Family Coach Trips - Yay or Nay?

[DisneyMan]

Hi,

I was wondering how everyone felt about coach breaks in general for families? Doing some research into what would make a great Coach Trip Operator aimed at families.
From my own experience the biggest concern I always have is cost and space, but what do you all think? Has anyone been on a family trip to disneyland for instance or somewhere similar?

Sounds like my idea of a nightmare.

No
no
and
Hell no

I’d go so far as to say the idea is the stuff of nightmares

can I ask why though? The idea is that if I can highlight the concerns / issues I can try to mitigate. OR at least deam lol.

I can't see many families wanting to travel by coach if they could drive/fly. The main problem would be being trapped on a coach for many hours with other families, so I'm not sure you could mitigate that. There's bound to be the performative parent who wants to start a sing along, the family who don't know what headphones are for, the ones who have brought smelly food, several pukers, kids who like to jump around etc. It's bad enough for a few hours on a plane/transfer but a coach holiday would be much longer.

Why? Where to start.

everything. From start to finish and the entire bit in between.

Ig this was my ONLY option for a holiday AND it was free… I would still politely decline

Oh I shudder at the thought to be honest. Full of kids. Some crying, some vomiting, stressed parents, mine just staring out the window, on screens or bored

and counting the minutes until we get the hell of

just imagine a long traffic jam!!

This. I took DD on a day trip by coach recently and there was one man who sang "If you're happy and you know it" on repeat to his toddler for an hour. I wanted to bloody throttle him.

Not everyone has the budget for flights, not everyone owns a car. So I guess there will be a market for this somewhere.

I'd worry about safety, car seats, seat belts not fitting properly. Travel sickness. Not having control over when and how often we stop.

What if we're a family or 3 or 5, will a kid have to sit by themselves?

I think the attraction of coach holidays is surely more about meeting people and everything being taken care of, hence why they’re popular with single pensioners? Most children aren’t going to want to sit for a long time and travelling in your own car means you can stop when you need to for travel sickness / toilet stops. So it’s a no from me, even as someone who’s keen to avoid flying.

Couldn’t bring a baby car seat safely on it… so rules out babies

Rules out any parent that doesn’t want a toddler / young child travelling without an iso fix car seat

and not a bloody chance my tween or teens would want to do this even if only holiday option available

I went on a loads of family coach trips as a child as my parents didn't like to drive long distances (and they also liked a drink).

I've been around the UK, Germany, France and Disney. We enjoyed them. Most people don't sing etc. Take a book or magazine or something, admire the countryside.

If you are not sure about it, perhaps try a short UK one for starters. I'd recommend National Holidays ones or Goldcrest for family ones.
Shearings and Alfa seem to be a bit for older people, but if children are well behaved they are accepting.

Honestly I would actually prefer a coach holiday these days but my toddler is probably too young.

ETA - goldcrest folded earlier this year

I'd be open to this, I like the idea of being picked up close to home, luggage all with me, no transfers and taken right there. I think with kids I'd have a limit on how long a journey I'd want to do though.

I went on a coach trip to the south of France as a child. It seemed like forever and I felt very sick at the beginning so was worried about throwing up. Apart from that it was ok, but I probably wouldn't choose it again for such a long journey unless I knew what stops we would make and how long for before I committed.

I think I would rather go on a train, because I can't read books on coaches and I can on trains, plus it's easier to stretch your legs if you need to.

Totally this - does anyone enjoy spending hours in close proximity to other people’s children?

See this is where i get confused, lots of you are commenting on being stuck in a small restricted space with other peoples children - but then surely you have this issue if you go on a plane or train? At least on a coach every body is there for the same reason so surely that would make it more tolerable?

I'm looking at this from an ideas point of view for a potential business, so if the coach offered suitable seating for babies and young children, if the coach had regular stops, and if there was some form of entertainment to help prevent children going wild - this doesn't sound like a totally bad idea? :D

I did a recent coach tour day trip with a friend. It was brilliant. No crying children or anything. Mostly interesting tourists.

Same. Hell to the no.

At least on a train there are toilets.

And at least on a train or a plane you can get up and walk about.

I was coerced into a coach trip on a holiday once. 4 hours (x2) with people I wouldn’t want to encounter again - more than enough for me.

A actual holiday?! Bloody awful idea OP.