First day of the season today and I’am once again heading to the Cliffs with a fairly decent load, the same cannot be said of tomorrow or next week but I seem to remember I always get a healthy dose of paranoia at this time of year, hopefully things will look up soon.
I left you last time anticipating what promised to be an ‘interesting” trip to England because of the total close down of Irish Air space meaning we had to go by ferry, the plan was to take the car to Dublin then catch the evening fast ferry to Holyhead, spend the night there then take the train up to Sunderland. However we were just finishing packing on Sunday morning when we got a text from Stena Line kindly informing us that the ferry was cancelled due to technical failure – what to do now? We called Stena and were on hold for 50 min before being cut off – great! I then tried again and amazingly got talking to a human at last but they informed me the next foot passenger space was on Wednesday so that was not an option, there were however spaces on the night ferry for cars so we decided to take the car and drive to Sunderland then head back on the Friday by our favourite P & O crossing from Liverpool – sorted then!
All went reasonably to plan, it was along drive but helped by good roads and an even better car (still love the Mercedes!) and we did 260 miles in just over 4 hours (try and do that in Ireland!) We shared the driving and the trip passed in no time, the time with the family flew and I had a little business to attend to, we headed to Liverpool on Thursday night to catch the day sailing to Dublin, we had a great night in Liverpool which drew to a close what could only be described as an interesting winter!
We were inDublin this week delivering our brochures to Dublin Tourism and we were struck by the massive competition now on day tours to the Cliffs of Moher, there are now 4 operators offering totally coach based tours and 2 offering rail and coach tours (including ourselves!) As I think I have previously mentioned the coach tours are being heavily promoted and are carrying quite a lot of passengers indeed I often see them in Doolin all fighting for a bit of lunch at a certain establishment, thankfully we glide gracefully by to the haven of Gus O’Connors pub where a much more civilized atmosphere prevails! It amazes me how people are taken in by the idea that spending 12 hours on a coach is going to be fun and “mighty craic” when the journey could be made by rail in comfort with catering, toilets etc and the really interesting bit done by coach but it seems impossible for us to compete on price, commission rates paid to agents and general dirty tactics which we would never employ because, as I hope regular readers will know well - I’am proud to say our success has always been on our terms with clean hands, not all can claim that!
At this point this might be starting to sound like a rant against everyone in competition with ourselves but nothing could be further from the truth I have the greatest respect for some of our competitors and I like to think we have developed an understanding of each others operation and whilst we remain competitive we are always fair, what does surprise me is that our government is supporting and promoting these enterprises which only mean greater carbon emissions from coaches following each other across the country over routes that are more than adequately served by coach or train many of which have spare capacity, just my thoughts – what do you think?
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Richards Blog 17.04.10 – Ash Thursday!
We are rapidly approaching the start of our full season and things are somewhat hectic with bus repairs and having workers in the house at odd times! The weather has been absolutely gorgeous and on Tuesday we took the decision to have a couple of days away on bike and had a wonderfull time, we toured West Cork and took in such great places as Mizen Head, Clonakilty, The Beara Peninsular and Killarney, I will tell the full story and route soon but I have something pressing on my mind this week!
Next week we are escaping the renovations and heading over to England on business and to see the families before the season starts however events have rather changed our plans! We were going to fly Dublin to Newcastle by Ryanair on Monday but unfortunately due to the cloud of volcanic ash that is drifting around Europe our flight is cancelled, when we heard the news I got straight onto Stena Line ferries and booked possibly the last 2 seats out of Dublin to Holyhead for tomorrow night, we are then staying a night in Holyhead before taking a train to Newcastle (with 3 changes) so it might be an epic journey – as usual, I will let you know! Hopefully normal service will return for our return journey before next weekend.
Our change of plans has forced us into canceling our tour for tomorrow but fortunately we only had one booking anyway, sorry if any of you were disappointed but unfortunately we were forced into this by unusual circumstances to say the least we have had a few cancellations from people who couldn’t fly in and needless to say we have refunded them in full, we feel their pain!
I will continue with my motorcycle diaries next week, hope you are enjoying these, if you are let me know and if not also let me know and I will shorten them a little, as usual it is lovely to hear from you even if you tell me that I’am boring you to tears, don’t forget to check out our facebook and twitter for the latest news and gossip!
At Mizen head on my lovely Kawasaki W650
Next week we are escaping the renovations and heading over to England on business and to see the families before the season starts however events have rather changed our plans! We were going to fly Dublin to Newcastle by Ryanair on Monday but unfortunately due to the cloud of volcanic ash that is drifting around Europe our flight is cancelled, when we heard the news I got straight onto Stena Line ferries and booked possibly the last 2 seats out of Dublin to Holyhead for tomorrow night, we are then staying a night in Holyhead before taking a train to Newcastle (with 3 changes) so it might be an epic journey – as usual, I will let you know! Hopefully normal service will return for our return journey before next weekend.
Our change of plans has forced us into canceling our tour for tomorrow but fortunately we only had one booking anyway, sorry if any of you were disappointed but unfortunately we were forced into this by unusual circumstances to say the least we have had a few cancellations from people who couldn’t fly in and needless to say we have refunded them in full, we feel their pain!
I will continue with my motorcycle diaries next week, hope you are enjoying these, if you are let me know and if not also let me know and I will shorten them a little, as usual it is lovely to hear from you even if you tell me that I’am boring you to tears, don’t forget to check out our facebook and twitter for the latest news and gossip!
At Mizen head on my lovely Kawasaki W650
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Richards Blog 10.04.10 – Testing times and Northern Thailand!
Back on tour today and once again it has been a mad week! This is the time of year that I try to catch up on all our coach maintenance and also my coach is due for its annual test so I went through it and found a couple of jobs that needed doing, one was a steering component that was not expired but well on its way so that had to be replaced, unfortunately these parts only seem to last us a couple of years and cost a cool Eu600.00! The roads of the Burren are certainly to blame for this and they seem to last ages everywhere else, to give an idea how unusual this part was the only one in the world was in Turin in Italy so had to be shipped to us. I have to admit fitting it was a fairly heavy job on my own and my back was well and truly screaming on Tuesday night, that holiday has made me soft!
As well as coach repairs we have still got people in repairing our house and it looks like it will be a long job, we are getting much of the materials and our ever faithful Celtic Princess has been great, it is carrying passengers today but yesterday it was carrying a load of tiles and laminate flooring!
I can now feel a trip to Thailandcoming on – more memories! We spent most of our time in Pattaya but took a trip up to Chiang Mai in the North. We took the train from Pattaya to Bangkokwhich was quite an experience, it was the local train and there is only one train a day! The local trains have only one class and that is third which means basic but comfortable seats and no air con but huge roof fans and completely opening windows – I thought it was great, I sat back and watched the countryside roll by and the trip was made better by a lovely happy Thai lady doing her best to sell me cans of beer for the whole trip – marvelous! Now the day we traveled on was our wedding anniversary so I surprised Chris with a stay at Bangkoks’ oldest 5 star hotel – The Dusit Thani, it was fabulous and whilst not having the flash of the newer skyscrapers it had a class all of its own, we took dinner in the restaurant called Bengarong which specialises in Royal Thai cuisine and it was quite simply the finest Thai food I have tasted, not overly complicated but beautifully cooked with fresh spices. We then had a night in Bangkok which was relatively tame for us and got back about 2’o clock for a great nights sleep.
The following day we did some shopping and sightseeing before heading Bangkoks’ magnificent Hua Lamphuang station for the overnight sleeper to Chiang Mai (a mere 13 hours away!). I have to admit I love the romance of long distance rail travel and watching the comings and goings and bustle of a big station, we settled into our first class sleeper (not very expensive!) and had a few drinks while we watched the suburbs of Bangkok which is quite literally an assault on the senses with the amazing sight of people trying to scratch out a living as best they can in shanty towns next to the railway, it truly is a humbling experience! With Bangkok behind us we headed to the dining car for a great unbelievably cheap Thai meal although you do need to like chillis, my duck red curry was seriously hot! We then settled down to a few Thai whiskeys, made plenty of friends and had a great night!
Arriving at Chiang Mai station has a real frontier feel to it, its quite a way north so the stifling heat of Bangkok gives way to pleasant mid twenties temperatures and life is a bit less frantic, we headed to our hotel to leave our bags and then headed to the bike hire shop where I collect my motorbike for the next couple of days, the weather was lovely so we decided to do a bit of touring and headed on the most spectacular circular ride north into the mountains – the scenery and roads were spectacular in fact I longed to have my bike from Ireland! The day went all too quick and we headed back to our hotel then into the city for a look round the famous night bazaar, surprisingly this was followed by a few drinks before heading back to the hotel – to be continued next week!
On tour in Thailand - what a view!
As well as coach repairs we have still got people in repairing our house and it looks like it will be a long job, we are getting much of the materials and our ever faithful Celtic Princess has been great, it is carrying passengers today but yesterday it was carrying a load of tiles and laminate flooring!
I can now feel a trip to Thailandcoming on – more memories! We spent most of our time in Pattaya but took a trip up to Chiang Mai in the North. We took the train from Pattaya to Bangkokwhich was quite an experience, it was the local train and there is only one train a day! The local trains have only one class and that is third which means basic but comfortable seats and no air con but huge roof fans and completely opening windows – I thought it was great, I sat back and watched the countryside roll by and the trip was made better by a lovely happy Thai lady doing her best to sell me cans of beer for the whole trip – marvelous! Now the day we traveled on was our wedding anniversary so I surprised Chris with a stay at Bangkoks’ oldest 5 star hotel – The Dusit Thani, it was fabulous and whilst not having the flash of the newer skyscrapers it had a class all of its own, we took dinner in the restaurant called Bengarong which specialises in Royal Thai cuisine and it was quite simply the finest Thai food I have tasted, not overly complicated but beautifully cooked with fresh spices. We then had a night in Bangkok which was relatively tame for us and got back about 2’o clock for a great nights sleep.
The following day we did some shopping and sightseeing before heading Bangkoks’ magnificent Hua Lamphuang station for the overnight sleeper to Chiang Mai (a mere 13 hours away!). I have to admit I love the romance of long distance rail travel and watching the comings and goings and bustle of a big station, we settled into our first class sleeper (not very expensive!) and had a few drinks while we watched the suburbs of Bangkok which is quite literally an assault on the senses with the amazing sight of people trying to scratch out a living as best they can in shanty towns next to the railway, it truly is a humbling experience! With Bangkok behind us we headed to the dining car for a great unbelievably cheap Thai meal although you do need to like chillis, my duck red curry was seriously hot! We then settled down to a few Thai whiskeys, made plenty of friends and had a great night!
Arriving at Chiang Mai station has a real frontier feel to it, its quite a way north so the stifling heat of Bangkok gives way to pleasant mid twenties temperatures and life is a bit less frantic, we headed to our hotel to leave our bags and then headed to the bike hire shop where I collect my motorbike for the next couple of days, the weather was lovely so we decided to do a bit of touring and headed on the most spectacular circular ride north into the mountains – the scenery and roads were spectacular in fact I longed to have my bike from Ireland! The day went all too quick and we headed back to our hotel then into the city for a look round the famous night bazaar, surprisingly this was followed by a few drinks before heading back to the hotel – to be continued next week!
On tour in Thailand - what a view!
Richards Blog 04.04.10 – April fool!
I cannot believe that we are into April already particularly as I was de icing coaches at 7.30 this morning, the weather is just mad at the moment, in contrast last Sunday I went for a blast on my bike and it was a fairly warm spring day! Things are chaotic at home still, we have builders in sorting the flood damage so we are living out of cases and sleeping in the spare room, if there were anything positive to come out of our bad luck it is that we are having a massive clear out and de clutter which was long overdue!
We had an April fool on Thursday and offered a tour for Eu5.00 to The Cliffs fromDublin including lunch and rail travel! I’am not sure anyone was fooled but the way competition has gone in the day tour business probably people thought we were serious! There is a huge battle going on between some companies at the moment and some day tours are now cheaper than they were 15 years ago! Now some of you might think this is great good news for travelers but I’am not too sure, all that these price levels will result in is safety compromises and inevitably a worse tour for everyone the old adage “quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten” certainly applies here! We will not get involved in this kind of stupid price cutting and will continue to do what we have always done and that is to offer the best tours at a reasonable cost, we haven’t even had a price increase for 8 years now, we will watch developments with interest but you are never going to get a Barratt Tour for a stupid price however you will always get one for a reasonable price that is workable for us and affordable for you, we are in this for the long haul after all and one way we will always compete is in quality - you wouldn’t go to a Michelin starred restaurant and expect a cheap meal!
Thank you for all your kind wishes to Chris, I have to say she has really made a full recovery now and is fighting fit, indeed I cannot remember her relishing the fight we have to get customers more than at the moment, so a warning to our competitors from her – she is spoiling for a fight and believe me, you don’t want to cross her at the moment!
No books or music to report on without me boring you all to death with me rattling on about how brilliant Doves are! But next week I will tell you about a great book that I read on holiday that will appeal to you if you have a liking for a great cop story with some far eastern intrigue, as ever, watch this space!
We had an April fool on Thursday and offered a tour for Eu5.00 to The Cliffs fromDublin including lunch and rail travel! I’am not sure anyone was fooled but the way competition has gone in the day tour business probably people thought we were serious! There is a huge battle going on between some companies at the moment and some day tours are now cheaper than they were 15 years ago! Now some of you might think this is great good news for travelers but I’am not too sure, all that these price levels will result in is safety compromises and inevitably a worse tour for everyone the old adage “quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten” certainly applies here! We will not get involved in this kind of stupid price cutting and will continue to do what we have always done and that is to offer the best tours at a reasonable cost, we haven’t even had a price increase for 8 years now, we will watch developments with interest but you are never going to get a Barratt Tour for a stupid price however you will always get one for a reasonable price that is workable for us and affordable for you, we are in this for the long haul after all and one way we will always compete is in quality - you wouldn’t go to a Michelin starred restaurant and expect a cheap meal!
Thank you for all your kind wishes to Chris, I have to say she has really made a full recovery now and is fighting fit, indeed I cannot remember her relishing the fight we have to get customers more than at the moment, so a warning to our competitors from her – she is spoiling for a fight and believe me, you don’t want to cross her at the moment!
No books or music to report on without me boring you all to death with me rattling on about how brilliant Doves are! But next week I will tell you about a great book that I read on holiday that will appeal to you if you have a liking for a great cop story with some far eastern intrigue, as ever, watch this space!
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