WHAT DID IT COST to motorhome in EUROPE for 6 MONTHS?

WHAT DID IT COST to motorhome in EUROPE for 6 MONTHS?

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Welcome back to our channel guys! If you're new here. I'm Andre And I'm Lisa. I'm Lisa.. I'm not Lisa. And this week we are going to tell you about our experience camper vanning through Europe for approximately 6 months in total. This will be a budget breakdown And right at the end of this video there will be some tips for every category where you can save some money! Because who doesn't like saving money! We are Andre and Lisa And we have been travelling full-time for almost 5 years We're currently in the south of Spain with our campervan Milli This year we're planning an epic 20 thousand kilometre road-trip All the way to northern Scandinavia and back to the south of Italy So SUBSCRIBE and join us on our adventure! We know everybody is interested in what the cost is to do what we are doing.

I think it's important to mention a few things right at the beginning. How much you spend depends very much on the top of traveller you are on how fast you travel And what your preferences are. So, if you adrenaline junkie, you're going to go from one adventure sport to another or you travel super fast. Or maybe you travel in a season where it's very busy. All these things will have a massive effect on your budget. This is early 2022 and the last two years has not exactly been super travel friendly.

that's partly the reason why we reverted back to van life in Europe. So our first experience in vanning in Europe was in 2018 when we did 100 odd days in a van that was closer to peak tourist season. So what we're going to do is going to give you sort of rough comparison between our experience in 2018 for 100 nights And what we did in 2021 We've been in Europe now for six months, but we have not spent the entire six months in our van and we travel super slow, mostly due to Covid Just because this is now a full time life for us. We've been travelling together for more than 15 years and our focus is always on finding good value. There's always this perception that when you travel in Europe, it's gonna be super expensive.

And that's not wrong. Well, I think to a large degree we were surprised by the fact that it doesn't need to be that expensive. But that has to do with the way in which we travelled.

Like anywhere, in any destination, the way you travel will affect how much you spend. The goal is not to go to a country and not experience that country. There's no point visiting a country in sitting in your Airbnb eating two minute noodles? I think that's important. We are frugal travellers. We're budget travellers, but we've not try and do things as cheap as possible.

At the end of the day, the reason why we travel is to experience things. And it's just the way in which we experience it and things that we prioritise which are possibly different to other people. The countries we've been to with a motorhome. Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. Spain? Did we say Spain? Yes And that's over a six month period. We are currently living full time in our motorhome and we are continuing to travel Europe for the next year.

Keep watching. Subscribe to our channel. If you want to see where we're going. We're going to do it epic 20,000 kilometre adventures So our next budget report is going to be somewhat different! Our budget report excludes the actual vehicle. Now, fortunately we were able to purchase our own vehicle. This is a good thing and a bad thing in many ways. Keep in mind that when we give you numbers, it's just actual living expenses and travel expenses.

In summary we break up our budget reports into the following categories. Food, which is always the most important to us And which always makes up the biggest portion of our budget. Secondly, accommodation. Fuel expenses General living expenses Our public transports, toll road fees, vignettes, things like that Sightseeing and activities And then our last category is cell and data So we'll be going into each one of these categories in a little bit more detail Giving you the values, the percentage breakdown and also the comparison between 2018 and 2021 Wat's very interesting is that spread over these three year period really And the six months that we spent in the camper van in Europe Proportionately our spending from 2018 to 2021 is almost identical. However, what I found very interesting was that from 2018 to 2021 We actually managed to spend 10 euro less per day on average in 2021 Due to a few factors As we dive into every category will give you an idea why we actually spend less this time.

Some of it might be obvious But even though we did notice some form of inflation, by learning a few tricks being more experienced. In doing something slower and more as a way of life One is able to make certain savings I think this is a critical thing to remember. We don't all travel the same and we mention it right at the top But it's hard to draw a direct comparison in This budget is probably more relatable if you're travelling a little bit longer.

Nevertheless, the idea is to give you some insight as to how affordable this lifestyle can be. So we don't recommend that you take these values and do your budgeting and planning accordingly. We do suggest that you have a look at maybe a few of our other videos. See what type of travellers we are. See the way in which we travel And then structure your budgets accordingly.

Whether that means cutting back because you possibly don't drink any alcohol and that could be a saving Or whether it means doubling your food portion of the budget. Because you want to eat out in nice restaurants Let's talk with category one, food You can quite easily blow your entire budget on food in week one and we know many people who do that And it can be a good experience, but I think you have to balance it with overall trip. This is what we are going to try and do. We're not big on restaurants and we do really enjoy -not only diving into some local ingredients and cooking something for ourselves but also just taking advantage of fresh produce where we are. That's not to say you should not go to a restaurant and experience something unique In our case, because we're in a van, a lot of the time we find ourselves in smaller towns more rural areas, and that adds to the charm.

Of being able to prepare a simple meal for yourself using local ingredients Now food for us is still the biggest expense proportionately by far. In our case it comes to 42% percent 42% of our daily spending goes to food. This last year it sort of averaged around 16 Euro's per day for the two of us. I wouldn't say that's bad because you can blow that in one on entrée om a budget restaurant. I can guarantee you that we eat really well. It's important to us so that we eat good food and real food So we can't take shortcuts and that's partly why we also want to cook for ourselves Now this includes all our groceries, all our snacks, all our drinks And saying that we don't actually drink any soft drinks It's mostly water And alcohol. We do enjoy that.

Actually this year. We haven't drank any beer really. Hardly any beer. We do drink the odd glass of wine, if we're in the van we'll normally have a glass of wine with supper. We also, only really eat two meals a day I should mention. We do quite a large breakfast. Then we'll do a lighter supper. This is one of the things we've actually changed in the last year compared to the previous trip - where we actually - we fell into some bad habits where you have a mid afternoon snack or light lunch and you nibble on some melon or some prosciutto With a beer. With little beer.

Stop somewhere for a cheeky little coffee It doesn't actually add massive amounts to your budget, but we did save about 5 to 5 euro's per day on average compared to 2018 Food is one of the things you can really save on when it comes to vanning or motor homing around Europe. You want to go and eat out - a coffee in the morning, breakfast, lunch with a drink in the afternoon, plus dinner with a bottle of wine, maybe in the evening. I think you can easily spend €100 a day. Per person! But this is really a big one that's up to you as to how important it is and how much you want to spend And it doesn't mean you don't have to experience the local food culture And just because you want to restrict your food budget portion doesn't mean that you have to eat poorly. For instance, we really appreciate the fact that you get such great ingredients and produce in Europe Familiarise yourself with local eating culture like for example in Italy understand what it means to go for an aperativo and have a little snack Or like in Spain to have tapas A lot of the time that's included with your drink and that can enhance that experience.

And a lot throughout Europe you also have a menu of the day, whether it's in Italy or Spain, even in France. And taking advantage of those cultural customs and doing what the locals do can give you a great experience at half the price. Our next category is accommodation and that makes up 24% of our daily expenditure Which is our second largest expenditure. 2018 came to an average of €9.40 per day. Now we will say that we don't always pay for accommodation. Obviously having a camper van does mean that many times you are able to park and overnight for free.

So if you take the average only of nights that we do actually pay for accommodation We paid an average of €13 per night during 2021 And there was 28% of nights we spent free somewhere. Depending on the time of the year it can be a lot easier to wild camp, parkup Countries like France and Spain actually make it super easy But come peak season it's a little bit more tricky And because of the heat, you also maybe want to be in an area where you have access other to the ocean or to a lake. If you're set up and geared up to completely freedom camp then you can do it. It's completely doable in most countries. Yes and we'll discuss that now under each country individually As you can see, spending less than 30% of nights only for free and paying for the rest.

I think our nightly accommodation cost being an average of under €10 is still very little. Let's give you a quick overview on the difference is we've experienced in the last six months, just Italy, France and Spain. We were in Italy, sort of at the end of the peak tourist season I think camping spots in Italy is very expensive. There are stunning camp spots on lakeside's and things like that, but there are expensive So the most we paid was for 2 nights. On a lakeside spot in Iseo? I think it was

And that was about 30 Euros a night. You can stay on area sostas for free, which is remarkable. And then somewhere in the middle you can find these municipally owned little parcheggios or area sostas where they might charge you a couple of Euros for some basic services It very much depends on what you need. If you need electricity every night or you need access to a shower

then you may find that you'll have to stick to campsites in Italy, which is expensive. Sometimes you get lucky - we stumbled upon a very nice little spot just outside San Remo As we were sort of about to exit the Italy into France And it was so nice we just stayed for 10 nights. It was on the water's edge. You guys can check out the video - I'll link it up here. We also did a day trip to Monaco by by train.

But that does place some emphasis on how prepared you need to be for that opportunity. Can you survive without electricity? How much water you carrying, et cetera. In France we wild camped a bit less it is possible to wild camp in France.

However, France has a wonderful system of really cheap aires. We found that the best way to find these spots this year was through the app Camping Car Park We'll leave a link below And if you are travelling throughout inland France, you can also have a look at the programme France passion France is super, super geared for campers and van life I mean the affirming the French are passionate about it. It's really up to you what you want Mostly due to where we were in France. We were sort of on the Mediterranean coast where its not that easy to camp for free Also we had a few camper breakdown issues like some of our camper gadgets packed up And we need electricity on the odd occassion That sort of forced us to some of these paid parkings.

But it was still really good value. I really like travelling through France. And France makes it super easy. Thank you France. We love you. We went straight from to France into Spain.

And Spain is once again in a country where its super easy If you think France is camper friendly, Spain is even more camper friendly It very much depends on the season where you may or may not be tolerated But generally speaking things like availability of water and service is easy. We haven't been to... have we been to camp site? We actually have been to a few motorhome areas Like paid motorhome areas And free motorhome areas. Of course. Plenty! Plenty of places If you want to make the most of it like the rest of Europe come here during winter You'll find everybody in Spain - for a good reason I must say Lets talk about Switzerland for minutes We were in Switzerland for less than a week On our previous trip and we breezed through Switzerland from France back into Italy And we managed to spend those five nights there without paying for a single camp spot.

And them actually being formalised camp spots! Don't tell the Swiss that we didn't spend any money there! And they were in the most beautiful, beautiful settings where we could go and hike can actually do featured touristy walks from there. It doesn't have to be expensive to go and visit Switzerland with your motorhome But I think this shows you. Switzerland is sort of one of those... it's a hell of an expensive country to visit. Then we think France is easy. Also expensive, but easy to do by motorhome.

Can I do it in Switzerland? Yes you can. Just remember Switzerland is not part of the EU. Carefully think about whether your photo work in Switzerland, for example Or whether you will just be charged like crazy.

What other implications there are? The reality is, it doesn't have to be expensive. Austria. When we went to Austria, we mostly visited biggest cities because that was our first time in Australia And the cities are so beautiful! It was the end of August. It was quite busy. It was super hot. We went to Vienna we went to Salzburg. All those beautiful, beautiful places.

It is a little bit more expensive. But it was not crazy. I think we spent on average, 21 euro's per night in Austria. If you stay in the rural areas is a lot more affordable. Also , we went to Hungary and there we were primarily in Hungary to visit Budapest Where we stayed just outside of the city and that cost us also around 20 euro's per night. We found that for these cities it's best to look for a spot sort of on the outskirts Which has good access to public transport. Alternatively, like in Budapest we were able to cycle from our little camp spot all along the river to the city centre.

The advantage is that you know that your vehicle, your camper, your home is safe while you are out exploring for the day and you don't have to be worried about leaving it just parked outside of a city Speaking of visiting cities. What city are we visiting? Ljubljana, our favourite city in the whole of Europe? Slovenia has has been quite a revelation. It's like this little hidden gem. We crossed into Slovenia from Hungary and we liked it so much. I think we spent a couple of weeks there. Then we would went back to Croatia and then we came back to Slovenia. It was just so cool. Parts of Slovenia is really set up for vanning. It's probably not the most popular destination.

Ljubljana, for example is a wonderful city. They've got quite a few of these park and ride setups scattered around the city, which makes it quite easy if you do visit Ljubljana. There's also a fairly expensive camper stop in Lake bled But apart from those really touristy spots you'll actually find a lot of municipal stops that's formalised and free. Don't miss out in Slovenia. We also found Slovenia to be a lot more affordable than most of Western Europe. Slovenia was one of the few countries we went to restaurants regularly We were able to actually enjoy a lot of those nice things. And eat as many ice creams as we possibly could in one day. If you haven't seen that video, be sure to click on that link.

That explains the food budget for that year. That might have all on ice-creams in Slovenia! Croatia, I was actually someone surprised by Because even though we were there in the off season, we found that campsites was still fairly expensive. Wild Camping in Croatia is not technically legal It's not not technically legal, it's illegal! And in peak season you will not be able to wild camp in in Croatia In the off season there are plenty of people who have made it work, and have done that But you should also keep in mind that in off season many of the camp sites are closed and there are restricted facilities available. For instance for getting fresh water and for servicing Also it depends on the vehicle you drive. If you have a fairly compact van then you might be able to get away with stealthiness. If you're in a motorhome, like us, it's a bit more obvious.

To sort of wrap up accommodation. Every country has its own regulations and rules as to what you're allowed. It does help if you familiarise yourself with it Like for example Italy. Technically you can park almost anywhere unless it explicitly forbidden. You can technically sleep in your car on the street in a neighbourhood. Even if someone doesn't like it.

Unless there's a sign that forbids you to do it. Category three is fuel. It can be a big expensive you travelling long distances, try and cover plenty of countries in short time. It can really be expensive. Unfortunately fuel is expensive in Europe 20% of our daily spendings, on average, goes towards fuel And this is not any other transport related cost. Only fuel.

And that said, we travel slow! The last six months we've travelled less than 3000 kilometres. If you have a camper that gives you (or a van - van might give you better mileage), our camper gives us about 10 km per litre of fuel Fuel prices do differ in different countries. Like in Spain it is a lot cheaper than for example in Italy We've paid up to €1.65 for fuel in Italy and in comparison as little as €1.27 in Spain. And this is now in 2021. Next category is General, which makes up about 7% of our daily expenditure. And that comes to just under 3 euro's per day for the two of us Now the General category includes things like all general living expenses So cleaning supplies, our LPG gas which we use for cooking and for heating the van Toiletries, laundry, small medical - daily medical expenses as well as any other little odds and ends that we buy.

During 2018 as well as 2021 was pretty much exactly the same. Roughly 3 Euro per day. The fifth category is public transport. Often, even though you're travelling by motorhome or camper van, you might want to hop on a bus or train Or maybe even a ferry. We didn't use any ferries on any of our van trips so far. In addition, you might pay some toll fees and depending on which country you are in, you might have to purchase a vignette. Our total cost is about 3% of all daily expenditure, which averaged just over one Euro per day.

Visiting more countries means paying for more vignettes. And sometimes a vignette is valid for a week. It can get very expensive. We generally try to avoid toll roads but you actually have to balance how fast you need to travel. Or how efficient versus how much you're prepared to pay for a toll If you want to drive across France on toll roads only it's going to cost you a 100 Euro's easy But here and there it's well worth your while paying the toll in France because the detour is just - never mind the distance. It's up the mountain and all the way back down again. You have to think about whether you want to spend 3 hours driving a short section or just paying 5 euro's and hopping on a toll road.

The Michelin website makes it quite easy. You just type n your destination and your origin and it will give you an idea on how much you will pay on tolls. It also does a comparison as to what it would cost you in your vehicle if you take the detour. It's a good thing to use to be able to weigh up the pro's and cons.

Category six is Sightseeing and Activities. This only contributes around 3% on average to our daily expenditure, which came to just over roughly 1 euro per day on average for the two of us. That being said, this year was obviously COVID So we did go into less sightseeing tourist attractions. We have found that if you travel this way, often, you don't need to pay to experience amazing things or see amazing things. If you find yourself in a city and want to go to a specific museum or see some exhibit it's completely understandable that you have to pay for that experience. But in our case, a lot of the activities we find is free.

I remember when we were driving into France for the first time in 2018 and I just had this in my mind that I wanted to go to a specific lavender field where you had to pay an entry fee to get that Instagram shots of being in the lavender field. And we're driving towards this destination. We actually the day before that and we just suddenly took a turn left and we were in the midst of the lavender fields More beautiful than I could possibly have imagined on any Instagram photo. We also more into exploring the outdoors. We like hiking and we enjoy the beach.

So these things very rarely cost money. Unless you're in Italy. But that's a topic for another day. Cell and Data. Final but not the least important. We've been travelling full time for almost five years, so this is something we constantly struggle with. Being connected.

But we figured out no matter where you are in the world, it sort of averages out. And this is across Asia, Europe. Everywhere. Africa. We spend 2% of our daily expenditure or daily spendings on Cell & Data. And right now it costs less than 80c. Eighty Euro cents a day. So just under a dollar. A U.S. dollar a day

We normally get local Sims which gives good deals and with a fair amount of data. Actually if you're in Europe, roaming is lot easier nowadays. I remember when we were here in 2018, we were spending quite a bit more on data Although you were able to roam, there were lot of restrictions on how much data you able to use in other countries and now it's a little bit easier. There's still a lot of value in getting a local SIM Local prepaid SIMS are becoming more and more available Whereas previously you had to always sign a contract. You may had to have a local passport or address

So these things are slowly, hopefully but surely becoming easier. In Italy we signed up with VERY Mobile which was super easy. They send you the SIM card and you just do everything online. France was actually the easiest. We found a kiosk by FREE Mobile.

It was not free! FREE Mobile. It was the easiest, once we found the kiosk! Finding the kiosk was a little bit more difficult In Spain we can recommend MOVISTAR But these are really more worth it if you spend a month here at a time. That was our overall budget for CAMPERVANNING Six months over eight countries in Europe And averaging to a total daily spend of less than €40 per day for the two of us. And all that really excludes is your vehicle cost. Whether you renting a vehicle or whether you own the camper van yourself. To wrap this little budget up, we're going to try our best to give you a few tips on each of these categories for you to make the most of your motorhome and camper van experience in Europe.

Let's start of with food When it comes to food as we already mentioned. The most important thing is to try and limit the number of times that you eat art in a restaurant. So wherever you can, buy your own groceries, make your own food Do things like making a picnic and going out spending time in nature. This not only saves you on your food expense, it also saves on your sightseeing expense The effect this has on your budget is absolutely tremendous. Eat where the locals eat. Enjoy your food because that's one thing we really do. We enjoy food. We enjoy trying different food. We enjoy trying local food, but you can do it in a cheaper way. Or you can do it by spending literally 10 times as much and not necessarily in our opinion, getting 10 times value worth.

The only thing I can add is often going into a restaurant for meal actually steals a lot of your time as well. So especially if you visit the city and you have limited time in a location I don't want to spend 2 hours sitting inside a restaurant! And this the thing, when you sit inside. Whether you're inside a restaurant in Spain or Portugal or France doesn't really make a difference? Sitting in a local park and experiencing watching the locals walk by Watching them play the local game is sometimes so much more of a local and authentic experience. Let's quickly talk about how to save on accommodation. Obviously, find free camping spots. That's number one.

You don't always have to go to a campsite. We really love being in a motorhome and not a van because we have a shower. We have a full bathroom with a toilet. We get lots of water. We can look after our their energy requirements. We can cook, we can stay warm, We can quite easily just take advantage of amazing stop somewhere where the municipality may make it available to us. Or a nice wild camping spot.

This is the way to spend less on camping. Secondly, you gotta travel slower. If you're going be rushing through countries from city to city. It's going to cost you. It's going to cost you on fuel.

It's going to cost you on toll roads. You will spend a lot more proportionall. Try and find fuel pricing apps Right now if you plot a route in Google, actually, you can find fuel stations along your route And will actually give you the prices of the fuel. We have literally driven past a fuel station in Spain - about 50 metres further and saved 30 cents (Euro cents) per litre.

Just because we knew which fuel station we were heading to by using the app Lastly on transport. If you want to save, visit less countries. Because each country, their toll roads firstly are expensive and each country has different vignettes When it comes to sightseeing and how to cut back on those costs. Spend time in nature. It's one way to really save a lot of money. Visit local tourist info sites, whether that's the website or the tourist office.

These places often have specials for that season - ff what's happening. They can often have some discount coupons which you can use. Often they will also tell you about free walking tours, which are great way to experience a place without it costing you very much at all.

Make sure that you do your homework when it comes to tourist cards Citi cards, Museum cards, those kind of things. Often times they can be a fantastic way to save money. And still see many of the tourist sites within a city But other times they really are not that much of a saving. If you don't know guys. We got a blog and for every European country there is a dedicated country page. And we do dig into every country sort of on what you can expect to spend when you visit that country We also have some tips, like these. To help you make better decisions on whether you should get a tourist card

What kind of transport you should be using? So I'll link down description below to our website and then you can select the country you're interested in visiting. Then want it comes to public toilet facilities. Obviously like we said we have a camper van which is fully self sustaining. So for us it's not that much of a problem but sometimes you are still out in the city for the whole day.Or even if you're travelling by van and you're looking for public facilities often, if you don't find free public toilets, it's cheaper to go in and buy a quick cheap coffee and then you ask to use their facilities It's cheaper than actually paying for public toilets.

Especially in Italy! And in most countries, in most places, people cannot actually say no if you do ask to use their facilities. In bigger cities, you'll find a bit more resistance Now tip number one. If you're in a van then checkout our last video or second last video? On Camper van Essential gadgets and the one we ended with.. I'm gonna spoil it.

Get yourself a pee bottle. That allows you to stay longer off grid then you can expect. Check that video! We give a few tips there. So last comment from me. If you want to make some savings, prioritise what's important to you. Make sure that you balance your eating out expenditures and your accommodation expenses with sightseeing and other activities.

And lastly. If you'd like to see more of our travels and how we travel Europe with our motorhome full time be sure to subscribe, ring the bell so that you'll be notified and join us as we travel through the entire Western Europe from the southernmost point in Spain to north of Scandinavia. To the southernmost point of Italy, probably over 20,000 kilometres during 2022. So as always. Thanks for watching guys!

We'll catch you next time.

2022-02-01 11:21

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