Too much money

UK Pete

UK Pete

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Jan 16, 2014
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on/off since 1991in campervanss
I see people talking about just popping over to spain and france, using the tunnel or ferry,
having never done it before i thought its about time i did it, so my destination is almeria spain, i am flexible with the times , well F--- me i cant believe how expensive it is, cheapest santander crossing i could find was £327 then add minimum of £250 diesel , i am looking around the £600 mark before paying for any food,sites tolls or travelling around, well it seems like this is a hobby for the rich only
i cant pay that, i would rather book two weeks package holiday all inclusive for less
How the hell do you guys all afford it and so often it seems with some
pete
 
tunnel frequent traveller 106 return. approx £400 fuel in a PVC. avoid tolls and just pay the essential ones £60? so thats £336 each leg very roughly....I can leave here monday morning and be having lunch in Benidorm Wednesday:)
 
Simple answer is, go for longer. The longer you go, the cheaper it is. If you want short trips, just do a couple of weeks in northern Europe with a DFDS crossing. I would never dream of driving down to southern Spain for less than 3 months.
 
Nobody said it was a cheap option Pete. You are right it expensive to cross the channel especially if you use the Santander route. We always use either Dover Calais or Newhaven Dieppe. This is much cheaper but more driving. You can certainly buy a package holiday for less but personally, I would preference the freedom to do as I please. If we don't like the resort we are in we just drive to another.
Enjoy your holidays whichever way you decide to take them. (y)
 
We went to Morocco last year if you we take all costs into account we could have gone to goa for 4 months
Nobody said motorhome use is cheap
You can spend as little or as much as you want
The only way to be cost effective is go abroad for longer
2 weeks in Spain will be not much cheaper than 6 weeks if your careful
Sorry

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UK Pete said:
i cant pay that, i would rather book two weeks package holiday all inclusive for less
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know where you are coming from.. traveling long distances is never cheap, unless you fly or hitch hike.. and why so many try to cut costs by off site camping..

I also think a lot of newcomers to the hobby forget about such small details as site fees.. :rolleyes:
they think you buy a camper and have 'free' holidays for life .... nothing could be further from the truth

When we were working and with only three weeks holiday we went to Spain regularly, nowadays it would need to be much longer to make it cost effective and viable..
 
Snowbird said:
Simple answer is, go for longer. The longer you go, the cheaper it is. If you want short trips, just do a couple of weeks in northern Europe with a DFDS crossing. I would never dream of driving down to southern Spain for less than 3 months.
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May not be that simple for Pete @Snowbird as he dosnt say if he is retired or not. I agree though it is far cheaper the longer you go for.
 
OP is in Kent, spitting distance from ferry/tunnel. Yes it all depends on how long he has and commitments, but who would drive to spain if they only had a couple of weeks...
 
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I drove to Murcia (Southern Spain) via Calais last summer. For us, a family of four, worked out cheaper than flying.

Not sure if you can compare cheap all inclusive package holidays to motorhoming anyway - totally different pastime.

I afford European touring by working hard (and smart), being frugal at home and making maximum use of things like Tesco Clubcard vouchers, must save/earn £1000 pa on this alone.... Never thought of it as a cheap hobby though !

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Or west Wales :)
 
Yes thanks for the replies, TBH it shocked me the price of it all just shows how green i am to it all, i have been pvc camping on and off for over 20 years and in all honesty have looked at it as a cheap way of having a break especially doing a bit of wilding here and there, and i just love the out door life and being free to do what i want,
the UK can still give me all the above, but i will stick to my two package holidays abroad rather than doing it in a motorhome, i just cant justify it at the moment, perhaps as some have said doing a longer stint is more cost effective , but i dont intend on retiring for a good few years yet so will see what life deals me and if i am lucky enough to retire with spare money then maybe a sunnier climate for 3 months of the year
 
With the price of package holidays nowadays motorhome trips are expensive but personally we're done with those sort of trips.
Motorhome gives us freedom to go where we want at our own pace visit places we never would and meet like minded people. Oh and the biggest bonus of all we never need set foot in a poxy airport or spend hours on those horrendous planes. That alone is worth the extra money.
 
When we went last time we were gone for three months. On Tuesday off for two months. Cost of the ferry fades away a bit against the rest of the costs.

Our three month trip taking in bits of Spain and Portugal (Drove from Calais) cost approx £1000/month. (y):)

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chockswahay said:
Ha, you wanna be starting out from up here in Scotland :eek:
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Mr Mousy said:
Or west Wales :)
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Dead right! We are thinking about Ireland (NI and Eire) at some point and the ferry is a lot of money so will make sure we go for 3 or 4 weeks at least.

Strangely the cheapest holiday is probably a cruise when you add everything in, so long as you don't take any of the extras that are so tempting. Again not for everyone but worth trying at least once.
 
I drive from here to North Devon , via Dunkirk usually, which is nigh on 1500miles . costs me around 230 € in diesel each way. +ferry cost. The only toll I usually pay is Around Abbeville somewhere ? about a couple of euros.
Across Spain/France I only ever use parking areas to stop as I'm just travelling from A-B .:) Normally 3 days solo.
 
Same thing without the motorhome, if we take the car the long way round to the Faroes it's very expensive, half the price if we fly but either way the longer we go the cheaper it gets, of sorts.
 
Having now retired , no mortgage or dependants the Motorhome gives the total freedom we love. Would I prefer looking out from the balcony of a concrete box over looking the "issue "pool with all the other incumbents , or peer out across a deserted bay or riverside Aire ?
Diesel at 75p per litre Discount ASCI Guide, Aires Guide, shopping al Aldi or Lidl eating when and where we want washed down with bargain priced wine and beer. No package holidays for me, unless it is long haul to destinations I have not seen. As has been pointed out
the longer you go for the cheaper it is. You still have to eat if you are at home !
 
Hi Pete
Where's the fun in traveling 'pest class' on SleazyJet with a kiddie kicking the back of your seat for hours eh? Not to mention check-in times and trying to find a lounger round the pool! At least you don't have to throw a towel over your camping chair at silly o'clock!

You can't use motorhoming in comparison to other holidays - it's more a religion than a vacation style!

I could have in excess of 60 weeks worth of package holidays for the price of my van BUT even after depreciation, I still have equity in my van, whilst if you spend money on going to Costa Packet, it's gone!

There's those on here with vans approaching £90k and others touring the UK on a shoestring. Both are equally valued in our MHF community. Those with dosh and those without is the way of the world I'm afraid.

Anyway; don't suppose those on a British Airways holiday forum would have such riveting things as 'no water' or 'window condensation' to talk about :D

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To give you some idea of how we manage to go to Spain for so little. To bring a big rig down here from the north of England to southern Spain costs between £800 and £1000 each way, with fuel, ferries etc. If you come for a fortnight, thats £2000 plus perhaps 25 Euros per day camping. If you come for 6 months its still £2000 but the camping is reduced to 15 Euros per day. The cost of a three course meal with wine is less than a tenner and I enjoy the occasional beer at £1 per pint. I still have a disgusting habit of smoking which costs me half the price it would in the UK. I do not have to run the central heating to stop hypothermia setting in and I am in no pain from Arthur Whithurst. Those that spend the winter in Spain are not on holiday, its become a way of life for most. To answer the OP, we dont have to much money, we just have a bit more sense :cool:.
 
I'd love to be somewhere warmer all winter but with elderly parents it ain't going to happen anytime soon (I hope). It's more to do with comfort that cost as far as I can see.
 
Motorhomeing is a thing to itself, different to package holidays, really not a comparison, if you like one over the other that's your choice , but you have to take into consideration how many are going , only two of us but if you are taking kids your package doubles up where your mh stays the same, and for us diesel and tunnel are the only things that are dearer than stopping at home , food pretty much the same , free aires , wine considerable cheaper, if you stay here you more or less have to pay large site fees , diesel as well , dearer.
For us where we are its closer and cheaper to france than Cornwall.
 
OP has still has not said for how long. Daughter got back last week from long weekend in Italy. 5 hr delay + having to be there 2 hour early for check in? whole process can be a whole day you include everything like getting to airport in first place :censored:

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Motorhome = freedom, getting to beautiful places.

We camped at the cheap level in a tent with loads of kids, loved the fresh air, our own beds, cooking our own food, enjoying the company of like minded friends, lots of greenery, blue sky's, dark nights, kids running round for hours in their wellies with new pals. We moved to a caravan for a few years, then gave up and worked really really hard, got some money behind us so now we could do anything .....go anywhere ....

But you cant beat your own place, our motorhome is that .... It is a home ..... You can take what you want payload permitting, no one is hustling us onto a plane, we can be spontaneous and just leave within a couple of hours, we don't have to dress for dinner, we can eat the food we like, we can stay away longer if we want and go more often without breaking the bank, some trips cheap, others more expensive .. We have our own beds and toilet. We don't have set meal times, or have to vacate the room and get all pur possesions back in a little bag for a set time.

Yes ferries can be expensive but the journeys are a part of the adventure, eating out every night can be expensive too. We prefer to shop and cook. We all spend money differently. Motor homing for us is about freedom and choice. Very little processing and you can do it cheaply if you have to.
 
Just back today from 4 days in Barcelona. About 6 hours from checking out of hotel, to coming through front door, which I still think is fantastic. But looking forward to taking MH to various parts of Scotland between April and July, and then hopefully about 8 weeks or longer on Continent via A!sterdam from mid August. There's a place for various types of holiday.
 
UK Pete said:
i have been pvc camping on and off for over 20 years and in all honesty have looked at it as a cheap way of having a break especially doing a bit of wilding here and there, and i just love the out door life and being free to do what i want,
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I would suggest you forget Spain and do your "UK PVC camping" in France. That is to say, plan a journey that'll take in the things you like to do and see but use the cheaper Aires and sites along the way. That way the journey becomes part of the holiday.

We use CLs and small independent sites in the UK as we travel from place to place, usually moving each day. We also do the same in France but with Aires. As a result, the only "extra" cost is the ferry/tunnel and we keep that down with Tesco vouchers and unpopular crossing times.

Last year we unintentionally did a clockwise circuit of France -all coz we like wandering...
 

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