Aussie family saves $1,900 on three-week caravan trip over school holidays
Eulanda Ryan said she was outraged by the 'wild' cost of accomodation while living on the road with her husband and two sons.
What was once known as “a very true blue Aussie holiday” — a humble road trip to an unexplored location — has now become a luxury for many. Thanks to the cost-of-living crisis and caravan parks hiking their prices to appease the post-Covid travel boom, most families are on average spending thousands of dollars on somewhere to spend the night, traveller Eulanda Ryan told Yahoo News Australia.
Ms Ryan just returned home to the Sunshine Coast after living on the road with her husband Trent and their two sons, aged 11 and 12, for three years, during which they lapped the country twice. “Caravan parks now — you’re averaging $80 a night when you’ve got two kids. It’s wild,” the outraged 48-year-old said.
“They say it’s because the insurance has gone up, but they do this thing now called dynamic pricing so depending when you book your site, will be how much you pay for that site. So the busier they get, the more you're going to pay. And I think that’s what really annoyed me.”
It frustrated the mum so much that she vowed not spend a cent on accomodation for their last leg home — a three-week stint from South Australia to the Gold Coast over the recent school holidays.
And she pulled it off, saving the family $1,920 by staying in 12 different and “really incredible locations” for free. She came up with the figure by checking the prices of nearby caravan parks where they otherwise would have booked, which were roughly $95 a night.
So how did she do it? By creating a “community” of “like-minded” people who allow visitors to park their caravan on their property for no charge, Ms Ryan said.
Mum's sad encounter with family forced to turn around
Not long after becoming full-time nomads, the mum said the exorbitant cost of accomodation and the need for free camping was immediately apparent. One of the first families she met had spent three years planning for their epic adventure, only to have to turn around when the price of petrol increased.
“They had such strict budget. They budgeted so well that they could see they couldn’t actually complete it so they had to just give up and head home, which I thought, was really sad for the kids,” Ms Ryan told Yahoo News.
“It got me thinking, how do you reduce the cost of travel? You can’t do anything about fuel or food. Accommodation is your only adjustable expense.”
When “generous” other travellers began offering her family a place to park and stay if they ever made it over to their neck of the woods, it sparked an idea — a caravan site swapping club named Landavan.
“I wanted to help families travel longer, save money, and enjoy new adventures and meals with friends instead of paying high parking fees,” Ms Ryan said.
Aussies can rack up accomodation points
Through Landavan, Aussies can share or swap properties with each other — a your patch of grass for mine sort of situation. Members must add their own property to join, but it doesn’t have to be acreage.
“We stayed on a driveway,” Ms Ryan said. “As long as there’s enough room to pull up and pull an awning out. That’s it. That’s all people want and need.”
However, people should be aware of their local council’s regulations after a family of five living on the road narrowly dodged a hefty fine for parking on a friend’s lot last week.
Landavan runs on a point system. People can earn 200 points each night someone stays on their property and 20 points a day for leaving their calendar open for bookings. It costs 200 points to book someone else’s property for a night. So if you have enough points collected, you can potentially travel for weeks on end for free.
After a six month trial, membership costs $120 a year.
Free camp idea evolves into friendly traveller community
So far there are 180 properties across Australia, including a vineyard, but Ms Ryan said she hopes “to connect a whole lap eventually”.
“When I first started this, it was all about helping people to keep moving without paying a huge amount for caravan parks, but after a few stays I just felt like it was completely different. It’s actually an experience,” she said, describing fishing trips and dinners with those they have met along the way.
“I did not know that it would turn into more of a community than a free camp. I wasn't expecting that. It hit me like a freight train when I worked that out. This is a community with a bonus of not paying and having a free camp.”
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