3 Months on the Road: A Summary

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.