What does a road trip through Europe cost?
Let’s talk money, honey! It’s perhaps the most common question about our road trip: “How much does a road trip through Europe cost?” or “Isn’t traveling through Europe extremely expensive?” So, we’ve gathered and analyzed all the expenditures and laid out for you exactly what we spent on our last two European road trips.
60 Euro Daily Budget
We usually stick to a maximum daily budget of 60 euros. This includes groceries, tolls, gas, accommodation, attractions, etc. For the camper life, it’s quite a generous budget, but we do enjoy a drink and eating out. We also park at a camper site or campsite almost every night. We love wild camping, but as we still work a lot on the go, we rely on electricity every day and it’s not possible to charge all our devices using our solar panels.
Cost of Gasoline & toll roads during our road trip
The largest part of the budget went towards gasoline: in total 970 euros. Per day just over 19 euros. We could have saved a lot on this. Not only is gasoline in both France and Italy quite high, but we also covered considerable distances during this trip. If you drive a bit slower, the daily costs for gasoline will, of course, be much lower.
Because we sometimes wanted to get to our destination faster, we also decided to take toll roads more often. In total, this cost us 115 euros. The largest part of these costs went to the crossing from France to Italy. We had to go through a tunnel, which cost us 65 euros.
In total, gasoline and tolls cost us €1,085.61 during this Europe road trip. That’s 30% of our total budget.
Cost of Eating Out in Italy and France
It became clear during this road trip that we love to have drinks and enjoy good food. Especially when going through the expenses. In total, we spent €879 in two months on breakfasts, lunch, dinner, and drinks. Oops… that’s quite a lot and, after gasoline, our biggest expense right away. On average, this amounted to €17.59 per day.
Normally, these costs are somewhat lower, but this road trip also felt a bit more like a vacation, which is why we had a drink and a snack almost every day. We certainly enjoyed ourselves. Tip! If you want to save some money but still enjoy a drink, go for a picnic on the beach.
You can, of course, save a lot more on this. However, I’m glad we didn’t do that during this trip, because the road trip was more than perfect.
Cost of Groceries during the road trip
Even though we had drinks almost every day, we still ate with much love at the camper quite often and for that, of course, groceries had to be done. In total, we spent €801.49 on groceries. On average, we spent €16 on groceries per day.Groceries in Italy and France are not very cheap. Slightly more expensive than in the Netherlands. We also often decided to get a somewhat more luxurious cheese and a slightly more expensive wine. After all, you are in France and Italy and you have to enjoy the culinary delights there.
Cost of Camping & camper spots
During our road trip in Italy and France, we stayed at a camping or camper spot every day. On average, we spent 15 euros per day on camper spots and campsites. These were often small, simple camper spots.
In total, we spent €798.70 on campsites & camper spots.
Other costs
Then we have other costs. These are costs we incurred for Buddha, attractions, washing, parking costs etc. In total, we spent about 150 euros on other costs. On average about 3 euros per day.
2 months of road tripping, what did it cost?
In total, we made a road trip of 51 days, just under 2 months. In 2 weeks we made a road trip along the west coast of France and then we drove on to Italy to drive all the way from the north to the Puglia region in the south of Italy. Normally we drive a bit slower, a maximum of 2-3 hours at a time.
However, due to Corona, we had to adjust our route considerably. For example, France suddenly turned orange during our trip, so we decided to drive straight to Italy in one go. As a result, the costs for this Europe road trip ended up being slightly higher than expected.
In total, the trip cost 3733 euros. About 73 euros per day.
Overview of costs for 2 months road trip
- The total cost of the road trip through Europe was 3733 euros
- On average, we spent 73 euros per day
- On average 2220 euros per month
| Total | Per day | |
| Fuel | € 970.01 | € 19.02 |
| Groceries | € 801.49 | € 15.72 |
| Camping | € 798.70 | € 15.66 |
| Other | € 150.00 | € 2.94 |
| Toll Roads | € 115.60 | € 2.27 |
| Dining Out | € 879.56 | € 17.25 |
| € 3,733.16 | € 73.20 |
Did we meet the budget or not?
Nope, unfortunately, we did not meet the budget this time.. While we usually are quite good at this. This is mainly because we had less time now and because of Corona, we sometimes traveled a bit hastily. Also, France and Italy are not really budget destinations. Could it have been cheaper? Absolutely! Were we in the mood for this? NOPE!
Despite not meeting the budget, I’m quite happy with the end result. 73 euros per day is pretty decent. The trip was wonderful!
