I know a lot of people would turn their nose up at a coach holiday, and I really don’t know why because I was brought up travelling on coaches from a very young age and have always had very fond memories spending summers with my grandparents travelling the UK and around Europe. Not many people my age would even dream of travelling on one, but here’s the deal they’re a lot more fun and independent than you think, not to mention much more environmentally friendly than other methods of travel (remember to do something for the planet!) So, here’s why you should consider a coach break with National Holidays next time you travel…
YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO ANY OF THE DRIVING, JUST SIT BACK, RELAX AND ENJOY THE LUXURY COACH
It’s all taken care of. You roll up with your suitcase to your chosen pick-up point (and there’s plenty of them dotted around the whole of the UK but we chose Leeds as our departure point) and your luggage is put straight on to the coach and from there on in, you won’t see it till you arrive at the hotel. Board the luxury, Mercedes coach and simply sit back in your reserved, comfortable, reclining seats and the driver will set off and whisk you away, off on your jollies. It really is that simple. I did worry that my husband might struggle not being in control of the journey as he loves driving us around on our little jaunts away but he managed to really enjoy himself all the way to London, it gave us chance to chat without any other distractions. It was the perfect way to relax and not have to think about sitting in traffic jams or having to be alert on the motorway for such a long period of time. We didn’t have to lift a finger! On National Holiday’s very own coaches you will also find the added bonus of Wi-Fi which meant I could crack on with some work, and you’ll also find a USB charging point at each seat on the 2018-reg coaches which means my phone battery wasn’t going to die on me before we got to London.
YOU GET TO MEET NEW PEOPLE
Of course, the bus is full of people who are all heading off on holiday so it’s hard to find a frowning face in amongst the happy, smiling passengers on the coach despite our 5am wake up call! With our trip being one of the Showtime trips to London, it was clear we all had a similar interest – the theatre. It was nice to meet like-minded people from all different walks of life, the coach was full of laughter all the way down to the big smoke, mainly because of our hilarious & cheery driver called Andy, which was definitely a great antidote to the slightly earlier start with a coach trip! He’s even followed my blog on Facebook, so hi Andy if you’re reading this.
TRAVEL GREEN WITH COACH TRAVEL
I write about how we can travel sustainably here on this blog a lot, and it was news to my ears that research has shown that coach travel produces the least amount of CO2 emissions of all the alternative forms of transport. Coach travel produces only 30g per passenger, per kilometre of the bad stuff in comparison to train, plane, and car travel which is a joy to my ears.
IT’S MORE INDEPENDENT THAN YOU THINK!
We organised with our coach driver that we would not join them on the journey back from the theatre and instead we would meet them at the hotel we were staying at later on that night. It was James’ first time in London (I know right?) so we wanted to make the most of it and do a little bit more sightseeing. Plus, there was this really cool bar and pizza place in Hackney that we wanted to visit which we would not have had time to get to it in the set amount of time we had. It was fab. We got to drink lots of tasty beer and eat a gorgeous vegan-pizza over at The Experiment, Hackney. We just hopped on the tube a few stops and made our way back around 10pm. Everyone expects coach travel to be regimented and have a strict itinerary, and yes, if you like that type of thing you can stick to it all by the book, but there really is nothing to stop you from travelling around independently, especially if there’s somewhere you want to spend more time at and if there’s a safe and cost-effective way for you to meet the group later on, then why not?
IT’S A CHEAPER WAY TO TRAVEL
Although we were hosted by National Holidays on our Showtime trip to London, the price would have been £149pp. This included coach travel to and from our selected pick-up point, travel to London, great/central seats at a west-end show, an overnight stay at a 4 star hotel with breakfast and the coach driver who helped us with any queries we had over the weekend. When you consider what is included in these trips it is exceptionally great value for money. And, that’s not even the cheapest holiday that they offer! Whilst having a good ol’ browse of the website I found an Amsterdam mini cruise for £69pp and a 4 day Paris break for only £159pp – what bargains? You can sign up to receive some exciting offers that might tempt you too.
So have I convinced you enough to try out Coach Travel next time you go on holiday? Why not check out how you could win your very own Showtime London trip by clicking here!
Bee
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*Our stay was provided to us free of charge but all thoughts and experiences are my own.
