A question that is difficult to answer accurately. It’s like answering the question of how much to holiday by car. However, I will try to give at least an approximate example or calculation for motorhome camping and non-camping travel.
“The biggest costs of travelling by motorhome are diesel, motorway tolls, food and accommodation”
Food
Living in a motorhome is no different to living at home. You have your own fridge and a fully functioning kitchen. In the morning you make breakfast and make coffee. Then you make lunch, and spaghetti and ketchup for dinner. In the fridge you have your beer or Prosecco. If you don’t feel like cooking spaghetti and ketchup, you go to a restaurant for lunch and dinner
So it’s clear that you spend as much as you see fit on food. Except in Scandinavia and Switzerland, food is usually as expensive or cheaper than here, so you spend as much as you do at home.
However, if you eat out at Michelin star restaurants, you’ll easily spend hundreds of euros a day.
Motorhome consumption
A motorhome certainly has a higher consumption than a car. The motorhome is probably the worst off, thanks to its high air resistance. It also depends on how fast you want to burn on the motorway and whether you’re going to be hitting some three-thousand-degree highway somewhere.
Motorhome consumption will be somewhere around 9-12 litres, which isn’t too terrible. For me, it’ll eat up both the Westfalia Joker and the Z4 equally.
Highway tolls
Motorway tolls are higher in some countries for motorhomes, in some places they are the same as for a car. Hungary and Italy have higher charges. However, it’s nothing you can’t pay. Instead of paying €30 for a stretch, you’ll pay €40.
Tunnels
Tunnel tolls are mostly the same as for cars. At least we didn’t encounter any staggeringly high tunnel fees. Most of the time it’s under 5 euros.
Ferries
The price for a ferry is higher than for a passenger car. The price also depends on the total length of the motorhome. A van under 5 meters will have a smaller fee than a 7 meter motorhome. In the Nordic countries the price differences are quite significant, in the Mediterranean the difference is of the order of maybe 20 EUR.
Prices for campsites
I have already covered campsites in my article on travelling by motorhome. Motorhomes are booming nowadays, and campsite prices are therefore trying to be driven as high as possible. You can expect to pay between €25 and €50 per night for a campsite in high season, the more luxurious the campsite, the more expensive
If you want to save money on camping, go out of season or travel without a campsite and make more use of motorhome parkings.
It also pays that the further away from the centre of Europe you go, the cheaper it is. The less touristy places are also much cheaper than the more advertised ones.
Travelling by motorhome without a campsite
You don’t have to pay a euro to travel by motorhome without a campsite. There are a huge number of official and unofficial car parks in great places that are free. Filling up, draining water and toilet facilities are also many times free. So if you don’t want to spend anything on accommodation, you don’t have to. It’s up to you.
Summary
To sum it up in some simple terms, the actual motorhome journey is slightly more expensive due to consumption and motorway charges. However, the food and accommodation itself are cheaper than a hotel
“You can travel for a whole year for the price of living at home or you can spend a fortune in 2 weeks”
Working from a motorhome
So I don’t think travelling by motorhome itself is expensive. There are plenty of people who live and travel by motorhome for months or years. They rent out their apartment or house to finance their trip or beach life. The ideal is to have your passive income and enjoy travelling whether by motorhome, van or trailer full-time.
The last 2 years have brought many benefits for travel in the long run. I’m thinking mainly of telecommuting opportunities now. Working from home has become the standard and any sensible company has understood this.
So there’s nothing stopping you from having the luxury of living and working out of an RV and living in a beach town somewhere. Travel around Europe while doing what you’ve been doing
“Mobile Internet is available everywhere”
It’s up to you whether you want to travel like this for a month, six months or even a few years.