Boondocking Baja: Planning and Budget REVEALED

Hey everyone! We can't believe that winter is upon us and we are getting ready to head south for another season of adventure. Do you feel like summer flew by? Where did it go? Today we're here to share with you our plans, budget, and how we've organized it all. This winter we're trying to find the perfect balance between pre-planning and leaving room for spontaneity. So let's see what we've come up with. It's no surprise that we're heading to Baja this winter. We've been talking about it since the spring, to the point that we've had a few of you ask if we've already gone and where are the videos. Now some of you might be wondering why would they go to Mexico? Is it even safe? Do Mel and Jay even speak Spanish? Well the answers are one, because it's warm and close to the ocean. Two, we think so. And three, no not really. Southern Baja is nice and warm even in January. There's a ton of water sports, it's relatively inexpensive, and we just don't believe Mexico is as scary as the Canadian and American media sometimes make it out to be. Now don't click away thinking we're completely delusional. We do have some legitimate fears for this trip, like what happens if we have a major mechanical failure with our truck again, or if we get sick, or hurt, or caught in extreme weather. And we are a little nervous about crime rates in certain areas, but that's definitely not a reason for us not to go. It just means we need to be more mindful of our We hope that this region will fulfill many dreams for us. Spending our winter days snorkeling with whale sharks, scuba diving with hammerheads, surfing, and getting to experience Christmas in another culture. We're both really excited about this trip and we can't wait to show you what we find. Yeah, so what's the plan? We'll be taking a four-month tour of the entire Baja Peninsula all the way south to Cabo and back up through the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur. Before we get to the Mexican border, we'll be making a few stops in California, including Napa and San Diego. This is a massive trip for us and it needs some major organizing and planning to make sure we get to see and do all the things we've been dreaming of. We started by researching online and in our Recreation Atlas the entry requirements for us insurance needs, mobile wi-fi access, and we've learned a lot like we need separate Mexican auto insurance, a tourist visa called an FMM, and there are long stretches between towns and cities that have no mobile signal. You can see how we're going to be planning to stay connected in our video that we'll link up here and in the description below. We also looked for information about covering our basic needs like finding bulk water to fill our tanks and dumping stations to empty them. We've also researched holidays and cultural events that we might be interested in. It's going to be really cool to be there over Christmas. Yes, of course, we can't forget to research destinations, activities, food, and accommodations, and any possible challenges we might encounter. For instance, we've learned that there are also long stretches without gas stations and we can expect to face some loose sand since we hope to be doing a lot of beach camping. As we gather all this information, we put it in a shared Google document with minimal structure. It's basically just a brain dump. Then we can take that information and start planning out our itinerary and budget also in a shared Google Doc. After years of planning trips this way, we've created a template that we've shared. You can download it from the link in the description below. We like it because it prompts us to fill in all the details so we spend less time scrambling to find the essentials once we're at our destination. We also use Google Maps a lot and download the offline map areas we're visiting before we leave so that it works when we don't have a signal. We like using the lists feature to remember where essential services are as well as the places we want to visit. These lists are great because they work offline too. Once we've planned our itinerary, it's nice to be able to see this in calendar form so we enter the details on a shared Google Calendar. That makes it really quick and easy to see where we're going to be and when. If there are any confirmation numbers or relevant links for the location, then we include them in the description for quick access. Google Calendar also works offline. And all of the information we find also gives us a good starting point for estimating our major costs in a spreadsheet. We can then make informed decisions on what is realistic for us and then as we purchase those plans and activities, we enter the actual costs. In a nutshell, we estimate everything from fuel costs, insurance, and accommodations but also pre-trip expenses like vaccines, special equipment needs, or getting our truck tuned up and ready to travel. For instance, we think that fuel will be our largest expense at $3,500 Canadian or $2,600 US dollars. That's based on using about 25 liters per 100 kilometers or 9.5 miles per gallon while towing the 8,000 kilometers or 5,000 mile round trip. We'll use about 2,000 liters or 528 gallons of gas at $1.75 Canadian dollars per liter or about $5 US dollars per gallon. Let me know in the comments if I got any of these conversions wrong. Meanwhile, campgrounds should be about $1,500. The same for tours and attractions. Health insurance is around $1,000 and Mexican car insurance about $500. We also allow about an $1,000 contingency fund for the unexpected. Altogether, we estimate our total trip costs will be around $10,000 Canadian or $2,000 a month. We'll be keeping track of all of our expenses so that we can compare them to last winter's trip and look for any differences between our estimated costs and actual costs. We love the freedom and flexibility of being able to pick our campsite when we arrive at a destination instead of booking ahead of time. This doesn't work for every destination though. We've made reservations for campgrounds through to San Diego but from there we're planning to boondock or dry camp at free or low-cost locations that don't require a reservation. We initially found this type of travel stressful but we've gotten used to it over time. This is mostly how we traveled last winter and we were always able to find a place to sleep. Some of the resources for locating campsites, water, and dumping stations that we've been finding most useful are the Baja Recreation Atlas that we ordered online, iOverlander, Campendium, and SandyDumps.com. Our experience has been that iOverlander is great for locating free or inexpensive boondocking sites. Campendium and our Atlas are wonderful resources for locating traditional campgrounds and that Sandy Dumps is the only site that lists a reasonable number of sandy stations in Baja. Now for this trip we'll want to have an idea of where we're going to end up for the night so we've researched the options at each stop and noted our first choice in the quick reference section of our document. When it comes to free boondocking though your first choice isn't always viable so we list several backup options in a detailed destination section. That's also where we keep a list of must-do activities, attractions, and restaurants. Now before we let you go we do have a couple of additional announcements. You may have noticed that a lot of our video thumbnails have featured a photo of us. We love including the same image from video to video so that you can quickly identify in your YouTube feed which videos are ours. Well we've decided that the plaid and the hoodie are not very Baja chic one might say so we'll be changing it for our Baja series to one of these new fabulous shots of us. We want you to vote for your favorite. Let us know which one you think should be on our thumbnails in the comments below and you can also vote for your favorite one on our social media pages. The photo with the most votes by November 12th will become our new overlay shot. Also we've chosen a hashtag for this adventure it's hashtag boondocking Baja. Be sure to follow this on Instagram and you'll be able to see pictures and videos in real time as we post them and if you are traveling around Baja we hope you'll use this hashtag too so that we can see and learn about all the amazing places that you visit. Wondering what we're packing? Next week's video will cover that as we pack up our condo on wheels. We can't wait to take this trip and we hope that you'll follow along here on YouTube and also on our Instagram and Facebook accounts. And of course we have our weekly newsletter where you will get our videos directly to your inbox each week and a preview photo of what's to come. If you have been to or are going to the Baja Peninsula and have tips recommendations or even want to meet up please get in touch we'd love to hear from you. And of course give our documents a try for your next trip and let us know how it goes. See ya. Bye. Is it a surprise that we're heading to Baja this winter? Apparently not. Cultural event events holidays and cultural events why can't I say cultural? Map areas that what? The resources for locating what? We want to have an idea of where and have an idea of where we'll when where we'll wind. All right uh let's take it from the top. Make sure you don't miss the next video by liking, subscribing and turning on notifications. Thanks for joining us and we'll see you in the next one.