From Russia To Europe By Gas Sobol (How Much Does «russian Vanlife» Cost).

Every new user, that writes me a direct message almost always starts it with «I`m happy to find you! My family and I are dreaming about having a camper, but can`t begin to make this dream come true». You know, we were the same. Vanlife was our dream, to put it mildly!

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We started trips to Europe on our own by car 8 years ago. Seeing so many magnificent places, people traveling by campers, we however, stopped out thoughts at: «Yes, someday we`ll have enough money, will work online or open a business, than buy a Volkswagen...yes...someday it`ll happen!». But years were passing by and we still had no house on wheels.
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First wake-up call happened when we had a dog 5 years ago and our trip to Europe was accompanied by the thoughts to find the dogfriedly hotel for the first time. Many places took extra payment for dog. Once we had to spend a night in the car, with the spread out back seat of our Lada Granta (Russian brand). And you know what? We really enjoyed this experience! It was quite convenient and had no limits in moving. If you want to stay longer somewhere, you don`t have to worry about housing.
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At the same time, these nights in car didn`t take us closer to having a van. But the roe, that we`ve met on the highway in Minsk after two-weeks tour to Barcelona, did. I`m not gonna do into details, because it`s a bitter pill to swallow. As a result — we came back to Russia safe and sound, but the bill for car repair made it pointless.

I asked him: «What for?» And he answered: «We`ll go to England, where hotel is too expensive for us. We need a van!». And I agreed.

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Firstly, we`ll say about car:
Make: GAS
Model: Sobol
New/Used: Used
Year: 2009
Motor: Chrysler
Price: ~ 4 700$
Width: 1,84 m
Length: 2,4 m
Height: 2,2 m

The first thing, that we`ve done was to remove two rows of seats and build the framework for future bed. We are lucky to be rather short and that`s why we can use quite small mattress (120x180 cm) and put it transversely within the сar.

1. Mattress with waterproof cover, ~ 80$. (online store).

2. Twelve litre biotoilet (34*43*40 см.), ~ 72$. To tell you the truth, we didn`t use it every time. We need bio toilet just for urgent situations, therefore we choose the most small and cheap version. But the selection process made us suffer. It was real fun when Vitaly tried to explain to me how long we can use this toilet between refills. I think you`ll agree with me that it`s hard to imaging, how many times you can use the toilet to reach the 12 litres volume. Moments like this make me feel angry about my craving for planning budget and calculating details. But we had to count the quantity of the necessary set for the full functioning of the toilet. All this, including the toilet, is sold in Leroy Merlin Store. We also bought there a special decomposable toilet paper (~ 5,5 $ for 4 rolls) and a set of liquids (~ 19$).

3. Single burner gas tourist tile, ~ 22$ (Decathlon). During our trip to London we spent 6 gas cylinders of 220 grams.

4. Autorefrigerator (online store). Our most effective purchase! This is a 30-liter compressor refrigerator. It was produced in a Chinese factory and bought by us for ~ 408$. Please, don't tell me it's expensive, it's almost my month's salary. But it is comforting that European analogues of this volume and characteristics are almost twice as expensive. And it has a freezing option (not on the Peltier element). The first day required airing from the smell of plastic, now it is not felt at all. It is possible to set the temperature from +20 to -20. However, the stated -20°has not yet been achieved. In fact it reaches -17° for 4 hours from the moment of switching on. We think, It doesn't make much noise. And the noise is not constant, as it comes from the compressor, which is periodically turned on to maintain the set temperature, but it keeps well.

5. Small metal sink, ~ 43 $ (Ikea).

6. Garden sprayer, ~ 11 $ (Leroy Merlin).

This cool tool can be used instead of installing a water supply system (this better to be done, we just didn`t have enough time). But you have to pump it manually, however the girl can handle it! On the road we used it to wash our faces, dishes and body parts separately and the whole Cube (our Yorkshire Terrier).

7. Battery and 220 volt converter, ~ 162 $

8. Autonomous diesel heater, ~ 154 $ (Aliexpress).

9. About trifles: a folding set of dishes and gas cylinders (Decathlon), a set of fasteners, self-adhesive insulation roll 21*21*60 cm (~ 6 $ ), mosquito net (~ 4 $ ).

All this was put together just in a week, but truthfully, we did it three days before our trip to Britain! Some boards, a piece of linoleum and some fabric for curtains lied on the balcony. I still don`t understand how all this pile of stuff turned out to be what we have long dreamed of and could not decide to do.

Watch a video review of the camper on Youtube (youtu.be/3GM52WFjhH4).

The stops on the route were: Ivanovo — Moscow — the border of Belarus/Latvia (Grigorovschina/Paternieki) — Gdansk and Sopot (Poland) — Delft (Netherlands) — Netherlands/UK border (Rotterdam/hull, 11 hours by ferry) — York — Edinburgh-Liverpool — Manchester — Sheffield — Nottingham — Canterbury-Calais, France (ferry crossing) — Quedlinburg (Germany) — Torun (Poland) — Poland/Belarus border (Slovatyche/Domachevo) — Moscow — Ivanovo

A little over than 8 500 km and 25 days holiday.

During this trip, we kept track of expenses and we are ready to share the results with you:

1. Documents: health insurance (for two, for Schengen and Great Britain) — ~ 52 $, documents for a dog — ~ 4 $ for the F1 certificate (russian veterinary certificate), 30 euros for the inspection of the dog in the Netherlands, 30 pounds for the inspection of the dog in England (without this inspection and the seal in vet. passport you could have a real problems at the border), car insurance: ~ 71 $.

2. Travel expenses: petrol — 952 liters and ~1 031 $, ferry (including cabin, car and dog transportation) — ~ 294 $ from Holland to England, ~ 140 $ from England to France.

3. Campsites — ~ 109 $

4. Products (including chocolate, beer, sauces and cheeses that were smuggled home) — ~ 264 $

TOTAL: ~ 2 027 $ (excluding visas).

We have no sponsor or an uncle, but we have a freeloader in the form of our dog.

To be honest, we are two ordinary managers from the small Russian city of Ivanovo. But we travel a lot, both in Europe and in Russia. We also like to travel in neighboring regions, because we have so many places to see in the district of the «Golden Ring» of Russia.

We can afford it thanks to extra and part-time work. Extra work, by the way, also gives you extra time for your vacation.

On working days, we don`t live in luxary, because we prefer trips abroad to expensive clothes. So now, I wear a jacket that I`ve bought 7 years ago, but I do it in Barcelona or Edinburgh.

However, the last six months we haven't been drive away. We saved up money for improvements to the motorhome: we want to set wheels lock and gas. To tell you the tragic truth, we were preparing for a trip to Portugal in April 2020, but covid-19 has broke up our plans.

If you`ve ever dreamed of a van, do not postpone the idea! And it is not necessary to be a freelancer employee or earn 100 thousand a month.