Cruising a financially efficient way to see the world?

[gbgreen59]

For me, it is all about going places that you could not reach when using normal means of travel. Normal means of travel is constrained by airports, rented vehicles, and rented boats. I will have the freedom to go to remote places that have limited or no inhabitants, and stay as long as I can stand it. I can explore coastlines, anchor in atolls, explore cultures, etc. It is about exploring the Earth, albeit in middle latitudes. I can move where I want, when I want. Preparing for the "world tour" is a good bit of the excitement and satisfaction.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

Cruising on your own boat means that you have your home with you. I think it's the slowest way to travel 4th class, but what's one class amongst friends? ;-)

Having your own home with you means that you imprint your own personalities on your space, so it is very different from hotel & restaurant travel. After a while, all hotels seem the same: a bed, a toilet nearby, hopefully clean, but not-home. Your own boat gives you a sanctuary in which to recover after the energies spent in conversing in language not your native one, and being in foreign cultures with different customs can be both fun and tiring at the same time.

With your boat, you can stay in places and for a little effort, play the seasons and go back to where you want to visit. But most of us avoid the high latitudes. That part gets trickier, so part of your answer lies in how long you want to spend in which places.

I bet you could get on line with a list and an itinerary and get an idea of those costs. If you really love traveling, it could mount up pretty fast. It also depends partly on how new and what size you want your boat to be. In our case, our boat is the only home we have, so we don't have outlays for maintenance, except for the boat.

Ann

Nailed it.... home is always the same... comfortable, reassuring and familiar... one's back yard however, can be as varied and spectacular as you wish..

[Hard Rock Candy]

Your front yard can be pretty exciting too. I never got much of a thrill out of sailing Bluewater. It was either boring or too exciting. I mostly enjoyed the stopping in lovely and new, and interesting places. Some of them nobody else had ever been to, for all I could tell. Or the quiet and aloneness of some out of the way little Lagoon, to just anchor and swim nude in the Moonlite. I also enjoyed staying in a small village harbor, sometimes for months, until I knew where all the little stores were to buy my ice or my rum. Anywhere I went I could work on my boat with pleasure and comfort at the same time. Mac

[MarkJ]

Cruising is definitly the cheapest way to be a tourist. Note I said "tourist". Many cruisers are not tourists: they may be liveaboards; sedentary cruisers; frustrated mechanics and odd job people; adventurers, ect.

I am a floating tourist (though in the last 18 months been restricted doing boat upgrades). In all places I go accommodation is negligable or free compared to hotels even marinas are cheap. An expensive marina for me may be $100 per night but thats far less that a hotel, and more when you add in the requirement to eat out for all meals.

An example, i was in Manhattan for 3 months on a mooring for $26 per night (incl free shower and laundry!), the cheapest reasonable hotel room I could find on Manhatten was $400 per night. A young nephew came to NYC and stayed at the YMCA with his mates and paid $50 per night in a dorm of 50 men!

As a tourist I can afford to stay in a place for long enough to really get to know it, and tour it at a relaxed rate taking days off here and there.

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Hard Rock Candy

Or the quiet and aloneness of some out of the way little Lagoon, to just anchor and swim nude in the Moonlite. Mac

At most of the places we anchor, one can swim nude during the daytime... there's nobody there who cares or who can see you. Try that in a hotel swimming pool.

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

At most of the places we anchor, one can swim nude during the daytime... .

[Julie Mor]

My dad left Chicago in June of 1984 and took the ICW down to Florida then over to the Bahamas. He lived aboard for a year. He said he spent a little over $6,000 that year. Today that $6,000 would be around $14,000 or a bit less than $1,200/mo. I've seen claims you can bum around Europe for $40/day. I doubt that would be as comfortable as cruising.

Ken, one thing that would be different if I was in that video is I'd have the bimini and dodger down and I'd be at the wheel. Days like that aren't meant for autopilots and hiding from the sun.

[rwidman]

The most financially efficient way to see the world is by using Google Earth.

With the "financially efficient" part out of the way, cruising (in a boat) only lets you visit places near the water. And even when visiting towns and cities near the water you will pretty much just see the parts near the waterfront. You will have a hard time visiting Denver, CO by boat unless you haul it there on a trailer.

I think people cruise on a boat because they like to cruise on a boat. There are lots of nice places to visit by boat and if that suits you, a boat is a good option for some folks.

[valhalla360]

It all depends on your expectations and what lifestyle you are comparing it to. Cruising CAN be financially efficent or it CAN be lifestyles of the rich and famous expensive.

Assuming similar lifestyle and expectations, we've found it's all about the same cost wise between the boat, RV or an apartment. For example, our monthly budget on the boat is around $2500, same as in our RV. But this winter we are spending 3 months in Rome. We have a small apartment 200yds from the colesum (the nearest marina is around 45min by public transit). Our budget? still around $2500/month. We could probably trim that to $2000/month if we cut out the gelato.

Likewise, the large up front cost of a boat (or RV) becomes much more reasonable the more time you spend on it. If you buy a $200k boat and spend 30days a year on it, a top of the line hotel room is down right cheap by comparison. If you spend 365 days per year on it, it's much more reasonable.

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

My wife figured this out last season. The minimal cost for us to live in an inexpensive hotel ($130 per night or less) and eat in cheap restaurants or prepare our own food would be approximately $40,000 for five months excluding all travel and transportation costs.

On our boat, we spend less than $1500 per month on everything, diesel, food and local transportation. We do have the addition cost of the boat itself and the 7 month storage fee of $6000 plus any maintenance costs to incure. We can certainly spend more on the boat if we choose to do so, but we prefer to prepare most meals ourselves, anchor 99 percent of the time, and travel via wind power as much as possible.

LOL....

Here is the real costing Ken.

I can stay in any med country in an apartment for $600 or less a month.

Airbnb or equivalent is your friend for a beautiful apartment. I can eat out cheaply from $20 a day. In Spain somedays, I just have 3 or four beers and the free Tapas and thats enough....$8.

I just costed a 3 month stay in mainland Spain AND Mallorca for $2K including flights and transfers.

If I were a couple, just add extra airfares and a little bit more for food.

I dont have 500K tied up in a boat or ongoing maintenance costs or storage costs etc....

I can stay in Malta full board (with all meals) for $400 a month including airfare from London in a 3 star hotel. A lot of pensioners do this over winter, its cheaper than living in the UK!

When I came back to the UK after a 25 year absence, I spent 8 months traveling in France and Spain, plus Menorca and Mallorca. Total cost was 9k Sterling.

Boating is not cheap. However, it can be as cost advantageous if you want to be in exclusive resorts in the marina, or even cheaper, on the hook.

Personally, as Im not one for a large cruising area, Id stick a cheaper catamaran in a marina, and live on it when in Spain....... A years cost including elec, toilets, showers and a local cheap town for nights out is about $4k a year. (Its a base) Then from there, I have all of Spain, the Balearics, Gib (Vat free) all up to France and Italy and Islands in between to cruise. I dont see the point in paying 7K for half a year when a full year can be had for 50% less including amenities.

We boat coz we want to. But it is more expensive for a solo or couple given the REAL costs involved.

[Tessellate]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

the cheapest reasonable hotel room I could find on Manhatten was $400 per night.

Wow, you must not have been trying very hard then! I stayed for $250 in midtown Manhattan recently in a nice 4-star hotel, including free wifi. We could have found less nice hotels for a little under $200.

Of course it depends on one's definition of "reasonable" - if reasonable is 5-star then yes that price sounds about right. But I agree with the overall point - $26 on a mooring ball is way cheaper than any comparable land based accommodation.

[Bulawayo]

Robert Sailor says it nicely. We cruise with four children and have to watch the pennies. We also love to land cruise. It does not have to be expensive - you can minimise costs. We travelled all over western Europe one summer with a cheap vehicle that we bought and our camping gear (standup tents). We still have to explore eastern Europe. A few years we parked up in the Red Sea (Jordan) and toured Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Saudi. Incidently, people say you cannot get a visa for Saudi - it is possible tho'. We sold the vehicle after owning for two years and 'lost' $1300 having put over 20,000kms on the clock. We consider that good value and cheap travel. Of course you need to add the mooring fee's into the equation. We also explored Turkey on another trip - fightening petrol prices, huge fines for speeding (guess how we found that out) but fantastic places to go, no issues with camping, and the food........
We have spent years exploring the Indian Ocean and found it very economical. The Western Med and Caribbean are more expensive. We have met families who are on a two year sabbatical with a monthly budget of $5,000 whilst others get by on peanuts. Ours is long term cruisings and we live according to our budget.

[Group9]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Cruising is the water borne version of camper vanning..
drive/sail till you get somewhere you fancy stopping then you park/anchor up for a few days/weeks/months depending on what happens while your there..
When it gets boring you move on..
VW or Winnebago it matters not.. there's fresh faces and graces over the horizon..

I frequently describe our boat as a floating Winnebago when trying to explain the whole cruising thing. Easy for me to think like that because my mother and father were camper/winnebago-ers, from when I was about 11 until I graduated high school and left home. And, I continued to do that camping and backpacking through college. Cruising, for me, is like just about every family vacation I ever went on, except it's on the water.

[AgPilot]

I like to think of cruising as a lifestyle. Forget about the cost. You'll have expenses no matter which mode of transportation you choose.

[sardinebreath]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Cruising is definitly the cheapest way to be a tourist. Note I said "tourist". Many cruisers are not tourists: they may be liveaboards; sedentary cruisers; frustrated mechanics and odd job people; adventurers, ect.
.....

I don't see how that statement can hold up once you include the purchase price and everything you've spent on your boat while you've owned it. Yeah, you'll eventually get something back if you end up selling her, but nothing remotely close to what you've got in it. The cheapest way to be a tourist is probably to put on a backpack and hitch from hostel to hostel. That would cost some minute fraction of what it would cost to do it on a boat.