to jimd f. four adults and one child, went to spain last june. on a coach club cantabrica,its a bit tiring but we found it ok,there are lots of different resorts and hotelsto choose from.we stayed on a camp site in flatlets a bit basic,but very clean, and not to loud after dark.hope this helps

Usually go with Redcrest, as that means i dont have to do the dreaded hub changeover in London, plus they tend to cater more for people in the north than the likes of Club C.

Have to say, dont know how great a choice of hotels you would have through a lot of these coach companies, most concentrate on Campsites and Self catering. Oh.....and dont think of Castell Montgri as your average camping, 14 days in a Lux 6 mobile home, and i wouldnt go back to hotels, thank you very much!

If its a choice between estartit and malgrat choose estartit, went to santa susanna and malgrat last year not a lot to do take no notice of what they say is there, and dont go with canterbrica very old coaches and bad service, the best one to go with is siesta coaches they have nice hotels as well, good new coaches with extra legroom and hostess service, and redcrest are okay as well ,been with them twice, look up there websites and places to stay, the only thing is there getting expensive now depends when you are going, we went to aquamarina last year flying and it was 80 pounds cheaper by air than coach
Rosie

I know you said you dont like camping but these sites are not just tents they are lovely mobile homes and bungalows etc, and the most beutiful place to stay is callella de parafrugell not far from estarti it is a lovely campsite in a beautiful catalan village and just a 10 minute walk away is llfranc where judith charmers on wish you were here was asked by the holidaymakers not to advertize it as they did not want to spoil it, in fact when they advertise callella in holiday articles, they show callella de parafrugell instead of callella which is a dump DO NOT GET THEM CONFUSED if you want to see the village go to parafrugell webcams and see the village or go into parafrugell images it is the most lovely place for a laid back holiday
Rosie

That was my point Rosie, campsites such as Castell Montgri arent just about tents, they have some fantastic mobiles that are much better than hotels in my view
As for Siesta, well, most people on here know my view about them! Go with Siesta if you want, but if you get a problem, prepare to be handled / ignored by their reps, and then prepare yourself for a cheeky reply should you complain to them on your return home!!

I have travelled with Siesta 5 times and am going with them again in April to Malgrat and then in August to Salou.
I find them a excellent company and cannot fault them at all.
The coaches are all modern with plenty of space. I would strongly recomment them to anyone wanting to travel by coach.

In fairness to them (and i usually aint!) Siesta did do an excellent coach journey, and i couldnt fault them on that, apart from the hub system that a lot of the companies do.

However, like i said, they just werent interested in genuine complaints. One thing that also put me off (and someone tell me if this has changed) but when went with them, they seemed to go under two names, Siesta and Travel Europe, sometimes used in the long form Siesta Travel Europe. Travel Europe seemed to be the name used when booked through a travel agent (and were ABTA bonded) whilst Siesta was used for direct booking (and werent ABTA bonded) meaning i had no route for my complaint when i got home! Been a few years, but this was the situation i recalled at the time, and it seemed a bit strange to me?

Sometimes it can be a bit pot luck with coach companies, some people like company x, some people like company y!

we travel by coach now as my partner wont fly anymore, and as there are only 2 of us the under occupancy supplements normally kill the price option of going self catering, hence our preference for hotels. also we are now of an age where the prospect of spending 2 weeks surrounded by other peoples kids fills us with dread-so camp sites are also a no-no.
it looks like it will have to be siesta, but i have read too many uncomplimentary reviews that i would really like some other options.
any further options/opinions are welcomed

the coach trip is not as bad u imagine!! i enjoy a few beers on the coach down. going with redcrest this year is beer available on the coach i know it was with siesta

to jimd-f:
Yeah, know what you mean about the occupancy, i remember going with Club C to a couple of places, and you needed a masters degree to work out the overall price, it was all supplements, etc. Dont know how Siesta do it these days, i know Redcrest just have a price per accomodation per week, so you dont need to have the calculator handy! We dont have any kids either, and i dont particularly like screaming kids, but i can quite tolerate places like Castell Montgri, etc, in early season - campsites are ok then, but wouldnt go in July!! Also, you never said which part of the country you were coming from? Reason i ask, is the dreaded hub system, with feeder coaches all coming to a central point! Certainly being far north up here in Central Scotland, getting home at 2am didnt appeal to me with Siesta, neither did waiting for a couple of passengers at the changeover on the journey home, purely because the Italian bus was running 3hrs late!! Beware the hub!! If you stay further south it obviously isnt as much of an issue.

to club catastrophe:
Yeah, they do serve beer (and cider, mmmmm) on the redcrest buses! I can remember some coach companies (a decade or so ago) that didnt allow alcohol on the buses, but i think the coach companies realise that people would smuggle it on anyway, so they make the money by selling it themselves. Actually.....(going off on a tangent) i think the bus companies (all of them!) should take a bit more responsibility on this matter. i like a drink on the bus, but dont go OTT.....however, there are idiots who do, it's not great when there are a load of kids, and it's a helluva long journey when you get stuck behind these people!!

glad u can get a wee refreshment on the coach.

Dont know about the coach, but the hotels siesta do are good all have there own website, if you look in there brochere or go online to siesta holidays you can see the hotel holidays they do, as for a drink we took a coolbag with a few cans of cider, also a short and bought mixers on the coach, you can aways put it in a mineral bottle, and you can have a few on the ferry, you need it to sleep
Rosie

Aqua bella playa Malgrat
Hotel sorra daurada
Hotel sorra D'or

Better choice of hotels in Malgrat

have a look also at
http://www.ferriscoachholidays.co.uk
rosie

Yeah, we do that too, Rosie. Since you can buy cans of coke, etc, on the bus, we always take a wee bottle of vodka with us!
I used to take quite a lot of stuff in the coolbag, but the bus legroom isnt always great, and im 6ft 3, so we dont take as much stuff now.

I can see your point, we went the first time on the coach with redcrest, we went with our neighbours who had been a few times to parafrugell so we booked a table for four, not a lot of room had ankles like balloons for a week, the year after we went again and booked the front seats upstairs which was worth the extra 10 pounds, alot more room, plus we could put our feet up as my husband is also a big guy and a big kid he gets very excited when we go on holiday, so we had a couple of ciders then he went on the brandy, then onto the ferry for a couple of beers, then back to the brandy, and then it comes to about 1 in the morning and the drivers stopped on a busy road to change drivers and at that time he was a smoker and thought it was a break stop and tried to get of on a french motorway it was a nightmare, he was not a nuisance to anyone else but me, saying were nearly there sweetheart every two mins till about 5 when he sobered up, the couple behind us said it was the best entertainment they have ever had and was gutted they were only there for the week and could'nt come back on the same coach, we had a good week with them though, and a couple we met the year before and then our neighbourd joined us on the wed, it was a great atmosphere on the campsite at parafrugell, we all got a few drinks in and sat ourside our cabins at night wonderful holiday
Rosie

i have just been informed im siting at one of our tables! is the leg room just the same? should be good for a card school (even if im facing backwards)

You can have some good laughs on the coach journey, even in the face of adversary!!

We got held up one time in France for 2 hours, problem with the coach's Aircon overheating....

Did we bother? Yeah, at first we were annoyed, but after a bit one guy just got his kid's football out, and the next minute there are half a dozen daft Scot's adults running around chasing a football at 2am in a french service station!!

Mad!

you have to laugh or crack up, once you get to the midnight hour you know its just a few hours to go, by this time you have balloons for ankles and are grateful for the last stop whether you are a smoker or not, but usually you get talking to someone from another part of the country and can make new friends, felt sorry for the people from scotland who had been on for hours when we got picked up in manchester, ours was a long journey but theres was even worse, but saying that when we arrived at parafrugell it was all worth it, never seen my husband relax on holiday at any other place
Rosie