Is Vanlife Becoming Too Costly?
Is Vanlife becoming too costly – what do you think? This is the question we’ve been asking ourselves recently, after price hikes in what was once a cheap as chips way to travel.
It’s not just a bit of grumpy middle age stuff kicking in. For the first time in 20 years motorhoming, we’re beginning to see some hefty price hikes upon us.
Ok, so the initial investment of buying a van has always been a steep one, but once you made the leap, the travel part was really not expensive at all. Having said that, motorhome prices and even a basic van are getting beyond ridiculous – there are big money tags on those windscreens!!
Cost of Ferry routes
So, let’s start with this month’s findings – yes ferry crossings! We never thought we’d pay £900 for a ferry crossing to Spain, but this is exactly what we’ve done and that’s without a cabin.
That’s because shorter ferry routes are now so expensive. Add more toll price increases, fuel, mileage etc and it now makes the Portsmouth – Northern Spain crossings as cost effective alternatives for heading South.
We can’t believe prices for a Eurotunnel are now around £350+ return and £250+ for a Dover ferry and these are just standard crossings. Have you seen the price for flexi? Well, that’s another story!
Not only are crossing prices high, but it’s all providers. Also, the day of travel or time of year seem irrelevant in the search for a better price. The only concession appears if taking a crossing at an unpopular time of day, when no one else wants to!
Even then, there’s not too much drop in price to justify the hassle of no sleep.
To put it into perspective, up until the lockdown era, we paid between £120-£150 return for Le Shuttle. I think the most we ever paid was £170 return.
In fact, we never really took a ferry at all. Simply because the ease, speed and price of the Eurotunnel was ideal. That didn’t stop us comparing prices with a ferry, usually a Dover-Calais crossing was about £60-£80 return.
Tesco Clubcard Voucher decline
The other big advantage for a tunnel crossing was Tesco Clubcard.
Yes, going back a few years and the big Motorhome travel “know how” was exchanging Tesco Clubcard Vouchers for a tunnel crossing. That’s because every £10 of voucher was worth a fantastic £40 on the Channel tunnel.
Crikey – do you remember those years? This was such a good deal, so much so, that we regularly got 3 tunnel crossings a year with vouchers alone. Only paying a small supplement to make up the difference, usually a maximum of about £20, sometimes none at all.
Like all good things, it wasn’t to last. The deal was to change to every £10 of vouchers giving £30 on the tunnel. Ultimately, this has gone down again to a measly £5 being worth £10 for the tunnel. It’s hardly worth the effort of logging in!
Toll increases
It’s not just the ferry routes that have us asking is Vanlife becoming too costly, but Toll prices too. Last year, Tolls in France went up by around 4.75% whilst this month they go up again by about 3%.
Our own Toll bill from Nice to Calais in November was £140.00 for the one-way journey at the end of our trip. By the way, we use the Emovis-Tag which is a really good option for ease of using toll roads.
Emission Zones
Another obstacle to navigate is emission zones. In France, for example, navigating the “Zones a Faibles d’Emissions” or emission zones means having a Crit Air Sticker or risk a fine.
So, although it isn’t expensive to apply for one, at just a few Euro, it is costly if you don’t have one and enter a zone or enter when you’re not allowed. The fine is currently €68 for a light vehicle or €135 for a heavy vehicle.
The worse part is knowing if you’re in or about to enter a zone! For example, we mistakingly took a wrong turn for the by-pass at Marseille, ending up in the “zone”. This is the main reason we have a Crit Air Sticker. For those “mistake” moments rather than deliberately driving in a city.
But, this is about to change, because any town in France with a population over 150,000 will soon be included in the emission zones.
It’s not just France of course, as we were to find out in London a couple of years ago. Yes, we got a ULEZ fine after leaving Crystal Palace Club Site – despite us being exempt!
Overnight Stops – Is Vanlife Becoming Too Costly?
It’s not just crossing the channel that’s increasingly costly, but campsites fees are going up too.
Although you can stop on Aires in France and other countries in Europe, more are fee-paying. Costing anything from €10 to €20 per night depending where the motorhome parking is. If you’re off-season, you may find some cheaper options.
The number of free Aires is decreasing and wild camping becoming more difficult across Europe as countries clamp down. Mainly due to the surge of motorhome users and vanlife vans now on the scene. Although there are “free spots” to find, there’s more and more vannies wanting them too!
Here in the UK, where Aires are rare to say the least, our local authority near Snowdonia have just begun trialing an Aire type scheme. The nightly cost is £16 and £3 for the service point -probably not as cheap as many would like.
Compare that to some campsites though, where prices can be £40 or £50 per night in Summer.
Price of motorhomes and vans
Finally, without trying to write too much despair – have you seen the price of motorhomes and vans recently? Yes, after touching on this in the introduction, seriously – motorhomes are so expensive. With prices between £60,000 upwards to £200,000 and beyond, there’s some very deep wallets to be had.
This incredible hobby and fabulous way of seeing the world, is almost becoming out of reach for so many.
Perhaps it’s cheaper to buy an actual holiday home abroad instead. After all, isn’t that what us Brit’s used to do before the mass trend of motorhome and van travel?
Finally, will we ever consider selling up and travelling some other way? Let’s hope not, because we just love everything there is about this wonderful way of travel, even if it’s not quite as reasonable as it once was!
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