A year touring Europe in a Camper for £14.41 per person, per day!

PasturesNew

£1100 + £28.82/day. And you didn't count vehicle depreciation, nor the cost of the van-buying.

You've misrepresented the costs really.

I could afford £14.43/day, in my dreams, just.... but the real cost would be way too much.

So it's £14.43 per day, per person - if there happens to be two of you and if you discount all the costs of van ownership.

Mr_Wang

mgdavid wrote: »

sounds like another interfering do-gooder who wants to impose their way of life on the rest of us...

To be fair you Mel just asked a question a bit tongue in cheek. You have summed up in your responses just what I thought most camper van'ers were like anyway and have summed yourself up quite well.

But then I'm bias, I like hotels, comfort and driving faster than 30mph with a 5 mile queue of angry drivers behind me.

OP - excellent site though, thanks for posting.

AddieB

PasturesNew wrote: »

£1100 + £28.82/day. And you didn't count vehicle depreciation, nor the cost of the van-buying.

Hi PasturesNew,

We would have misrepresented these costs if we hadn't mentioned them at all - but we did. We owned the van anyway and regardless of if we went away it would have cost the same to insure and tax as it would sat out on the drive. We're also in our 20's, so if you were older insurance would be much less therefore it is easier to keep these 'fixed' costs outside of our day to day 'variable' living costs as these will vary with circumstance.

Our last two vans we have lost nothing (£0) in the time we owned them thanks to careful purchasing and if you read our buyers guide you can easily pick up a van £5-£6k and run it for a year without losing anything but servicing costs as many of our friends have done over the years, some even turning a small profit. This just leaves insurance which varies greatly with age, experience and location.

Mr_Wang wrote: »

But then I'm bias, I like hotels, comfort and driving faster than 30mph with a 5 mile queue of angry drivers behind me.

Having driven on some of the best driving roads in Europe, including Trollstigen in Norway and the Transfargen Pass in Romania of Top Gear fame I cam assure you there was no queues behind us! :rotfl:

There is quite clearly some stigma's attached to motorhomes in the 'non motorhoming' community which we're happy to take on the chin.... after all half of our friends think we're mad! But we can encourage one person to escape the rat race and have the year of their life like we have then our work on our blog is done!

AddieB

We did a breakdown of our costs, and found the best card to use on such a trip is the Halifax Clarity:

http://www.europebycamper.com/2012/06/halifax-clarity-vs-caxton-we-saved-over.html

Thank's Martin! :beer:

tooldle

Excellent blog thanks.
We are camperan nuts as well,owning a Westfalia California High Top (the long wheel base version).
I agree that if you buy well, it is possible not to lose money, or to lose only a little. Our last van was bought for 6.5K, we kept it for just under five years and sold it for 6K.
We have taken many european trips for very little cost, none as long as yours though, although we are very tempted.
Thanks again for the blog, I've saved it for future reference.