People often wonder what they should budget for a trip north, so I thought I would post the actual costs for our trip in June/July 2008.
We were away for 30 nights and drove 5,575 miles (8,970 kilometres). The rig was an F-250 PSD 4x4 pulling a 25' fifth wheel.
Not including souvenirs, our cost averaged about $155/day.
Cost breakdown in Canadian dollars:
$2,940 - diesel (for 1,960 litres or 518 US gallons)
$435 - camping fees
$260 - ferry costs (to get off and back to Vancouver Island)
$800 - groceries, pharmacy & liquor
$200 - oil change in Whitehorse
plus cost of our souvenirs
We paid an average $1.50/L for diesel. Most expensive diesel was $1.86/L at Klondike River Lodge near Dawson City, at the junction of the Dempster Hwy/Klondike Hwy. Cheapest in the Yukon was $1.49/L at the Yukon Motel in Teslin (after the RV discount), with Contact Creek Lodge being a close second at $1.50/L (after the RV discount).
When we traveled extensively in Alberta, BC, and Yukon in 2005, I do not recall a RV discount offer. Is this something new?
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2004 Ford 350 Super Duty 2W Dirve Long Bed PU
2008 327RLT Montana Mountaineer 35 ft. 5th wheel 2005 Alaska and other Trip Logs
I like reading your posts and travels, and especially the cost breakdown.
However, I always treat groceries, pharmacy, clothing, and liquor as no cost.
These are expenses that would occur at home or on the road.
Your thoughts?
johnna wrote: When we traveled extensively in Alberta, BC, and Yukon in 2005, I do not recall a RV discount offer. Is this something new?
Those RV discounts were offered by those locations only ... the Yukon Motel had a discount card that was circulated within a local travelguide (Bell's) and they also offered it to all paying to overnight in their RV park. The Contact Creek Lodge offered the discount to those that overnighted at the Downtown RV Park in Watson Lake.
At the Yukon Motel in Teslin, the discount they offered was 4 cents per litre. Contact Creek's discount was 2 cents per litre, but then their fuel was already reasonably priced compared to others.
There's also a freebie magazine available in the north, titled "The Last Great Road Trip". It has coupons in it for fuel discounts of 3-4 cents per litre at various locations: Rancheria, Carmacks, Dawson City, and several places in Alaska.
mockturtle wrote: Wow, $200 for an oil change! Seems like a lot. Is that typical?
That was the cost at Envirolube in Whitehorse, but ALSO included a fuel filter.
$105 oil
$10 oil filter
$6 lube service
$61 fuel filter
plus recycle fees and government tax
Beaker wrote: I like reading your posts and travels, and especially the cost breakdown.
However, I always treat groceries, pharmacy, clothing, and liquor as no cost.
These are expenses that would occur at home or on the road.
Your thoughts?
We consider food a cost that would be incurred regardless, although we were buying more than usual number of BBQed steaks while on this trip, and slabs of cow aren't cheap up north. What would be a $10 steak at home was a $15 steak up there. Groceries cost more in the Yukon, so I pack what I can from home and then keep track of the extra costs in the north.
This trip our dog had some tummy issues, so we had to buy some out-of-the-ordinary food for him. We paid about $150 in stuff for him, alone, due to the high cost of purchasing in Haines Junction. Again, good to keep track of as those are unique costs not usually incurred, but for which you must be prepared.
cewillis wrote: I'll look for your usual outstanding trip report on your web site.
I've almost finished sorting through and selecting from the more than 4,000 pictures I took. Will start creating the webpages soon. Looking forward to putting the photologue together and posting online. That way I have something to look at when the workday gets too frustrating!
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