The Open Road

Coach tours tend to be aimed at old people shoved into a coach and treated a bit like blue-rinse sheep. Most tours, although quite cheap, are fixated on quantity rather than quality - stopping and cities for no longer than a day - whistle-stop guided tours - dumped in poor hotels offering inedible food. And the destinations are a bit obvious. All the usual suspects - but there are so many alternatives to the cliches.

Maybe Naples rather then Rome. Sienna ahead of Florence. Marseilles instead of Nice - and so on.  We’ll schedule longer stays in the cities visited - more time to discover a place and get the feel of it. More to see and better hotels.

We plan to put together trips with an array of unique travel concepts. We might even experiment with a kind of Mystery Tour idea at some point.  

Maybe a tour with an architectural angle, perhaps a fine-art theme. Or taking along a choral conductor, arranging passengers to sing together. Teaching Ukelele is another. Maybe a gastronomic tour of the Basque country. The possibilities are endless.

But always providing fun activities along the way. How about some coach bingo ? Or a quiz or two. The choice is all yours.

How involved one gets is really up to the passenger. Spending time with others on a coach is really about what you make of it - maybe a chance to meet interesting new people and hanging out.

Or, if you just want to do your own thing, that’s fine too. Not being thrust into a rigid excursion schedule and staying in cities for a little longer will enable passengers to just go off and do their own thing. 

By the way - any tour ideas you might have - please let us know at:  granddetour26@gmail.com.