Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round…

I’ve just returned from a whirlwind tour of Scotland and Ireland, arranged through a tour company, and executed as a bus tour. It lasted 16 days, including a day each to fly over and back. There were a number of firsts here for me and I thought as I work on the photos from the trip, I would share some impressions of travelling this way.

Bus tours are very popular for seniors, providing a way to see large swaths of the world without the need to hike, climb, paddle, run, bike or any of the physical effort needed in more traditional multi-country tours. They are second for seniors only to cruises, both of which are now in my travel playbook at this stage of my life.

Find out what I loved, what I didn’t love and what you might want to consider if looking at this travel option.

The tour company I selected, Senior Discovery Tours, is based in Canada and has offered seniors a variety of travel experiences since 1975. Their main claim to fame is door to door service, planning everything for you, including at home pick-up and return, medical coverage, all inbound and outbound flights and tour managers that accompany the tour to smoothly manage all movements and to handle any specific individual needs.

You do pay a premium for this service, and you can elect to take as much of their door to door service as you wish, electing only to pay for the tour itself if that is your preference. But I’ve already had one situation with them where the departing flights were cancelled by the airline and they stepped in to resolve the matter in hours because they had booked the flights. To me, the premium is worth it. There is nothing nicer than having a limo arrive at the door at the scheduled time to whisk you away to your experience.

The first real consideration in booking a bus tour is the size of the group. Some companies advertise small groups. This company will plan tours with up to 40 people. They have found this to be the sweet spot for finding vehicles and hotels that are comfortable, and for managing the process of moving people in and out of hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions, etc. It is a nice size group to allow mixing and mingling at meals and the company finds ways to get people to do that while travelling as well. Most people travel in pairs and share rooms and bus assignments, making the actual logistics a bit easier. Solo travelers like myself tend to be about 5-10% of the group, so the actual effort to manage all of us is pretty reasonable.

The only negative I found with this size of group was participating in any scheduled presentation, lecture, walking tour at any tourist attraction and in some of the scheduled dinner entertainment events. I don’t like being crammed into tight spaces, so I tended to hang at the back of the pack, which meant not hearing or seeing what was being presented. And the dinner events were deliberately designed to cram huge groups together in small spaces, so the factory production line feeling here was only made worse by the size of our group. But everything was smoothly executed throughout the trip, so I definitely applaud the company for that.

The next real consideration, assuming you’ve already selected the countries of interest, is the variety and number of destinations to be visited and the length of the trip. This will often be determined by the time taken to get there. In my case, it was 5-7 hours flying, making a two week trip entirely reasonable. But once landed, is it better to stay put and travel locally or move across country, changing hotels every few days? This trip was the latter and involved 8 hotels across Scotland and Ireland, with typically two nights in each (1-1/2 days, since check-in is typically 4:00 p.m.). And as you can see from the map above, we really got around!

I think this worked, but it definitely depends on how much moving around you are doing during the day. We had several days of long drives to get to different locations of interest, all on top of long drives to get to the next hotel. It’s tough finding the right balance between seeing as much of the country as possible and spending too much time moving around. Our drivers were also our main guides and selected the routes they felt would give us the best experience of the country, while staying within the hotel and venue schedule prescribed by the tour company. This meant avoiding the “motorways” when possible and taking the winding, narrow picturesque roads that provided absolutely amazing scenery, as well as visits to some small towns. As a side note, navigating a 40’+ long bus through some of these medieval built roads and towns was an absolute magic show. Don’t know how they did it, but they did. And all without at any time using a map or GPS. Collin (Scotland) and John Joe (Ireland) were amazing. And they told wonderful stories too – all while driving.

The scenic roads have a story to tell too. Hundreds of years ago, when there were no motorized vehicles, the “roads” were livestock trails, meant to allow movement of livestock from field to field. They were deliberately set up to be winding rather than straight, supposedly to somehow help fend off predators and to prevent livestock from stampeding. These roads are now all paved, but still wind back and forth, back and forth, enough to sometimes make you queasy (and sadly, they did me in a couple times). And sometimes we were so close to the edge of a 100′ drop that again I was amazed at the driver’s acumen in getting us safely to our destination.

The next consideration is the itinerary, and the mix of experiences you will have. Making 40 people happy is no small thing and we all had different interests. Some were exploring the roots of their ancestors, making the historical venues most relevant. Some were there for the cultural and social experience, curious about what life is like in Europe. Some, like me, were most interested in the scenery – urban, rural and natural landscapes – and how different they are from what I know. I also wanted to photograph all of them. But I was also interested in the history – particularly of the 20th century – and how these countries function in today’s changing world. That made stops like signing the Peace Wall that divides Catholic/Nationalist and Protestant/Unionist neighborhoods in Belfast particularly meaningful to me. Not all of us attended every event and that was ok, as long as you didn’t hold anyone up or cause extra work. I do think having a somewhat flexible agenda is important, and I would look for that again in any future trip.

Two last fundamental considerations: first, is this form of travel something that is appealing? All of us have ridden buses in our time – to school, perhaps even to work – and they were not meant for enjoyment. I was a bit apprehensive, even though I had taken local bus tours in the past. They are not conducive to interaction and conversation, except with your seatmate. They are not conducive to photography, which is my main interest, because of poor visibility, reflections and the speed of movement. The buses used on this tour were improvements in that regard – big picture frame windows with clear sightlines and staggered seating that rose slightly as it went backward for more visibility. But I missed so many postcard scenes just because of how fast we were moving and when the scene was on the other side of the bus. On long stretches of highway, the seats reclined slightly but not enough for me to take a nap. And the tray tables were exactly that – trays – not conducive to spreading out. They did have charging ports, though for some reason, they were in the ceiling on one bus, so your device was hanging there in space while charging. And climbing up into the bus was an event in itself – requiring handholds and sometimes, assistance. All in all, we spent the time we had to spend there and nothing more.

And lastly, accommodations. This particular tour advertised 4 star hotels or higher, with the caveat “subject to local availability”. Six of the eight hotels we stayed in met the criteria. One was probably a 3 star; one did not even make 1 star and was the subject of numerous complaints due to broken water lines, faulty plumbing and stained/old decor. My room was ok, but was outfitted like a 1940’s motel – it was only missing the flashing neon sign outside. In all fairness, the website showed something much more lavish, but it is the tour operator’s responsibility to confirm the advertising with an actual visit. They missed the boat here. And we didn’t even need to stay in that particular location – we could have gone just a bit further north to a bigger city with better options. The tour operator also chose boutique hotels, rather than well known chains – this can be both good and bad as we saw. The final hotel was superb, but we were there only about 12 hours. And for some reason, most hotels did not have facecloths as part of the towel collection. What’s up with that? Of more concern, with our changing climate, only about 1/2 had air conditioning. I will definitely look harder at the accommodation plan should I book with them again.

So, overall I am so glad I went on this adventure and am delighted to have seen this part of the world and met the people I met. I will miss them. Will I do another multi-country, multi-week bus tour? Probably not.

Next blog post: the beauty of Scotland, with photos.