We have finally succumbed to the OAP’s coach holiday.
Many years ago we swore never to do another coach holiday after an endless journey back from Switzerland. We decided we would always arrange our own transport and hotels wherever we went. However times change and needs must. We had agreed not to go away until around Christmas when we would have another years worth of holiday money to spend. But after six weeks at home painting and decorating JP cracked first.
So bearing in mind our finances and wanting to go somewhere straight away the choices were limited. Not another cruise, we’ve done two this year. No Ryan Air for obvious reasons and something cheap and immediate. So with four days notice it was a coach holiday to Germany.
Things started out well, the coach was clean and comfortable with plenty of leg room. There was a mix of ages on the coach, not all OAP’s, and with several under fifties which surprised me. We had a comfortable crossing to Calais and an overnight stop at a Ramada hotel. Earl Grey teabags and a pillow menu with a huge breakfast choice in the morning. Perfect.
But there is still always one couple who apparently can’t tell the time and see no problem in constantly arriving late while the rest of the coach waits with varying degrees of impatience.
The other side of this is that you have to be much more time conscious than you would be when travelling alone. Your twenty minute allowance at the services means you have to try to be near the front of the toilet queue if you want time to get a takeaway coffee.
Gentle snoozing on the long journey to Germany was quite pleasant, no studying the map, no getting lost, no missing the bus, train, plane. We didn’t even have to carry our own luggage. So although its quite hard to give up control of your journey on the whole the pluses outweighed the negatives. Maybe not for every holiday, but if you choose carefully, great for some.
It worked this time.
