Overland with Kids

Cost per mile: almost 0.83p (everything included).

Our actual spends for 144 nights:

22, 837.90 USD / 17,966.40 Euros / £14,726.52 GBP - breakdown as follows:

                  Euros    GBP (£ Sterling)   %
Ferries (x 5)    917.72      752.22    5% (100% Europe)
Diesel             2897.83  2375.27  16% (75% Europe)
Accomm         3614.39  2962.61  20% (50% Europe)
Visas              3106.21  2546.07   17% (3% Europe)
Food & Drink  4777.05  3915.61   27% (55% Europe)
Cigarettes         633.03   518.87     4% (96% Europe)
Other              2020.17 1655.87    11% (63% Europe)

Ferries (£752.22 equivalent to £5.22 per day for all of us or, £1.31 per person)

UK to Hook of Holland (significant cost), travelling to/from Curonian Spit (10 mins each way - insignificant cost), Romania to Bulgaria (15 mins - insignificant cost), Turkey to Ukraine (majority of cost but included four of us, both vehicles, 3 meals per day and 2 nights accommodation). Apart from UK to Holland cost - the remaining were avoidable if we’d been sensible and chosen different and more efficient routes (but, we didn’t want to do that!).

Diesel (£2,375.27 equivalent to 13p per mile (0.325p per person) or 8p per km (0.02p per person))

Fixed price regardless of number of people based on total 17,816 miles / 28,684 km covered to date. Total cost £2,375.27 divided by 144 days = £16.49 for all four of us per day or, £4.12 per person per day covering an average 123 miles / 198 km (per day). The more people, the better the saving and this has been in our case the most cost efficient area of our budget.

Accommodation (£2,962.61 - £20.57 for all four of us or £5.14 per person per day)

Based on the children’s ages, the weather conditions with ground tents, the suitability of wherever we were based or if e.g. we needed to cover a long distance, this would determine how we would sleep each night.  Apart from a couple of wild sessions further eastward, we camped in Europe virtually throughout but only at organised campsites. As we started moving out of Eastern Europe, this began to be interspersed with more and more hotel stays (two very expensive splurges occurring in St Petersburg and Moscow). In addition, yurts and a guesthouse in Mongolia, an apartment in Russia for a couple of days, homestays and helpx/wwoofing. Otherwise we have been travelling or rough sleeping in the car (mainly through Russia).  Summary so far: Camping (44 nights), Hotel (43 nights), Rough/Travelling in car (29 nights), Helpx/Wwoofing (23 nights), Homestay (3 nights), Ferry (2 nights). Accommodation includes all laundry fees paid at campsites or guesthouse (never used at hotels).

Visas (2, 546.07 - £636 per person but excludes Laos visa - we indicated that it was included in error in our last update)

Visas represent a huge cost out of our budget. A major factor being due to the same cost per child as per the adult.  Visas obtained so far are as follows:

1. Russian 3 month multiple entry business visa for each person (approx £300 per person - representing largest bulk of the cost overall)
2. Kazakhstan 30 day double entry visa (we didn’t need double entry but this was all we could obtain given the well-advanced timeframes we needed to arrange while we travelled Europe)
3. Mongolia - 30 day single entry visa
4. Mongolia - 7 day extension to make up shortfall in our dates while waiting China transit

Food & Drink (£3915.71 representing 27.19 per day for all of us or £6.80 per person)

This cost includes all alcohol, juice, water, drinks, ice-creams, supermarket purchases, sweetie & chocolate binges (many!), fresh fruit & veg, bread, milk, meat and all meals out. We average 3 meals per day and we have had several splurges as well as plenty of budget lorry / backstreet cafes to then simply a homemade sandwich in  the car. When camping - we do our own cooking. Overall a real mixed bag. We’ve also been eating more than we would at home.

Cigarettes (£518.87 based on 2 adults - 1.80 per person per day)

Other (£1,655.87 - averaging £2.87 per person per day)

25% of this can be attributed to sending a bulk of 9 boxes home via courier when we lost caravan. The rest is made up of all kinds of things i.e. deposit for China transit (approx £500) all tolls, car insurance, site fees, public transport, haircuts, shoes, gifts, postcards & stamps, essential items, small toys for the children, a go on the funfair etc. 

Summary per person per day

Broken down between four people this equals £3,681.63 per person over 144 nights (4.5 months).

Average cost summary per person per day (based on family of four):

Ferries £1.30 per day
Diesel £4.12 per day
Accommodation £5.14 per day
Visas £4.42 per day
Food & Drink £6.80 per day
Cigarettes £1.80 per day (based on two adults)
Other £2.87 per day

Destinations Covered

Over a period of 97 nights, we have covered a total of 14 countries through Europe, seeing everything we wanted and detouring where we pleased. We did not do a traditional ‘as the crow flies’ direct route and our travels took us as far as Eastern Turkey, to the Curonian Spit and the Crimea (none had been planned and were way off our initial track). A further 47 nights spent so far in Russia (again going off route for hundreds of miles while visiting deep Siberia), Kazakhstan (we went south to Almaty) and Mongolia (where we currently have approx 20 days+ left to tour around the country).

Bye for now

A, A, J and AJ

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Diary (Blog)