Andrew here with a summary of our European Road Trip. When we decided to embark on our European adventure so many people said, “fantastic I/we would love to do that,” or words to that effect. The fact is I would be surprised if any of them ever do and there are many reasons why, like; I have a mortgage, I have kids, I have grandkids, I have a job, or a business, and so on. The fact is though if you want to do it, you can!
Lots of sayings spring to mind like; “life is not a rehearsal” , “you are a long time dead”, “you work to live not live to work” and so on, and all these are correct but if you do want to take a good look at Europe or the world do it whilst you can, don’t wait until you can’t or don’t have the drive or health any more. The world is a different communication place these days with Skype, Messenger, Facetime WhatsApp and so on, so you may be 12,000 miles away, but these devices allow you to feel like you are just down the road. My mum turned 88 the other day and I have skyped her twice a week, so we see each other and talk like we are in the same room. The same with Louise’s Mum and Dad, we talk to them regularly. My daughter Rebecca had her second child a couple of months back and of course we have never met him in person, but we saw him (Ihaia) less than an hour after he was born and many times since, along with her first born Kerenga who is nearly three. Distance is not a reason, nor is having a job. If you are any good you will find another one when you return, or if you’re lucky they’ll hold it for you. Think about it – what have you done in the last year? And what could you be doing in the next year if you gave it a go?
Having said all that you probably don’t have to be 11 months in Europe if that is too long, a steady travelling schedule could see you complete a lot in six months or do a couple of stints over a few years. What we have done doesn’t compare to taking a 4-week holiday in Europe. By mixing it up with some house-sitting we were able to experience day to day life in some small and not so small European villages.
Other questions we have been asked along the way and back here in the UK are; “what was your favourite place”? That’s impossible to answer as every place had its own character – from Spectacular Norway to Reindeer on the Road in Finland, the mountain tops of Austria and Switzerland, the gorgeous areas of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers in Germany, Tuscany Italy, Prague and Gdansk, the French cuisine and so on, but I guess the special package was discovering Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. We new nothing about these places and were almost warned off going there but they offered so much. The Lonely Planet has just voted Vilnius in Lithuania as one of the best destinations. Louise agrees, she loved Vilnius. We spent the most time though in Spain, side stepping the cold European winter, and we both agree Spain was one of our favourite areas for a number of reasons. The people were friendly, the scenery and beach areas were breath-taking, the cost of living is ridiculously low, and history is everywhere in this vast country.
We have also been asked about the size of the motorhome and where to go? Our motorhome was 7.45 meters long and that is on the larger side – there were plenty a lot bigger and likewise a lot smaller. We feel we chose right as it was our home for the best part of a year, but if we were going for 3 – 4 months we would probably go smaller. As for where to go; I covered this in a previous blog but really and truly Louise has been superb in planning the trip, with a little help from me from time to time.
As for driving a big vehicle like this in Europe; all I can say is take your time, don’t panic, don’t rush and if you do go the wrong way its not the end of the world, you can turn around. The same at roundabouts, if you can’t work out which is the right exit just go around again.
Another big question that’s come up is; “how was living in a confined space with your partner for a year?” Answer: Easy – and I mean that. We never argued, never needed to. We only had Netflix which we watched for a maximum of an hour a day, and not every day, so we learnt the art of conversation (often lost these days) and used our computer, tablets and phones to check up on what’s happening in NZ and the rest of the world, as well as reading the odd book or three. It was seriously an easy experience for both of us.
So, what did we actually do? Where did we go? And, I’m sure you’re keen to know, what did it all cost?
We left for Europe on a ferry to Calais on June 3rd, 2017 and returned to Dover on April 29th, 2018.
Countries We Visited: France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechia, Switzerland, Austria, Lichtenstein, Slovenia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, Sardinia, Sicily, Vatican City, Monaco, Luxembourg and England. We did go in and out of some of these countries a few times, and with the likes of France and Germany we made four separate visits.
Accommodation: 330 nights in Europe made up of 255 in the motorhome, 49 house-sitting, 19 with Louise’s Aunt and Uncle in Germany, 5 on overnight ferry crossings and 2 in hotels. In all we spent NZ$10,010 on campsites at an average of NZ$39.25 a night.
Driving: We covered 26,090 kms (16,306 miles), went to 58 service stations and spent NZ$4,970 on diesel. We paid on average NZ$1.90 a litre, with Norway and Sardinia being the most expensive at around NZ$2.60 a litre while Latvia and Denmark were cheapest at around NZ$1.50 -NZ$1.60 a litre.
Cheap and Expensive Countries: Norway and Switzerland were by far the most expensive while Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania proved to be cheap with probably Poland and Czech Republic the cheapest, but Spain would also be one of the cheapest all round based on supermarket buying, fruit and vege, eating out, and wine and beer.
Overall Costs for 47 Weeks (11 months):
Our budget: NZ$150 per day; NZ$1,050 per week; $49,350 for the 47 weeks. BUT…The real cost was: NZ$128 per day; NZ$899 per week; $42,262 for the 47 weeks – YAY!!!!
In summary you could do it a lot cheaper. We chose to stay in campsites every night except about 4 where we stayed in Aires (parking areas with power but no toilets or showers). These Aires can be up to 75% cheaper than campsites. We also chose to eat out regularly, which you don’t have to if you want to save money, and we went to every museum, historic site and places of interest that we wanted to. I think Louise also climbed every tower in Europe to get a view of whichever city we were in. It was never; “no we can’t afford it”. We just did it. And as I said, when we were boarding the ferry at Dunkirk to come back to the UK, we had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for a year ago, but we did all we wanted and more, never hurt ourselves, never crashed the van or had someone crash into us, never got robbed or broken into, it just all went so smoothly. What else can one want.
When you talk about what it cost; how much money did you spend in the last 47 weeks? Considering we all must eat and drink no matter where you are in the world, and day to day living has other costs like rates, mortgage or rent, power, petrol etc. Work it out you might be surprised.
So, with Europe behind us for now, it’s time to explore England, Wales and Scotland. As we’ve now sold the motorhome my part of the blog has become a bit redundant, but I will try and add something each month – an insight or two from “Mr Love’s” perspective.
Some of our many memorable experiences:
Statistics by Month:
