Royal

Hi. Friends of mine are looking at a coach tour to the Cornwall area for 4-5 days. Not sure yet what will be their departure point in England.

They are looking at this company Door2tour but can't find any information regarding their reliability or reputation. The prices seem awfully low and that has them worried.

If you know anything about this company would appreciate your advice.

Thanks

janisj

I don't think I've ever seen a post about them here on Fodors (and I try to look at most UK threads).

That doesn't mean anything one way or the other -- and especially since relatively few Fodorites are 'tourers' -- but it would seem they aren't very well known.

Gordon_R

Never heard of them either. I spend half my life driving up and down the motorways and A-roads of Britain and I've never seen a coach with "Door2Door" livery on it. However there's a simple reason why - looking at their website it's clear that they are just a broker or middleman for *real* coach operators such as Titan and Travelsphere.

Royal

Thanks janisj and Gordon. Think you are right Gordon about the broker thing.

Any suggestions you may have for a reliable tour company?

flanneruk

You've got to be very clear what you want here.

There's a huge domestic market in Britain, generally promoted through local newspapers, for cheap coach tours. The site you're describing seems to be a portal for lots of them. They typically (as far as I can tell, because they really are something no-one I know's ever used) use very cheap hotels, out of season, in places relatively popular with the kind of Briton who's comfortable with out of season cheap hotels and uncomfortable with driving.

Which is a polite way of describing the kind of people who refer to themselves as "pensioners". Probably no older than many on this board - but rather less comfortable with independent travel, even in their own country.

"Cheap" doesn't mean roach-ridden motels: it means the kind of guest houses that stretch out around many of the kind of resorts most of us have forgotten ever existed. Properly packaged, these short tours can offer amazing value if you like that kind of thing.

"Reliability" is only an issue if you're worried about them going broke - though I can't remember an example of a domestic coach tour co collapsing for years. You just need to look very sceptically and quizzically at what's being offered (departure places: times: what the accommodation really is), and what you really want (how important is an expert guide, or a specific location for the hotels?) and wonder whether you really want to be cooped up in a coach for several days with people who regard that as fun.

You're very unlikely to find any much in the way of guiding: probably a couple of announcements from the driver. But it'll all be very friendly, and coaches do have certain basic safety standards.

In many cases, like flying on Ryanair or shopping at Aldi, you very well may conclude the low price really is worth a bit of inconvenience abnd that competitores' high prices are because they're offering a package of "benefits" whose cost is more obvious than their necessity.

Royal

Thanks flanneruk. Your advice is appreciated as I think the price my friends received was ridiculously low which prompted my original post here.

I have been searching for them but not having great luck as they have pretty specific requirements such as leaving from Chesterfield and going to Cornwall for approx. 4-5 days on an escorted bus tour. He is not able to drive which is the reason for the tour.

I don't think they have great expectations about the lodgings or the guiding as the main focus is on getting there and exploring and finding a reasonable type of lodging.

flanneruk

"leaving from Chesterfield "

Then Door2Tour might be almost perfect, since with a bit of sceptical googling, you can check just about every aspect of the deal on offer. Things the operators might do that might or might not matter to your friends include:

- Shuttles. It's not rare from smallish towns for pickup coach A to collect from the town and take you to the nearest motorway service station (or in your case shlep over to a service station on the M6) where coach B is either waiting, or turns up within an hour or so to take you on the actual tour.
- Alternative pickups. You might find a beter choice picking up from, say, Alfreton/Mansfield Parkway
- Hotel location and facilities. It might be a mile from the seafront. Or there may be no en suite bathroom. Or it might be somewhere there's no realistic alternative to eating in the hotel. Usually, these packages have a low entry price, with hotel upgrades available. Such "upgrades" may or may not be worth lashing out on,
- Specific timetables. What time does the package pick up and drop at your stop? Part of the reason they're cheap is that many make a lot of outgoing and returning pickups, from say Newcastle to Leicester or even further south. This can mean a sparrows' fart start for some, and an extraordinarily tedious first and last day driving round the bus stations of places you've spent most of your life steering clear of.

Though no-one I know personally's taken these tours, I occasionally hear ladies in our newsagent's or in the GP's waiting room telling each other how much they enjoyed (or really hated the woman in the next seat on) the one they took to - say - the Brecon Beacons. Mostly they're the generation who'd regard whingeing about hanging round a motorway service station as showing no backbone, but see getting a 5-day hol for a third of the overnight rate at a mediocre local hotel as a bit of a find.

Just make sure the tour's right for your chums.

Royal

Thanks again flanner for all the good advice. Will pass it on.

nona1

My parents have been on a couple of these recently (in their 80s, no longer driving). They are cheap and cheerful getaways, usually just pensioners (although my sister and BIL went on a tour to Ironbridge with them, so not always), hotels have always been ok but locations not always great. Last time they felt a bit stranded, hotel was quite remote, the 'nearby local bus' turned out to be too far for them to comfortably walk to and only ran a couple of times a day.

Door2Tour

Sorry to join late to the party! We've only just seen this post but wanted to take the opportunity to reply. As flanneruk says, we are indeed a coach holidays consolidator marketing a number of tours from over 35 reputable UK regional and national coach operators.

In general coach holidays offer great value for money which can seem too good to be true if what's included isn't clearly outlined in the tour itinerary. As a rule of thumb, you'll find that anything that is of fantastic value is likely to be using a lower quality hotel (2 or 3 star) and consist of free time in resort. There are no catches, but pricing and value very much depends on which operator is running the tour – some operators are geared to the cheaper end of the market offering 'no frills' holidays (these tend to be to the traditional bucket and spade resorts), although it's a misconception that all operators are 'cheap'. There are several other tours on the site which include superb hotels in central locations, extra legroom on board coaches and a detailed excursion programme, which for that reason can compare a little more pricey. It's just a case of what's more important to you – price or the package itself. It’s also worth mentioning that as we have a number of operators on our site, what's on offer will depend on where you're departing from, as not all regional operators will have pickup points close to you.

As for reliability, as we are a marketing agency any payments made for holidays booked are directly between the customer and operator, meaning that all bookings are covered under the operators' individual terms and conditions when booking a holiday. However, we only work with coach operators who are bonded by travel package regulations and who have some form of financial bonding in the unlikely event that something goes wrong. We are currently in the process of collecting tour and brand reviews from our customers which should provide other users with more info when searching for tours.