Costs
Part of Bike itinerary building: how it works, step by step
Bike itinerary building: book the scarcest item first
Bike itinerary building in the right order: find the scarcest bed, campsite or bike space, book it first, and pay for flexibility only where it counts.
Two people can book the same itinerary and pay different amounts, not because one found better deals but because one booked in a better order. Sequence is a cost variable, and on a multi-day trip it is a large one.
What to take away
- Book in order of scarcity, not in order of the days.
- Pay for flexibility on the items most likely to change, and not on the rest.
- Routes described online may not exist yet, because infrastructure takes years to deliver.
- Buy transit tickets late unless the fare rises, and check bicycle carriage separately.
Book by scarcity
The correct order is: scarcest first. On rural corridors that is usually the shuttle, then lodging in the smallest town, then everything else. On urban routes it is often the reverse.
Book scarcest first
- Count beds in each overnight town
- Count operators who move bicycles
- Count bicycle trains on your dates
- Book the smallest number first
Booking day one first, then day two, then day three, is the natural instinct and the wrong one. It commits you to a shape before you know whether the scarce item on day three is even available.
Finding the scarce item is usually quick. Count the beds in each overnight town, count the operators who could move you and your bicycles, and count the trains that carry bicycles on your dates. Whichever number is smallest is the thing to book first, and it is rarely the one the itinerary starts with.
A worked sequence on the C&O Canal Towpath
The towpath along the Potomac shows how the count works. Its hiker-biker campsites charge no fee but cannot be booked at all: they are first-come, first-served, with a limit of one night per site, per trip. The drive-in campgrounds are the opposite, by reservation only.
That decides the order for a group. On the park's reservable campgrounds page, group campsites cost $40 per site per night during peak season and $20 during non-peak season, and groups of more than eight people need a group campsite or more than one site. A group books that night first and builds the other days around it. A solo rider, who can fall back on a free hiker-biker site, can leave the camping open and book the scarce transport first.
Pay for flexibility selectively
Flexible booking worth it?
- Lodging in the only town on the route
- Yes
- Lodging in a larger town
- Rarely
- Shuttle or transfer
- Yes
- Train tickets
- Depends on fare rules
- Bicycle hire
- Yes, if dates are uncertain
Why
- Lodging in the only town on the route
- No alternative if plans move
- Lodging in a larger town
- Alternatives exist
- Shuttle or transfer
- Depends on your arrival time
- Train tickets
- Sometimes cheap to change
- Bicycle hire
- Stock is limited
Buying every booking as refundable is expensive and unnecessary. Buying the two that would strand you as refundable is cheap insurance.
When flexibility is worth it
Item
- Lodging in the only town
- Yes
- Lodging in a larger town
- Rarely
- Shuttle or transfer
- Yes
- Train tickets
- Depends on fare rules
- Bicycle hire
- Yes, if dates uncertain
Flexible booking worth it?
- Lodging in the only town
- No alternative if plans move
- Lodging in a larger town
- Alternatives exist
- Shuttle or transfer
- Depends on arrival time
- Train tickets
- Sometimes cheap to change
- Bicycle hire
- Stock is limited
Why
- Lodging in the only town
- Lodging in a larger town
- Shuttle or transfer
- Train tickets
- Bicycle hire
Check the route exists
Published routes sometimes describe what is planned. FHWA's report on strategies for accelerating multimodal project delivery exists because these projects take years to move from concept to construction, and delivery timelines are a live concern for the agencies building them.
Federal pilot work has documented what happens when networks do get completed. The nonmotorized transportation pilot program report tracked progress in developing walking and bicycling networks in the pilot communities. Both point the same way for a traveler: confirm that the section you are building a booking around is open now, not funded.
Tickets and carriage
- Check whether the service carries bicycles at all.
- Check whether carriage needs a separate reservation.
- Check the limit per service, which is often two or four.
- Check whether the limit changes at weekends.
- Buy the ticket once the route shape is fixed, not before.
Bicycle spaces sell out before seats on popular services. That is the constraint to plan around.
California's Pacific Surfliner shows how a carriage rule changes the order. When Caltrans and Amtrak introduced bike reservations on the Pacific Surfliner in 2013, reserving rack space became free, but a reservation was required for each travel segment and had to accompany a valid Amtrak ticket. Most trains could take six bikes, and passengers were told to reserve as early as possible. On a service like that, the bike space is the scarce item, so it is booked before the beds. The overall cost drivers sit in what a rail trail trip may cost, and the sequencing this booking order comes from is in how to build a bike itinerary.
