A simple spreadsheet tool for estimating the real cost of long-distance overland and surface routes.
Planning a long overland route is rarely just about fuel.
Once a journey becomes longer, crosses borders, uses ferries, enters cities, involves vehicle logistics, or includes uncertain costs, the real budget becomes harder to estimate. Fuel is only one part of the picture.
You may also need to consider tolls, ferry or boat costs, vehicle shipping, public transport, accommodation, food, border fees, permits, repairs, maintenance, waiting days, and emergency buffer.
Overland Route Cost Planner Lite helps you organize these costs in one structured spreadsheet.
It is designed as a lightweight planning tool: simple enough to use quickly, but detailed enough to give a more realistic route budget than a fuel calculator alone.
Table of Contents
What this planner does
Overland Route Cost Planner Lite is a downloadable Excel spreadsheet for estimating the cost of an overland, road trip, or long-distance surface route.
You enter your own checked values for your route, and the spreadsheet calculates the budget structure for you.
It can help you estimate:
- fuel cost
- tolls and road fees
- ferry or boat costs
- vehicle shipping or cargo costs
- other transport costs, such as buses, trains, taxis, flights, city transport, shuttles, or transfers
- accommodation or camping costs
- food costs
- border, visa, and permit fees
- repairs and maintenance estimate
- other route expenses
- emergency buffer
- total estimated route cost
- cost per person
- cost per active day / stage
- cost per kilometre.
This is especially useful when the route includes several countries, mixed transport, ferry crossings, vehicle logistics, border costs, or uncertain expenses.
This is not a live data app
This planner does not automatically update prices, schedules, borders, fuel costs, ferry departures, visa rules, or route conditions.
It is not a travel app, route database, or live route intelligence system.
Instead, it gives you a structured planning framework.
You check the values that apply to your own route, enter them into the spreadsheet, and the planner calculates the budget estimate.
This keeps the Lite version simple, practical, and independent from live data systems.
What’s included
Your download includes:
- Excel `.xlsx` file — a downloadable spreadsheet that can be used in Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheet apps that support `.xlsx` files.
- Start Here instructions — a short guide inside the file explaining how to use the planner.
- Setup sheet — enter your general trip settings such as currency, number of people, fuel assumptions, maintenance estimate, and emergency buffer.
- Daily Planner — the main planning sheet where you enter your route stages, movement, accommodation, food, transport costs, border fees, and other route expenses.
- Automatic Summary — a protected results sheet that calculates the main route budget totals.
- Budget Scenarios — test how your final budget changes if the trip becomes cheaper or more expensive than your base estimate.
- Example Route — a protected sample route showing how the planner can be filled in.
- Protected formulas — formula cells are protected to reduce the risk of accidental changes.
- Editable input cells — only the cells intended for your own route data are editable.
- Personal-use license — you may use the file for your own route planning, but you may not resell, redistribute, repackage, or publish it as your own product.
Get the Overland Route Cost Planner Lite
Screenshots / Preview
Who this planner is for
This planner is for travellers who want a clearer estimate of the real cost of a route before departure.
It may be useful for:
- road trips
- overland journeys
- long-distance surface routes
- car, van, motorcycle, or rental-car routes
- mixed transport trips
- routes involving ferries, boats, or vehicle shipping
- routes where the traveller and the vehicle do not always move together
- trips involving borders, visas, permits, or uncertain costs
- practical route budgeting before committing to a journey.
It can be used for a simple road trip, but it is especially useful when the route is long, multi-stage, international, or logistically complex. A west-to-east crossing of New Guinea is a good example of this kind of route, where changing transport systems, vehicle logistics and route continuity all become part of the planning process.
Who this planner is not for
This Lite planner may not be the right product if you are looking for:
- a mobile app
- a live online route planner
- automatic fuel price updates
- automatic ferry schedules
- a visa or border database
- GPS navigation
- GPX or KML route files
- automatic route optimization
- personal route consulting
- a fully customizable expedition database.
It is a structured spreadsheet tool, not a full travel software system.
How it works
1. Keep a clean master copy
Before entering your own route, save one clean copy of the original file.
For each new trip or route idea, duplicate the file and work in the copy.
2. Fill in the Setup sheet
Enter your general assumptions:
- currency
- number of people
- default fuel consumption
- default fuel price
- maintenance estimate
- emergency buffer.
3. Fill in the Daily Planner
Use the Daily Planner to enter your route day by day or stage by stage.
Each row can represent a driving day, city day, ferry day, border/admin day, fieldwork day, waiting day, or mixed route stage.
Fill only the editable input cells. Formula cells are protected.
4. Check the Summary
The Summary sheet calculates the main route totals automatically.
You can see total distance, fuel cost, transport costs, accommodation, food, border fees, repairs, emergency buffer, final estimated route cost, cost per person, cost per day/stage, and cost per kilometre.
5. Use Budget Scenarios
The Budget Scenarios sheet lets you test what happens if your real route costs more or less than your base estimate.
For example:
* `-10%` for a leaner scenario;
* `0%` for your base estimate;
* `+15%` for a safer budget;
* `+30%` for a high-uncertainty route.
6. Use Example Route as a guide
The Example Route sheet shows how different route stages can be entered.
It is read-only and included as a sample. Use the Daily Planner for your own route.
What it does not include
Overland Route Cost Planner Lite is a lightweight spreadsheet planning tool. It is not a live route intelligence system, travel app, or personal consulting service.
This Lite version does not include:
- Live fuel prices — the planner does not automatically fetch or update current fuel prices by country.
- Automatic updates — prices, rules, routes, borders, ferry costs, and transport conditions are not updated automatically inside the file.
- Ferry schedules — the planner does not provide current ferry timetables, departure dates, route availability, or booking information.
- Visa database — it does not include country-by-country visa rules, passport-specific entry rules, eVisa systems, or border procedures.
- Route recommendations — it does not choose your route, optimize your itinerary, or tell you which border, ferry, road, or country to use.
- Personal consulting — the purchase does not include individual route feasibility review, personal advice, custom itinerary planning, or one-to-one support.
- App or login system — this is a downloadable `.xlsx` spreadsheet, not a web app, mobile app, account-based tool, or online dashboard.
- Guaranteed real-world prices — all final numbers depend on the values you enter. You are responsible for checking current prices, fees, rules, and route conditions for your own journey.
The planner gives you a structured way to organize and calculate your own checked route data. It does not replace current research, official sources, local confirmations, or real-world travel judgment.
Price
Price: USD12.00
This is a one-time purchase for the downloadable Lite version of the planner.
Get the Overland Route Cost Planner Lite
File format
- Format: `.xlsx`
- Version: 1.6
- Works with: Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheet apps that support `.xlsx` files
- Access: downloadable file
- License: personal use only
License / Personal Use
Your purchase gives you a personal-use copy of Overland Route Cost Planner Lite.
You may use and edit the file for your own route planning and travel budgeting. And you may save copies for your own trips and adapt the input values to your own route.
You may not resell, redistribute, repackage, upload, share publicly, give away, or publish the file as your own product. The structure, formulas, layout, text, and branding remain the intellectual property of Journey Beyond the Horizon.
Refunds and technical issues
Overland Route Cost Planner Lite is a downloadable digital product. Because the file is delivered immediately after purchase, refunds are generally not available after download.
If the file does not open correctly, a formula appears broken, or you experience a technical issue, contact me with a short description or screenshot of the problem.
I will first try to help resolve the issue or provide a corrected version of the file if needed. A refund may be considered only if there is a genuine technical problem that cannot be resolved.
This policy does not cover cases where the product works as described but does not match a personal preference for a different spreadsheet style, structure, or planning method.
Updates and future versions
Your purchase includes the current version of Overland Route Cost Planner Lite.
Minor updates, bug fixes, layout improvements, or formula corrections within the same major version may be released as part of the Lite v1.x product.
Major future editions, such as v2.0, Pro versions, expanded bundles, live data tools, route packs, or consulting services, may be sold separately.
Existing customers may receive an upgrade discount for major future versions, but lifetime free access to all future products, editions, bundles, or Pro tools is not included unless explicitly stated.
Related Practical Guides
If you are planning a longer overland or surface route, these related JBH guides may help you understand the wider route-planning context:
• Overland Route Costs: How to Estimate the Real Budget Before You Go
A practical framework for understanding how fuel, ferries, borders, accommodation, repairs, vehicle shipping, storage and uncertainty shape the real budget of an overland route.
• How to Plan One-Way Travel With Your Own Transport
A practical guide to the vehicle-ending problem: storage, shipping, selling, returning, or moving a vehicle forward when a route does not loop.
• Crossing Land and Water Independently: Transport Options for Route Continuity
A route-planning framework for ferries, boats, packrafts, cargo transport, land-water transitions and surface route continuity.
• Gear for Hot, Wet and Roadless Terrain: A Terrain-Based Travel System
A terrain-based guide to waterproof packing, clothing, footwear, shelter, power and transferable equipment for humid routes where movement shifts between vehicles, boats, bicycles and travel on foot.
• Independent Sea Travel by Boat: Crossing Seas and Oceans Without Flying
A practical framework for private boats, sea crossings, maritime zones, legal entry points, weather windows, vessel limits, costs and onboard realities when a surface route continues across water.
• Planning an Overland Travel
A broader guide to itinerary planning, transport, flexibility, weak points and route structure.
• Crossing Eurasia Overland: Difficult Segments and Route Barriers
A practical overview of borders, permit systems, restricted regions, missing roads and difficult segments along the Eurasian overland line.
• Overland Route Fuel Calculator
A free tool for estimating the basic fuel cost layer of an overland or road route.
• JBH Resources & Tools
A central page for current JBH route-planning tools, including the free Overland Route Fuel Calculator, Overland Route Cost Planner Lite and future practical planning resources.
Start planning the real cost of your route
Fuel is only one part of a long surface journey.
If your route includes borders, ferries, accommodation, food, vehicle logistics, repairs, uncertain costs, or several travel stages, this planner gives you a simple structure for estimating the full route budget before you go.
Get the Overland Route Cost Planner Lite
Feedback and Support
If the file does not open correctly, a formula appears broken, or something is unclear, contact me with a short description or screenshot of the problem.
You can also send feedback for future improvements. This is especially useful if a part of the planner feels confusing, too complicated, or if an important cost category is missing.
Feedback helps improve future versions of the planner.
Contact: krasen@journeybeyondhorizon.com
Feedback: Use this form if you purchased Overland Route Cost Planner Lite and want to report a technical issue, confusing part, missing cost category, or suggestion for future versions.
