking or cycling for miles with kids. :) – Ankur Banerjee Aug 12 '12 at 12:56
  • @AnkurBanerjee She IS one of those traveller types :) But cycling...indeed perhaps not the best choice for us. – Rody Oldenhuis Aug 12 '12 at 13:01
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    @RodyOldenhuis: This question may be of interest to you - Long-term travel without being wealthy - how is it possible? Although now that I think of it, you'll probably know all this anyway. – Ankur Banerjee Aug 12 '12 at 13:07