CAMPING BY
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A LANCASHIRE OPERATOR PROVIDES A UNIQUE SERVICE OF CONTINENTAL COACH HOLIDAYS FOR CAMPERS WITH CAMPING becoming more sophisticated and people looking for an inexpensive way to see the Continent and get to the sunshine, it may be that organised coaching holidays for campers and others who like the outdoor life, such as those tours that have been pioneered by the Lancashire operators, Sandown Coaches (Burnley) Ltd., will increase.
The company now running these unique tours is Sandown Camping Holidays Ltd. with headquarters in Wigan. There is a fleet of 10 Plaxton coaches on AEC or Bedford chassis, and no vehicle over two years' old is taken to the Continent. The heavier type AEC chassis is to be specified in future in order to obtain a longer working life afterwards in England.
When I visited Sandown, two Panoramas from Plaxtons (Scarborough) Ltd. had just been delivered for the Whitehead division of the company. The vehicles, in their white and yellow livery, are fitted with spot ventilation and the big panoramic windows will all be fitted with curtains by the tune tours start again in May. Extra side lockers are specified to accommodate all the luggage—each passenger may take 501b—but only 49 seats are fitted in this 52-seater model so that there is more leg room for the long journeys. There are also 36and 40seat coaches in the fleet. Sandown is associated with Smith Tours (Wigan) Ltd. which has a fleet of 85 vehicles on which call is also made.
The first tour was operated to Spain in 1962; Sandown now also takes campers to Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland and Spain by coach, using sea and air connections.
The year begins with two nine-day trips to Holland at Tulip Time with four dayexcursions in addition to a trip to the bulb fields included. It is based at "Camping Rotterdam", five minutes' ride from the city centre, and the inclusive charge is £19. Tours to Rotterdam then continue throughout the summer at an additional £2 per head.
The third Saturday in May will see the start of the other tours, which continue till the end of September. Four are of approximately a fortnight's duration and another, introduced only this year, is a nine-day holiday to Belguim for as little as £14 per person with a V-form allowance of only £2. Also being offered for the first time is a coach and air tour to Italy which costs £33 lOs in high season, where passengers fly to Basle, camp for one night at Martigny in Switzerland and continue by Continental coach to the Adriatic coast or Jesolo, half an hour from Venice. A little cheaper is the tour which crosses from Southampton to Le Havre and camps two nights in France, four in Switzerland and seven in Italy, for £32 at a similar time of the year.
The holiday by coach to Spain, camping four nights in France en route and seven in Barcelona, works out at £31 10s and introduced for 1969 is an air tour to the same destination for £35. In the case of Italy and Spain holidays may be extended for an extra seven days for approximately £7. Living in the sun is cheap enough, once you are there!
British vehicles are used on all tours except in respect of the last instance where vehicles are hired from a Spanish undertaking accompanied by Sandown's resident courier there, who also arranges optional day-excursions from the camp.
The prices quoted here include the hiring of Sandown's tents and equipment for parties of three to five persons. The tents are erected at the beginning of the season and left at the site for successive campers. There is an additional charge for parties of two or single occupancy. People may, of course, take their own equipment which reduces the overall charge by £2, but this does not apply to nine-day tours or where air travel is involved because luggage is limited to the normal 331b in the latter case.
The frame tents for hire have a canopy and completely enclosed inner sleeping compartments. In Belgium the tents have specially insulated flooring and are equipped with electricity, running water and even have beds. For the less hardy, furnished chalets can be hired at most destinations at a slightly increased price. Also provided are camp beds, chairs, tables, cooking stove, water carrier, battery-operated storm lamp and a canteen of cooking utensils.
The last item is issued at the start of the holiday to each party so they can be used when stops are made along the, way for lunch. A courier travels in every coach and it is his job to provide boiling water for the picnic lunches. Crockery, cutlery and table linen, brought along by the passengers, are stowed under the seats during travel but cases (haversacks are not encouraged because of their shape!) are loaded into the rear and side lockers.
Most Continental sites are well served with licensed restaurants, supermarkets, showers, and so on. This year at the Italian one blocks of locker-type refrigerators will be available for hire at the reasonable cost of 100 lire a week. Mrs. J. M. Pollard, a director of the company, felt that some of the French sites were only adequate, but that the Swiss and Italian ones could be described as luxurious.
At La Ballena Alegre, just south of Barcelona, there are ladies' and gentlemen's hairdressers where the former can enjoy the sunshine during the hair-do since the dryers are situated outside. Also at the camp there is a sick bay staffed night and day by nurses, and a doctor is on call.
Mrs. Pollard told me that there was no difficulty in obtaining university students who spoke French and one other language to act as couriers during the season. When the management staff go out this month to prepare everything for the first visitors, all the "Continental" drivers will go along to get the feel of driving on the right-hand side of the road and to learn the route, the stops and how to look after the camping equipment. en part of the now-famous order of id /MCW buses destined for Cuba in the Thames, Mr. H. Blundell, a ector with Mrs. Pollard, bought two s and sent them to Belgium for Van coach bodies to be fitted to them as were left-hand drive. However, the s prefer the vehicles they know, and it een decided to revert to all-British es from now on.
arrival at the sites, the couriers help iate first-timers into the art of campIrs. Pollard told me that about 30 per f the people fall into this category but oon learn, campers being by nature an ;oing and friendly crowd. There are no mits; teenagers to retired folk travel, etween 60 and 70 per cent of each holidaymakers are regular "San:rs" who come back year after year. It course, ideal for family holidays with meal times to be observed and with sniping sites usually near or on the es.
[down now covers a substantial part United Kingdom. It has picking-up in 11 Lancashire towns and Knutsin Cheshire. People may catch the at Birmingham, Oxford and in in. They may, of course, join the tour port of embarkation—Dover or Souton—or in in the case of an air/coach it Heathrow or Luton airports. The my has an arrangement with Hants )orset Motor Services Ltd. whereby igers arriving at Southampton coach independently, are conveyed to the ;s are now being turned on York-190 people from that county led with them in 1968. Last week the Commissioners granted Sandown a service between Leeds and Man:r with picking-up points in Bradford,
x and Huddersfield which will be free ,-booked passengers. Negotiations are gress with ferry companies to further facilities and an application for all picking-up points in Yorkshire, on ative routes to Hull and Immingham it is hoped to operate next year, was ranted.
: company's best year so■ far was 1967 1,926 passengers were carried in this -y, and although bookings are tending about a fortnight later this year, Mrs. d is confident that the two new tours ilp to swell the number again.
; word "unique" was used at the ling of this article. In addition to tours ig from the ports whose operators lo road service licences in this counlere may be others running smaller 2s or on private hire work. But it is the erner's ability to get along with other and join in with the spirit of such a
y that has helped Sandown to develop unusual form of coach tour for Is on tight budgets and pensioners.