Here are a few of our tips gained over 15+ years of Continental camping and caravanning. We tend to 'van for about 5 weeks each summer.
We book our crossing with Norfolk Line Dover to Dunkerque via the Caravan Club. Bargain prices and beautiful ships.
We alternate shopping at French supermarches, where we buy their own lable products, with shopping at Aldi or Lidl. I came home with a boot full of Lidl's excellent Cidre du Normandie at under 1 Euro a bottle - a favourite tipple of mine.
We buy our ice creams from supermarche in family packs, own lable, or 1 litre containers rarely from ice cream shops.
Markets and some roadside stalls can be excellent places for cheap fruit and veg.
Like others have said we lunch on delicious baguettes with cheese, cold meats, salad, etc.
Enroute,when travelling long distances on autoroutes, we overnight at aires. (Yes I know some people think it foolhardy but we've never had a problem in 10+ years). We carry a little water in toilet and onboard tanks. We keep 'van floorspace clear and the bed made up ready and have tinned food which we can cook for our evening meal. Despite this I think we may try the Bison Fute routes this summer as we spent £200+ on tolls travelling to the Pyrenees and back up the west coast last summer.
We try to plan our journey to exclude the toll autoroutes, eg, it is possible to travel from Dunkirk to the Swiss border on toll-free autoroutes.
For route planning we use a Tom Tom Sat Nav which gives us the option of avoiding toll roads.
We take plenty of, easily washed, casual clothes in "dirt resistant" colours - enough for a fortnight and then wash in campsite launderette.
We carry leisure equipment with us to avoid hiring/buying, eg, bikes, table tennis, swing ball and petanique sets. We, also, take swimming equipment including snorkelling equipment and wet suits.
We buy French pay phone cards and buy French pay as you go sim cards for our, previously unlocked, mobiles for phoning in France. We use the phone cards for phoning home too.
We have free European Health Insurance Cards (E111 replacements) to enable us to get free basic medical treatment in the EEC. This, also, means that we do not have to pay the excess on our travel insurance for medical claims.
Hope this helps someone a little.
Happy 'vanning
Tim
------------- Tim and Cary
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The obvious stuff like taking packed lunches when travelling makes sense, there is no pleasure in eating at services in any event but if I could not go out for some lovely meals and stop for coffee or a glass of wine when wondering round a nice town or village I would rather stay at home. If I had to scrimp and save every penny it would not be a holiday for me.
Our way round the appalling excahnge rate is to go to Jersey this year and take a trip over to France while we are there. We visited Jersey 12 years ago and loved it, we have always intended to go back so this is the year.
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I don't think any of us are intending to scrimp and save every penny, but there are ways of having more money to spend on the things you want (food, wine, picnics, campsites) and less on the things you don't want to spend on (fuel, tolls, parking, phone calls, and other expensive incidentals). After all the cost of filling up at the cheapest fuel station in Calais would cost 92.03 cents per litre for diesel - the most expensive, on the autoroute between there and Paris would cost 1.19 euros per litre - 27 cents difference, or 16.20 euros for a 60 litre tank!!! Now that's 'Ways to cut costs in 2009'. Similar savings can be made in many French towns.
It makes sense for people to know about ways of saving money, even if it involves a day-trip from Jersey to France!
Just back from a week in the French alps. OK the prices are always going to be a bit dearer in ski resorts but WOW! I'm not talking coffee or vin chaud on the ski slopes (that was always a rip off) - it's just supermarket (and other) prices. I'd certainly recommend taking plenty stuff with you if you can. Beer is still a good buy in the supermarket but most other things are a lot dearer than home especially now that an E is close to a £. Lift passes were also up at E173 for 6 days in Megeve.
Cereal is about double the price here and fresh meats are dear too. Doesn't seem to be the price wars in supermarket trading that we have but they sure love s'market queueing over there!
Anyway, rant over - but I do recommend considering the various crunch tips above and elsewhere. Enjoy your usual indulgences in moderation but "go canny"
We save money on our journey down by taking two picnics, one for the drive down to the port and the second for the following days drive through France, we freeze the second one so by time it is needed it is defrosted and nice and fresh.
Also this year we will save money by remembering to take the items we forgot last year. i.e high vis jackets, spare buld set etc, only when we got to Portsmouth did we both realise they where still in the garage at home. £10 for a high vis jacket at the port ouch!!!
Karende
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We save money on our journey down by taking two picnics, one for the drive down to the port and the second for the following days drive through France, we freeze the second one so by time it is needed it is defrosted and nice and fresh.
Also this year we will save money by remembering to take the items we forgot last year. i.e high vis jackets, spare buld set etc, only when we got to Portsmouth did we both realise they where still in the garage at home. £10 for a high vis jacket at the port ouch!!!
Karende
Lidl is doing spare bulb sets at the moment -£3.99.
My sons have just come back from Les Contamines (over the New Year) and were quite shocked how prices for everything had risen - aside from the exchange rate! I think all of us will be coming back with less money, but perhaps some great tips on savings to be made!
My sons have just come back from Les Contamines (over the New Year) and were quite shocked how prices for everything had risen - aside from the exchange rate! I think all of us will be coming back with less money, but perhaps some great tips on savings to be made!
We had a lovely day at Les Contamines last week using our Evasion lift passes from Megeve. Some good runs there and lovely sunshine too which was a bonus. Hope you are getting better Val and not stir crazy at home?
I will save on fuel this year by leaving the van in the Loire valley between holidays in Spring/Autumn. I think it may be staying in French storage indefinitely. Storage is not as cheap as when exchange rates were better but the ferry and fuel savings (from Aberdeen) are not to be sniffed at and frankly we didn't use the van much in the UK anyway and it's a great excuse for 2 hols (as long as that is viable!)
I'll certainly be using some of the cash saving tips from this website.
------------- playing at tinkies
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Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Cutting Costs in Europe in 2009
