Thanks for the overview really liked how you set out the “real” cost as some on KZfaq seem to have fairy money that pops out of the glovebox to fund these trips. Well done Mark

Awesome video, thank you. We have a 3 year lead time before we take off indefinitely. We have started the project of putting things in place for us to be absent, so videos like yours help a lot.

wow good to see the real cost come out guys, but all passions will cost you, the return on investment is the life long memories for you and the kids. That is priceless. Love ya work cheers from 2 west aussies in Saudi Arabia

Great work, we did a 7 month trip in 1980, it would have cost less than $5000. The dearest fuel we saw was 44.5c, and I was horrified. The whole trip done with a bank book, no credit cards or mobiles. We used to save 20c pieces to ring home on payphones. The van cost $1300 and the car $2500. We made a profit when we sold the van. Our last trip of 3 months cost about $8000. 16000kms and fuel was by far the biggest cost.

The most honest and realistic channel around 👌- the $ add up quickly 😳

Thank you for your full breakdown. You show that it can really be done on a budget and the fact that you factored in everything. Your memories that you’ve created are priceless and from what we’ve seen you didn’t skimp because of money. Like you said you did the things you wanted and that’s ok. Also you are correct the best camps were the free ones!

Love the honesty. Like you said right at the beginning. Alot of people do cost videos and only mention the on road costs. Not preparing or loss of income. Ive travelled shit tonnes of aus and know exactly what it cost. Your video was bang on with what my cost are. Obviously theres person costs and that kinda stuff. And i love that youve used the old patrol. Im running a 2003 landcruiser. And would never think of buying a new car to do a lap The shear out lay on a new vehicle would blow my budget clean out the water

So nature, down to earth and honest. Like the fact that you covered everything, fuel ,food, entertainment, loss of income. Gives an accurate real cost to life not just now but also into the future (loss of super). I was surprised at some of the costs especially maintenance. Thought it would have been higher considering the km you traveled. Well done. Very much appreciated the vid....All the best for the future !

Great vid guys!! Just a note, there is 100% FREE and safe camping at Coober Pedy 😁 don't HAVE to pay for van parks there if you don't want to. And it's very possible to travel all year round....have been for 4 years straight now, just need to be smart and follow the weather. 😊😊

Watched your video for the second time. Great to see full budget. We are now in our 4th wee, of our big lap and the expenses are higher now

Awesome..thank you for you honesty. Won't show my wife this as she would back out if she knew the actual cost.

Hello, ummm kids! Hey we are in our sixties four years on the road, hubby is a mechanic but we have $1400 per month and that is driving two vehicles and towing two trailers and boat rego as well. We eat three good meals a day plus have a wine with dinner. You can do the lap cheaper without children lol. Great videos. Stay Safe.

A great break down of the cost. And you don't need fancy equipment to explore and have a great time. Great to see your number of subscribers increasing.

The most real people on the tube👍 legends🇦🇺🍻🔥

Hi Adam, Thanks for the breakdown of everything for your adventure. I can work out my budget around. I love how you guys did it and also now you guys have the precious life memories. :)

My wife an I did 3 months on long service. We didn't go forward or backwards during our trip. We had no money saved, except for fuel and the odd experience cost, most of our living costs stayed the same or went down.

Thanks for that Vid. It is really surprising how much it does really cost. its not just as easy as hooking up the van & taking off for a lap around Aus. 🤠

Well done on the breakdown of everything. Also good job breakdown on the big ticket stuff.

Taking the leap to leave a job is big, but always rewarding. I made a leap last year and it’s been the best thing. Ended up not leaving my job cause they let me work remote, and I have now proven I can do it so they are happy. Spent two months up in FNQ and now in SA and each place gets explored on weekends. And I live like a local when doing it.

We really enjoyed this ep your honesty is refreshing🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

A very real and comprehensive budget, guys, well done. Every young person that is thinking of spending their house deposit or has a personal loan to do their 'lap' needs to watch this.

Extremely well done! Budgeting is always the hardest part. When people ask me how much it costs to overland I always ask "How much do you have?" Because that is exactly what it costs! If you don't have a lot, you spend less. If you have more, you will spend more. It's the difference between a cuppa, a slab of beer, or a bottle of Dom Perignon when you are on the trail. It is a general rule of thumb for international overlanding that the average cost for 2 people together is in the ballpark of 1500-2500 US dollars per month. And that is for absolutely everything from shipping containers, visas, fuel, repairs, food, park fees, etc. And it doesn't matter where in the world you are traveling, it's still the same. You can also figure it to be about 1 USD per mile (or about 1.20 AUD p/km for all y'all down under!) That takes into consideration going at a slower distance pace and using less fuel per day. I'm lucky enough to have survived reasonably intact a career in the Forces so I get a retirement. That's about enough monthly income to cover our travels (except the initial vehicle cost and prep). My misses is about to take a year-long sabbatical from her work so we can travel southern Africa in '23 -'24. We will rent the house out, stick everything we own into storage, and ship the truck and camper trailer in a container to Capetown, SA. Is it worth it? Oh, dear lord, yes! Traveling is actually much less expensive than most people think it is. And it's absolutely priceless for your kids! And I have no doubt you are already in the dreaming/planning/deep thoughts and daydreams phase of the adventure ;-)

And I'm struggling just to save money to head out on a weekend. 1 can only wish. Good job guys

Thanks for the info. Well done on your travels.

Hi guys, great breakdown of the trip... something I should look at doing. It'll probably frighten the h..l out of me...lol!. My repair bills were a bit higher although still within budget. My principal is to think of a number ...then double it. I too looked out for bargains prior to setting up my vehicle. A bit of haggling here n there kept the businesses honest. ..and doing the work yourself...saves a substantial amount of money. The way I see it now, after travelling, the costs only matter at the time. It's nothing better, to get out there and do things, that is so passionate to oneself. As a matter of fact.. I'm leaving Broome town tomorrow... venturing off to the NT for a new start. Whole new adventure ahead! Anyhoo..thanks again,Adam and Larissa, for the informative video. Cheers guys!

Hi Adam.We thoroughly appreciated your breakdown of what it cost. We are semi retired and luckily no mortgage. Covid however hit my business and last year being over 70 I found myself in lockdown. Anyway we have our van being upgraded with lithium batteries and my old RC Colorado is being prepared. We are planning more small trips. And in May heading for Oodnadatta, Williams Creek, Coober Pedy and Alice Springs. Thanks 😊 again and keep up your episodes We thoroughly enjoy then.😊😊

Love your summary and the realness of your experience and the fact that you followed your dream as individuals and as a family. Life is precious life is short.

Good breakdown of the budget and including house mortgage etc. I guess the vehicle and camper are always going to be unknowns with regards reliability. Even new can have issues. Cheers guys.

It's refreshing to see an honest account of the costs involved, including the opportunity costs. My Father, as a retiree, did two separate trips around fifteen years ago. As a former businessman, he was accustomed to projecting accurate costings and was surprised at the number of people that he came across in his travels that were simply delusional about the costs involved with many choosing only to assess their fuel and caravan park bills. One thing that struck him at the time was the number of mature aged people he met that had sold up everything for a "life on the road" only to find that after a couple of years the novelty had worn off and the reality of aging was setting in. It was a sombre reality check for them that the housing market had appreciated, their vehicle and van had depreciated and they'd spent a good percentage of the proceeds from the sale of the family home. This all added up to them having to return to a much less luxurious life than they'd enjoyed only a couple of years before, and with no furniture or homewares! No doubt you both considered this in planning your trip and I bet that you are very glad now that you did. In todays market that could have been a decision that saved you a couple of hundred thousand dollars or more. Thanks for the content.

Showing the reality of a big trip well done guys. As u said gear doesn't have to be the most expensive.

I love that you said ages ago you would do the budget breakdown and then not only did you do it but did it so honestly and thoroughly! Well done guys!!

Thank you again for another honest and insightful. Review I liked the fact that you take ownership for things that go wrong as well as things you get correct. Looking forward to your continued success in your roles as influences in the caravan camping four wheel driving community. Hope to be sharing the road with you one-day soon doing tag along with you .cheers

Love the new look GQ. I was shattered when when my GQ that I had spent a lot of time on preparing for a lap got written off. We just finished a full lap in our 02 4.2 GU which I sort of planned on selling after our trip but I don't think i could part with it now. It's the reliability, solid diffs and lack of electronics that i love.

A great and really informative video. Thanks for that. 😊 The costs for many of the items on your big trip will of course not be spent for future trips, like your trailer, etc. So unless you buy more new gear, those costs won't be there in the future. meaning more affordable adventures ahead. 😎

Actually spent more on alcohol than fuel on one trip. The car was particularly good on fuel, but still did 30,000 km. Best holiday ever.

This is the best video I've seen to help me with my thoughts on heading off for 12 months or so. Still deciding but this really helps.

memories have no money value but oh so precious. plus if you ..WHEN you do it again youre already half way there with the van and car..lucky buggers make the most of it

Informative thanks guys great job

Great insight 👍 Yep….a lot of $ for 6 months, but a lifetime of memories for 4 people. Not all of us are as adept ( or inclined to do )as Adam. With the vehicle maintenance, if you weren’t doing it yourself , would the planned trip have been interrupted by having to find local mechanics, dealers etc Stay safe Cheers

Thanks again for your brutal honesty. I totally agree, get out and do it while you’re able as you never know what’s around the corner. I’m old school like you in liking a written out budget, not an app. I even used to like opening the old bank book to see the balance. Showing my age. 😆

well-done ! great break downs !

Thanks for your breakdown.everyones situation is differet but many people around your age are in the same boat.Ive enjoyed your whole series and its good to see that your not waiting on retirement but ,like us are doing things as you can afford and you are still healthy and most importantly ,your kids are getting to spend irreplaceable time with their parents.Keep up the great work

Nice work Lovely Ep,

Great show guy’s and thanks for the break down. A very good point that Larissa made was that you were servicing your vehicle and doing repairs yourself and for many that can’t it would of added thousands to the budget. I’d hate to think what a late model vehicle would cost to service in remote areas. Cheers Scoot

Hey, just come across you guys it's good to get a honest's unsponsored realistic breakdown of what the cost is to travel Australia. Not everyone wants to sell their.... future nest egg (house) just to wonder our backyard. Keep up the great honest work 🤙

Appreciate the honest and openness. Including mortgage and all the extras. How was alcohol an overlook? It’s alway on my list, but I don’t have a problem the beer is attracted to me. Here’s to more videos appreciate it guys

I did a lap of Australia on the cheap, 25000km, used a cheap toyota seca, free camped, bought food in supermarkets etc, I did it in 1 month and in total, cost approx $5000, obviously not the ideal trip but saw most things I wanted to, nothing interior, but it was well worth it and was great to see parts I hadnt seen before like the nullarbor, West coast etc, cookstown, cairns....

Thank you. Love the honesty and what a lovely family.

Thank you, we are currently 6weeks into our 6 month trip, and listening to you has helped. Cheers Dennis

Hi ALHJ, we love your travel series- it's authentic and its what an average family will need to do when they consider taking an extended family trip to see the this great country. We are based in brisbane, like you. We are planning to do a 2 x (3-4 months) trip over 2 years. FNQ and Vic trips can be done as 2x6week trips to in other years - helps to give the family something to look forward to for the next 4 years and also more agreeable with our employers. Sorry to say, but one thing I will make sure, is to do it in is a more reliable trailer and car- not the latest "look at me" fancy camper and kitted out zombie fighting 4 wheeler. I would hate to repair car & camper on the side of the road (servicing is ok but time taken away on sourcing repair parts, repairing in hot air doesnt appeal). Information session like these video helps enormously in our planning process- thank you

Thanks for a great breakdown - we wish we had done the trip when the kids were younger....now they are finishing high school we will have to wait a few years - but then we will head off!

Really interesting. My thought with the cost of food and alcohol is that even if we didn't go on a trip, we'd be spending money on those things during that time anyway, probably a lot more money. So they'd be general living costs no matter where we were. The only true cost would be the price of the vehicle, gas, camper, camping fees, and repairs. So it's great to see it broken down like this.

This was something I had been wondering while watching the series, so thank you very much for the honest breakdown. I would love to do the same, but the cost of time off work and mortgage repayments is the biggest roadblock, even for just a few months. Also, the wife is not a camping type (likes her hotel rooms, luxuries and clean clothes every day). I need to do some shorter trips around SE QLD to try to get the two kids and wife into it.

Great to see you out camping again so soon after you got home! Can't beat that camp fire smoke in your face smell!

Hi Guys, I've loved your realistic adventures around Aus. One of the things you may not have factored in or out of your budget is what you would have spent just staying at home. I think that this could be viewed as a realistic deduction from your final budget.

Glad i found you guys, I always wondered what a trip would cost, this has been great starting point. Happy Trails !

I wouldn't count the foregone wages as these would have been applied to the expenses incurred but good to be mindful of them. Nevertheless a detailed and realistic costing, however the memories will be enduring long after costs are forgotten.

Welldone you two,that was a great overview of cost.Thanks for afew new idea's😎.

Love your channel. I’m building a Gq as well. Could you explain in a video or on a comment what are the main things you need to look at in your car. Checkups,parts.etc.

Thanks heaps guys this was the big one I was waiting for and you have explained it better than anyone has explained before... Love that you guys are so bloody normal and do it for all the right reasons and not as a cash cow ... cheers !!!!!!

You beauty guys! excellent rundown on your costs. To think I've only got 125,950 bucks to go and away i go. hehe love your work as usual. See you next time

For accounring purposes you can only factor in the depreciation on the trailer but you also have to factor in the depreciation on your Patrol. I’d suggest in Covid times it’s probably $0 for both. Second hand cars have actually appreciated - especially 4WDs. And there’s 12 months wait for a new camper trailer so you’d probably at least get what you paid for it. But great job accounting for the real costs.

Thanks that was really helpful

Hi, I'm late to the channel and really enjoying the videos. How did you spend $6K on groceries in 6 months?? I reckon we would struggle to do that at home, let alone on the road (also a family of 4)!! Groceries have gone up in price over the last couple of years, but even still, that sounds admirably frugal! Worth a video on its own!

Haha, me and 4 friends did the west coast in a $1000 falcon on gas for $1500

I generally work on the cost of fuel doubled to cover car maintenance when operating in harsh environments, as for food it generally costs more away from the big cities and you tend to buy smaller quantities costing more but offset by limited choice and you tend to cook it yourself thus a overall saving than been at home.In 50 years time your kids will look upon it with happy memories as do I from trips in the 1970s with my family its money well spent

Nicely done ✅

I think saying to just get out there and that you don’t need to have a $200k car is the biggest point people miss. We did the lap a couple of years ago and I can tell you the people camped on one side of us in their $5k setup were having just as much fun/adventure/joy ect as the people on the other side with their $500k rig.

Would be amazing if it was free but awesome to hear realistic costs. Cheers for being candid and sharing!

I always thought this is why when you travel around Australia, you rent out your house. Now days you can even airbnb your house making it easier. This way your mortage is paid for while your traveling unless you got ripped off with huge repayments. You also leave your job and get a new one when you get back even if its just on paper leaving your current job and going back to the same company/position after so you get paid centrelink while you travel so you have your savings plus your centrelink payment. Get some of that tax money back you have given the government over the years then when you get back, your go back to your old job

Excellent advice and thanks for indicative costs guys.

Thanks for your informative break down of costs really interesting good to you you again 🤗🤗

Thank again for you frank and in depth budget review with all your vehicle maintenance you have done are you a mechanic by trade? Or just a man many talents?

Great honest breakdown. Good to see an actual breakdown of real world costs rather then just a few items. Would hate to add up the hours repairing the vehicle to work out labour costs, that would be scary. What did the patrol average in fuel overall? I’m budgeting on my GU TD42 towing a camper trailer at 20 litres a hundred. Looks like a great quiet spot your at despite the smoke which always seems to follow you lol

Cheers folks , great straight up video.

Great work guys, very inspiring!

Great Chanel can’t wait for the next adventure

This is great. Really well done. Thank you.

Great insight into the real costs, thanks for sharing 👍🏼

Thanks for the info guys helps alot. we are setting of from perth next month but planning on some work on the way

Very interesting viewing, thanks so much

Bit of a change from our 6 week $1800 lap in 1982. There again I earned about $280 a week back then. Best 6 weeks ever.

Good job guys. Excellent content. Good to see the covid Lockdown didn't get to you. LOL Cheers have a good one. 🇭🇲😀👍🍻🍻

Thanks guys for this made me sit down and redo ours.

Very cool, thank you for the breakdown, legends!

Great guys lots of helpful tips just wondering about if you travel with a dog how difficult it is, or isn't . Did Cooper travel at any stages with you ? did you ever think of taking him along ? We know there are hazards like famers leaving 1080 bates all over the country to control wild cats and dogs and lots of snakes everywhere . They say in this case use a muzzle on your dog . Lots of national Parkes and caravan parks prohibit the taking of a dog with the exception of a certified assistant dog they cannot then refuse entry anywhere by law . knowing what you know now would you think of taking your dog around a half lap .

Great job guys 👌

Thanks guys, very informative!

Thanks for the info - Very interesting.. I suppose those costs can fluctuate with Insurance and what ifs .. but good roundup.

Thanks for sharing guys, very helpful.

Loved watching your travel series. Can I ask where you got your long sleeve button up shirts from (the ones with your name/logo embroidered). They are so practical and look great and I’m keen to get some for my trip. Thanks 😃😃

Bad accounting. You need to deduct what you would have spent on groceries, fuel, power,rates entertainment, weekend camping trips, etc when you are at home to see what your trip cost you above your regular 6-month period.

Very informative episode!!

Love your guys work. We have been planning a trip to the Simpson for a while now and it it extremely difficult to find good information like this (Mostly why I started my channel). We have not been able to go with covid, car issues and now back problems...... Hopefully will get out there soon.

Travelled Australia all my life (55 now). I spend all my time in Vietnam these days. Way too expensive in Australia.

I spent 60 k travelling 9mths all the way around. Mostly free camps.

let safiery do something special for the electronics

Great vid guys! $$$ 😬

Well done you guys

WELL DONE ... VERY HONEST THANK YOU :)