I love travel.
I really do.
I don’t love everything that comes with travel.
There’s definitely a difference.
The idea of getting away sounds wonderful. Then you actually start planning. Hotels. Routes. Attractions. Reservations. Where are we stopping? How far is it from here to there? Is there parking? Do we need tickets ahead of time? Is that highway under construction again?
And then there are parking apps.
Don’t even get me started on parking apps.
That’s one of the reasons I love our guided bus tours from Edmonton so much. You still get the scenery, the attractions, the socializing, the meals, the new places and all those little moments you’ll probably talk about when you get home.
You just don’t have to personally orchestrate every single last detail.
And that’s exactly what a vacation should be.
Someone Else Gets to Do the Driving
There’s a certain kind of freedom that comes with climbing onto a motorcoach and knowing you’re not responsible for getting anyone anywhere.
No GPS telling you to make a turn after you’ve already passed it.
No white-knuckling your way through a strange downtown.
No trying to read a road sign while somebody beside you says, “I think that was our exit.”
You sit down. Maybe have a coffee. Watch the scenery. Talk to the person across the aisle. Have a nap if you feel like it.
Seriously. Nap away.
We’ll worry about the road.
For a lot of our travelers, that’s definitely one of the biggest appeals of taking bus tours from Edmonton. The vacation starts when you get on the coach, not six hours later when you finally arrive and recover from the drive.
And honestly, that matters.
The Hotels Are Booked. The Sightseeing Is Planned.
Could you plan all of this yourself?
Of course.
You could research hotels, compare reviews, map everything out, figure out which attractions need advance tickets, calculate driving times, find restaurants, check parking, and then build yourself a very impressive spreadsheet with several tabs and maybe even some colour coding.
Some people genuinely enjoy doing that.
Some people would rather stick a fork in their eye.
That’s where we come in.
We put the itinerary together so the trip actually works. The route. The hotels. The sightseeing. The timing. The stops along the way. All those little things that, individually, don’t seem like much but somehow add up to hours and hours of planning.
There’s still room to enjoy yourself.
Actually, that’s the whole point.
You shouldn’t come home from a vacation feeling like you just managed a small corporate conference.
You Can Start Your Trip Close to Home
Another really nice thing about our Edmonton bus tours is that you don’t necessarily have to begin your holiday with an airport.
Depending on the tour and the direction we’re traveling, we offer pickup locations in Edmonton and a number of communities throughout Alberta and into Saskatchewan.
That can make a surprisingly big difference.
You get picked up, your luggage comes along, and off we go.
Pretty simple.
No airport parking. No getting there three hours early. No standing around wondering if your gate has changed again. No wondering whether your suitcase has somehow decided to vacation in another province.
Pickup locations do vary by tour, so definitely check the individual tour details before you book.
You Don’t Have to Figure Out an Unfamiliar City
Driving around your own city is one thing.
Driving through a place you’ve never been before while trying to find an attraction, follow Google Maps, dodge construction, watch for one-way streets and locate a parking spot is something else entirely.
And somehow, somehow, the parking spot you finally find always seems to be six blocks away.
Or requires an app.
Again with the apps.
On a guided tour, we take care of getting you where you need to go. You can actually look out the window instead of staring at a little blue dot on your phone wondering why it seems to be heading in completely the opposite direction.
It sounds like a small thing.
It really isn’t.
Group Travel Can Be a Lot of Fun
One of my favourite things about our tours is watching a group at the beginning of a trip compared to the end.
At first, people are finding their seats, getting settled in and maybe making a little polite conversation.
A few days later?
They’re saving seats for each other, laughing about something that happened three towns ago, comparing photos, sharing snacks and making plans to keep in touch.
That’s the part you can’t really put on an itinerary.
And it’s pretty special.
Group travel gives you people to share the experience with. If you’re traveling solo, you can still have your independence without feeling like you’re doing the entire trip alone.
We have plenty of travelers who really appreciate a comfortable pace and the social side of traveling together. If that sounds like you, you can also read more about our senior bus tours from Edmonton.
Canada, the U.S. and Sometimes Quite a Bit Farther
People sometimes hear “bus tour” and picture a quick little trip down the highway.
Not necessarily.
Not even close, sometimes.
Our tours can take you throughout Canada and the United States, and we also offer select international trips and fly-and-bus tours.
Mountains. Coastlines. Festivals. Big cities. Small towns. Casinos. Historic sites. Scenic drives. Attractions you’ve always wanted to see and a few places you probably hadn’t even thought about until you saw them on an itinerary.
Some travelers love a shorter getaway.
Others want to pack a suitcase and disappear for a while.
Honestly, both sound pretty good to me.
The important part is choosing a trip that suits you. Your pace. Your interests. How long you want to be away. And, frankly, what sounds fun.
Really fun.
A Vacation Should Feel Like a Vacation
That’s really what it comes down to for me.
Travel should be exciting.
It should be something you look forward to.
It shouldn’t feel like one long list of things you need to manage.
There’s something pretty wonderful about getting on the coach, knowing the big pieces have already been taken care of, and wondering what you’re going to see that day instead of wondering where the heck you’re supposed to park.
That’s what we want our tours to feel like.
Easy. Interesting. Social. Comfortable.
And fun.
Definitely fun.
If you’re thinking about getting away, take a look at some of our popular bus tours from Edmonton. You just might find somewhere you didn’t even know you wanted to go.