There is often an assumption that adventures have to be expensive. They need not be. This is particularly true if you overcome another assumption: that you have to fly to somewhere far away in order to have an adventure.

Hatching an adventure that begins and ends at your front door is not only cheaper, it’s also satisfying, creates a story that is easier for your friends and family to engage with and get involved with, and it leaves you with great memories every time you leave your front door in future.

So, if you are on a budget and trying to do a big trip for less than £1000, I recommend cutting the big expense of a plane ticket. Cycle away from your front door on whatever bike you own or can borrow and see how far you can get.

However, you can also get some great bargains on plane tickets. For example, if you decide to commit £200 of your £1000 to a plane ticket, a website like Kayak Explore reveals enticing options of where you can go for that amount of money. Writing this now, I had a look at the website.

I could fly to Kazakhstan and have £828 left to cycle back to England. I could fly to the United Arab Emirates for £168 or Nizhniy Novgorod for £190. I have never even heard of Nizhniy Novgorod but instantly my mind starts to fills with ideas’¦

If you begin your journey from home you’ll have the full £1000 to spend on your adventure. Here’s a bit of a cursory budget outline to help you start making your own plans and to realise that trips are not as complicated or expensive as you might fear.

• Boring but important stuff: insurance, vaccinations, first aid supplies: £200.
• Equipment that you don’t already own or can’t borrow from a mate: £400 will get you a lot of stuff from eBay.
• Costs along the way: ferries, repairs, visas, an ill-advised piss-up in a dangerous but exciting port, etc.: £200
• Daily food budget: £5 per day. You could easily live on half this amount, or twice this amount, according to how you like to travel. B, but £5 will buy you pasta, oats, bread, bananas, fruit, veg and a tin of tuna, even in an expensive part of the world.
• With £200 remaining, this means you’ve got enough for 40 days on the road. If you cycle a pretty leisurely 60 miles a day, and have one day off each week, that’s still an impressive 2000-mile journey.

You could cycle from London to Warsaw and back, San Francisco to Vancouver and back, or Copenhagen to Marseille and back. New York to New Orleans and back is a bit far, but York to Orleans is definitely do-able’¦

If you choose to walk, run or swim you won’t travel so fast but your equipment costs will be less so you will have more days on the trail.

You might choose to spend a bit more or a bit less on different things. You’ll probably find your own budget calculations to be a little more complicated than mine here. But you should at least be starting to realise that the financial element of an adventure is coming within your grasp.

You can save £1000 in a year if you do it like this. £1000 is more than enough money for an epic trip.

My new book, Grand Adventures, answers many questions such as this. It’s designed to help you dream big, plan quick, then go explore. There are also interviews and expertise from around 100 adventurers, plus masses of great photos to get you excited.

I would be extremely grateful if you bought a copy here today!

I would also be really thankful if you could share this link on social media with all your friends – http://amzn.to/20IMYDt. It honestly would help me far more than you realise.

Thank you so much!