Take Your RV To Europe
by Adelle Milavsky
















If you want to know what it is really like, go to our website www.rv2europe.com, where you can read
our letters, trace our journeys on our maps and see the pictures we've taken on our travels.  If you
want to understand the roads, get the vehicle to Europe, evaluate the campground facilities, and learn
all that we've learned in our three trips, you can read our book, Take Your RV to Europe.

My husband, Ron, and I have toured Europe in this fashion three
times and plan to do it again shortly.  That's why we can say with
certainty that there is no better way for two people to really see
Europe.  Remember, in an RV there is no packing or unpacking,
no schedules and no pressure to leave until you've exhausted
the possibilities!

When you think about the costs, consider these facts:

  • Shipping our RV from the United States to Europe in 2005 would have cost US$4,500 round trip.
This price is only a fraction of what it would cost for three months of hotels (even if you consider inexpensive
hotels and bed and breakfasts), and a minimum of two meals eaten in a restaurant every day.

  • The least expensive lodgings must cost two people $100 a day.  The campground fees in most
European tourist cities will be about $23 a day.

  • The fact that the RV has a functional kitchen makes it possible to prepare meals at home instead
of eating in a restaurant all the time.  That's one reason why this kind of travel is the least expensive way
to go.  Staying in hotels will force you to eat in restaurants for a minimum of two meals a day.  If you are in
an RV, you can eat out whenever you please, or you can eat at home for exactly what it would cost you to
eat if you were really home.  Even better, you will be able to purchase exactly the same wonderful food that
Europeans eat at home and nothing is more fun than food shopping at open-air markets or specialty stores in
Europe.

  • The motor home serves not only as a hotel room but also serves you instead of a rented car.
Although this saves the rental charge, it means that your vehicle will use more fuel than the tiny cars that
are usual in Europe.   Which brings up the cost of fuel.  The cost of each individual gallon of fuel will be
considerably higher in Europe than it would be in the U.S., but distances in Europe are very small and you
will not be traveling every day.  That means that your total gasoline bill will be comparable to touring in the
U.S.  To illustrate, let's use our first RV trip around the U.S.   It lasted about 73 days.  We traveled 11,500 miles
to see the Four Corners area and the coast of California, Oregon, Washington and Vancouver.  The average
of 160 miles per day meant that we often spent many hours traveling from one sight to another.  The
following year we traveled some 80 plus days in Belgium, Holland and France and covered only 4,500 miles.
That was true in our next two trips as well.  On average, we have traveled only about 50 miles a day on our
trips in Europe.

  • There are other advantages besides cost.  Campgrounds in the U.S. are routinely sited in rural
settings.  RV'ers need to drive even to buy groceries.  In contrast, campgrounds in Europe are within
the city limits of all the big cities, including Paris, Amsterdam, Rome and London.  These campgrounds
always have good public transit so their visitors can hop a bus or tram and get into the tourist attractions.
Think about staying in Paris for $27 a day or Rome for $30.  We did just that in 2005.

This kind of travel does require two people for a couple of reasons.  While one person drives, the other
needs to navigate.  And traveling is better with a person with whom you can share the experience.  In our
case, Ron drives and I navigate, but any two people who get along with each other and like to travel would
experience the greatest trip of their lives.

Finally it does not require two languages.  Most Europeans can speak English and signs on European
roads are not difficult to decipher.  The only difficulties in driving are in understanding the rules or learning
to drive on the wrong side of the road in the UK, both of which are easy to figure out.

It's time to start planning.  See you there.

Adelle Milavsky
Author ~ Take Your RV to Europe
www.rv2europe.com


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Consider the possibility of touring
Europe's great cities comfortably,
affordably and at your own pace.  If
you can spend two months or more
visiting Europe, it can be done quite
easily in a motor home.