REVIEWS OF BACKPACKER TOURS
PP TRAVEL TOUR TO MUNICH OKTOBERFEST
Review by Peter WrightIf you want to visit Oktoberfest in Munich, which runs from mid-September to early October, and you don't book months ahead, you are likely to find all budget accommodation fully booked. Having met this problem, I was very pleased to discover PP Travel.
PP -- Party Professionals -- is dedicated to running trips from London to the most exciting of Europe's festivals, from the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona to Hogmanay in Edinburgh, not forgetting Oktoberfest. And if you want a weekend's drinking and partying, not only at the festival but during the journey also, you'll love them. But they are very flexible, and you can pick and choose. At Octoberfest they offer an 'accommodation only' option, whereby they provide tents, breakfasts and shuttles to the festival, but you can be as independent as you like. If you want sociability, you will find an extremely good-natured bunch of aussies and kiwis to hang around with. Even though I was in a different age group from most of them, I felt very welcome. The atmosphere was helped by the service provided by PP, which was straightforward, efficient and very helpful from start to finish. I particularly commend the office staff for their personal help when booking, and all the staff on site for their cheerfulness and for going out of their way to help during the trip.
The participants were all friendly and cooperative, apart from a very small minority who became somewhat anti-social after a day of drinking. The organisation was mostly smooth and efficient, although I got confused about the schedules of the shuttle buses; it was often not clear when they would run, especially from the Festival end. Those who travelled on the buses overnight from London did not speak highly of the journey, and I found the buses not very comfortable, so this part of the tour should perhaps be left to those who prefer to drink the night away; but it is available as a cheap option, and you can always travel separately and meet up at the campground.
So for a friendly, albeit noisy, sociable environment, at low cost, for your visit to the Oktoberfest, you can confidently book with PP Travel!
To find out more about PP Tours, please click here: PP TOURS
Wild in Scotland 7 Day Skye and Orkney trip
Review by LibbyThe tour left at 8:30 from Wild in Scotland’s main office on the Royal Mile. There were 9 of us on the trip counting our guide Rory. I had a great group of fellow travellers! 4 Canadians, 3 Aussies and 1 German.
Each day was packed with stuff to do and a lot of time off the bus. We hiked up mountains (Quirang on the Isle of Skye being the highlight), explored caves (Smoo caves, Bone Caves), played Soccer on the beach, climbed a ton of stairs at places like Waleigo and just wore ourselves out! We hit all the “must sees” including Eileen Donan castle and Loch Ness, but we also got to some places I’d never have discovered without the tour. By the time we got to our hostels and started cooking supper we were exhausted and most times we had an early night.
The places we stayed were great. The Station Bunk house was one of the best hostels I stayed in during the month. At Inchnadamph Lodge, a very busy, but sociable, hostel near Ullapool, we met two older gentlemen who shared a bottle of Whisky with us. The place was very well run, clean and had a great drying room. The Murray Arms hotel and hostel in St. Margaret’s Hope was also very good.
The Bus was perfect for us! With only 8 passengers we were half empty and if we got wet (as we did from time to time) we could spread our stuff out to dry over the seats. There was lots of room to spread out or gather together depending on your mood. It also had a great stereo system and Rory’s iPod had some great tunes.
The tour had a kitty system that covered breakfasts and supper. We ate really, really well. We all shared in the cooking and cleaning up and it was quite a bit of fun. We bought our lunches at supermarkets and places that sold cheap food like bakeries. I was really surprised how little I paid out while I was on the road.
Rory was great! He was opinionated, fun and entertaining but stern at the same time. He didn’t suffer fools lightly and we needed that from time to time. He was also very passionate about Scotland and its history; when you are visiting places like Culloden that’s important.
With the exception of one minor dispute over sleeping arrangments on the 3rd day, we all got on great and had a really good time. I believe that’s what made the trip such a success. I can’t imagine what it would have been like with a group that didn’t get along. 7 days is a long time and I would have been miserable had I not had such a great group of people with me. Overall, I’d recommend Wild in Scotland’s tour to anyone!
To find out more about Wild in Scotland's tours, please click here: Wild in Scotland
BUSYBUS DAY TOUR OF NORTH WALES
Review by Peter WrightThe Busybus collected its passengers from various locations in Chester and, after a very brief tour of Chester, we quickly crossed the border into Wales, and sped rapidly along the coast. Peter, our driver, kept up lively and entertaining comments and stories about the places we passed. There were not many stops but they were in good places, including the top of the Great Orme with magnificent coastal views, a pool where Tolkien may have been inspired, and a chocolate shop. The main stop was the delightful town of Conwy where we had time to look round the stupendous castle and then eat some of the best fish and chips by the harbour, provided you could stop the aggressive seagulls from grabbing it first! For my taste, I would have liked more comments on the scenery of Snowdonia which we sped through too quickly, and the visibility from the bus windows was rather limited, but we did have a brief stop amid towering mountains by Lake Ogwen and admired (or looked aghast at) the climbers on the crags of Tryfan!
Of course, you can't experience North Wales in just 8 hours, either on this tour or by any other method of travel. But if you really do have only one day available for Wales, this tour provides an excellent taster, and whets your appetite to come again. Peter made lots of interesting comments, told entertaining stories and encouraged interaction. We did spot some inaccuracies in his facts, and you should not rely on his Welsh pronunciations, but he took us to a great variety of interesting places and gave us a most enjoyable day out!
To find out more about Wild in Scotland's tours, please click here: Busybus
MACBACKPACKERS JUMP ON / JUMP OFF TRIP
Review by Peter WrightWant to explore the best parts of Scotland, but don't like the restrictions involved in tours? You could rent a car, but that's expensive and your age might not allow it; you could use public transport, but this often doesn't go where you want, or involves maddening delays; or you could take a MacBackpackers Jump On / Jump Off (JOJO) trip.
This looks at first sight like a tour, but it's really a bus service with extras. A bus leaves Edinburgh every morning at 0900 and journeys via Pitlochry, Inverness, Skye, Fort William and Oban back to Edinburgh in 3 days. You can jump off at any of those places, for as long as you want, knowing that there is a hostel bed reserved for you on any nights you wish, and that whenever you choose to continue the circuit, a bus will come by. The system is as flexible as anyone could wish -- stay a night in Pitlochry and climb a mountain, or take a break in Inverness and fit in a trip to Orkney, all are possible. You can plan your itinerary in advance just by giving the details to the staff at your Edinburgh hostel, or you can jump off on a whim, in which case you will need to give a day's notice by telephone or at the hostel when you wish to jump on again.
So what is a JOJO trip like? On our first morning we drove through the lowlands, stopped at Dunkeld cathedral and then looked round a distillery before stopping at Pitlochry for lunch. Throughout the trip, the cheerful and efficient driver/guide (I met 3 of them, since I jumped off!) regaled us with dramatic and educational stories about Scottish history, and equally exciting but less educational stories about fairies, monsters and people turned to stone. (Some of the real stories were so gruesome that it was hard to tell the difference!). The guides encouraged us to contribute, though this was a little hard since we didn't have microphones. They tried to get us all to have a swim in Loch Ness, and they organised a group meal in a pub at Inverness, which was a very good way to round off the day in a social atmosphere. The participants were mostly couples and small groups, but they were not cliquey and everyone got on well together. On the last day we travelled from Oban up a quiet valley to visit some 'hairy coos', then stayed for lunch in a pub where Rob Roy used to drink.
In between the stories, we travelled through lots of wonderful scenery, but I felt that not enough attention was given to it. The guides rarely pointed out features of the scenery, and as an enthusiast for Scotland I was disappointed when I glanced round the bus to see that few people were looking out of the windows. But at least they weren't reading novels! The trip painted Scotland as a set of cool sites with stirring histories, and a nightlife among friendly people. Which it is. But Scotland is so much more than this -- it's all the stuff in between, mountains and glens, fabulous scenery for 95% of the route, and I think the opportunity was missed to show and talk about what makes Scotland such a beautiful country. That said, the trip was still far better than a service bus, and you can always stop off and learn more about a given area.
Everything that was done was done well. The complex shuffling of people's travel and hostel arrangements might be expected to produce occasional chaos, but it didn't. The system worked! All the guides had a superb temperament and took everything in their stride, and the staff in the hostels were really friendly and helpful.
This method of transport, at a very good price (£75 for the transport), is ideal for solo travellers and sociable couples who like to have their independence but also to mix with other travellers. The hostels, while they would not win any prizes for neatness, were clean, cosy and friendly. MacBackpackers are the only company who run a jump on/off service in Scotland. Take advantage of the history lessons, entertainment and companionship, then do your own exploring among the glens and islands -- it's an excellent combination!
To find out more about Macbackpackers Tours, please click here: MacBackpackers
