Coach travel...

[Sweep]

The last two years I have travelled by train to Glastonbury. It has been a bit of a nuisance but has been fine anyway.

How does going by coach compare? What is the best value way?

[jasper in the rye]

i have travelled by see,s coach package for the last 2 years and have found it great going from door to to door,picked the coach uo

[jasper in the rye]

woops sorry about that ,lets just finish. picked up the coach from earls court,only took 3 hours.Going to give national express a go this year though.

[Sam Crawley]

Coach worked great last year, comfy, plenty of space for luggage, lunch stop at service station, and dropped right at the Glasto gates. Must be even better if you don't live in London and don't have to get to Victoria.

[beamo]

Hmmm, coaches worked pretty well last year, but lets not forget the fiasco that was 2007 !! Definitely gets you off site quicker tho.

[coolethan]

I'm tempted by the coach but its JUST SO EXPENSIVE! Are there alternative coach companies? or just National Express?

[verrymerry]

hahaha! Did anyone else get an email from See Tickets saying "congrats on booking your ticket" and something to the effect of "have you thought about getting a See Coach?"

It did make me laugh

[Eeeks]

I used the coach option in 2007 from Surbiton. It worked fairly well going there apart from a fairly late arrival (about 7pm) on the Wednesday so camping was starting to get limited.

However the return was a disgrace. I had to get up at about 5am - it was dark and wet. Then we were herded like cattle, wading through ankle deep water and no-one appeared to have much idea what was happening.

I was the lucky one. My coach left pretty much on time and the coach driver diligently checked everyone who was meant to get on got on. All around it was chaos. People were left stranded as they could not get on their coach or it had left without them

It was so bad I will never use the coach again. If this is my only option again I will not go.

Not sure how it worked in 2008 as I managed to get a ticket not linked to coach travel.

[grrrraeme]

I used the coach option in 2007 from Surbiton. It worked fairly well going there apart from a fairly late arrival (about 7pm) on the Wednesday so camping was starting to get limited.

However the return was a disgrace. I had to get up at about 5am - it was dark and wet. Then we were herded like cattle, wading through ankle deep water and no-one appeared to have much idea what was happening.

I was the lucky one. My coach left pretty much on time and the coach driver diligently checked everyone who was meant to get on got on. All around it was chaos. People were left stranded as they could not get on their coach or it had left without them

It was so bad I will never use the coach again. If this is my only option again I will not go.

Not sure how it worked in 2008 as I managed to get a ticket not linked to coach travel.

[fullfathom5]

'07 was shocking coming back, but it was fine last year.

[scudetto_boy]

I travelled from Newcastle to Glasto 2 years ago with the seetickets organised coaches & it was the biggest shambles i've EVER witnessed. The bus was 2 hours late picking us up cause Seetickets sought out the cheapest coach companies around & booked a bus company from Leicester to collect us from Newcastle The coaches got delayed on the way up cause of a crash on the M1 so instead of leaving at 11am on the wed morn (yes, 3 hours after the gates had already opened), we left at 1pm & got to Glasto when it was dark. The coach driver didn't know how to get from Glastonbury town to Pilton so we went around the area in circles for another 30 mins-disaster!

It was all the fault of Seetickets trying to save money by hiring a company from Leicester, who were required to drive to Newcatsle to pick us up & take us down to the event. It was illegal also cause the driver never got a break from driving which he was supposed to get after every 5 hours.

Edited February 14, 2009 by scudetto_boy

[daisylane]

i went by national express coach last year and it was perfect! maybe they'd learnt from the disaster of 2007, but i travelled from manchester and we actually got to glasto EARLY, and we got back on time.

i couldn't speak for the other services but if the service was as good as the one i was on then i would recommend the coach as it is cheaper than trains if you are having to come from afar.

[Sam Crawley]

The point was made that they had learnt from 2007 in how it was arranged last year. To my mind the only improvement that could be made for the London - GF coaches is to run it as first come first served rather than specific timed coaches - given that on the way down there were several coaches for each hour and they were all running late anyway I figure just pack 'em in and dispatch 'em as and when they're full, at least for "peak" hours, i.e. Wed morning LD-GF and Mon morning the other way.

Anyway overall they were a very stress-free option.. there was no way I could have dealt with driving on Monday morning, my sleep deprivation was reaching untested levels

[sinned666]

The point was made that they had learnt from 2007 in how it was arranged last year. To my mind the only improvement that could be made for the London - GF coaches is to run it as first come first served rather than specific timed coaches - given that on the way down there were several coaches for each hour and they were all running late anyway I figure just pack 'em in and dispatch 'em as and when they're full, at least for "peak" hours, i.e. Wed morning LD-GF and Mon morning the other way.

Anyway overall they were a very stress-free option.. there was no way I could have dealt with driving on Monday morning, my sleep deprivation was reaching untested levels

[Red Day]

We've used NX from Heathrow to Glasto a few times and it's always been on time. Could only get 2007 ticks that included See coach travel and it was a shambles. Bus was 3 hrs late and was a scrap heap.

Managed to get booked on NX on the Monday back to London which was fine.

Seems that 2008 was improvement but I promised myself that I would never book a See coach again.

[HurrahBrother]

I used the coach option in 2007 from Surbiton. It worked fairly well going there apart from a fairly late arrival (about 7pm) on the Wednesday so camping was starting to get limited.

However the return was a disgrace. I had to get up at about 5am - it was dark and wet. Then we were herded like cattle, wading through ankle deep water and no-one appeared to have much idea what was happening.

I was the lucky one. My coach left pretty much on time and the coach driver diligently checked everyone who was meant to get on got on. All around it was chaos. People were left stranded as they could not get on their coach or it had left without them

It was so bad I will never use the coach again. If this is my only option again I will not go.

Not sure how it worked in 2008 as I managed to get a ticket not linked to coach travel.

[Chimps in Balaclavas]

National Express are pretty reliable, went with them last year. They were on time, comfy .. you could sit where u wanted, the only downside to going with them was that on the way back we went around the world dropping people off. Apart from that i would recommend them, this year though we will be traveling by car so none of the picking up and dropping people off.