National Holidays are based in Leeds and offer coach holidays throughout the British Isles and continental Europe to holiday makers from most of the north of England. Their departure area is split into two - the North East and Yorkshire, and the North West and Lancashire. Within these sections there are a number of departure areas and within each of these a selection of pick up points. Therefore the first couple of hours of any trip will be spent picking up other passengers from the area before you really get underway. We live in Gateshead which is one of the days first pick up places and this means that any trip we want to go on will still require a two hour trip around the north east before we can go anywhere. It also means that on longer trips you have an ungodly departure hour!

National Holidays do have a website but it is pretty dire and although you can book online, it is best to get your hands on a brochure which will give your loads more details. Even so, the brochure may not give all the details you want to know and neither do the telephone assistants through whom you can also book. In the North East you can also book at larger bus and train stations.

One excursion may be included in the price of your trip but most are optional and can be paid at the time of booking or directly with the driver. On our German trip there were three excursions available which could be booked singly for £8.00 each per person or all three for £20.00. We knew we didn't want to do all three but the driver would not say in advance which trip would be on which day. He said that because of the weather they would decide on the day which was really no good to us because we did not want to wait around to find out they were going somewhere we didn't want to go. As it turned out, they didn't decide until 10.00 am each day by which time we were already on our way to wherever we had chosen to go.

And this illustrates the basic reason why National Holidays are so cheap! You pay for all drinks you have with your evening meal - not even a glass of water comes free - and the hotels are often situated somewhere remote or small with few facilities so that you are more likely to avail yourself of the hotel bar. Each night the owner's son, Marcus, would interrupt dinner to let everyone know what that evening's special drinks deal was and everyone would clap and cheer as if he had announced the secret to achieving world peace. What landlord is going to place television sets in the rooms when you could be sitting in his bar rather than sitting in your room drinking a four pack you bought from the Lidl along the road.

My parents have always been quite positive about the entertainment they have seen on their trips in the UK and have raved about comedians, singers and bands. However, they have been less enthusiastic about magicians and impressionists ("Oh, look here's Mrs Thatcher" - surely the telltale sign of a poor mimic is someone who has to announce the next voice they're going to do).

One thing we hated (which my parents say did not happen when they traveled with NH) is that all the tables were pushed together to make tow giants rows just like a school dinner hall. This meant you had no choice but to listen to the griping and moaning of your fellow passengers as they threw the food down their necks - they hated it but they ate it all and asked for more. Travelling like this is not a good way to get a feel for the local cuisine. There really was nothing especially German about the evening meal and only the garlic sausage at breakfast gave any hint of where you'd woken up.
Another negative about meal times was the constant Wurlitzer music - "The sun has got his hat on" and "Jingle Bells" were particular favourites of the peculiarly coiffed Klaus - brother of Manfred - whose hair was sculpted into a helmet shaped and sprayed black.

On the outward and return legs there were several rest stops, each one for thirty or forty minutes when fifteen minutes was really sufficient given that there were two drivers. On the return journey the bus stopped first at a "chocolate factory" (chocolate shop and booze warehouse) near Ostend and then at a "wine warehouse" at Calais. Frankly both were poor and the only reason we stopped at two places was that the drivers wanted to buy their booze at the first place and their cigarettes at the second. There were other better looking wine places at Calais but we had to go to the one the drivers chose as there was no time to cross the busy road and try the others.

Since returning we have made a complaint about the drivers on our trip; we heard then discussing a passenger on another trip in the most unpleasant terms, they frequently used their mobile phones whilst driving (not hands free!) and one of them once smoked a cigarette in the vehicle when it was parked up. They were rude to us when we arrived five minutes after the hotel had begun serving dinner and they continually belched and farted while the coach was on the road. They even thought it was OK to make jokes about the extermination of the Jews because the place we were staying was called "Kamp Bornhofen".

I would consider using National Holidays again however because it is a cheap way to get to your destination and represents pretty good value. I would try to make sure, though, that my hotel was not going to be somewhere remote and that it had public transport and alternative bars so that I did not feel tied to the group.

For independent people who really want to pack in as much as possible National Holidays are not the way to go. For the less confident traveler who wants to be told what to see, National Holidays represent good value but perhaps have some work to do to buff those raw edges.

Check out the National holidays website for ideas of prices and destinations; they are too numerous too give here.

National Holidays offer insurance but if you do not require it you must give them details of your own insurance when booking