Europe Travelling / Living costs
Hi
I am new to motor homing ... !! and was particularly keen to travel Europe for c 4/ 6 months .
I appreciate this is a tricky question as there are so many variables ( tolls, fuel, lifestyle spends etc etc ) but I wanted to try and budget how much money is needed to accommodate this.
I suppose the only way to ask is for a comfortable lifestyle ( not on bread and beans every day!!)... say 50/ 50 eating out / in etc.....
There are 2 of us and we will have a motorhome c 7.5 metres length ...
Just after say a weekly or monthly budget that would cater for most things whilst enjoying the travelling and what's on offer in the different countries..
thanks for any guidance. !!
Neil
Comments
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There is a thread on MotorhomeFun called 'Full timing costs and budgets' started by 'ianp' last year that you might find helpful.
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You don't say where you will be touring, but my experience of Germany is that food, on the whole, is cheaper than in the UK. Eating out is a tricky question, but your average restaurant meal will be about 15 Euros per person plus drinks.
If you go by Peedee's suggestion you'd certainly be on the safe side.
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OK we caravan but minimal difference, two of us plus one dog, average about 28 mpg and eat out 40% of the time.
2018 was France only but 2017 took in Belgium, Germany, Austria and Slovenia and northern Italy for just over 10 weeks, 2,700 miles and managed to average out about €65 per day. That included tunnel, site fees, fuel, vignettes where needed, shopping, eating out and visiting etc
Mostly ACSI sites at €18 per night.
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What you are spending is a lot more than us. OK, living on the Continent I don't have the cost of ferry crossings to contend with and we do virtually all of our own cooking, but for 5 weeks in Italy in May/June last year we only spent around €3000 in total, including fuel, tolls, food, campsites, etc. and an almost 8 weeks' trip to Spain in the autumn for under €4000 wasn't that much more because we got a good ACSI rate at the site where we spent most of the time.
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Neil, your fixed costs are the ferry and all the insurances. Add those first. They are unavoidable .
After that just set off on your tour and see what you are spending after a week or so. If your money is melting away too quickly there are steps you can take - stay off toll roads, use Aires instead of campsites, drive shorter distances, go out for lunch instead of dinner, cook more for yourselves, turn vegetarian, and avoid drinking at pavement cafes.
Unlike other people I can't tell you how much we spend -and I can't tell what you will spend either. Good wishes. I hope it goes well.
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Our last few holidays of six weeks to France using toll roads for towing, never eating out in the evenings and once or twice a week at lunchtime, worked out at an average daily rate of £60 to £65. Spain using the Bilbao ferry came in at £82 per day the difference being the very much more expensive ferry.
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Unlike other people I can't tell you how much we spend -and I can't tell what you will spend either. Good wishes. I hope it goes well.
I also can’t tell you but can see that you perhaps need to know more on a trip of you proposed length than I do on my typical 4-5 weeks away so would go along with Euror and decide what you have available, after fixed costs, divide that by the days away and see how it goes as those days go by.
On our first trip I could have told you quite accurately what I spent, and where, as this was a necessity driven by the low level of funds available, but now I would struggle.
The biggest difference is the distance we travel and the amount of eating out we do, which are both under your control, but having that budget in mind will help you decide.
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whilst I don't have specific figures to hand, our 'method' is to convert our uk 'spending money' to euros....so for each £100, we take €100, that gives us a 10% 'profit' on day to day living straight away.
add in the fact that the shopping and meals out are also considerably cheaper and that side of the 'budget' is always easily managed.
obviously, there will be fuel and ferry costs to pay, but while away, we aren't paying for gas/electric/water and other more expensive things like taking the family out..
as we tour for upto 30 weeks a year, if we weren't touring abroad we'd be doing it here which is more expensive, so spread over the year, we'd still have a godd deal of fuel costs and our site fees would be significantly more.
our ferry cost of just £144 each way, Poole-Cherbourg is easily absorbed in the overall annual 'touring' budget.
so, given that we will be touring 'somewhere' for many, many weeks, the more time we spend touring abroad, the cheaper it becomes.
if we did all our touring here then, even without the ferry cost, I expect it would be dearer overall.
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agree with WTG, the longer you're away, the more 'do nothing/rest days' you might need...'holidaying' for weeks on end can be blooming hard work, so we regularly 'chill' even if we've actually moved on, with the first day at any new place generally our potter about/recce day.
however, for those other times, larger sites 'over there' are generally equipped with more facilities that relate to 'holidays'....pool, bar, restaurant, sports areas etc, so plenty to do if that's your thing...
good luck.
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When we're 'over there' we spend our money much as we do at home. In the UK we're on a limited budget but we manage, in France we're on the same limited budget and we manage. We don't have 'holiday spending money' we just use our bank accounts as we would do at home, pay for larger spends on the credit card and pay it off when it's due, and draw out a small amount in cash from an ATM for spending in markets, cafes, and other small shops.
Our budget for 'over there' is exactly the same as it would be here. If we're overspending a bit we just pull in our horns a bit until we're back on track.
You can bet that if you've got £10000 or £5000 to spend you'll spend it - if you only have £2500 you will still be able to manage! Your meal out may be limited to the 9.80 euros local restaurant mid-day 'Menu' once a month but you'll enjoy it just as much as spending 98 euros on a single lunchtime dish in the Michelin star place a few miles away. (Or we would anyway)!1 -
sorry, Val, didn't meant to suggest we have 'holiday' spending money, like you, it's the same 'pot' as at home, it's just that we each take a slug of cash which is 'spends' for most things other than fuel, site fees, large shopping etc, etc...
my point was that this 'cash' goes more than 10% further than at home which means we usually come back with some 'physical cash' to carry forward to the next time.
as you say, cards take care of the rest, just as here...
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That's fine BB - and I wasn't referring to your post when I meant 'holiday money' - it's just that some people want to know how much money to take with them........................ in euros.
I agree with you we actually probably spend less when 'over there' than we do when at home!
We have a little 'stash of cash' ready to take back with us when we go again (date keeps getting put back, but soon!).
As far as home insurance is concerned my son comes to live at our house for a week at a time when we're away - keeping up the conditions of our insurance. My brother also pops in almost daily to check our post, opens anything which looks important, and relays the contents to us in either a phone call or an email. He also waters our houseplants and the garden whilst he's there.1 -
That's fine BB - and I wasn't referring to your post when I meant 'holiday money' - it's just that some people want to know how much money to take with them........................ in euros.
I only take as much as my insurance will cover which is 300 Euros and top up as I go along or use payment cards.
peedee
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Another one here that doesn't know the overall costs, it is what it is in our eyes. I've tried keeping an account but I get half way through the trip and forget to record things, to busy enjoying ourselves.
For us the most expense would be fuel and that's even before we leave UK. Sites fees probably next and food we don't bother about as we would be buying and eating food at home.
France has got more expensive over the last 18mths both fuel and food. We rarely eat out but if we do its usually at lunch time while we are sight seeing.
As BB says no electric or gas used at home while you're away so (for us) great savings there.
I do know that if we were to holiday in the UK, on sites equal to the ones we use abroad it would cost us much much more. Fuel would also cost much more and going out for the day again would cost more as many things that are 'free' in France you have to pay for in the UK.
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I'm probably slightly obsessive as I track all expenses whether at home or holiday on an Access database that I developed myself - initially when I took early retirement and wanted to be sure we weren't overspending.
The way it's designed allows me to identify both the type and context of any item (eg meals out on holiday), the amount paid (in £, also the original currency at the time) and of course the date. One useful feature is that I can track the costs of restoring the various classic motorcycles I have had over the years (at the moment I'm roughly breaking even if my time isn't taken into account!). I can also run a pro rata report showing how we are doing in the current year compared with previous ones. It's interesting to see how costs of things like groceries have risen over the years.
It's inevitable that I will miss odd items but they are few & far between, and actually entering the data takes a matter of seconds.
The database now has nearly 17,000 records.......
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David, I dare say we could do the same as you.
Check the CC and Caxton, add on the ferry and extension to the holiday medical insurance. We don't pay out for breakdown cover as we have it through the bank, so that's one saving over when we first started with RP.
If we had to cut down due to costs (we don't) it would be difficult as we don't eat out much (rarely), choosing a cheaper ferry wouldn't save anything as it would cost more in fuel.
Cutting down on the amount of time spent abroad doesn't help really as the less time spent there the more per day it cost due to ferry and fuel.
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Yep! Ian you are obsessive
I keep fuel receipts when abroad and then just tot up how much cash we took with us and the amounts that went through our debit card when we get home to get a total. It is purely out of interest as to the cost, although being retired we can't go silly. Unless we have friends with us we are not on holiday but just in our other home whether it is abroad or in the UK. That way we can hopefully get away for four or five months a year. Great life being retired!0 -
Our approach is also "Living in the caravan" as opposed to being on holiday but probably end up eating out twice a week as we get tempted and end up just "nipping for some lunch at the beach bar" But all included, travel costs to South of France, campsites and all living costs we spend somewhere between £1500 to £2000 for a six week trip. But when you take off from that what we would have spent at home anyway we think it's pretty good value for a total relax and a different lifestyle. We spend more when we use the caravan in the UK incidentally!
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like David, I know what it costs after the event, I get all the bills then
i do have a loose budget for touring, along with same for many other elements of just living....
it doesn't worry me if we are over or under, as long as we have a good time
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I keep a fairly detailed record of costs, absolutely everything gets included and averaged over the number of nights away.
In the past we have done up to 4 months in one trip, but more recently only 2 months.
Where you go will influence costs, when we went to Norway the cost per day was much higher due to cost of living and long distance travelled, to visit Germany is much less expensive.
We rarely eat out.
If we use a long crossing, we travel direct from home to the port (Hull), but if we use a cheaper short crossing from further south we add on 2- 4 weeks in UK as well.
Our average per night varies between £50 and £65.
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