What Did It Co$t?
The cost of our trip comes up now and then in casual conversation, so I thought I’d lend a few words to the topic. We talked to a lot of folks out on the road, often about the cost of traveling. Those with rental RV’s were the most hard-hit, with $1000/week rental fees busting the budget. Owners had it easier, but were still sensitive to the adding-up of various expenses. But all agreed that carrying your house around with you (RV, tent, whatever) was THE low-cost way to see the world.
So – – – we drove a gas-guzzling motorhome (Howie) towing a Ranger pickup (Ralph) a combined total of over 14,000 miles through Canada and Alaska. We spent over four months at this salubrious task, 140 days to be exact. As with most such travels, our major expenses were food, fuel, lodging, and extras.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Our total expenses for the trip were in the area of $16,000, or $114 per day on average. We stayed in Howie the entire time, living every day in about 160 square feet. (And “no” to the frequently-asked question, we never got on each other’s nerves.)
FOOD
We ate almost all of our meals “at home” in Howie, so I am not counting total food cost as a travel expense. However, the cost of food was higher on the road than at home, so there was some additional expense associated with food.
No, we didn’t live just on canned salmon. In fact, the higher expenses were often associated with fresh produce – – $8 for a head of cabbage in one case. I’m WAY too lazy to try to work this up accurately, so I’m going to estimate that we spent maybe $50 a week extra on food, over and above our normal home grocery costs. Call it another $1000 for the overall trip.
FUEL
Definitely the “800 pound gorilla”, fuel costs for our thirsty Howie were exacerbated by the high price of gas in Canada. We paid routinely in the $4/gallon range, and occasionally well up into the fives. It all added up to about $6000 for Howie and $1000 for Ralph, totaling $7000 for gas. I kept almost all of Howie’s gas receipts (for some odd reason), but there’s no way I’m adding them up. There are a few missing anyway…
LODGING
As you might imagine, having one’s house on one’s back does defray lodging expenses to a large extent. But honestly, we were used to even lower costs in the lower-48 than we experienced up north. I think we were shocked a bit by the fact that we very seldom were able to boon-dock (free camping). Unlike travel in the western U.S., where we are familiar and accustomed to using free BLM and Forest Service lands, in Canada and Alaska we were strangers to the territory. We stayed mostly in paid campgrounds, some of them quite nice, like our lakeside view of the double rainbow at Boya Lake – – –
– – – and we stayed in a very few private RV Parks, most of them quite non-picturesque, like the stacked-cordwood parking lot in Dawson City.
We paid anywhere from $12-$42 Canadian and $9-$35 Alaskan, with an average right around $20 a night or thereabouts. My arithmetic puts that at just under $3000 for all 140 days.
EXTRAS
We’re not big souvenir buyers, and we brought home very little in the way of keepsakes and memorabilia. A piece of whale baleen, some fridge magnets, T-shirts for the grandkids, that’s the kind of stuff we buy and it really doesn’t add up to much. The expensive items were the tours.
Those tours were well worth the money, but they cranked the total up quickly, at around $500-1000 for the two of us for each tour. But I have to say, these special excursions were in many respects the icing on the cake of our long journey:
- The Denali flight and landing in a small aircraft on a glacier (see that post HERE).
- The kayaking expedition at the foot of Bear Glacier while the ice was breaking up and rolling over right next to us (see that post HERE).
- The Lu Lu Belle cruise over to Columbia Glacier, and all the myriad sights and scenes along the way (see that post HERE).
- The unforgettable bears-and-fish trip to Wolverine Creek, across the Cook Inlet from Kenai (see that post HERE).
We had some repairs, essentially extra costs-of-operation, for both Howie and Ralph. The higher cost of parts Up North was pretty obvious: one item would have been $136 in U.S.-Amazon; in Anchorage, it was $256. Total repairs by me and other service folks, about $1000.
All added together, doo-dads, tours and repairs set us back about $5000.
SUMMARY
So that’s it, sixteen grand for the trip of a lifetime. Yes, it’s a lot of money, but we feel that we got WAY more than that from the experience. Considering what your typical 2-week fly-and-frolic vacation might run for two people, I’m thinking we’ve done very well. We sure would do it again.
There’s a baseline expense average, how much above and beyond what you would have spent regardless? May not seem quite as bad with that perspective.
Actually, I didn’t mean to imply that I thought it was expensive. In fact, we do generally spend less money on the road than when we’re at home. This trip, even with the larger cost of fuel, was no exception.
Greg and Karen..Welcome back in sunny and dryed-out California..
You are quite an author and fotographer!
I still can not believe that you guys went all the way to Inyuvik and then some..
I saved All the stories and pix in the comp.and hope to be able to use them
sometime soon…
Just wonder of the Sprinter RV I have would be sufficient?
Has a Mercedes diesel in it at 20 miles per gallon..
Hope to get together with both of you soon..
Regards,
Tony and Marlene
Tony, the Sprinter would have NO problems on any of the roads that we drove Howie on. In fact, the only real trouble was caused by towing Ralph, who received all of the damages. I’m STILL cleaning the dirt and gravel out of him 🙂
Thank you again Greg and Karen for sharing your wonderful trip. I am amazed by all of it and how brave you two were on some of those adventures and traveling on dubious “roads”. Your photo are spectacular and your write ups made me feel as if I were there. Am glad you are back safe and sounds. God Bless, Love, Irene
Thank you, this recap really helps. I anticipated higher costs for fuel, fresh fruit and vegetables, however, I never thought about the lack of boondocking opportunities, my favorite way to see the US. Guess I will need to save up/anticipate/plan for a few more $. Can’t wait!
Thanks for that report, as I said in an earlier reply, we are planning a trip next summer to Alaska. But we will be leaving from the east coast. So it was good to get a rough estimate. Safe travels to you all.
JBL
Very cool, you must ride a tandem to get along that well! 🌹🌻🌹