I have 17 days vacation/PTO a year. Last year, I chose to use 11 of those to get me a 17 day trip to France (11 work days plus 6 weekend days), not all of it cycle touring but the majority was. Yes, it means foregoing other vacations, but life is about choice, even the choice to not make the France trip riding every single day. Other choices involve her only being halfway up the seniority pole at work, so we generally travel during non-peak vacation seasons, as it is easier for her to get a bigger block of vacation at that point if we aren't competing with spring/summer break schedules.
As for cost, as others have mentioned, only you can answer that. Me and the wife make enough that we can afford to save up for the lodging if we aren't camping, and really beyond that our daily expenses aren't much different than they are if we were at home.