Tag: Motorhome life

As you know Louise writes our travel updates, but once a month I’m allowed to pen my thoughts and share the figures, because, apart from chief driver and cook, I’m also the accountant and keep tabs on what we’re spending. Louise does pretty much everything else.

So here goes, instalment 2:

When you embark on a year-long European tour without a job, you do need to watch spending. That doesn’t mean being a “tight arse”, but rather be frugal and think where the spending needs to be. To that end we recently spent a week in Switzerland and knew it would be expensive, and it was, but we stocked up before we crossed the border saving us a lot of money.

In Basel where the French/German/Switzerland borders meet there is a huge, and I mean HUGE, supermarket. What it didn’t sell didn’t matter, anyway it was in Germany, and the prices were great so we basically stocked up with a week’s food

Statistically German food and drink prices are 44.68% lower than Switzerland, according to the September price index. Italy is 41% lower and Spain, where we will be heading to in a couple of months, 54% lower.

I have been using a website www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living .You can pick whichever country you want to get a gauge on prices. The prices I am quoting in the graph below are taken from this site. I know you can buy eggs, potatoes etc., cheaper when on special, but this is a broad price index and if you follow it, it will give you good indication of what to expect. As you can see Switzerland is very expensive and what puts the NZ total price up is the cost of wine and beer.

As Switzerland is not part of the EU you need change your money to Swiss Francs. That in itself is a hassle and a you do lose a bit with exchange rates. Zurich is currently rated the most expensive place in the world to live, and whilst its wonderfully situated on a large lake we had to pay $72NZ a night for a campsite, which was the dearest on our 4 months of travelling by some $10 (and they said Norway was expensive). And to be fair it would only rate in the bottom 30% of campsites we have stayed in, in regards to quality and facilities. You also need to buy a road toll vignette sticker before driving in Switzerland, and unlike Austria, you buy it at one price for the duration of 2017 – you wouldn’t want to arrive here on the 20^th December.  In Austria you can buy a 10-day pass for $15NZ, but in Switzerland you pay $56NZ for the 2017 sticker. However, the roads are great and we’re more than happy to contribute to the cost with building the incredible tunnels and bridges that make travelling through the mountains so easy. It’s a much better system of paying too, with one fee, rather than Norway’s charging you as you go.

If you enjoy a beer or wine then you should stock up in the cheaper countries. Whilst Czechia was so cheap for beer, and even wine, Germany has an amazing beer culture so the range is huge. In Czechia we went to a bar attached to a campsite, had a pint of beer each and had change from $5NZ. Yes, they cost $2.30NZ a pint. We also found a local Czech wine shop and bought a couple of bottles of local wine for around $10NZ each, but they also had fill your own and I couldn’t resist. I filled a 2 litre plastic bottle of red wine for $7NZ and prepared for the worst. I wanted to go back next morning and buy a truck load, it was better than most bottles you pay $15 for in New Zealand, and this was almost the equivalent of 3 bottles for $7.

As for wine, we stopped at a big supermarket in France called Cora. They had a huge wine selection and you could taste before you buy. The two guys in the wine section spoke English and we told them what we were looking for and a couple of samples later we had a few cartons of lovely red wine at less than 5 Euro ($8 NZ) a bottle – I reckon you would pay around $20 in New Zealand for the same, perhaps even more. Interesting that they sell most of their win in cartons of six.

As for beer, in Germany the supermarkets are stocked to the gunnels and there are so many varieties. When we were staying with Louise’s Aunt and Uncle in Wahlrod, George took us down to the Rewe Supermarket where they had a liquor section. First stop was getting money back for the empties. You put them in this machine, it reads the barcode, and when you are finished it spits out a voucher which you can redeem in store. For each beer bottle the refund is 10 cents (NZ) and for each plastic bottle (water or soft drink), 30 cents (NZ).

I decided I would stock up so I chose a few bottles and went home for a tasting.  A 500ml bottle of nice German beer costs between 95 cents (NZ) and $1.40 (NZ) and you get 10 cents back on the bottle. Very cheap

Some of the samples we had to test in Germany.

Feeding the recycling machine in Germany

The other thing I noticed was they sell them in crates of 10 and 20, in line with the metric system. Funny New Zealand is also metric, meters, Kilometres, kilos, litres etc., but we still use the old measurement of half dozen and dozen bottles. The same applies when buying eggs. Here they are in 10’s where in most cases New Zealand still has dozens (just an observation).

And if you like a tipple every now and then, you can buy a 700ml bottle of Whiskey or Brandy for about $10NZ, Gin for $8NZ and Jim Beam (don’t mind if I do occasionally) for $15.

Budget wise, we continued to be under budget, thanks largely to the fact we didn’t have to pay campsite fees whilst staying with Margaret and George – just as well because you will notice we had the highest monthly campsite fee average of the 4 months, and a whopping $12 a night more than August.

Finally, as you can see we are tracking well to budget considering we have spent a lot on tourist attractions and activities lately. To finish as I started, if you’re embarking on an adventure like ours, plan your route and look at the costs of the country and the average you should be paying before you go. The other morning we left Innsbruck in Austria and filled up in the little village beside the campsite. Diesel was 1.10 Euro a litre. The van took 64 litres.  On the motorway the price was 1.39 Euro a litre so that meant we saved 18 Euro by filling up in the town. That’s $30NZ!

Mr Love has a lot to say about what I should include in the travel updates I write, mostly about what things cost. As he’s the one who is keeping track of what we spend I thought it only fair to handover the responsibility of writing the monthly summaries to him. So here you go, the first of Love’s Bits & Budgets:

In 1957 one of the most famous travel books hit the shelves. Yes, 60 years ago this year American Arthur Frommer produced his first edition of “Europe on $5 a day”. The series continued until 2007 when the title became “Europe on $95 a day”.
When we first decided to take on this adventure we had no idea what it would cost. I mean how much does one spend a day at home? Food, drink, petrol, phone, heating, rates etc., and seeing as we were making the campervan our home we needed something to work to.

When Arthur Frommer wrote his first book he literally flew to Europe, went to 15 cities, and ran from hotel to hotel and restaurant to restaurant to draw the comparisons and costs for his book. As an aside the first edition consisted of 5000 copies and sold out in days. In 1957 one US Dollar was equal to 4.2 Deutschmarks, of course today it’s all Euro but drawing the comparisons today a US dollar would buy you 1.5 Deutschmarks – three times less. To that end Europe on $5 a day would now be somewhere between Europe on $100 and Europe on $400 a day. A big variation I know, but given costs and exchange rates that’s what we had to work with.

So, using some of Frommer’s writings and other blogs as a guide, we worked out you should be able to live on $150 a day for two people without too much trouble. As Louise has written previously, the Scandinavian countries were expensive, but in the last month prices have dropped significantly and we can now proudly say we are NZ$667 under budget after 3 months. I would point out we have a couple of meals out each week, trying the local food, and we also have 2-3 lunches out a week. We have visited sight-seeing attractions we wanted to, and have not ever said “we can’t afford it”. We are here to experience Europe, but there are always good ways of making savings.

Back in Norway I was speaking to a middle-aged Norwegian guy in a camp site. He said the diesel and petrol prices can vary enormously from day to day, even hour to hour (they are all electronically controlled by the oil company), so if you see it cheap buy it, even if the tank is only half empty. To illustrate that, here in Germany the prices at the pump can change up to 5 times a day. We are currently staying with Louise’s aunty and uncle in a small village called Wahlrod. Uncle George supported what the guy in Norway said so I have been watching the fuel price at the petrol stations in the village, and the prices vary unbelievably. Last Monday morning diesel was 1.24 Euro a litre yet the day before I saw it at 1.07 euro. 17 cents different, and if you were to fill up with 50-60 litres once a week for a year, you would save nearly NZ$1000 buying at that cheaper price. That’s a big saving, and if you like a beer that $1000 NZD would buy you around 2000 x 500ml bottles in Czech Republic.

Did I say beer? Well, I might keep that for the next blog, but to whet your appetite the price of beer in supermarkets in the Czech Republic was ridiculous and it’s also cheap here in Germany, but as I said I have another chance to have my say next month and we will talk wine and beer.

I must also mention we received our toll bill for Norway and it was a very modest NZ$85. I say modest because if the Norwegian’s hadn’t built all those tunnels we spoke about, the time spent travelling between places, along with the huge extra mileage and diesel costs, and the potential ferry bills, may well have added an extra NZ$850 plus to the bill. We happily paid the road toll bill.

My final comment comes from Arthur Frommer, who is now 87 and continues to travel regularly. He rates Paris as his most favourite city to visit but is surprised that American tourist numbers are down by 30% year on year. Why? Terrorism. Yes, the threat of terrorism in Paris is keeping the American tourists away. And what is his answer to that? He says, “I will not let some deranged terrorist decide where I should and should not go”. Great words that many of us adhere to.

Here are the stats for month three. You might note that we did basically the same mileage in July and August but the diesel costs were $240 less. That’s because diesel in places like Lithuania and Poland were up to 50 cents a litre less than Sweden and Norway.

Cheers & beers, Andrew.

Another month has passed since we took to the road on our European adventure, and we’re feeling very pleased with ourselves. Not only has touring in our campervan been a lot easier than we thought, we’re enjoying it more and we’re managing to more-or-less keep to our budget.

Our budget of $150 NZD per day was harder to stick to in the first month being in the more expensive Scandinavian countries, however spending the last 2 ½ weeks in the cheaper Baltic countries has helped get us back on track.

Finland proved to be more expensive than even Norway for campsites, averaging $46 NZD per night. Estonia averaged $37 NZD per night, and Latvia at $32 NZD was a big saving.

To see all we wanted to see of Scandinavia we had to cover huge distances, but now there are less miles to travel between destinations so our fuel bill has reduced significantly. Fuel has also been a lot cheaper in the Baltic countries – down to as low as $1.45 NZD per litre in Latvia and Lithuania.

Food costs have come down too in the last month, especially in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In Riga we paid $10 NZD a kilo for fresh cod at the central markets. At the same markets, we bought two broccolis for $1, carrots for 50 cents a kilo, 1.10 a kg for new potatoes, and $2 a kilo for grapes (all in NZD). The choice in supermarkets is fantastic especially the range of fresh bread, fruit, cheese and meat/fish.

Eating out is also good value. We went out for dinner in Riga to celebrate 8 weeks on the road, and the meal cost under $100 NZD for two entrées, mains and bottle of wine, and this was at a very nice restaurant.

We were staggered at how reasonable entrance fees to attractions were in St. Petersburg, at only around $7 – $11 NZD for palaces, national museums and cathedrals. The trend continued in Estonia and Latvia where they were slightly lower on average.

So, after two months on the road this is where we are at:

We have excluded the overnight ferry to St. Petersburg from our budget as this was a pre-booked trip, but we have included all additional costs incurred with that trip, including keeping the campervan at a campsite in Helsinki while we were gone. Also, we haven’t included the tolls from Norway as we are yet to receive the bill for these.

Mr. Love’s best investment this month: a double element electric cook top for $70 NZD.  He thought that if we’re paying for power in a campsite why use our own gas. It’s important to know that in Europe gas fittings are different from country to country so it can be difficult to re-fill your gas bottles. We have a UK gas bottle that is compatible with Norwegian fittings, but we’ve been told won’t be easy to re-fill in the rest of Europe. So rather than buying multiple fittings we’re conserving our gas as much as we can until we’re in Germany where we can get a more universally compatible fitting. The campsites all have kitchen facilities, some cleaner and better than others, but it’s a bit antisocial to send Mr. Love off to cook in the kitchen by himself. The electric cooker is well and truly proving it’s worth.

With another month under our belt we’re starting to get the hang of this campervanning lark. Here’s to life on the road!

It’s been a month since we took the ferry from Dover to Calais to start our European adventure. Time flies when you’re having fun!

So, what do the numbers look like after a month on the road?

We set ourselves a budget of $150 NZD per day and after the first month we are $610 over budget. Considering the distances we’re covering in Norway, and taking into account the ferry from Denmark to Sweden ($170) and Bodo to Lofoten ($384), we are pretty chuffed with how we’re tracking. We had always anticipated this leg of our tour to be over budget, but it has been less than we thought so we know we’ve been realistic with our planning, and by mid-July we’ll be heading into the cheaper of the Scandinavian countries, Finland.

Here are some of our stats:

*The most expensive camping ground was Hamburg at $60 per night and the cheapest was Stavanger and Haugen at $33 per night. We also stayed one night in a parking area with power only, no facilities, for $25.

Eating on the Road

It’s easy to fall into bad habits when you’re on holiday, and that’s ok if it’s for 3 or 4 weeks. But we’re on holiday for 12 to 18 months so we need to make sure we’re eating well. We eat out occasionally, mostly lunches, but have found our home cooking to be better and much more cost effective. We are planning our meals a week ahead and looking for local in-season produce to base our meals around. Fresh fish is well priced in Norway and we’ve taken advantage of this. The fruit that’s brought up from Spain, like nectarines and plums are cheap and good quality. Broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and tomatoes are all well priced too and are great staples for stir-fries and pastas. Meat is a lot more expensive than New Zealand – we saw eye fillet for $99 per kilo! However, like anywhere there are always specials and we’ve found some good ones. The European sausages are amazing with loads of different types and all very well priced, and chicken is also on par with New Zealand.

The beauty of being in a campervan is we have our kitchen with us when we’re on the move, so lunches on the road are often leftovers reheated or fresh bread rolls with tuna or ham, and salad, and of course beetroot and Branston pickle for Mr Love.

Life in the Campervan

When we first saw our campervan we both had our reservations about the space available to live in. Where do we put all our clothes? Is the lounge area big enough to relax in? How will we not fall all over each other? The bed is a standard double, but when you’re used to a super king would we cope?

We’ve been surprised. We are totally at home. The bed is very comfortable and we’ve had some of the best sleeps we’ve ever had – maybe due to the lack of any stress!

In general, the campsites are well equipped with good showers, toilets and cooking facilities which we make use of rather than using those in our van. Not all campsites are created equal but the hosts have all been friendly and helpful. We’ve had a couple of issues with power connections that we’ve need assistance sorting, and then there was also the scary incidence of locking ourselves out (we now have a pact that neither of us leaves the van without keys). Each time we’ve had plenty of support from campground staff and fellow campers. It really is a community, even with the language barrier.

After another month on the road I’m sure we’ll have a lot more insights to share. Here’s to life on the road!