Heading out for our five month Western Canada road trip last spring, many people asked us ‘but how can you afford that?’ and ‘that must be costing a lot.’ The truth is that our trip actually cost a lot less than our normal day-to-day living!
In each road trip update, I shared an approximation of our costs, but never the full amount. But now is the time to reveal all.
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Total road trip costs
Our entire five-month trip around Western Canada and Alaska cost $7000 including all of our living, transportation (gas, insurance, maintenance) and attraction/activity costs.
Canada – a pricey road trip destination?
Regular readers may remember us mentioning managing to stick to a budget of $10/day total during the first couple of weeks of our road trip.
For the most part, I think we would have achieved that if everywhere had been the same cost as Vancouver Island.
The price of gas and food in Northern BC and the Yukon took us by surprise; we knew it would be expensive, but it was above even our highest estimates.
In practice, the amount per head actually was $26/day for living costs for the both of us (no gas, vehicle insurance and maintenance but everything else).
While this amount was triple our original budget, less than $30 for two people is still not excessive by any means for travel in Canada.
Canada may be one of the most expensive countries to travel in but is surprisingly cheap to explore if you provide your own accommodation and enjoy Canada for all of its natural attractions.
Free or low-cost accommodation in British Columbia, the Yukon and NWT
The biggest travel expense on our trip was accommodation.
Sleeping in our converted Astro Van and tent camping gave us so much flexibility and saved a lot of money.
Over 157 days, we camped for free 112 times or 71% of the time. The other 29% was made up of 29 nights in paid camping/accommodation and 16 nights staying with friends.
One of the main reasons we were able to camp for free so often was British Columbia’s amazing Recreational Site network. Hundreds of no-fee basic campsites exist all over BC and I honestly think if we hadn’t gone to Yukon we would have just camped for free for the entire five-month road trip.
In Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories, we did a fair bit of ‘wild’ camping and stayed at unofficial campsites.
My favourites included several spots along the Dempster Highway and at the top of Dawson City’s Midnight Dome.
Often, we paid $12 to stay in the excellent Yukon Government run campgrounds. The $12 charge to stay at these clean and well-organised campgrounds was well worth it. There was always a lot of free firewood available and most had communal cooking shelters.
Exploring Canada for free
Canada’s biggest appeal is the natural attractions on offer, and luckily most of these are free. Our main day-to-day expenses were food and water rather than admission to attractions.
A few of our backcountry trips involved some fees but we tried to limit these by either visiting before the charges came into place (hiking in Cape Scott Provincial Park in April, Desolation Sound in May) or choosing off the beaten track adventures over more popular paid ones (Yukon River paddle, Rake Mountain hike). We did make a couple of exceptions though.
The biggest paid trip we did was the Hot Springs Cove tour in Tofino; we made an exception since it would have been difficult to get there under our own steam.
I persuaded Jean Robert to hike to Grizzly Lake in Tombstone Territorial Park despite the camping fee since it was the hike I wanted to do in the Yukon.
Our biggest road trips expenses in Canada – both the inevitable and avoidable
Without a doubt, our single largest expense was gas for our Astro Van. We knew we were never going to have amazing fuel mileage from it (though it does do well for a vehicle of its size and age) and budgeted as such.
Gas costs brought total spend per day to $44.50.
Something we didn’t budget for was the astronomically high gas prices that particular summer, especially in Northern BC, Yukon and Northwest Territories.
Even before heading north it was pretty expensive, with prices in Vancouver averaging at $1.50/litre. At the time of writing, it is now $1.05/litre!
The highest we ever saw was $1.89/litre in Inuvik, NWT. But it was the Arctic, so pretty understandable.
Our Canada road trip priorities
An area of expenditure where we could have saved money was in food. We found that we both like cooking and eating too much to have gone down the beans-and-rice route for daily meals.
Some people like to make sure they always have beer in the fridge; we always like to have good food!
If we had been truly committed, we also could have avoided a handful of expensive restaurant meals too.
One thing that definitely did save us a bunch of money though was having a 10lb (4.4kg) re-fillable propane tank (similar to this one) to power our two-burner stove. The initial purchase may not have been cheap, but we used it the whole summer and paid less $10 total to refill it!
How to travel Canada for cheap
In conclusion, it IS possible to travel Canada on a relatively small budget.
We spent $44.50 a day on our 30,000km road trip for accommodation, food, insurance and gas.
The only expense that this figure does not include is the original cost of our vehicle.
The secret to exploring Canada cheaply is:
- Utilise free camping whenever and wherever possible
- Enjoy the natural scenery and limit paid attractions
- Cook own meals most of the time
- Stick closer to the border for cheaper gas!
- For those prepared, try backcountry trips (hiking, paddling etc) out of season
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One half of the Canadian/British couple behind Off Track Travel, Gemma is happiest when hiking on the trail or planning the next big travel adventure. JR and Gemma are currently based in the beautiful Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada. Consider buying us a coffee if you have find any of our guides helpful!
Sounds like a wonderful adventure – and no matter what, adventure does cost money! You managed to be thrifty, tho, while setting priorities. Thanks for sharing. I love the pics.
Hi Lorraine,
You are absolutely right! And I think priorities is an important part of it. We met other people who ate very basic meals but always liked to have beer on hand and/or more trips to restaurants. Each to their own!
Great tip on the propane tank. Was it easy to refill (any gas station)? and did you need an adapter to hook it up to your stove? This is getting me really excited for the upcoming conversion, lots to consider – especially as I’m not planning on driving this one into the ground like the last!
Joe
Hi Joe,
Yep, really easy to refill! We actually got one fill for free since it was only a value of $4 or something. It honestly felt like never ending gas sometimes, we used it so much but there was always more! We bought an extension hose and adaptor, I’ll take a photo next time I’m in the van for you. Seriously, that propane tank was the best thing we bought on the trip! We used it to power a gas light too, though that was more tricky to set up.
Hi,Love your article.I am however wondering how u managed the van insurance? i came to canada with a similar idea but insurances here are crazy!
Thanks! We pay around $130/month for insurance on our van in BC, which works out as $5 a day.
Just wow! You’ve inspired me! I’ve been thinking of doing a trip like this but the hardest thing is to find people to do it with. I move to Canada for the working holiday next year and this will definitely be the first thing I do. Just gotta find someone with a vehicle 😉
Thank you for sharing!
Thanks Sallt! Have you thought about buying your own vehicle? Let me know if you need any more help, Canada is an amazing place to explore
Hi! My sister and I are roadtripping across Canada beginning in August. Thank you for the tips on free camping. I am scouring trying to make this as cheap as possible and camping is a huge expense. We’re in a Honda Fit so sleeping in the car is not our first choice – though it will happen! I’m from Ontario so I’m used to $50 a night campsites. I’m glad to see this isn’t necessarily the case across the country. Excited to read more of your adventures. Thank you!
You’re welcome Kathleen! I’m glad this article helped you. Definitely get your hands on a copy of the Backroad Mapbooks wherever your journey takes you – the $25 to buy each edition will go far in helping you find free camping. Have a great trip!