European road trip - how much to budget?

[steve51800]

Small savings can be made by buying vignettes in advance fo the countries you are visiting. I booked all my hotels in advance, using booking.com all were free cancellation if our itenerary changed. Can recommend villa schwaiger in Prague, the steakhouse was unreal. I researched fuel costs beforehand, made sure I entered holland both ways with enough fuel to travel through, arrived in Czech Republic with less than 1/4 tank as I knew that had the cheapest fuel on my trip. Other than that it was down to wise choices of coffee stops and meals.

[gtidriver]

Quite a few of my border crossings included stops for vignettes, i bought month long ones just incase i wanted to travel back through them.,it doesnt cost much more, Also take copies of all your documents as these will be asked for at most border crossings. I drove about a third of macedonia on the hard shoulder as the roads are that bad,80mph speed limit but potholes that would rip your wheels off. If your going France to Spain buy a sanef card, this will be debited from your account the following month, so it shifts that expense. Get a charge free/fee free current bank exchange rate credit card. Halifax clarity card is what i use but theres others. European breakdown cover is an absolute must, i dont even travel to Calais for a day trip without it. I think i came across 3 uk cars that had broken down on my last trip, none of them had any cover,crazy fools.

[logit]

gtidriver said:

France Belgium Luxembourg Germany Austria Hungary Serbia Bulgaria Greece Macedonia Serbia Croatia Slovenia Italy Switzerland Germany Luxembourg Belgium France England. 4515 miles in total, we left the uk via p&o ferries from Dover this was done in a BMW E91 320d We didnt book any hotels enroute to where we stayed in Greece, my budget was around €100 per night to include breakfast, if the place we stopped at was more id haggle the price down, only our last night in Switzerland did i pay more as a massive storm was on its way and i needed to stop.

Gtidriver, that sounds like some trip! I'd love to do something like that. How long did that take you? Do you have more detail of your itinerary or the exact route you took? Is there anything different you would do if you had to do it again? Many thanks

[gtidriver]

logit said:

gtidriver said:

France Belgium Luxembourg Germany Austria Hungary Serbia Bulgaria Greece Macedonia Serbia Croatia Slovenia Italy Switzerland Germany Luxembourg Belgium France England. 4515 miles in total, we left the uk via p&o ferries from Dover this was done in a BMW E91 320d We didnt book any hotels enroute to where we stayed in Greece, my budget was around €100 per night to include breakfast, if the place we stopped at was more id haggle the price down, only our last night in Switzerland did i pay more as a massive storm was on its way and i needed to stop.

Gtidriver, that sounds like some trip! I'd love to do something like that. How long did that take you? Do you have more detail of your itinerary or the exact route you took? Is there anything different you would do if you had to do it again? Many thanks

It took us about 2 and a half days to get to Greece, the route was what tomtom suggested so pretty much drove straight just through the countries ive already mentioned, we stayed at Alexandroupolis which is up the north of Greece. My piece of st tomtom took us into a slum in Greece, proper scary that.
Last night i was chatting to the wife and we are going back there again next summer, my Scandinavian trip will have to wait. We are going for a longer time this time so maybe 3weeks, we are driving to southern Italy visiting places enroute then crossing to Greece from Bari, not sure on our route home yet. We have friends who stay in Greece for the school holidays so we have free accommodation. I will book some hotels to keep you costs away from the holiday.

[crossy67]

Really, I would avoid the south of Italy at all costs. Not nice at all.

If you're riving across Greece try to go via the monasteries at Metiora, great road to them and stunning scenery.

[gtidriver]

Details are very sketchy at the mo, but as a rough idea:

- Two people (wife and I)
- 3-4 weeks (will be staying in some places for 2-3 days)
- About 3k miles: South France, Italy (Como, Milan), Switzerland, Alpine passes etc.
- Haven't chosen car yet, but assume it will average 30 mpg (petrol)
- Will mainly be staying in b&bs (airbnb) and budget hotels. Perhaps with a few nicer hotels as a treat along the way.

What I need to budget for (anything else?):

1) Fuel
2) Euro tunnel crossing
3) Tolls
4) Accommodation
5) Food
6) Spending money
7) Breakdown cover

Any thoughts and advice would be most welcome chaps

[/quote]

Our last trip..

1) Id say i did £500 in fuel, id let it get to about half tank then fill up. 320d so around 500-550 miles to a tank Id say fuel averaged out at around £1litre over all.Looking at my statement i did about £400 in fuel.

2) Ferry was £160 but could have got it cheeper booking earlier.

3) I think i did around £150-£180 in tolls/vignettes. To get to Monaco is around £110 in tolls. It would have been quicker for me to drive up from Italy through France but i choose Switzerland/Germany. A nice little bonus was as we drove on the last toll of italy the barrier was up so we just drove through.

4) Nothing booked, just stopped at hotels and asked if any rooms, if yes what was the price and was there any discounts available. We did about £500 in hotels but some included dinner, most expensive was Switzerland.

5) I carry a jetboil so we could cook food at fuel stops. Normally we would graze on fruit and sandwiches as we drive. Some of the hotels we stopped at had restaurants as well so that was evening meal sorted.

6) Whatever we needed, most stuff was paid for on my credit card though. I tend to carry €200 and about £500 in cash just incase as well.

7) My BMW was under warranty still so had the european cover included, i did buy AA cover through Eurotunnel a couple of years ago, i believe it was around £95 for a full years cover, things have changed now and its different zones that you pay for, cheaper if going to say France/Spain more money if visiting say Greece as well.

[torqueofthedevil]

£ 200 a day sounds loads!! Did south of France once but stopping off all the way down and back up. Didn't spend anything like that. Didn't book anywhere in advance and therefore not only found good deals but added to the fun and found really nice, and different types of places, not just generic expensive chain hotels. We'd park up and normally look for tourist info and go from there. For example - in San Tropez, most places were costing so much per night we initially thought they were monthly rental costs! However, found a great little hotel with a balcony over looking the port for €55! Other places we got amazing little b&b's etc.
I'm thinking of another road trip for 2017 - Germany, austria, Switzerland, Italy, France and will take the same approach.