Explore europe in a campervan

It was difficult for us to anticipate how much we would spend on our trip - now that we’ve got some experience we wanted to share it for anyone planning a similar one.

Diesel - €323

In our first 4 weeks we did approximately 1180 miles, giving us an average fuel consumption of around 20 mpg. Our first two weeks included the, mainly motorway-based drive from home in Dorset to the Alpine area, via Portsmouth. It also covers the rest of our travelling in the area before settling in Morzine. Most of this driving was on steep mountain roads up to altitudes of 1900m. So this fuel comsumption is not typical of ordinary driving. In Morzine we tend to do a minimum of 8 miles per day, with a trip once a week to one of the nearest towns, at least 10 miles away. We also run the engine while stationary for between half an hour (just for boot-warming using the vents in the cab) and up to 2 hours on some days to charge laptops while using the internet.

LPG - €39

I think we’ll post separately about our experience of refillable LPG. Briefly, we use the gas for blown-air heating for a minimum of 4 hours each day. We don’t run the heating at night as it’s not necessary as long as you’re warm enough in bed. We also think the noise of the blower would be disturbing. The water heater is used for a couple of hours around 3-4 times each week. If we’re just washing up it doesn’t seem worthwhile heating 10 litres in the tank, so we just boil a pan of water. Otherwise we’re using the gas for cooking every day.

Tolls -

Le Havre to Chamonix - €100.90 - we chose to use the most direct route which was almost all toll roads. With no limit on time it would be viable to use non-toll roads and spend a little more on fuel.

Chamonix to Italy via Mont Blanc tunnel and return - €53.70 - this journey was unfortunate and unnecessary as the connecting mountain pass to take us towards Tignes was closed and we had to drive almost right back to Chamonix. We later snowboarded where the road would have been!

Food shopping - €424

We eat 3 meals every day. Cereal or eggs for breakfast. Bread for lunch or a Snickers bar sometimes when we’re on the mountain. Dinner is usually pasta-based and costs between 2 and 5 euros. We do spend a bit on snacks and always keep stocked up on beer and wine. We buy bottled water for drinking at 62 cents for 5 litres. We’ll expand a bit on the cost of food and drink in a later post. This also includes cleaning materials, toiletries and a few non-food purchases from the hypermarket. Suffice to say we could probably spend a little less if we wanted to, but we don’t eat out regularly, so think we can justify the treats!

Going out - €125

We ate at Poco Loco to get the full Chamonix experience and once at McDonalds after a disastrous and stressful day of driving. Other than that we haven’t been out for a full-on dinner. The prospect of paying 30 euros for a simple dinner and a couple of drinks is pretty much unthinkable when we can eat for as little as 2 euros or have steak and chips for 9 euros if we cook it ourselves. Having a couple of drinks is a different matter, and we feel it’s essential to be part of the Morzine scene! A beer is 5 euros almost everywhere apart from one bar where we found Buds for 3.50! Even so, a couple or three is the limit as it’s so easy to spend a fortune if you go crazy!

Campsites and Sanitary stations - €136

We stayed at 4 campsites over 5 occasions in our first 4 weeks. The prices varied between 18.60 and 22.40 - and it should be mentioned that the price doesn’t seem to be proportional to the quality or range of facilities at the sites! It wasn’t always possible to fill up the water and empty the toilet at these sites, so the total includes 3 visits to the ‘Flot Bleu’ station in Les Gets, where for 4.50 you can empty and clean the toilet cassette, get fresh water and 20 minutes of electricity. We also parked in Avoriaz - the higher ski centre in the area, for 2 nights which cost us 21 in total for 3 days.

The main reason we stay at campsites around once a week is to get a full battery charge and charge all our electrical equipment (AND I get to straighten my hair!). If we had a power source we could be totally independent from campsites, so we’re working on getting a suitcase-type, very quiet generator for around £300. We’ve seen many motorhomes using these in camping-car ‘aires’ and in car parks. The sound isn’t intrusive and you can get between 3 and 8 hours of use from a tank of 3.7 litres of petrol. At an average petrol price of 1.40 this will cost us about 5 euros. If we were heading home soon perhaps we couldn’t justify the cost, but as we’re full-timing in the motorhome until at least August we feel the price of the generator and fuel will be offset against campsite charges.

Other expenditure

Lift passes - €1780 - half a day in Chamonix, 3 and a half days in La Rosiere, 2 days in Portes du Soleil, then our season passes for Portes Du Soleil. These cost €724 each. For 10 weeks of boarding in a massive area at €73 a week it’s a big expenditure, but the most cost effective way to ski or board for a season. In comparison just 3 days in La Rosiere/San Bernando cost €88 each.

Other equipment - €310

Snow chains, knee pads, wrist guards - you can’t put a price on safety! Also 90 euros for laundry and van washing. Laundry costs €11.50 in Morzine to wash and dry a load, and just €4 when we used the facilities at the campsite ‘Camping Caravaneige La Foret’ in La Rosiere.

Find out what we’ve learned about full-timing in a campervan in France by clicking here

This entry was posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 5:51 pm and is filed under Travel, Campervan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.