Trip Calculations & Costs for a summer at Ceuse

Total Mileage (Sheffield to Ceuse return, plus any driving while around the area): 2200 miles (3520kms) - +/- 50 miles

Total number of nights: 38 (5 - 1/2 weeks)

Total cost: €900

A few different people emailed me asking what the costings were for a trip to Europe so I thought this was worth putting together briefly to give an idea. Hopefully it’ll inspire some people to take their own adventures, especially as it’s probably as much if not more expensive to stay at home!. For any prices that are variable (e.g. petrol/diesel prices which vary on country and location of purchase - for example, it’s more expensive at the petrol stations on the motorways in France), I’m going to use the higher numbers as it seems to give a more accurate reflection of the eventual costing of my trip. Note that this journey is from driving from Sheffield, UK, so if you’re flying/driving from other locations it’ll have a factor on your costs - Ireland, sorry but you get nailed for a really expensive ferry crossing (about 350 Euro one-way I believe for the direct to France), or else drive through the UK (cheaper).

In total in the 38 days of the trip, we did a total of about 2200 miles. It was 898 miles going via L’Argentiere La Besse to Ceuse, and about something similar on the way home considering we went back via Paris. On average, that works out about 57 miles per day if you spread out the total driving - not as low as I’d like I have to admit, but pretty good in general. Obviously, if we’d doubled the length of the trip and kept the same weekly mileage while there, it would have worked out as 34 miles per day - justification for a longer trip if you ask me ;)

As you can work out we did about 400 miles in 5-odd weeks (so 80 miles a week average) while there - this included drives to the big lake for swims, drives to Orpierre and trips into Gap for shopping, etc. As you can see above, this is what the car averaged on the way to Ceuse. Interestingly, it was closer to about 58 miles per gallon on the way home - the campsite at Ceuse is at 1300 meters so I guess it’s because there’s a climb up onto the Alpine plateau which is all downhill on the way back.

Tolls are the hidden cost through France, it costs about €60 Euros from the top of France to Ceuse, the equivalent to a tank of fuel. We guess-timated that it cost about 2 tanks (I’m rounding up here, it’s probably closer to 1-1/2) at a cost of about €45-60, and tolls and food which brought the complete total to about €250 each-way.

Once you’re there, it’s then cheap. Campsite costs €5.20, so €36.40 per week. Then you’ve cooking gas costs and food/drink. We were on an MSR petrol stove (cheap!), a one-liter bottle did us for two full weeks so nominal cost for this. Food works out about €50 a week. You’ll then probably have a trip to the Pizzeria (you are on holidays! :) so an extra €15. So guaranteed, weekly living is €102.

You can then add on an extra €10-20 or so for the all-important croissants and ice-creams on rest days, etc. - rona of protein in ice-cream if that helps you justify it all ;)

TOTAL COSTS FOR 5 WEEKS

- So......with the drive there and back, that’s a total of €250 per person (€125 each way).

- Then for 5 weeks of accommodation, food and drink, it’s €510.

- Factor in some additional spending like the all-important ice-creams, croissants, coffees on rest days and that’s an additional €100. I’ll round it up with other miscellaneous purchases (E.g I bought a new harness) to €150

A grand total of €910.

Not bad for five weeks living in Europe eh?

Side notes: You could upgrade at Ceuse to the mobile home or caravans. They’re pretty basic, but obviously have four actual solid walls and a roof in comparison to the fabric of a tent (the only time it’s really worthwhile is when the rain is chucking it down). This will push up your cost for accommodation by €2-3 per day (so a total of €105 over 5 weeks), but you can offset some of it as this will include gas for cooking on (they all have a cooker) and electricity for lighting (so savings on batteries if you don’t use rechargeables - why not if you don’t?!?!?!). We didn’t bother this year - a 4-person tent from Decathlon is more than sufficient :)

Hope that helps :)