Where to economise on European travel costs...
All who travel to Europe will be noticing the ongoing decline in the value of the Pound against the Euro and other European currencies. There are also no indications that this trend will reverse in the forseeable future.
So, a question for those who will continue to cross the Channel, will you just accept the rising costs, and holiday as normal? Or will you look to cut costs, and if so how?
Now that we travel with a motorhome we will make more use of aires. We already tend to go out of main season, so cannot reduce ferry and site fees by avoiding busier times. Perhaps we will go for shorter visits, or avoid travelling so far (Provence this
year, Brittany next?). Maybe avoid paying motorway tolls, but there is the issue discussed in another thread of the hassle of traffic calming on national routes.
What else can we do?
By the way, this is not an invitation to discuss the merits of Brexit. Mods will not allow that.
Comments
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I would obviously like a stronger £ but it will not affect me in the way we travel next year. In fact we are going away for longer, 10/12 weeks and will tour exactly the same as before regarding places, sites and eating out.
So yes, I will accept the extra cost and with no change in how I tour. Don't think our dog is too bothered either
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I understand your point, personally I tend to not use autoroutes anyway and just slow down a bit, it's amazing how much further you get on the same fuel. For years I also tend to fill up at supermarkets which saves a fair bit of money. Interestingly
for the last few years I keep an eye out for Total Access filling stations on main roads as they are almost as good as a supermarket rwt price0 -
Same here we go and do what ever we want to do, we don't tend to eat out so no savings to be had there, we rarely use toll roads so no savings there either. We do use sites rather than Aires but that is by choice and can't see that changing, I would rather
go for less time than not go at all, however we will probably go for 10 or 12 weeks all being well.0 -
Probably not travel quite as far and reduce speend on eating out. We work to a fixed holiday budget but who knows where the currency value be next summer? Markets always over react so My guess is it will bounce back a little and probably settle in the €1.10-1.20
range which is where it was a few years ago.0 -
It was 1.13 on the Mastercard excange site as at 4 Oct (PO Card uses this with no costs except for cash - there are other cards). Use Tesco points for Tunnel can save pounds especially if you are headiing in an East/South East direction. We will carry
on as per many years and just enjoy our continental hols; a 1 - 2% variation in exchange rate is quite small really in the caost of a holiday.0 -
You could economise by using the Aires with most of them open all year round – many campsites are not.
We have used Aires provided by the local towns and villages that are free, have toilets, showers, free EHU and water and are close to shops and restaurants.
Most Aires, if not free, are around €4 - €6 for twenty four hours and if you have your own facilities are perfectly adequate for many peoples tastes.
Join France Passion, around £25 for a years subscription, and stay free at thousands of stopover places.
Use local markets (every town and village has a morning market at least once a week) for fruit and vegetables and many restaurants serve two and three course meals including drinks at very low prices.
As you say the less distance between stopovers the better and staying in areas such as Brittany, as we did this year, will give you the chance to stay free at many locations with stunning views and ample walking and exploring opportunities
just outside your door.Cross to France at the cheapest times, use Tesco points to purchase crossing tickets, buy fuel from Supermarkets, use the Aires or France Passion, take a fridge/freezer full of food, travel is free on Brittany motorways, travel the least
distances possible and you'll certainly get a cheaper holiday than one spent on Campsites in the UK.And there's always wild camping if you have the urge to try it!
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The falling in value of the pound would not deter me from touring overseas but it would prompt me to look even harder at what value I get for my money.
Those of us fortunate to be born in Yorkshire are naturally hard wired (genetically imprinted) to seek out value at all times of course.
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We will continue as usual, I think, having always been frugal I doubt we can cut our costs more, but perhaps buy less steak and more steak hache! Less chicken and more eggs, less meat and more fruit and veg........... all better for us anyway. I think I shall still treat myself to nice bread, croissants, good butter, and the odd little patisserie treat!
Seriously, we will also look at the cheaper ACSI sites - having found some nice ones for just eleven euros. Amazingly there are 785 sites which are 15 euros or less per night, and that includes electricity, awning, pitch, two adults, and a dog (if you have one!). There will be also many hundreds of commercial sites at similar prices.
We will also continue to use municipal sites, as they are generally good value - from eight euros upwards. We will continue to buy supermarket petrol, and buy wine from the caves in cubitainers, or from supermarkets like Lidl. We found a quaffable Spanish wine this summer for just 99 cents a bottle!
When we're at our house in the Aude we will eat at the restaurant Le Carignan at St Laurent de la Cabrerisse, where a three course mid-day meal, with wine, is just 9.80 euros. That will be our 'eating out' treat. The main course is cooked on a woodburning fire, and you can choose what you want to go with it - veg, salad, and three or four types of potatoes. The dessert choice is excellent, and you can include any more expensive main course in the three courses, just paying the difference between the price of the main course with the ones offered in the Menu du Jour.
So not much change - but having holidayed when we got just 1.06 to the pound, the recent high rates have been a bonus, and we will just go back to the poorer rates we were once used to.
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As they say Don't spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar. One of the major costs of going the Europe is the crossing and insurance. The decrease in the value of sterling will make some difference but is it really enough to make people change their mind about going?
David
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As previously posted, a bit of a knee jerk. Rates will probably stabilise when things become clearer. Unless you are spending mega dosh, the differential is not that great. Thirteen years ago when I bought my apartment, the rate was 1.6, and it's been all
over the place in the intervening years. Just wait until Greece has another payment crisis with the IMF and watch the rates seesaw again.0 -
no, it wont really make much difference...
.generally we have two longish holidays abroad each year, say, 20 weeks total, so thats 40%+ of the year, so we are actually living there and will do as we would live at home....
yes, theres a ferry cost, and fuel, and site fees....but, against that we dont have any gas/electric to pay at home, the fuel is much cheaper, site fees are far lower, we also use a fair spread of aires (mostly free)...
so, i never really thought of holidaying abroad as 'dear' in the first place, more just moving the same living budget from here to there...
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no, it wont really make much difference...
.generally we have two longish holidays abroad each year, say, 20 weeks total, so thats 40%+ of the year, so we are actually living there and will do as we would live at home....
yes, theres a ferry cost, and fuel, and site fees....but, against that we dont have any gas/electric to pay at home, the fuel is much cheaper, site fees are far lower, we also use a fair spread of aires (mostly free)...
so, i never really thought of holidaying abroad as 'dear' in the first place, more just moving the same living budget from here to there...
Write your comments here..".In your own space ,in your own time " Your luxury home from home !!
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We missed touring abroad this year - went to a very wet Scotland instead and can't wait for next year. The fluctuations in the pound/euro exchange rate won't worry us a bit. We do tend to lunch out and eat in the van in the evening - perhaps a few more visits
to the supermarche but thats it.0 -
We have just booked to be "over there" for 8 weeks+, and will add on a week or two in UK at each end, so no different to his year.
Ferry will be about £25 less than last year.
We find Germany mainly less expensive than France, and are heading for the Baltic coast initially, then it will depend on the weather and our inclination.
We do not eat out much, so not a lot to try to save there.
Could save a bit by buying less wine though!
If the rate gets too bad, we will just cut down on our annual gifts to the kids and grandkids.
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Some might remember that some years ago, before the Euro, the French Franc for some years varied between 10 and 11 FF to the pound. Almost overnight the exchange rate fell to about 7FF to the pound which is an much large fall than we have experience in the current situation. I don't think it stopped many people going to France?
David
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As they say Don't spoil the ship for a ha'p'orth of tar. One of the major costs of going the Europe is the crossing and insurance. The decrease in the value of sterling will make some difference but is it really enough to make people change their mind about going?
David
As David says some of the largest costs are the travel so the only way to tackle that is to stay in the UK but, as we are not prepared to do that then we accept that we will get less for our pound than in the immediate past. Mind you, as others have said, it is still better than it has been in recent memory and those low rates did not deter us.
When we first went abroad we did so on a very fixed budget and as the years have passed and finances improved have been more likely to eat out and have other treats and cannot see that changing.
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Even with the ferry, and insurance, it works out less expensive abroad on a longer trip as both fuel and site fees are less than here, and generally food is the same or less.
Our 21/2 months away earlier in the year, which included 20 UK site nights, worked out at £50 per night for everything (ferries, insurance, fuel, tolls, site fees, food and sightseeing)
The site fees in total were less than twice as much as those for our recent 28 nights away. And for 2 weeks of our first trip we were 3 adults.
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Its not going to stop hs caravanning because thats what the result would be if we couldn't do it in mainland Europe but there is no denying its going to cost more and there are other issues yet to rear their head such as the return of green card insurance
and drastically reduced "duty free" allowances and less ease crossing borders. We are still away and the bills have yet to come in but just one site stay of 28 nights at identical local prices was over £100 more than 2015.However at £18.30 a night for a 5 star site it still compares very well with anything available in the UK.
If you are still in Croatia the Kuna is about 8.5 a big drop from the 10.1 when we were out in June! It still wont stop us going out again next year.
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To be fair, it may well affect familes who have just a two week holiday, more than us 'long-stayers' who (as Bolero Boy says) just transfer our household budget from one country to another.
If you have children, pay for 'days out', meals out, treats, etc., then added to the likely rise in transport costs, fuel prices, and site fees, this will all make a significant different to budgets over a two week period.
However, it will affect all destinations so it may well lead to more family holidays in this country.
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Val, agreed....the short stayers or the family parties may notice that things have risen, but (as you know) a long stay overseas is still cheaper (for us, anyway) than the same length stay/tour in the uk, even when factoring in the ferry costs...mainly due
to cheaper fuel, food, sites/aires, wine, wine, wine etc
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Thanks for some interesting responses, the consensus being that a lower pound won't stop folk going, but they may look to make some savings at the margin, eg eat out less was suggested.
We do remember those times when the pound was lower even than now, and we did go to France too. But we were both working then with better incomes, and could only take 2 week trips. Also we camped mostly, or cheap hotels, so lower ferry costs, and also
no dog to pay for, as we didn't have one then.We already rarely eat out in France, my wife is Coeliac, and getting suitable meals is more difficult than it ought to be, so no savings to be had there. But it won't stop us going either, though it may affect how far we go and the kind of sites we stop
at.0 -
Just got back from Italy. On the way down I used the tunnel then French autoroutes at over €80 plus £64 for the annual Swiss vignette (car and caravan)! On the return I came back through Switzerland then into Germany and Holland to cross Hook of Holland
to Harwich. The mileage covered was pretty much same both ways so diesels cost were about the same. The return ferry cost was a £40 saving over the tunnel plus over 100 miles of diesel saving. Learning from this is give France a miss!0 -
As for the most we part are wild campers therefore we do not use camp site on the continent, but in Portugal (where we are now) on the Algarve there is a development where by the local camra's (council's) are opening parking places for motor home at very reasonal prices, IE 3>5 euros a night. So that could be a big saving for the dedicated long term camper
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If you want to be in Europe, use the British Pound AND avoid ferry delays and costs, then travel to Scotland. Most people also speak English.
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Point taken! However Even as a half Scot with much of my family living north of the border, (and so we are often visiting) unfortunately Scotland is not as reliable with the warm sunny weather as many European mainland countries tend to be. When it is good
it can be very, very good, however when we went in spring 2015 it was snowing at the end of May.....0 -
For us, living near Plymouth, it's a 650 mile drive to Inverness, or the daily ferry to Roscoff and a 550 mile drive to Biarritz and the Spanish border. The Scottish highlands are just too far.
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