We're planning on a 6 month trip, give or take. That's 180 days. Guestimating an average of $80 per night for hotel, including taxes and etc, that comes out to $14,400. Mark made me do the math twice because "that sounds too high."
Casinos generally let suckers - er - gamblers overnight for free in their parking lots, so if we got a mobile "home" of some sort, we could save big $$$ on hotel rooms. Then again, the 12-15 mpg on a camper (vs 30 mpg or so on the Jetta) doubles the price we pay on gas.
Say we drive 10,000 round trip in six months. That's 333 gallons in the Jetta, vs 769 gallons in the motor home. The gas in the Jetta will cost $965, versus $2,230, based on an average cost of $2.90 per gallon.
Then, there's dumping fees. Read: the cost of ditching the poo. Probably another $50 for the trip. Then there's a stay in hotel probably once every seven days for a shower. That's $2,057 for 25 hotel stays.
So: Car trip= $14,400+$966: $15,366
Camper trip= $4,000 (camper cost) + $2,230 + $2,057: $8,287.
Of course, we'd have to buy a big ass truck to haul a camper, which will cost also. PLUS: $12,000 for a truck (with trade in) brings us to $20,287.
Hmm. 
Or we could tow a small trailer with the car we've got. We could buy one for $2,000, and could probably count on an MPG of 20 in that case. We'd probably stay in hotels twice as often with such a small living space. So: $2,057 x 2 (hotel) + $1,450 (gas) + $2000 (rig)= $7,564. I'm guessing actually that it will be pretty hard to stay in a little trailer 5 days a week. More likely we hotel it three nights a week. If we do, the total comes up to $9,621.
Plus food.
Which way to go? Mark?
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Trip math
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14 comments:
your $80 per night in hotels could be high depending on where you go. In cities that's ok, but in places like Montana count on $50
hmm, what about an eco-friendly rail pass? you could cruise all over the country and just rent some wheels when you really need 'em.
just a thought... have fun!
Screw the environment, Donna, it's a road trip.
What are we supposed to eat -- "green" Doritos and Diet Cokes?
haha!
Just thought you might consider options that include showering more often than every eighth day!
cheers,
d.
How 'bout an old VW microbus with the pop-up roof. The girls could paint day-glo flowers on the side, so at least you'd have some hippie karma as you despoil the environment. And everyone would understand the aroma on No Shower Day Plus 6.
hey man, who said anything about no showers? These rigs all have showers.
all except the teeny one, that is...
You did: "Then there's a stay in hotel probably once every seven days for a shower."
I like Ed's idea. And we can get one of those old bumper stickers:
If the van be rockin don't be knockin
wow, what are you, an editor or something? Okay, to clarify, what i meant was, an extra special long and glorious shower, as opposed to the uninspiring crap showers you have to take when you're showering in the back of a truck. :)
Another idea would be to use truck stops. I have noticed on my trips up and down the east coast, that truck stops not only have gas and food, but showers. I have never used them, but it could be worth looking into.
Did you write off the Winnebago/Clipper-style RVs you described in the previous post? They seem like a good middle ground -- bigger than the campers and small trailers, and don't require the expense of a separate truck to haul a large trailer or mount a big camper. What do those numbers look like?
- Analyst Val
Just thought of something: an old neighbor of ours is a photographer and he bought a used VW Vanagon when he was traveling around the country working on a book project.
The Vanagon was pretty sleek (compared to most camper-mobiles).
http://www.vanagon.com/
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