# daily costs of a Europe trip



## johng1974 (Jan 17, 2007)

all, before you start.... :twisted: .. I know this is completely dependant on whether you like caviar or cheese on toast, and whether your in TDi or a 6+ litre V8

but are my figures even slightly close below.. ?


Travelling from UK for a few weeks (end of high season), into the 'usual suspects', France, Germany possibly, Italy, some other cheaper countries..

Van averages 10 MPG I assume (have not driven it enough yet)
would hope to average 150 miles per driving day (every other day most likely)
Van runs on LPG and that is generally 50% less the Unleaded (but LPG tank is not big)
Wild camp 2 nights out of 4

As a daily figure I got :

Basic Food £10 (for 3/4 not inc luxuries)
Fuel 65 liters a (driving) day, £27-54 - average £40
Camping £8 a day average
Gas ... not sure.. 

any thoughts..
John

Edit..
Not to mention, ferries, tolls, unforeseen stuff, entry prices etc etc


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## 107990 (Oct 30, 2007)

If you need to work it out to that degree you probably can't afford it.


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## johng1974 (Jan 17, 2007)

thanks

it was more so I could let other travel companions know approximatley what the costs would be.. 

If I am 100% out or if I am nearly there is really an answer I was hoping for.. not so much to abandon the idea


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## teemyob (Nov 22, 2005)

Firstly 2.7 Litre CDi 25mpg

Gas £2 Day Max
Electric £0
Camping £10 Day
Aires £0
Fuel £70 a refil 
Ferries £60 Return with Seafrance £0 if Eurotunnel as we use Tesco Deals
Food & Drink £10-15 per person per day

UK

Our council tax is over £6.00 per day! Highest Equivelent French Price for comparable property is about 1/3rd of this when you combine both French Property Taxes. 

Gas £2 a day
Electric, charged in with most places regardless of wanting / needing it
Aires N/A
Fuel £90 a refil
Camping £20 a night

Just booked a weekend in Shropshire, Cost £50 for 2 nights Swimming pool is charged extra @ £2.50 per person as is everything from an awning to extra vehicles and Length of motorhome!.

We like good ale and decent wine. I can get beer from Brugge on the way home after picking up wines for as little as 1/3 of the UK cost, if we even have it here.

What we save on the drink and other shopping, more than pays for the additional cost of fuel.

No wonder so many of us take the trip over the water. Indeed, why so may of us often don't bother to return home!.

Trev.


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## Fatalhud (Mar 3, 2006)

Hi john
Fuel is about the most expensive item 
we toured France, Germany, italy, Austria, Switzerland last year covering 2800 miles that cost around £350 - £400 in fuel
For me first job was to plot route on autoroute then get milage to give an estimate of fuel cost
Then carefully study finances before saying stuff it we cant afford it but were going anyway

Alan H


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## johng1974 (Jan 17, 2007)

thanks Alan, teemy

life's to short


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## eddied (May 9, 2005)

*Eurotrip costs*

 Buona sera,
not sure how near or how far from your expected experience this may be, but on a recent 4000 Km round trip to Spain (using ferries between Italy/Spain and v.v.) actual main running costs were, with 4 pernickity adults on board (I include myself as pernickity!) :
Fiat Ducato 2.8 JTD, fuel costs Euro 0.11 per Km.
Road tolls Italy/Spain Euro 0.06 per Km.
Good quality camping sites with EHU, supermarkets, hot showers et al.
averaged Euro 8.75 per person per night.
Meals out - mainly light lunches or snacks averaged Euro 3.00 per person
Food shopping - well we had a great deal of pasta/sauces/wines in our kambusa, so that was limited mainly to fresh bread and milk, but sometimes meat or chicken etc, probably averaged about Euro 3 per person per day.
Started out with a full 13Kg. Calor propane bottle bought last summer in Lincoln, and when we got back it still had lots of gas in it. And we do use a lot of hot water/Truma blown air heating.
Our biggest pro capita expense was in fact entrance fees to museums, galleries, contributions to churches etc., and of course the ladies in Eroskis/El Corte Ingles and similar retail therapy establishments. (Can still smell the burnt plastic!)
HTH,
saluti,
eddied


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## johng1974 (Jan 17, 2007)

thanks Eddied


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## pippin (Nov 15, 2007)

eddied - I wish I had a € for every time you laboriously printed the word "Euro"!!

Ctrl + Alt + 4 = €


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## 101405 (Oct 15, 2006)

*costs*

France ,Germany, and Italy are the most expensive . Spain catching up !. Using Aire's and of course not on the road every day . And being very Inventive with food . And avoiding the big hypers because they are dear for food . and street markets tend to put up prices , you can do it for about 100€uro's a week .publico monuments are free if you show your EU passporte (In spain they are ) you can find good low price muni's in france every couple of weeks for a bit of peace away from Aires?12€ a nuit. also most ports have a washeteria,for the big wash ! also campsites are offering a couple of nights stop for about 10€ nuit to camping cars. to bring in customers. 
motorhomes are fast becoming a problem and many french towns are putting up No motorhome signs . So you can do it quite cheap and still enjoy.


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## StAubyns (Jun 4, 2006)

Last September, 3 weeks in France covering just under 2000miles, our costs worked out like this

Ferry £98.00
Road Toll £135.00
Diesel £218.00
Site Fees £160.00
Total £611.00 

hope this helps

Geoff


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## johng1974 (Jan 17, 2007)

Silver/Geoff thanks.

In my rig I think 10mpgs and 80 euros (the ctrl alt 4 doesnt work on this keyboard for some reason) a litre puts me at 600 Pounds  for 2000miles...

luckily thats a fixed cost tho, and thats not running on LPG....

hmmm


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## 107990 (Oct 30, 2007)

Meals out - mainly light lunches or snacks averaged Euro 3.00 per person 


Mmm, i bet that was good.


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## 38Rover (Nov 9, 2006)

Hi
In Spain typical 3 course lunch with drink your choice, menue del dia and always good 7 to 9 euros depending
Colin


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## Fatalhud (Mar 3, 2006)

If you keep off the toll roads you save money and get to see all the villages on your way

unless your in a hurry


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## eddied (May 9, 2005)

Actually have eurokey


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## geraldandannie (Jun 4, 2006)

I've had this sort of discussion with a few people since we started motorhoming. After we have retired in a few years, we want to be spending long periods away from home touring Europe.

The best estimates I've come across for 'average' touring costs were around £800 - £1000 per month, including fuel, site costs (variety of paid-for and free sites), food,and some sightseeing.

Gerald


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## passionwagon (Nov 13, 2005)

DollarYen said:


> If you need to work it out to that degree you probably can't afford it.


 8O Yes you are so right. Motorhoming like any hobby/interest has to be considered on the basis of -
a-ignoring the capital outlay
b-running costs are the fact of the interest.
Everything costs money ans so you take your choice.
The alternative is to sit at home and moaaan like Mr Meldrew. Or do some volunteer work for those less fortunate than yourself!!


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## Zebedee (Oct 3, 2007)

johng1974 said:


> (the ctrl alt 4 doesnt work on this keyboard for some reason)


Try Alt Gr + 4

Cheers


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## johng1974 (Jan 17, 2007)

alt gr still no  dont worry this keyboad is odd.. no pound sign anymore does # 

original # does \ 

" and @ are swapped too

I take DY's point.. I would not really want to spend ages going over tiny costs to see if all was possible, to go away with family etc..


but I am in a slightly different position in that I have no family and as a result, going away in this van would probably entail going with others a similar age, etc.. I just wanted to give them a rough idea of costs and get them to think about the trip a bit and contribute thoughts.. eg using the shower everyday in van will cost gas but mean wildcamping is a (cheaper) option..
or using LPG means routing towards cities and towns to refill, which will add miles..


etc


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## StAubyns (Jun 4, 2006)

Have you got the keyboard set up as USA board in your settings? 

It rings bells, but not sure though..

Geoff


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## Zebedee (Oct 3, 2007)

StAubyns said:


> Have you got the keyboard set up as USA board in your settings?
> 
> It rings bells, but not sure though..
> 
> Geoff


This will be the problem I think - well done Geoff.

Go to Start > Control Panel > Regional and Language Options and set the top panel to "English (United Kingdom)". _It's probably on the "English (United States)" setting at present._

The bottom panel can also be set to United Kingdom if you like, though it will not affect the keyboard.

Cheers


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## johng1974 (Jan 17, 2007)

£££££££££3


@@@@@@@@@@@@@'

€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€


:banghead: :banghead: 
I have worked with computers for 22 years i should have known that


John :rightfighter5: 

Geoff thanks

:blowkiss: 

the other good news is I have just compression tested my 8 cylinders and all with in 5% of each other and over 150psi 

:vamp:


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## Rapide561 (Oct 1, 2005)

*Travelling costs*

Hi John

It is difficult to put a price on travelling really.

Here is my figure for a future trip to Lake Garda.

Total journey - 2100 miles - let's say 21mpg worse case and an average of £4.25 per gallon. Cost = £425.00

Ferry out - £43.75 (although covered with Tesco)

Tunnel inbound £61.00 (£60 covered with Tesco)

Tolls - approximately 40 euro (maximum use of toll free in Belgium, Luxembourg, France and leaving A4 motorway in Italy a few junctions early.)

Swiss toll - 32.50 Swiss Francs (I already have this though as it is valid for a year)

Food bill - I allow £10 per day for just me

Pitches - First and last night - Calais docks - free

Strasbourg area - 12.00 euro

Italy 250 euro for the month.

Depending on where you are going, you can avoid paying tolls with a little planning and maybe a slightly longer journey.

Russell


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## godfather (May 1, 2005)

In 2005 we went across the water to euro land for three months touring with Swift 590Rl 2.3 Lt engine.

Total cost for the whole 3 months = £3000 all including ferry , fuel ,tolls, food, wine/ beer and site fees.
Each day was different and so day to day costs varied however after 5000 miles ,90 days travel and still using the same 6.5 Kg of propane it was as far cheaper than we had thought . However I am sure with improved planning it may well have been even cheaper. 
Can't wait to do this full time and get back to some quality of life.


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## 103219 (Mar 2, 2007)

Didn’t itemise everything on our 2007 Euro trip, but used same credit card for everything including getting cash from the wall, so have good idea of total spend. Needed to keep some tag on costs, because recently retired and travelling over from the Land of Oz, so did need to know whether we could keep on doing it for several more years without becoming destitute.

So . . . 

New Trigano Tribute 550, 11,600 km nearly all in France, 17 weeks, total £245 a week. Fairly even mix of camp sites, aires and free. Cooked aboard practically all the time because Norma enjoys it, few highway tolls because we prefer minor roads, but no expense spared otherwise on produce, wine, tourist sights etc. Ultimate costs were very close to what I had previously estimated and seem to be in the ballpark with some of the others posted above. 

So we’ll be back in May and should do better because of the rise of the Aussie dollar!

Michael.


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## johng1974 (Jan 17, 2007)

thanks for all input 

John


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## Smilo (Nov 2, 2005)

geraldandannie said:


> ... After we have retired in a few years, we want to be spending long periods away from home touring Europe. The best estimates I've come across for 'average' touring costs were around £800 - £1000 per month, including fuel, site costs (variety of paid-for and free sites), food,and some sightseeing.
> 
> Gerald


_I'd be most interested if someone were to try and work it out_, but I guess I'll never know the answer - there are so many variables (such as what's an average daily mileage), still I frequently wonder at what point good mpg might compensate for lack of onboard shower facilities and the (perceived) need to use campsites rather than basic aires or hideaways. Surely someone would enjoy, and make a good job of that calculation?


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## teemyob (Nov 22, 2005)

*interesting*



Smilo said:


> geraldandannie said:
> 
> 
> > ... After we have retired in a few years, we want to be spending long periods away from home touring Europe. The best estimates I've come across for 'average' touring costs were around £800 - £1000 per month, including fuel, site costs (variety of paid-for and free sites), food,and some sightseeing.
> ...


Hello Smilo,

What MPG do you get from your T4 and what power is it?

Trev.


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## eddied (May 9, 2005)

*Euro typing*

 Buon giorno tutti
yesterday p.m. made a mess of a reply posting because mobile was playing up.
I was trying to say I do have the € key on my keyboard, here it is
€€€€€€€
but can you read it on your computer?

I also have ££££££'s and $$$$$$$$'s

but many years of commercial transactions taught me that these signs often can't be read on a correspondents computer.
To avoid expensive confusion and mistakes, have developed the habit of typing out currencies in full. 
saluti,
eddied


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## geraldandannie (Jun 4, 2006)

Smilo said:


> _I'd be most interested if someone were to try and work it out_, but I guess I'll never know the answer


Everything's a tradeoff. If you want shower facilities and a permanent toilet, then I'm guessing you'll need a panel van conversion (rather than a camper van) - and a reasoable-sized one too. I thinking of the Tribute-like bathroom / washroom.

And then you look at whether you want to make up the beds each night, or you want a permanent bed with separate comfortable lounge facilities, which means going up in size again. Each increase in size means compromises on accessibility to those 'out of the way' places, and a increase in fuel consumption. I'm speaking in very broad terms, obviously. Everyone's lifestyle is slightly different, which dictates their choice of van, which then impacts on the sort of touring they can or might want to do.

Whenever we work on our plan for the future, we have to take into account pensions / lack of pensions, and the fact that we've chosen to keep bricks and mortar of some sort, no matter what motorhoming we do.

One of the best pieces of information I came across was when talking to a couple at a meet, who spend extended periods in and around Europe. I can see a temptation to treat all the time you're away in the van as 'holiday', and therefore enjoy local restaurants and bars all the time.

When touring, they behaved very much as they would at home, buying food from supermarkets and cooking in the van, but then they allocated a couple of weekends or one week a month as 'holiday', and relaxed on the spending. To those, and us in the future, on a fixed income, this struck me as a very sensible idea.

Gerald


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## SidT (May 9, 2005)

Some of the figures quoted come as a bit of a shock. we usually have 2 x 8week touring holidays in France but don't spend anywhere near £1000 a month. We don't use toll roads, use a mixture of ACSI sites and aires and enjoy eating in, in fact we eat a lot healthier as we use local produce, mostly salads. I don't know where these €7 meals are although I haven't looked very hard, in the little village we are in at the moment the "menu of the day" is €15.

Russell. At £10 a day for food you obviously don't have time or the inclination for cooking. :lol: :lol: :lol: 

Cheers Sid


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## Smilo (Nov 2, 2005)

*Re: interesting*



teemyob said:


> Hello Smilo,
> 
> What MPG do you get from your T4 and what power is it?
> 
> Trev.


Hello, Trev.

Ours is the 2.5 TDI (102 bhp). If I do mid-70s all day on autoroutes I can get it down to just below 30mpg, but on main-ish road pottering-type days with a bit of Mway thrown in we can often, and reliably, get 41 - 43mpg. With Swiss-type 80kph limits it'd do even better, if it weren't for the hilly bits.


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## 110034 (Feb 19, 2008)

*daily costs of euro trips*

it would be a good idea for the site staff to devise a spread sheet detailing all the items we incur as rows and the days or weeks as columns or visa versa that we could all fill in on any trip of any duration and see the various costs for different types of vans in various locations for differing numbers of people and sizes of vans this could be submitted annon and used as a guide for m/homers to budjet their hrd earned cash.


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## teemyob (Nov 22, 2005)

*Re: interesting*



Smilo said:


> teemyob said:
> 
> 
> > Hello Smilo,
> ...


Hello Smilo,

Thanks for the reply.

The reason I ask is, I have a VW T5 window van. It is a replacement for one that they had to replace. The original one they supplied I could easily attain 35mpg as do all the others I have driven.

The one I have now will not do more than 28mpg, in fact it averages 25. They say there is no fault with the van, despite the fact that as mentioned the previous one did 35mpg. I have had many loan vans off them and I could attain 35mpg in them all. My Brother and a few of my friends have them and they all say the same, 35mpg.

Original Model: 
VW T5 T30 2.5 Ltr 174 6 Speed manual LWB 8 Seat (no longer in production)
Replacement Model: 
VW T5 T32 2.5 Ltr 174 6 Speed Manual LWB8 Seat

Regards,
Trev.


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## Smilo (Nov 2, 2005)

Damn. Are you in a position to threaten the suppliers most horribly?


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## dct67 (Sep 23, 2007)

Hi Trev

Is there any chance that the economy is being impacted by emissions changes in the T5? Is the later T5 Euro IV compliant? 

Cheers

David


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## 92046 (May 1, 2005)

*Holiday Cost*

Hi to all

Hope to start a holiday in April, So did my calculations as to total cost, the points to remember are, I have to travel from Shetland to Aberdeen by ferry, even as an OAP I still have to pay around £139.00 to £150.00 for the MH, also the extra milage from Aberdeen to Dover & return (if I return)

The cost has been calculated from past experience, and the cost of local food / fuel etc; this is my built in safety factor, as cost will be lower on the UK mainland and europe.

Estimated distance of 5000 miles, taken over 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6 months, the trip down and back being a one off, it is also calculated on a month of 30 days, again part of my safety factor,

Holiday insurance up tp to 90 days £125.00

Holiday insurance of up to 180 days £175.00

Total cost of holiday from home to home per month, camp site cost is extra

1 Month £2011.50

2 Month £2411.50

3 Month £2961.50

4 Month £3412.50

5 Month £3861.50

6 Month £4311.50


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## johng1974 (Jan 17, 2007)

thanks Cowly

I think 6 months is the answer, at just over twice the cost of one 

John


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## mervyncp (May 1, 2005)

Hi John

I get the impression your van is quite new to you.
Just a few things to consider.
LPG is 0.85€ /l in France, but much cheaper at 0.55€ in Belgium.
But LPG is NOT freely or commonly available in Spain. You definitely would not be able to use it to drive on all the time.

When working out your figures allow for the fact that you will use 20 -30% more gas than you would petrol. The figure of 10% is often bandied bout, but is very rarely achievable. (I run a Jag on LPG and struggle to get 18 mpg on gas when it will easily do 23-25 on petrol)

I would suspect that having a large petrol engined beast fuel will be your biggest outlay.

In my experience France is easy and you should seldom need to use an expensive site. Aires are often free and very cheap if you do need to pay. Municipal sites are also very reasonable.

I think your best bet is to go and work out the costs after. (I think that has been my philosophy on life)

Happy camping

Mervyn


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## rayhook (May 15, 2005)

*Camping costs*

I haven't seen any mention of an ACSI card yet - 14€/night inc. electricity in most of their many listed sites across Europe. Helps keep the costs down.


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## Suenliam (Mar 22, 2006)

Our reasonable daily average gets completly shot when we get near to the end of the hols. So much wine to buy to get through the next few months 'til the next hol.  Someone has to keep the French economy going.

Sue


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