Preparation

The new common idea of Oliver and me is American Loop. We have both signed sabbatical contracts to make them come true. Due to different travel periods and overlaps with Oliver’s Pan Americana trip in 2009/2010, arise at times different routes. In the KML layer filter you can see where the differences are. The big common thing is the Trans America Trial short TAT and the Trans Canada Adventure Trail short TCAT. Both trails are highly attractive routes and we would like to invite you to create this tour with us, for us and for others. So:

Create with us!

• Write a comment at the end of this post!
• Get into conversation with us at meetings or elsewhere.
• Send us links to sections of your travel report that includes parts of the route.
• Let us know what’s far from our route, too. Maybe we’ll change it.
• Interested in the tour? Maybe we can meet “on the road”.

We will take your tips into the map to provide a clear presentation of the collected information.

Some may already think that’s already too detailed, but nobody forces us to follow this plan. The pure shown track are about 6h work and was simply necessary to involve you and have a rough idea of ​​the required time. If the day’s stage does not commute between 150-250km per day, it will quickly become too stressful or too boring, at least for me. Olivers route has approx. 20.000km, from August 2019 remains 4 months time maximum because of weather condition. Afterwards Oliver continues to the African continent in Namibia. My route has about 37,000km but luckily it ends in warm Mexico so only my wish to see the Dakar 2020 live puts me under pressure.

TCAT – Trans Canada Adventure Trail

The TCAT, is like the Trans Europe Trail short TET, a joint project of enduro drivers without commercial intent. Who is interested in more details or GPS data it can be found on their website: www.graveltravel.ca

TAT – Trans America Trail

There are two sources of supply for the TAT.
www.gpskevinadventurerides.com and www.transamtrail.com For the question which source is the better there is already an extensive discussion in the AdvRider forum: http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/tat-difference-between-sam-and-gpskevin.926004/

Further sources for route planning

In addition to these ready-made routes, I used also GPS material from www.wikiloc.com especially for Mexico. The material is often provided from different authors, with the result that the evaluation of the difficulty is not uniform as well as the quality of the data. In any case, you should check the data using satellite imagery and open street maps and be able to cope with larger than expected challenges.

USA:

1. For short stays of up to 90 days and if you haven’t visited several critical countries such as Iran, you can apply for the simplified ESTA Visa electronically. https://dhsgov-esta.us/
2. But for travel like ours, the more complex process of the B2 tourist visa makes more sense. Entry time is usually up to 6 months, the visa is valid for 10 years and you can come back as often as you like. This also consolation over the effort with the personal interview and the cost of about 140 € away. I am applying for the whole http://www.ustraveldocs.com/ I would not hire an agency because the process is complex but not very difficult with good English language skills.

Canada:

As a German citizen you can stay in the country for up to 6 months for tourist purposes. If you travel on land and sea like Michael you do not need the eTA (= Electronic Travel Authorization) that if you travel by plane. To the website of the Government of Canada

Mexico:

As a German citizen you can stay in the country for up to 6 months for tourist purposes. Upon entry, it is required to fullfill a tourist card the FMM. It costs around 533 Mexican Peso around 25€.

But you should always pick up such information at the Foreign Office because they are most up to date: https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/de/aussenpolitik/laender

Transport is always one of the biggest cost drivers. We had offers from 1400 € -3000 € for RoRo and Air transport for the transport Germany to Texas / USA. The cheaper container variant was eliminated due to time constraints. We do not want to give a recommendation for a single company, we were well and fairly advised by all. We asked:
http://www.knopftours.com/
https://apextrans.ch/
https://www.intime-ham.com/
https://www.2wglobal.com/
Cost and service often depend heavily on company contacts and proximity to where you live. The following costs you should keep in mind for your decision :

• Arrival / Transport to the place of delivery. For southern Germans this transport can add quickly  200-300 €
• Allow luggage to remain on the vehicle. Airlines charge 50-150 € for extra baggage and with the usual 12kg hand + 23kg checked baggage you will not get far.
• Cost of the box. Depending on your wishes and contacts, material costs of 100-200 € can accrue. For reasons of hygiene, some countries expect a proof of origin for the crate material.
• Transport insurance and flight / seaport fees at the destination are often not included. From 20 € to over 100 € you can expect everything.

It is fascinating where the GDPR makes life difficult. Insurance companies abroad now refuse to insure EU citizens because of this regulation because it is not worth that their legal departments deal with it. The background of the insurance company are absolutely understandable, which can not be said of this regulation. We could find two insurance companies:
https://www.progressive.com/ insured US and Canada but you need an address in the US
https://www.segurogringo.com/ insured USA, Mexico and Canada an address in the US is not required as far as checked.

Status Quo we don’t have an offer from both.