Granny’s no slow coach!
An affordable bus break in Weymouth is just the ticket for ALL the generations
WE’RE waiting for her. And as we catch sight of Granny’s swish transport gliding along Weymouth’s historic esplanade, everything we think we know about coach holidays is momentarily tipped on its head.
A sleek, white 51-seater Mercedes, with air conditioning and leather seats, purrs to a gentle stop outside the Prince regent Hotel, and it’s like watching Dolly Parton disembarking from her tour bus . . . only minus the rhinestones.
We’re at the British seaside favourite on a short break with coach-trip specialist Daish’s Holidays — but only my mother-in-law actually travelled here by coach.
The company knows that multigenerational parties might prefer different modes of transport. Our family of four, including our daughters Belle, nine, and Cleo, seven, stuffed the car with essential beach paraphernalia — including a blow-up kayak snapped up during the first lockdown — and drove here.
Meanwhile, Granny Hazel, a sprightly 69, simply packed one small case and waited at a coach stop five minutes’ walk from her home on the east Kent coast.
With her fellow ‘coachies’, Hazel spent the morning watching england’s South coast flicker past — while we arrived in a more frazzled state, having endured endless claims of hunger, a back-seat scrap and two alfresco loo stops en route.
Bumping elbows in greeting, we marvel at how, in a world where cancellations feel normal, we’ve all managed to get here, and agree that such flexibility is an inspired idea, enabling grandparents who don’t drive, a stress-free way to meet up with their family for a break.
It doesn’t end there, either. If any of us want to take a day trip by coach to nearby attractions — including the fossil-filled beaches along the glorious Jurassic Coast — we can simply book up and hop on board.
Stepping over the threshold of the Prince regent, the excitement abates slightly. This Georgian grande dame, which has been welcoming guests to quaff on the Dorset sea air since 1855, whisks us back to the 1970s with its swirling carpets and chintzy wallpaper.
We take a family room with an unfettered view of the big blue, while Granny has a single just up the corridor with a similarly impressive outlook. The staff are superfriendly, as we all collude in Covid’s merry dance, politely side-stepping each other in the lobby, and we marvel at the door handles that spritz anti-bac as you turn them.
Though we arrived in different ways, we’re all on the same ticket now — half-board, which puts a decent fry-up and a threecourse evening meal at our family table. After day one’s dawn feast of crispy bacon, hash browns and sunny-side up eggs, I count the number of steps needed to take me from the breakfast table to the shore; just 25 strides and I’m there.
Once dubbed ‘england’s Bay of Naples’, this sheltered seaside town feels like the love- child of Great Yarmouth and St Ives in Cornwall. It is both a 200-yearold celebration of kiss- me- quick seaside Victoriana — where the best chippy on the block, King edwards, serves up deep-fried delights in a bucket and spade — and something rather more sophisticated.
The 17th- century strip of colourful houses on Weymouth Harbour could rival any Cornish idyll, and the town’s foodie scene is as buoyant as the inflatables bobbing about on the horizon.
THROW in fun fairs, watersports, 180-million-year- old beach fossils and the leafy headland, on which 19th-century Nothe Fort perches, and there’s multi-generational family fun in spades (and buckets).
The Weymouth weather doesn’t falter during our September stay either, with blue skies above us throughout. A late afternoon jaunt out to surf shack Billy Winters, on the spit of land overlooking Portland Harbour, rewards us with half-adozen oysters on the pebbles, watching the sun drop.
Another day, still stuffed to the gills from breakfast, we forgo lunch and share a couple of slabs of ‘ lardy cake’ — £2.50 each — from local favourite, Belle’s Bakery. Yes, this traditional Dorset spiced dough cake is made with lard, but it’s delicious anyway.
Dinner at the Prince regent later feels distinctly retro but, after long days of salty beach air, the twee formality is fun.
On our final day, after a calf-stretching coastal walk, we board the rowing boat service across the harbour water, a snip at £2 for adults and £1 for children. It’s been the toughest of times for this ferryman but he remains chirpy, telling us: ‘I’ve just made my expenses back this year, but we’ll be all right by the summer.’
And all too soon our family break is over. Granny Hazel boards the returning Mercedes and picks a window seat, breathing in one final ocean panoramic.
‘I feel like the Queen,’, she says, before the engine thrums into life and she’s off, throwing us a regal wave.
TRAVEL FACTS
DAISH’S coach trips will resume on May 17. A four-night stay at the Prince Regent Hotel — including half board and coach travel during the May half-term holiday — costs £710 for two adults and two children sharing a family room. Call 01202 638840, or visit daishs.com.