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On a budget through europe On a budget through europe
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TRAVEL Hints and Tips Post your TIPS to travellers - all the interesting little tidbits you learned on the road about packing, where to get stuff, and how to cope with problems. Please make sure the subject describes the tip clearly!
Photo by Hendi Kaf, in Cambodia

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Hendi Kaf,
in Cambodia



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  #16  
Old 25 Oct 2016
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Couchsurfing and bush camping indeed.
Some countries/areas have dedicated wild camping spots

E.g. Bivakzone - Overzichtskaart
and https://sites.google.com/site/paalkampeerders/kaart

For camping I have two strategies:
1) camp somewhere out of sight where nobody knows you're there
2) camp with permission in a location with social control (e.g. on the village square)

Never had any problems (except from the once in while friendly forester urging us to break up camp at 6 a.m.)

Eating: I often prepare lunch in a thermos can. bring some rice (oats, patatoes, whatever...), vegies and oil to a boil, poor in the thermos, and it will cook while you're on the way. Get's you a nice hot lunch for pennies.

As said above, cooking your own food doesn't expose you to local quisine as much, but neither does McDo or many road side restaurants. I'm sort of forced because of allergies. And yes, I hate having to miss out on that.
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  #17  
Old 31 Oct 2016
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I would concur with some others here. If you do 100% of your own cooking, you will miss out on a huge part of what makes seeing all these wonderful places unique and terrific. I'd suggest modifying the trip to include more local foods if possible. I don't know if that entails increasing the budget for food, shortening the trip to put more money towards eating at some restaurants, shops, and vendors, getting couch surfing hosts to cook for you, or what. One of my favorite parts of being other places is eating all the different foods areas specialize in.
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  #18  
Old 1 Nov 2016
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John933 View Post
2018 is a long way off. How long are you going for. What time of the year?


I've tried doing what you have in mind. The problem comes when trying to pack all you need. Some cheap hotels are not much more than a camp site for two. So mixing hotels and camping could be worth looking at. Go south as soon as you can. Warmer weather, and the money goes a lot further.
John933
Yeah, its long time until 2018.
The reason to plan so far ahead is to get the chance to save some days of from work.

Im planning to do this in may or june.

Since reading all comments above i have done some research for hostels and airbnb places.
Also looked up the couchsurfing site.
The CS sounds quite interesting for my idea of seeing the real europe on budget.
That kind of living gives me also the chance for meeting new people/friends on my way through europe.
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  #19  
Old 17 Nov 2016
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Get a simple petrol stove, you'll always have fuel with you in bikes tank.
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  #20  
Old 15 Jan 2017
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Smile The budget
Quote:
Originally Posted by leevtr View Post
Er...probably because some people cant afford it ??

Many people would only be able to do a week away if doing hotels & restaurants every night, or 4 weeks on a budget. Is that difficult to understand ??

I think your response is a bit short sighted mate, with all due respect.
Hi ya
I am looking at doing this sort of trip myself.
I can see it's all about the budget, but can you inform me on what sort of budget to be looking at.
IE
From the cheapest side of life.
Form living it up

Thank you for any advice you can give me
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  #21  
Old 16 Jan 2017
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30-200€/day
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  #22  
Old 16 Jan 2017
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Quote:
Originally Posted by francs View Post
30-200€/day
At the lower end it does depend on how much you are willing to seek alternatives for. You could (for example) ride a 125 that does 100+mpg and err ... get your fuel at midnight, sleep in the open and cook your own food from stuff you brought with you (or starve). That would be pretty cheap (if somewhat restricted).

With €30 /day you'd be able to go legit - €10 for fuel, €6-8 for basic municipal campsites in France and the rest for supermarket purchases.

At the high(er) end €100 - 120 /day would get you a passable hotel, a tank of fuel and a choice of restaurants. Beyond that it just means more or better. Once you've gone past the €2-300 /day mark maybe you should be leaving the bike behind and taking the Ferrari
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  #23  
Old 17 Jan 2017
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Exactly
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  #24  
Old 12 Apr 2017
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisFS View Post
Everyone has their preferences when travelling.
I like camping sometimes but not always. It isn't the cost that draws me to it but the whole idea of setting up a tent, putting the stove on, lighting a small fire and chilling somewhere fairly quiet. At other times I need a bed and a nice room but the combination of the two options makes it more of an adventure.
yup, camping is exciting
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  #25  
Old 17 Apr 2017
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Wild camping may be cheap but it tends to make you feel like you're just 'passing through'. You don't meet anyone except gas station cashiers, you cook food you've brought with you, and you spend your evenings out of town away from people trying to avoid being spotted.

Travel costs EUR .05-.10 per km for fuel (depends on your engine, riding style and fuel price) not counting maintenance and wear and tear, so for example if you were doing 200kms in a day you would need to budget EUR 10-20.

Compared to that cheap hotels and cafe meals aren't big bucks. Maybe consider alternate nights camping and hoteling? I know what you mean about the GS and credit card brigade and I understand the desire not to break the bank but I think you'll miss a lot if all you see is the road and a few woods.
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  #26  
Old 17 Apr 2017
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I agree that constant stealth camping can be isolating, but for me I think even with 5x the budget I would still travel in that same fashion. There's a bit of a trick to it, but it is possible even in the densest parts of Europe. However, though I had many magical stealth campsites in Europe the majority were purely places to sleep. When I am travelling alone in Europe I will pay to sleep only one or two nights per months, the rest is couches or stealth camping.
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  #27  
Old 19 Apr 2017
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The cheapest way would be wild camping I think. You will save a ton of money on it.
Also you should buy a good GPS and always try to avoid traffic to save your fuel.
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  #28  
Old 20 Apr 2017
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Not really, if you got caught, you could camp 10-20 days for the price of fine.
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  #29  
Old 24 Apr 2017
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mbay View Post
The pics you see is a brand new R1200GSA with all the latest accessories.
You see fancy dinners on pricey restaurants.
You see nice hotels.

I don't want that.
Well, I'm not so sure I would agree with you on everything you said.

For sure, I would not want to have a brand new R1200GSA with all the latest accessories, because everyone would then mistake me for a German dentist.

But as for the fancy dinners and nice hotels, what's wrong with that?

------

On a somewhat more serious note, to attempt to answer the question that the original poster raised:

Hostels are available in many communities, they offer you a warm and dry place to sleep & have a shower and meet other like-minded people for a very low cost. Camping out is fine, but after a few days, you might want to take a break and stay in a hostel for a change.

You can spend as much or as little as you want on food. For budget planning purposes, consider that whatever you spend on food when you are at home will be the absolute minimum you can get away with when you are on the road. You might want to increase your 'at home' food budget by perhaps 100% to allow for the fact that you won't be able to cook (at a campsite or hostel) every meal that you eat.

Michael
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