Considering a coach holiday to Germany

kangoora

No firm plans yet but would be interested in feedback from anyone who has done one of these.

I'm 56 and wife is 50 and neither of us can stand sitting by a pool/beach for more than an hour at most. We like excursions and thoroughly enjoyed a couple of sea cruises but river cruises seem very expensive when compared to a coach holiday and probably compare favourably in cost to DIY'ing with a car.

I do speak basic german, enough to order food, get directions, hotel rom etc - not much more than that.

Pros & cons I can see

Pro - can sit and relax, read a book or watch scenery for the journey
Pro - can get picked up in local town near us
Pro - some ready made excursions booked in
Major Pro - cheaper by far than river cruise (several hundred pounds each saving it appears), 'probably' cheaper than car DIY
Pro - accomodation sorted & food mostly sorted
Pro - I assume driver (guide?) will speak German, would be surprised if not

Cons - regimented, no option to just stay an extra day anywhere (vs car DIY) etc
Cons - lose a day travel out and back
Cons - unable to smoke except for stops (probably a pro for my health )
Cons - I assume food won't be of comparable quality to a cruise (but we're not 'posh' eaters, happiest with pub grub/equivalent to be honest)

We would travel outside of school holidays but not sure if coach holidays may have little kids running up and down the coach screaming - that could be pretty bad if some undisciplined child runs wild for 10 days :rotfl: I'm reasonably tolerant of kids, we had 2 ourselves so I know what it can be like but 10 days stuck in a coach like that could have me thinking Hannibal Lecter had a point :eek:

Anything I may have missed or comments would be appreciated

PompeyPete

We do loads of coach breaks, usually with Shearings. Some are better than others, but providing you don't expect 5* you'll be alright.

Travelling through the night ain't much fun, but not much different to a long-haul flight. Some tours have overnight hotel stops once you've got to the other side of the English Channel, and then carry on in the morning after usually pretty rubbish continental petit d!jeuner of stale bread and croissants.

winspiration

You don't mention whether you've been on a coach holiday in this country - if not, might be an idea to try that first before committing to such a long journey? Lochs & Glens to Scotland are very good, I've been on breaks with a local firm which have also been good. I'm not sure I'd want to travel much further than Scotland by coach, personally though - I'd rather fly out and then join a tour when I got to the destination.

r2015

I've been on various coach holidays and never travelled through the night.


The ones I have been on you travel to your destination and if it is longer than the drivers driving time you stay overnight in a hotel or even on the Hull to Rotterdam ferry overnight.


Never had kids running up and down the aisles though but maybe because the youngest person on the coach was the driver.


You get to your eventual destination and stay put for a few days or go on organised day trips or not.


I also have been on a few cruises and prefer the cruises just because when traveling on a ship you can wander about and do things whereas on a bus you are stuck in your seat but as you say the bus trips are cheaper.

skint_chick

My parents do bus trips and cruises and they do have early starts so as long as you don't mind not having a lie in. Judging by trips they've been on you'll be at the younger end of the age scale, there's not usually any kids. I wouldn't worry about not speaking much German - we go every year and most people in restaurants/tourist places speak English. I speak fluent German but hubby doesn't and has been able to feed himself etc alone. Is there a reason why you don't fly drive? Or even do a trip by train/public bus? Flixbus have a lot of routes and public transport is very reasonable and efficient in Germany. It's easy to get to places such as Munich and Nuremberg.

Robin9

I would echo the train option - but you would need to carry your own luggage.

Re your cons - ditto for smoking. Coach trips are no less regulated than cruises - perhaps less so as there are fewer people involved.

NineDeuce

Cons - you arent allowed to bang on about the war

blues

My parents have had a mixed experience. Bare in mind that you're sat on the coach with the same people for the whole trip. Therefore if you get a noisy bunch, it could be miserable. My parents had a group of females constantly passing round the gin, with one of them repeatedly vomiting into a bag behind them!

DUKE

In 2010 we did Germany, Amsterdam, Austria, Italy, & France with various coach companies. I loved being chauffered about, but MrDuke didn't as it was 2 days on the coach & an overnight stop in between for most trips. I only ever saw a couple of kids on the Paris trip & they were babies, so it was more the crying rather than them running about. The coaches stop quite regular for breaks, so unless you're a chain smoker you should be OK. Food I thought could be quite expensive at the places they stopped at, but you can always take sandwiches ... Some of the coaches made you hot drinks & snacks. We had to pay for the use of toilets too, as the coach driver didn't encourage us to use the one on the coach as once it was full he had nowhere to empty it. I'd definitely give it a whirl.

pattycake

We have done several coach holidays to Europe. We never slept overnight on the coach. Usually the first and last night were spent in proximity to Calais for the ferry.

It’s a relaxing and inexpensive way to see a lot. Some hotels used were better than others but all provided cleanliness and reasonable meals. We have never encountered any children even when we went in August.

Incidentally, we also did a trip to France whereby we flew to Paris. Naturally the holiday was vastly more expensive than going by coach but the standard of hotel used when we joined the coach tour of the country was no better or worse.

As another poster has suggested, why not try a British tour first to see if the experience is for you.

kangoora

Thanks everyone for your comments.

The idea of a short tour first to see if we like it seems quite good.

LOL at probably being the youngest people on the trip.

The main attraction is primarily cost, most coach tours seem to be in the £500 area, and river cruises anywhere from £1200 up which is a huge difference.

When we both retire we're considering buying a touring caravan (keep flip-flopping on that idea). I used to caravan with parents as a kid but DW has only ever been in a static.

Ah well, given us a few things to think about