feel for scottishmum, will they get the ones that are over there home, and the ones ready to go will get there money back eventually but, they will not have time to rebook and lay the money out for another holiday, redcrest would have known for a while they were closing and should not have took any late bookings, cantabrica and ferris are the only coach ones going there are others like lifestyle and a few others that you can go with but you need to arrange your own journey,

never tried one of the camping places as now too old/grumpy to tolerate others kids all day, but because my partner wont fly we now go by coach.
we tend to take pot luck over our resorts, liking almost everywhere in the area but have not yet tried Estartit as it seems to be much dearer than say malgrat or calella.(earlier this year we got 17 days all inclusive in calella for the same price as self catering in Estartit).
have found another who goes to Estartit area ie
http://www.beachclubholidays.com/resorts/estartit/castel_montgri.htm
but dont know a lot about them except what i read on here!
Harry Shaw holidays from London stopped going to Estartit this year but still go to Costa Brava and i dont think Ferris go to Estartit at all.
hate to say it Cidermonster but given the choice between Siesta and Club Catastrophe i might be inclined to give Siesta another chance

Sunways do coach holidays, picking up from the North West, Yorkshire, Midlands and London (but not Scotland or North East)

Are you sure that's up to date, Jim, as when i was in Castell Montgri in may, one of the redcrest Reps told me that they had taken over Beachclub's area on the site......in fact, 4 people had turned up for their holiday there only to be told that Beachclub didnt have any accom! (the rep seemed to find that quite amusing, wonder what they think now given the way Redcrest have just acted in the past few weeks!)

To be honest, Jim, i havent had too many probs with Club C. I had some issues in Italy, but that was maybe partially my fault for expecting a foreign hotel to understand the word 'vegetarian' Had a great holiday in Antibes with them, great accom, and fantastic reps (who used to pop in for a wee vodka now and then!) My only gripe with Club C is the changeover in London, and the fact that they dont appreciate the journey that their northern clients have after the changeover (no hostess, etc!) I appreciate your views on Siesta, but it's a matter of principle.....i never had a prob with their journey (apart from the same gripes i have with Club C) but the sheer cheek i got when i made that genuine complaint one year put me off for good......i just vowed never to book with them again. As i have said before....people from Siesta must read this board - if someone wishes to write to me with a sincere apology, then i might listen! Companies like Harry Shaw, Ferris, have all been mentioned here, but the prob for me is that they dont go from Scotland, i can only really think of two that do.....Siesta, and Club C

Think you are right, Rosie. Having read some of the online articles about Redcrest's demise, it has kind of soured my view of them....they clearly took money off people right up the last minute, money these peeps could have kept in their pocket.....they must have known they had serious probs. I loved travelling with them, but this whole episode does leave a bitter taste, i really feel for those people who will now need to wait for their money to be refunded!

Siesta still go to the Costa Brava and other places. We were at la Masia in Blanes and Siesta have a large enclave there. Mind you they did have a lot of unhappy campers who were expecting but didn't get entertainment, kids clubs etc!

Coach holidays. Torture

An example I travelled to Callela independently Plane to Barcelona.

I left my house at 6.15am and was getting my cases off the carousel 3 hours and 30 mins later.

The cost was £40 each for the flights and £250 for the Hotel Half board for 5 nights.
All in less then £400 in the middle of July for 3 people.

you must live very near an airport and have been very lucky with your flight ie no delays.
however most of us who go by coach do so because we(or our partners) do not like flying and so coach holidays are the only realistic option we have.
as most of us who travel this way treat the coach journey as part of our holiday we tend to appreciate the lack of delays and stress.
you are welcome to your view on coach travel, but having had terrible flights in the past with some severe delays/no information from anyone/arriving at silly hours of the night/etc etc i for one am happy to travel by coach and will continue to do so.
the price one pays for a holiday is good if you are happy with it.we all get good deals _or at least we try to and think we do, or we would not book them.

Yes coach holidays r a nightmare.

last year we got stopped on our way to santa sussanah, at the spanish border, and they held us there
for more than 7 hours.
turns out our driver didnt know where the documents for the coach were and we had to pay a 4000 euro fine.(increasing to a further 2000 if it was not paid in an hour) they clamped the coach and refused to let us leave till it was paid.

the coach company couldnt wire us the money as it was a spanish bank holiday and we all had to chip in out of our own pockets.
It was resolved in the end and we had our money back but ruined our 1st day there.

On the way back, and before we entered the channel tunnel we were stopped by the customs there, and if it were not for another coach that
had way too much beer onboard, they would have stopped us, and we would have missed our spot on the chunnel.
This could have been another lengthy delay.

The worst part was the price of it, cost us £1,050 for 2 adults and one child, its even more expensive this year!

We are booked to malgrat this year for a week and flying from birmingham and it cost us half the price of the coach!

Yes I live about 15 mins from the Airport.

The horror stories with regards to flights is typical of charter flights. However I always travel scheduled which almost always are on time.

By cutting the tour operator out of it you select the flights to suit yourself and are not tied to nightmare flights

So you both like flying! Great!

.....some of us dont, though!

I have travelled to spain by coach quite a few times , and never had a bad journey. As a family we made the journey part of the holiday especially when the children were younger.

After flying for the last couple of times , i am for next year going back with Mr Ferris coach company.

Our first 2 trips abroad in the 80`s were by coach to Lloret de Mar, run by a local coach firm, sadly no longer around. We enjoyed the journey down there, albeit 25-27 hours long, but the journey back was a nightmare for some unexplainable reason, unless it was the fact that we were going home and back to work! Didn`t mind it at the time, but don`t know if I could put up with it now.

travelling by coach can be like having a baby, you forget about the pain until you do it again! and in the end its worth it. as a child i did it a number of times as my mum was not a flyer but altho i love flying have done it twice with my kids as for one your holiday starts as soon as you step on the coach, meeting people etc and also i am gratfull for what seems like extra time on holiday i mean you get there around lunch on day 2 and don't leave until at least mid afternoon on day 16.

We have 3 holiday each year, 2 by plane in the summer and the other by bus in September/October. The less traumatic has to be the bus, yer puts yer case on the bus and yer takes it off at the hotel, 3 or 4 stops on the way down to spain and a nice 90 mins on the ferry doing a bit of shopping or drinking or general walkabouts. This year we channel hopped on the eurostar, cuts the time down by 60 mins but it mean a long time between breaks. We take a pillow and lightweight blanket, do NOT forget earplugs as the onboard movies can be a bit loud. Pre=packed food for the 24 hours means that yer dont get ripped off by motorway services and yer dont have to wait in a long line for yer grub. Toilets can be a problem if you are in a hurry when you get off the coach due to the queues so we use the one on the coach 5 mins before the rest break then we have the time to ourselves. We also take Flu remedy pills just in case we have headaches/colds/coughs etc as these pills cover most ailments for 24 journey and dont forget the pills for tummy probs.
Costwise we get the same holiday in the same hotel for less than half the price we pay going by air in the summer. We travel with Ferris and would recommend paying the extra for the better coach, lees kids, less smoke, more room, less agro. we look on it as our adventure holiday. Sure you can have problems but they are no where near as frequent as Airport probs or as severe and if the bus breaks down you get off and wait for the next one enjoying the views while you wait with a cup of tea. (cant do that on a plane with problems can yer).

My husband is scared of flying so we go by coach. We had a couple of nice holidays with Harry Shaw but the nearest pick up to us is 10 miles away, a couple of nice holidays with Avanti, till they went bump, 2 weks after we last came back and left people stranded in Spain, last 2 years we have been with Hoverland, 2004 was great, this year was nasty and has put us all off coaches. Trouble is we dont know what to do for next year, I would love to fly but am having a lot of trouble persuading him indoors, so might try Siesta or Ferris.

My Wife was terrified of flying, but in the 9 years of being together we have flown over 30 times. She still cries nearly every time, but you dont get to see Ayers Rock or Angkor Wat on a coach. I dont want to patronise people who are scared of flying but have you tried books, or even thought about doing that course that BA do.

It is fairly certain that in the next 10 years the coaches will be all but gone because of the price of flights. I am thinking of driving myself this year but only because the price of Car Hire is outrageous especially when you need a Child Seat. Also, I think it is pathetic that the airlines charge a fuel surcharge.

I actually think that this dip in coach travel is only a blip and it will take off (wrong term i suppose!) in the future again. Why? Let's face it, this cut price madness with planes can't go on forever, given the threat that global warming poses and the amount of fuel involved - i would say enjoy cheap flights while you still can, as having people flying around at weekends for £1.99 is planetary suicide and surely wont last!

Just my view though!

Woohoo!! my husband has agreed that last years coach journey was so horrible that he will give flying a go this year, he is still really nervous but we are not going till the end of September so he has time to get used to the idea! If he takes to flying we will probably venture a bit further afield in the future, I havn't flown since we got married 30 years ago so it will be different for me too, I dont dislike coaches that much, we always try to make the journey part of the holiday but 26 hours travelling with our grandchildren proved a bit of a trial, specially with the naff coach we ended up with last year.

Hoverlands price by coach 2 years ago in August for a fortnight in Malgrat for 3 adults and one child £2500 half board,flew by Easyjet to Barcelona and got to Malgrat by train, flights and self catering accomodation 2 weeks £700 all in,had to buy our own food but we did that before when we stopped at Rosa Nautica with Hoverland 3 years ago because 60% of the food was inedible.

Coach used to be the way to go but not at those prices