Travel/holiday thread

[wakemalcolm]

As mentioned earlier, I'm going to be doing a tour of Scotland this year (late September / early October). We will be doing 10 nights in total starting on a Tuesday and need to be in the Loch Ness area on the middle weekend. We'll probaly have the first night in the Lakes on the way up and possibly the final night in Northumberland. Other than Edinburgh we've only been up there once before, around 30 years ago, when we camped just outside Fort William and visited Oban, Mallaig and Skye / Kyle of Lochalsh so would be keen for suggestions of other areas to stay for a day or two. I'm thinking of Galloway, Skye or possibly one of the other Inner Hebrides before somewhere near Inverness for the marathon (runs up the military road on the eastern side of the loch to finish in Inverness) then over to somewhere in the Cairngorms but open to suggestions from people who know the area better.

Really depends what you like to do on your holidays.
As a walker and bikepacker, I've really begun to appreciate Deeside. It's not as crazy busy as the Aviemore, Fort William and Skye areas yet has access to some fantastic scenery.

On the west, it's hard to beat Assynt for the landscape but much of it is on the NC500; there are quieter parts though.

If you're looking for the island feel without the risks of having your schedule scunnered by broken down ferries, I'd recommend Ardnamurchan.

However, if you're just looking for a coffee and an argument, head down to Stranraer. There's a guy who can fix Porsches and the worlds problems simultaneously.

 

[Ian H]

A foreign school trip? Twas not a thing in my day.

My school did skiing trips to Switzerland in the 60s.

 

[briantrumpet]

My school did skiing trips to Switzerland in the 60s.

Were you so posh you went on them? They did ski trips from my (direct grant) school in the late 70's, but it never was touted as a possibility for me. Mind you, that might have been as they were afraid I'd snap in half if I fell, rather than the affordability aspect.

 

[Pross]

I went to Crete with school in 1986. The same group of teachers took a trip abroad every year, it’s only in recent years that I’ve admired their dedication. Even back then it must have been a bureaucratic nightmare taking 30 odd kids overseas. They were pretty good fun too and left us to our own devices as long as we didn’t get too stupid or drink too much alcohol.

 

[First Aspect]

My school did skiing trips to Switzerland in the 60s.

Lucky you. We went to a working windmill in Sussex.

 

[briantrumpet]

I went to Crete with school in 1986. The same group of teachers took a trip abroad every year, it’s only in recent years that I’ve admired their dedication. Even back then it must have been a bureaucratic nightmare taking 30 odd kids overseas. They were pretty good fun too and left us to our own devices as long as we didn’t get too stupid or drink too much alcohol.

I can confirm, as someone who has been both a participant and organiser, you have little idea as a participant just how much (unpaid) work (and worry) goes into educational school trips.

I can also confirm that the approach to free time and consumption of alcohol has changed significantly in response to (sensible) risk assessment protocols, not least as tour leaders could end up in prison if things go wrong these days. We prefer it if children are going to hurt themselves or get drunk to do it when their parents are legally responsible. There are some horror stories from past trips: apparently the worst was to Poland, where alcohol was unbelievably cheap, and the older ones made the most of their disbelief.

And I'm currently one of the organisers for our next trip to the Vienne Jazz Festival in July, with about 40 young musicians in our care.

 

[BoldonLad]

My school did skiing trips to Switzerland in the 60s.

High Force ( a waterfall in Tees Dale) about 30-35 miles from School, was the furthest we ever made.

My first trip “abroad” was a Camping trip to France when my youngest child was 2, and, I was 31 (in 1978). 😂

 

[briantrumpet]

FWIW, I gather from parents with children at school that foreign trips are not only de rigueur these days, at state schools as much as non-state, but that the prices are nuts in all cases. It's one of the reasons we do everything (and I mean, everything) ourselves: the first trip we didn't outsource to a tour company was a 7-day 5-night trip to Montreux in 2010, which cost £300 per player. This year's trip will be about £600 each, but a generous sponsor has reduced that to £500. When we got comparative quotes from commercial tour companies, it basically doubled the price (for a thinner programme of activities), and as we are all about cost accessibility, we're more than happy to do the legwork ourselves, with the benefit we know how the whole tour stitches together, from when we get on the coach at Exeter till we get off it again a week later, back where we began.

The coach for the 2010 trip was a shade over £3,000 - this year it's about £10,000.

 

[Ian H]

Were you so posh you went on them? They did ski trips from my (direct grant) school in the late 70's, but it never was touted as a possibility for me. Mind you, that might have been as they were afraid I'd snap in half if I fell, rather than the affordability aspect.

Not sure about the posh, but I went twice - ferry and sleeper (couchette) train. The second time, as sixth-formers, my friend and I were allowed to wander off by ourselves on a train to Zurich to visit a not-quite relative of his. That was my first experience of Christmas cheese cake.

 

[briantrumpet]

Not sure about the posh, but I went twice - ferry and sleeper (couchette) train. The second time, as sixth-formers, my friend and I were allowed to wander off by ourselves on a train to Zurich to visit a not-quite relative of his. That was my first experience of Christmas cheese cake.

Well, you obviously survived both the couchette and the Christmas cheese cake.

 

[Pross]

FWIW, I gather from parents with children at school that foreign trips are not only de rigueur these days, at state schools as much as non-state, but that the prices are nuts in all cases. It's one of the reasons we do everything (and I mean, everything) ourselves: the first trip we didn't outsource to a tour company was a 7-day 5-night trip to Montreux in 2010, which cost £300 per player. This year's trip will be about £600 each, but a generous sponsor has reduced that to £500. When we got comparative quotes from commercial tour companies, it basically doubled the price (for a thinner programme of activities), and as we are all about cost accessibility, we're more than happy to do the legwork ourselves, with the benefit we know how the whole tour stitches together, from when we get on the coach at Exeter till we get off it again a week later, back where we began.

The coach for the 2010 trip was a shade over £3,000 - this year it's about £10,000.

We’ve recently done a 5 night trip to Germany with choir (flying with a decent hotel, coach to and from Heathrow and coach transfers at the other end) which cost about £750 per person with the choir covering £200 for members so not too bad but it was a huge amount of work. We considered a specialist tour operator but they didn’t do flight options and the cost going by coach looked like being massively more.

Dealing with group flight bookings was a pain - we couldn’t go directly through Lufthansa and had to use one of their two UK ‘partners’. The one gave us the better quote but then when we went to confirm the prices had miraculously gone up. The second ended up cheaper and could do us the flights from Heathrow rather than Stansted. They were OK but trying to get simple answers like whether we could check ourselves in online was like pulling teeth (they eventually said we couldn’t but I decided to try and found we could). Despite it being hard work I really couldn’t see how the specialist operators justify the uplift they charge.

 

[briantrumpet]

Despite it being hard work I really couldn’t see how the specialist operators justify the uplift they charge.

At least one trip (to Bavaria) I was on with school we had a paid tour guide from the company who looked after everything on the trip, then one to Bruges there was no tour guide, just a glossy brochure. By our reckoning that brochure in effect cost us about £8000, or something daft - well, the brochure was all we got for the £8000 difference had we organised it ourselves. The budget for our July 2026 tour I think is about £30,000, all in - the staff don't get paid, but we don't actually have to pay for travel or the hotel.

We did fly once, when we went to Belgrade, as it would have been impossible on a coach, but generally it's easier to keep children captive on a coach than getting them through airports. Lordy know what the stress levels must have been like for the staff when we went to the Arabian Gulf, and we had six separate flights to negotiate in ten days.

 

[The Crofted Crest]

Half a day in Derbyshire per annum. Same plague village every year. Only half a day because the coach usually broke down within sight of school.