What's it really like travelling to Spain by bus with kids?

A few weeks ago we travelled to Spain by bus with our three children aged 5, 7 and 9. I am sure many of you may remember doing this with your own parents in the 80's and 90's and I'm pleased to say things have improved considerably since then.

Our main reason for travelling by bus was quite simply the cost. Our whole 10 day holiday including transport, transfers, luggage, accommodation and a fabulous resort with on-site reps was only £1000. I have priced the same deal in September and it is only £650. Wow! We booked a Sunbargain deal with Siesta Holidays.

I will say that my three children are excellent travellers and were no bother at all on board as long as they could watch TV or play on their iPad. Steve and I were free to watch our own TVs and read without any interuptions which did make things a lot easier for us.

On Board

The coaches are modern and clean with lots of good facilities and plenty of leg room. Everyone has their own TV which is pre-loaded with 300+ movies, tv shows, music and games. You are given your own headphones when you board but we had already packed our own.

During our trip the kids loved watching Avengers, Frozen, Ant Man, Despicable Me, The Minions Movie, Wreck It Ralph, Horrible Histories, Guardians of the Galaxy, Finding Nemo and more. We were honestly spoilt for choice and there was more than enough to keep us entertained during our 30 hour journey.

I watched Les Miserable, Bridget Jones Diary, Pretty Woman, Friends With Benefits (which in hindsight was a mistake when I realised Jack was still awake next to me) plus lots of stand up comedy including Micheal Mcintyre, Kevin Bridges and Sarah Millican. 

There is FREE on board wifi however this was hit and miss so although I was able to check Facebook a couple of times in France, I wouldn't rely on it. The BIG downside to the coaches is that they don't have any plug sockets so unless you take your own power pack, your phones/iPads ect.... are likely to run out of battery at some point during the journey. 

We were kindly sent these Quilty Explorer Guides for the journey. At only £1.99 each they are a real bargain. All three children raced against each other to try and spot as many of the listed vehicles as possible and the wordsearches ect.... were handy when we travelled through the Eurotunnel when all electronic devices had to be turned off.  

Everyone is able to take one piece of hand luggage on board with them plus a pillow. Your chairs fully recline although you aren't allowed to do this until after 9pm. There is also a foot rest, arm rest and leg rest if needed and you have a small tray and drinks holder too. 

What really made the journey for us was our lovely coach host Karen. She REALLY looked after us all on board and was just so friendly, happy and lovely. She would pop around to see us every hour or so and ask if we needed anything and if we were ok. There is actually a decent selection of food available on board and it's all super cheap - a cup of tea is 80p and a bacon sandwich £1.50. Bargain! There was quite a selection too including wines, soft drinks, toasties, burgers, hotdogs...... you certainly wouldn't go hungry or thirsty. The drivers were lovely too, kept us safe and were actually quite funny at times. They kept us updated with our route and helped us with our luggage too. Super customer service. 

Not bad for £1.50! 

The scenery for the most part isn't great as you are mostly on motorways but we did get to cross through the Pyrenees which was nice. 

Sleeping

The seats do fully recline, the curtains close and we packed blankets and pillows for the children. I actually had an ok sleep and the children managed to as well. We certainly didn't feel overly tired the next day. The only issue I had was that lights didn't go out until midnight and were swtched back on at 6am on our outward journey and 5:30am on our inward journey (so we could get ready for the tunnel crossing). Yikes! 

Channel Crossing

Everyone has to get off the coach at the terminal and it is serached by officials as passengers walk through passport control before boarding again. The coach then drives into it's own little carriage on the train. Passengers have to stay with their coach but can walk on the platform just outside and every carriage has it's own loo which you can walk to if needed. There are also loo's on board the coach but we had enough stops that I never needed to test these out. During the 35 minute journey under the channel, all electronics need to be switched off which is when books or wordsearches come in handy. Or you can catch up on some sleep. 

Rest Breaks

There aren't too many little breaks but you do get meal breaks ranging from 45 minutes to 2 hours. We stopped at a variety of places including a McDonalds in France (which was actually pretty cool), a French service station where we enjoyed a French picnic from the shop and one of the service stations in Spain where we stopped for breakfast served the most delicious croissants and proper freshly squeezed orange juice. Make sure you budget for meals during your journey. We typically spent 30 euros per meal between the 5 of us which wasn't bad with multiple meal stops it soon adds up. 

I packed us all little 'freshen up' kits with facial wipes, deodorant, toothpaste ect..... and they were easy to pop out of our main bags and take to the service station loos. The places we stopped were better abroad than in the UK and I loved the fancy coffee machines where Steve and I couldn't resist a couple of Espressos. 

On our return journey we were picked up from site at 11:30am, travelled for 30 minutes to Estartit and then told we had 2 hours free time here. I wasn't expecting this and although it was nice to re-visit a holiday destination of yesteryear, I think I would have rather just got cracking with the journey home and we just ended up spending money we didn't really need to. 

Would I do it again? I'm honestly not sure. The journey there was no bother as we were all excited but coming home it seemed to take FOREVER and we just wanted to be back. Some people on our bus decided to get a little bit tipsy on the journey outwards and thought nothing about swearing quite loudly which I don't like around my children. Plus although you can't smoke onboard, if you were sitting near someone who had just popped out for a cigarette it was really noticeable.

However......you can't deny the value. £650 for the 5 of us in September is AMAZING and you can get drunk/smelly people on flights too so it's not exclusively a coach problem.  Our holiday overall was fantastic - Calella de Palafrugell where we travelled, our accommodation and the place we stayed (Camping La Siesta) were all superb and I will definitely revisit. The price is certainly tempting and worth re-booking for I think.

2018 update - there are now USB sockets at every seat, even more reason to give it a try I think!

What do you think? Have you ever travelled by coach with your kids?

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