Caravanning vs Chalets: The Calculations
To work out the cost difference between caravanning and staying in chalets we calculated the costs for a year of holidays based on the following factors:
A family of four consisting of 2 adults and 2 children, managing to get away for a December holiday consisting of a 1400km drive and a 2 week stay and an April holiday consisting of a 600km drive and a 1 week stay.
Accomodation costs were estimated at R1000 per night for the chalets and R280 per night for a caravan site.
Fuel consumption as tested at 11.4 l/100km for the Hilux 3.0 D4-D 4×4 by itself with the aircon on at 120km/h and at 14.8 l/100km while towing the Conqueror Companion at 110 l/100km. The Companion was loaded as you would for a holiday.
The interest on finance for the caravan was based on a R200 000 loan and came to R54818.10 over 5 years. We a did not take depreciation into account as caravans do not lose significant value if well maintained.
Servicing costs were estimated at R1300 per year.
The totals came to R26 824 for the chalets and R25 839 for the caravan. Generally the more you travel and the longer you stay, the more cost effective the caravan becomes.
You can download the spreadsheet here and insert your own figures to customise the calculations to your own situation.
Chalet vs Caravan calculations in Apple Numbers format
Chalet vs Caravan calculations in Microsoft Excel format