THE escorted-tour coach market is booming and operators have responded with expanded product within the UK and Ireland, mainland Europe and North America, as well as further afield in the Far East and Australasia. Passengers have also asked for more independent arrangements so they can do their own thing, so some operators are building time into their itineraries for clients to spend a few leisurely days at destinations featured within their tours.
Cosmos
Brochures: Cosmos Tourama and Cosmos America and Canada.
New product: Ireland makes its debut in the Tourama brochure with three tours. Prices start at £369 for six nights with flights, three-star stay, some meals and sightseeing.
Cosmos Tourama has also expanded its range of Leisurely Touring Holidays with tours to Greece, Andalucia and Catalonia. Prices start at £469 for eight days including flights from five UK airports, three-star half-board accommodation and sightseeing, plus services of a tour director.
New to the America and Canada brochure is a 14-night Grand Canadian Rail Journey from Toronto to Vancouver, which costs from £1,125 including flights, stays, coach and rail travel, plus a 13-day Quebec Gaspe Peninsula tour from £1,299 including flights, accommodation, all meals and wildlife boat cruises.
Sample tour: Venice, Florence and Rome eight-day tour from £489 including flights from Gatwick, Stansted, Birmingham or Manchester, seven nights’ stays, meals, plus sightseeing.
Cosmos
Brochures: Cosmos Tourama and Cosmos America and Canada.
New product: Ireland makes its debut in the Tourama brochure with three tours. Prices start at £369 for six nights with flights, three-star stay, some meals and sightseeing.
Cosmos Tourama has also expanded its range of Leisurely Touring Holidays with tours to Greece, Andalucia and Catalonia. Prices start at £469 for eight days including flights from five UK airports, three-star half-board accommodation and sightseeing, plus services of a tour director.
New to the America and Canada brochure is a 14-night Grand Canadian Rail Journey from Toronto to Vancouver, which costs from £1,125 including flights, stays, coach and rail travel, plus a 13-day Quebec Gaspe Peninsula tour from £1,299 including flights, accommodation, all meals and wildlife boat cruises.
Sample tour: Venice, Florence and Rome eight-day tour from £489 including flights from Gatwick, Stansted, Birmingham or Manchester, seven nights’ stays, meals, plus sightseeing.
Jetsave
Brochures: Jetsave America and Canada Escorted Touring Holidays.
New product: some 13 of the operator’s 33 tours are new for 2000, including a Route 66 tour from Chicago to Los Angeles, which costs from £1,255 for 17 days including flights, accommodation and excursions. Also new is a Southern Railroad Rhythms 14-day coach/rail tour from Chicago to New Orleans. It costs from £1,199.
Sample tour: Rockies Railroad and Alaska Cruise is a 14-day tour from Calgary to Vancouver, with a two-day rail journey on the Rocky Mountaineer and a seven-night Alaska cruise, from £1,759 including transatlantic flights and excursions.
Wallace Arnold Holidays
Brochures: Britain, Jersey and Ireland, Destination Worldwide, and Europe.
New product: more than 50 coach, air, rail and cruise packages, including holidays combining coach and rail travel to Provence, the Cote D’Azur, Lucerne and Lake Como, are featured in the Europe Summer 2000 brochure.
New air and cruise packages include a 12-day Imperial Waterways of Russia itinerary which starts at £1,099 including flights from Gatwick.
New to the Destination Worldwide brochure is a 15-day Kingdom of Thailand tour from £1,549 including flights.
UK local joining points have also been boosted from 950 last summer to 1,600 this year.
Sample tour: Idyllic Provence is a nine-day package including excursions to St Tropez, Port Grimauld, Avignon, Nimes and Arles with eight nights half-board accommodation, ferry crossings, rail transfers and coach travel from £529.
Leger Holidays
Brochures: Europe by Coach and Leger Holidays Disneyland Paris.
New product: four Battlefields of Europe tours – Battle of the Bulge, from £139 for four days; Battlefields of Verdun from £169 for five days; Churchill’s Command Post, from £169 for four days; and In Flanders Field from £119 for four days. A new seven-day Normandy and Battlefields tour starts from £269. There are more weekend breaks, a nine-day Discover Southern Germany tour from £359, and a 16-day Great Russian Spectacular from £899. There are more than 300 UK pick-up points.
Sample tour: a seven-day Black Forest tour starts at £269 including a comprehensive sightseeing programme. A four-day weekend break to the D-Day Beaches of Normandy leads in at £89.
Insight Vacations
Brochures: The Finest Collection of European Escorted Journeys.
New product: a 16-day Country Roads of Spain tour covering the Basque region of northern Spain, travelling from Madrid to Lisbon. It costs from £1,025 including flights, stays and sightseeing. There is also a Tyrolean tour which takes in the Oberammergau Passion Play in Bavaria. It costs from £679 for eight days including flights, stays, meals, first-class tickets to the play and sightseeing.
Sample tour: 15-day Treasures of Turkey starting from Istanbul and taking in Bursa, Ankara, Cappadocia, Konya, Antalya, Pamukkale, Kusadasi and Izmir. Prices start at £1,055 including flights, some meals, first-class hotels and sightseeing.
Shearings
Brochures: Shearings Britain, Shearings Europe and Mediterranean, Shearings Worldwide by Air and Shearings Sunshine Express.
New product: a choice of four holidays to Dornoch in Scotland by air from Stansted and Liverpool airports with different touring options. Prices start at £359 for eight days from Stansted and £349 for eight days from Liverpool. Also new are five or eight-day Heritage and Millennium Garden tours based in Llanwrtyd Wells in Wales. Prices start at £299 for eight days from the South of England, and from £189 for five days from the North.
Additions to the Europe and Worldwide programme include nine or 10-day tours combining sightseeing in the Austrian Tyrol with a visit to the Oberammergau Passion Play. Prices start at £949 including flights from London or Manchester, seven nights dinner, bed and breakfast in the Tyrol, and transfers.
Sample tour: the Worldwide by Air programme includes a Best of New England escorted tour which takes in coastline, mountain scenery and Boston. Prices start at £939 including flights, and accommodation for 10 nights.
Grand UK Holidays
Brochures: Grand UK Holidays.
New product: European programme covers nine countries with 16 new tours, including a 12-day break to Hungary and the Czech Republic centred in Budapest and Prague from £609. The summer 2000 brochure has extra tours to eg Southern Ireland, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.
Sample tour: Dorset and New Forest four to eight-day tours using Bournemouth as a base. Excursions include the New Forest, Salisbury, Lymington, Weymouth, Lulworth Cove and Lyndhurst. Prices start at £134 including accommodation and trips.
Trafalgar Tours
Brochures: Trafalgar’s Europe 2000, Trafalgar’s USA and Canada 2000 and Trafalgar’s Cost Saver Europe and Britain 2000.
New product: four nine-day Europe at Leisure tour-and-stay holidays to Italy, Spain and eastern Europe, starting at £665 including flights, accommodation, sightseeing and some meals.
Sample tour: Best of Italy 13-day tour covering Rome, Pompeii, Capri, Assisi, Ravenna, Venice, Verona, Milan, the Italian Lakes, Lugano, Pisa, Florence and Siena. It costs from £985 including flights from the UK, accommodation in first-class hotels, sightseeing programme and 20 meals.