student trip - coach hire costs?

[berolina]

Hi everyone. I think this is probably one for teachers...
As a lecturer planning an excursion with some students (but not until next academic year - lucky that as I'm pg!), with one of the trips we want to do being a relatively short distance by road but a time-wasting nightmare by public transport, I was wondering how must it would cost to hire a coach/minibus (seating 20) for that one day? (We don't want to hire one for the whole week). Are there generally any deposits/other charges we should know about, and how high are they? One of us would be able to drive but have little practice driving in the UK, so a driver might also be advisable - how much does that cost on top?
TIA for any advice!

AAARRRGGHHH!!! how much it would cost, of course.

Hiya. We recently hired a 52 seater with driver for the day to go about 60 miles and that was £180, and they invoiced us afterwards. However, a few years ago I looked into using a smaller bus with a driver for a shorter day trip and I seem to remeber it would have been about the same amount of money, but split between fewer people, so it was too pricey.

We wouldn't be able to drive students in a minibus without a special qualification; might be different if they were older.

Sorry can't be more help, the coach companies are usually more than happy to quote.

that's cheaper than I'd feared.
thanks