A question that most people ask is how much does it cost to travel around in a motorhome for a year. During Year One we kept a record of our spending and travel expenses [link] to help us stick to our budget and hopefully inform others. We did the same again in year two [see below].
How we spent our money
Everybody will have a different budget and ours was based on our pensions and part income from renting our house (75% of our rental income we saved). We were lucky enough not to have to use our savings for our daily expenses but fortunately had a pot of money ready to pay for our repairs we incurred in Serbia. Our budget did not include costs for motorhome insurance, tax, MOT and personal travel insurance.
Weekly fuel costs varied depending on distance travelled. Our longest journey in one day was 426 miles (681.6 kms), which was from Slovenia, through Serbia to the Bulgarian border. Our shortest journey in one day was 4 miles – from one beach to another in Greece! The most expensive fuel was in Greece and Italy. Motorway tolls can also be expensive so we rarely used them and tried to go on ‘the roads less travelled’, that way you save money and see more of the country you are travelling through In some countries you have to purchase a vignette (currently: Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldovo, Montenegro, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland) for using their roads, which you purchase at the borders. Prices vary depending on the time you spend in the country with your vehicle.
Our Year of Two Halves
Our year 2 tour started in January 2018 and ended 3 January 2019. We split our year 2 around Europe to come back to the UK for our niece’s wedding in July 2018, and it was a lovely time catching up with family and friends. It also gave us a chance to get Sonny (our motorhome) fully checked over and a full-on clean inside and out. His MOT wasn't due until December but as we plan not to be back in the UK again until January, we had to have this done before setting off again. We still find it crazy that you have to come back to the UK to have this done, as you can get everything else done abroad. We also restocked Sonny's cupboards with all the English goodies that we like but can’t buy abroad.
Countries Visited and Days/Nights Spent in Each
France (26), Spain (94), Portugal (37) [First half of the year, January 2018 - July 2018]
Belgium (1), Germany (3), Austria (2), Slovenia (4), Serbia (1), Bulgaria (36), Greece (69), Italy (9), France (10) [Second half, August 2018 - January 2019]
Part One
Our year 2 tour started on 29th January 2018 via the Eurotunnel. We made our way through France down to our son’s house in Punta Umbria, Spain. We spent 3 months in Spain, visiting some lovely cities and villages and doing lots of walking around Andalucía. It is such a pretty part of Spain; the landscape is stunning and we love all the white villages that are built into the hillside. There are some fantastic walking routes all around Andalucía and we used a book called Walking in Andalucía, by Guy Hunter-Watts, which is a great guide to walking the area. We also used an App called Wikiloc that gives you free GPS hiking trail all over the world with photographs, that people upload and share. Whilst in Spain we popped across into Gibraltar for a couple of days.
Leaving Spain, we crossed the border into Portugal and zig-zagged our way South to North across the country. We loved Portugal, it is such a ‘motorhome friendly’ place with so many free Aires, the people are friendly and the cost of living is really cheap. From Portugal we crossed back over the border into Spain and spent a while around the Basque country before heading back through France and back to the UK.
Facts and Figures
Total cost for 5 ½ months (157 days): €7,252.34 €46.19 per day (approximately £41 p/day (not including Vehicle tax and insurance and MOT, personal travel insurance)
Miles Travelled: 5,627 (9003.2 Kilometres)
Fuel Used: 866.21 Litres/192.49 Gallons = 29.23 MPG
Last year we averaged 31.8MPG - but to be fair Sonny is a little older now!
Fuel Used: 866.21 Litres/192.49 Gallons = 29.23 MPG
Last year we averaged 31.8MPG - but to be fair Sonny is a little older now!
Vehicle: 2014 Sun Living Lido S42DF (Adria)
How we spent our money
The chart below details where our money went. All figures are in Euros. Most went on eating/drinking out (25.5%), closely followed by supermarket costs, which includes wine and beer (25%) and then fuel costs 15%).
Where we stayed
We stayed on a mixture of Aires, campsites, France Passion and wild camping.
We were lucky to have 135 free nights (including 50 nights we spent at our son's house in Spain, spread out over 3 months), 9 paid Aires, 9 campsites, 1 France Passion (free vineyard) and 3 nights wild camping.
Part Two
The second part of our year two tour started on 21 August 2018 via the Dover to Calais Ferry. We travelled through Belgium, Germany, Austria and into Slovenia (where we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary). We whizzed through Serbia, where we had a near miss incident that shook us up quite a bit so we spent a month in Bulgaria at our apartment, on The Black Sea. We set off again and headed into Greece, a favourite country of ours from Year One tour. This time we headed further south and into the Peloponnese, which we loved especially the Mani Peninsula and ended up travelling around for 2 1/2 months. We then got a ferry from Patras, Greece to Ancona, Italy, spending 10 days travelling up to France, visiting Milan and Turin enroute and then into Lyon for Christmas. Travelling through Champagne land to Arras for New Year and then the Channel Tunnel back to the UK on 3 January 2019.
Facts and Figures!
Total cost for 4 ½ months (135 days) €6,059.97 €44.89 per day (approximately £40 p/day (not including Vehicle tax and insurance and MOT, personal travel insurance)
Miles Travelled: 5,721 (9,153.60 Kilometres)
Fuel Used: 874.83 Litres/194.41 Gallons = 29.43 MPG
Vehicle: 2014 Sun Living Lido S42DF (Adria)
How we spent our money
The chart below details where our money (figures all in Euros) went. Figures slightly differ to the first half of our tour, with most spent in the supermarket (25%), closely followed by went on eating/drinking out (22%) and then fuel costs (19%).
Where we stayed
As per the first part of year two, we stayed on a mixture of Aires, campsites, France Passion and wild camping.
45 free Aires (includes 36 free nights at our Bulgarian apartment), 9 Paid Aires, 20 Campsites, 2 France Passion and 59 Wild Camping
Favourite Countries
Favourite Countries
Our favourite countries in year 2 were Greece, especially the Peloponnese and Portugal. We visited both countries in year one but only managed northern Greece then and only the Algarve in Portugal. The Algarve is nice but it is so touristy and too many motorhomers. However, once we headed out of the Algarve we discovered the 'real' Portugal and so many free places for motorhomes to stop over.
Read All About It
Whilst we were in Greece, our local Newspaper (The Northern Echo) did an article on us travelling around in our Motorhome. You can click on the images below or read the article by clicking on the following link - North East Living [page 98-99]
If you want to read more on the places we visited just click on the countries under 'Labels' on the right or by 'Blog Archive' under Labels to view by year and month.
Sally x
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