Our trip: our campervan and expenditure

We have now been back in England about 10 days after an awesome year away in our campervan.  This post is an overview on where we went, what we spent and the campervan itself.

At the Vantastival Festival near Dundalk, Ireland- May 2013

The van

Our campervan is a 1988 Fiat Ducato.  It contains a double bed, wardrobe, toilet, shower, kitchen sink, gas oven and 2 hobs, 3 way (12V, gas, electric) fridge, solar panel, gas boiler and water tank.  For us size was really important as we didn't want to be limited by where we could drive and park, so our vehicle is less than 5 metres long- ideal.  Whilst we would have loved more space sometimes, we were still really happy with the compromise we made in that area.  The van is a 2L petrol engine- great for the UK as petrol is cheaper than diesel here, but not so good in that respect in Europe.  Next time we would look for a diesel, as we paid considerably more by using petrol.

Where we went

We went to 24 countries and travelled just under 20,000 miles.  This ranged from 87 nights in Morocco and 50 nights in Germany (the 2 countries we spent the most time in) to only 1 night in Belgium.  We also visited Vaduz, Liechtenstein whilst staying in Switzerland and visited Monaco but stayed in France.  We had a total of 350 nights away.  Currently MOT (New Zealand's equivalent of a warrant of fitness) is required annually in the UK, which limits your time away as you can only get this test done in the UK.  Without it you have no insurance.

Trying on clogs at Kinderdijk, the Netherlands- May 2013

 At Mark and Dana's wedding, near Dresden, Germany- May 2013

The countries we visited were:

Ireland
Western Europe- France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Italy, Monaco,Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg
Scandinavia- Denmark, Sweden, Finland
Russia (St Petersburg only)
The Baltics- Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
Eastern Europe- Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia
Morocco

Legoland Denmark- July 2013

St Petersburg, Russia- August 2013

Cesis Castle, Latvia- August 2013

Where we stayed

This is our percentage breakdown of where we stayed:
Campsites 22% (80 nights in total, 42 of those in Morocco)
Wild camping 47.7% (167 nights in total)
Aires/Stellplatz- official serviced areas 17.7% (62 nights in total)
Staying with friends/family 11.7% (41 nights in total)

*Wild camping refers to unofficial overnight parking in an area without services and waste disposal.  We always looked for picnic areas, carparks, laybys for example and never parked on private land or near somebodys home.

Krakow, Poland- September 2013

Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria- September 2013

Luzerne, Switzerland- October 2013

Horse steaks for dinner, Italy- October 2013

Visas

When we left the UK we had finished our 2 year working holiday visa.  For our entire trip around Europe we didn't have nor require a visa.  Wikipedia provides easy to follow information on the rules for New Zealanders: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requirements_for_New_Zealand_citizens
But there is also official information on the internet as well.  We did find that the average immigration officier was not aware of the special rules for New Zealanders, but we were always given the green light once they became aware.  The visa waiver scheme for New Zealanders in the Schengen countries is a fantastic scheme and long may it continue!

For Russia, we took a ferry from Helsinki to St Petersburg under a special visa waiver scheme.  This allowed us up to 72 hours visa free in St Petersburg only, as long as we had pre booked accommodation and a return ferry paid for.

Casares, Spain- November 2013

 Casablanca vs Auckland Football in Agadir, Morocco- December 2013

Marrakech, Morocco- February 2014

What we spent

As you can imagine, being away for a year can be expensive so we kept track of all our costs using a spreadsheet on the computer.  This enabled us to breakdown our costs into different categories and find out where our biggest expenses were.  Although we were never able to splash the cash around on shopping and attractions constantly, we don't regret this and are very content with the range of pay and free attractions we saw.  As for shopping, our clothes and shoes got thoroughly worn, and there was plenty of mending going on, but these are material items at the end of the day.

So here are the figures:

We have two total figures.  The first includes our day to day spending: petrol, accommodation fees, food, clothing, laundry, souvenirs.  The second is our contingency money.  This included any van repairs and maintenance (rust and paint work in Morocco, starter motor, oil changes, tires for example), replacement of stolen items (computer) vehicle and travel insurance.  We also put our 2 night trip to St Petersburg in this category, as at a cost of 440 euro for the whole trip thought it would effect our overall averages.

Our total day to day spending for 350 nights away for 2 people: 12,910.56 euro ($20,807.30NZD)
Average spend per day (using the above total): 36.88 euro ($59.47NZD)

Our contingency spend totalled: 4,527.40 euro ($7,300.79)

Porto, Portugal- March 2014

An aire at Chateaudun, France- April 2014

Chenonceau Chateau, France- April 2014

We have calculated averages for each country, but the overall total is most important.  Some countries have unfairly high averages due to petrol and food prices (always stocked up in the cheaper country) and ferry costs (for example: the ferry to Estonia cost 120 euro and we stayed 6 nights).  Our average in Morocco was 22.19 euro a day.  Morocco was an ideal over wintering spot and also helped keep the overall costs down.

Our major costs of the trip were:
Petrol 39%
Food 19%
Public transport, ferries and parking 13%
Overnight and Miscellaneous costs (campsite and aire fees, clothing and personal items) 12%
Entertainment/tourist attraction fees 8%

These percentages are based on our day to day spending and don't include the contingency money.

We had a fantastic year.  The trip had its fair share of ups and downs but was an experience that we didn't want to end.  Bring on the next motorhoming adventure!

Walking in the Harz region, Germany- April 2014

Our trip back to England

From Mark and Dana's in Magdeburg we headed to Luneburg to catch up with Antje and David, whom we had visited last June.  We had a leisurely couple of days doing some cleaning and washing and visiting the town of Luneburg.  Antje and David kindly took us out for a meal in town.

On Wednesday we left Antje and David's and drove toward the ferry terminal.  We spent the night in a free aire near the Germany/Netherlands border and did the remainder of the journey the following day.  We took the 2.30pm sailing from the Hook of Holland, outside Rotterdam to Harwich, England.

We were about half an hour late in, arriving about 8.30pm.  We ended up being one of the last through immigration.  Dale answered numerous questions about our stay and we were allowed entry, so we now are in on a 6 month tourist visa.

We spent the next couple of days catching up with friends.  We caught the train into London from Hertford and walked from Moorgate station to Waterloo where we met my school friend Rachael.

St Pauls Cathedral

Big Ben and Westminster Bridge

Rachael and I

We also revisited the Grandison where we had worked over the winter of 2012/13.

 Waterford Heath- a reserve near the Grandison

From the Grandison we made our way to Hadrians Wall Campsite where we worked over the summers of 2011 and 2012.  We stopped for the night in a town called Ripon, which had a pretty town centre and Cathedral.  We completed our drive to the campsite the following day.  We are planning to get the van ready and be able to sell it from there.  We have done no preparation as yet to get the van ready for sale so a lot of work awaits.

Ripon Cathedral

Luxembourg and Germany- the Mosel region and Magdeburg

We had an afternoon of driving in order to get to Luxembourg city and arrived at the campsite on the outskirts about dinner time.  The next day we caught the bus into the city and had a pleasant few hours wandering the streets.  Luxembourg has changed hands many times over the course of history so there is now a mixture of old fortifications.

The city is extremely pretty and picturesque and we went crazy taking lots of photos.  It was a change of pace compared to the frantic nature of Paris.

The Bon Accueil campsite that we were staying at was one of our favourites of the trip so far.  It had good clean facilities, was good value for money and the showers were fantastic.

Luxembourg is a pretty small country so we made one other stop before heading over the border into Germany.  It was a town called Echternach which was right on the border.  On approach to the town a Police car came up behind us with flashing lights.  Assuming they wanted to pass we moved over to the right, but they passed us and indicated with their hand that we should pull over.  We weren't concerned as we knew we weren't doing anything wrong.  The officers were friendly enough and checked Dale's license and registration papers.  They said that had had problems with Romanians in GB registered vehicles committing thefts in Luxembourg.  We were soon on our way and had a wander around Echternach before hitting the road again.

Echternach

Our first stop in Germany was a town called Trier.  It is alongside the Mosel river, which goes through Luxembourg too, but this was our first look at it.  The town has some great Roman building remains, a very nice Dom (Cathedral) and a pretty shopping precinct.

We spent the next couple of hours following the Mosel river, which was very beautiful.  It is a major wine growing region (especially whites such as rieslings) and the vines are grown on steep hills where they can get the most sun.

Two highlights of the Mosel were the towns of Bernkastel and Cochem, both beautiful places.  We bought a lovely bottle of wine grown locally from Cochem as a present for Antje and David who we will see soon.

Bernkastel

Cochem

Our visit to the Mosel was a quick one as we had to reach Magdeburg by the 10th to see Dale's brother Mark and his wife Dana.  It gave us the opportunity to do some much needed cleaning and washing.  On the weekend we visited Halle, a town with lovely churches and buildings and where we climbed the Marktkirche St Marien tower for views.

We also had an afternoon hiking in the Harz mountain region.

We are to spend our final days in Europe with a couple of nights at Antje and David's in Luneburg, Germany, and then drive to catch the ferry leaving from just outside Rotterdam in the Netherlands.  We don't want our trip to end- but I think that is probably a good sign that we have had a great holiday.