I really liked the concept of this one but the sense of humour just didn't work for me and I didn't end up getting into it

Lighthearted easy read. Unlikely to reread but a nice easy one to pick up, and funny in parts.

Thank you netgalley

The Gran Tour: Travels with My Elders by Ben Aitken follows the author's experiences of coach travel and the people he shares the trips with.

Great read if you want some light hearted easy to read book. Keeps you amused wondering what’s happening next. Great plot.

Very funny book about a young man taking organised coach holidays that specialises in the senior market. His interactions with the other holidaymakers is lovely to read as they talk about the lives and where they came from and where they are going now. Very enjoyable.

Really enjoyed this book. Very funny and realistic, reminded me of the coach trips my parents went on.. very informative with true laugh out loud moments.

A funny and interesting look at 5 coach trips the author has taken with people who are the same age as his gran.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Very entertaining read as Ben Atkin gives a real flavour of coach holidays and the people on them. He has an easy writing style, and although he pokes fun at some of his fellow coach holidaymakers, it is never malicious. To be fair he makes more pot shots at himself.

Some genuine laugh out loud moments, including people assuming when he went away with his Nan that he was her toy boy!

Leaves the reader wanting to (possibly!) venture onto a coaching holiday and most definitely appreciate the various lives we have and are living.

A lovely book and so glad that Ben chose to go on coach trips for the over 60s. Full of delightful snippets of conversations, with stories as varied as the characters he came across. Will never forget the story of one pensioner taking off her bra and throwing it into George Clooney’s garden!

An anecdotal romp through the vagaries of joining Silver surfers on a variety of bus trip holidays In UK.
A book that can be dipped in and out of as suits as each trip is dealt with separately. An interesting collection of tales and individuals..
having been one of the younger people onboard while accompanying my driver husband I can relate to the vagaries of the individuals

My thanks to Netgalley and Icon Books for a copy of “The Gran Tour” for an honest review.

This book reminded me of coach trips I took with my parents where the majority of passengers were of pension age , but who were still rating to go when we were worn out!
An amusing read with Ben’s Gran the highlight of the book for me, although I enjoyed the different characters that Ben travelled with throughout the UK.
A nice light read to dip in and out of.

I really can't make up my mind about this book. I enjoyed some of it but other parts found a little tedious. I think I was expecting something a little funnier but it was lighthearted and the best bits were the conversations with other passengers that Ben meets on the coach trips he undertakes. I was hoping that all the trips were made with his Gran but only one actually was but there are plenty of other, some eccentric, passengers to take her place making entertaining reading. It does empathise with the older generation and Ben is perceptive in his writing.

This was an enjoyable read but the title and description was a little off ... Ben takes his gran with him on one coach tour, but the rest of the time it's him on his own. Although his stories are entertaining enough, it's his gran who is the real star of the book and I found myself wishing she was travelling with him more often. An interesting insight into coach trips and the people who go on them.

I almost didn’t finish the book. I read a fair bit. I went to Scarborough, Cornwall and Llandudno and came to the conclusion that the book really wasn’t for me. I was quite disappointed in that I thought it would be hilariously funny. I thought I’d be reading about all sorts of escapades, things going wrong etc and the book is just nothing like that. I just thought it mundane chatter with the odd interesting bit of information thrown in about the various places visited.

However I ended up picking it up again with the intention of skim reading it when I found myself between books and wanted something light to read. I finished off the trip to Llandudno and next up was Ireland. It was here that I found myself warming to the book, warming to Ben the author and paying more attention to those he was sharing his coach trip and hotel with. I didn’t skim read any of it as it had finally piqued my interest. Ben’s fellow travellers to Ireland seemed far more interesting than those that came before on the previous road trips or maybe Ben just got more adept at picking out the funnier bits of their conversations. How does he even remember all those random musings that take place between Ben and all the characters he meets along the way.

This book won’t have you rolling around in mirth, it’s far too subtle for that but it will certainly have you chuckling, maybe even nodding along in agreement in parts. It won’t bestow on you great swathes of touristy information about the different places they visit, just a little bit of obscure history here and there that you may not otherwise have ever known.

On the whole I did like the authors writing. His ability to impart some of the completely random conversations that went on is a skill in itself and one which I grew to admire. At times it was like listening to Cissie and Ada (the comedy sketch characters played by Les Dawson and Roy Barraclough).

I did end up quite enjoying the book and I’m glad I decided to pick it up again and carry on with it. It’s light-hearted, an easy read, the kind of book you can pick up and put down at your leisure and there’ll always be something in there to amuse you and make you think.

To be posted to book blog on publication date. Also posted to Goodreads

Having once tried a coach holiday and hating every minute of it I was intrigued by the premise of this book. Ben Aitken a thirty something year old decides to join the many, mainly older, people who enjoy this form of holiday in various trips home and abroad. One trip he takes with his grandmother which is a joy to read. What ensues is a sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, but always kind account.
Along the way we meet all sorts of people and places. The first trip he takes is to the seaside resort of Scarborough taking in a trip to my home city of York. Now I know that the book is an account of coach holidays and not a travel manual but it grated on me a little that he confused the river that runs through York with a similarly named one in East Anglia and named a street in Scarborough incorrectly placing houses in a road that consists of cliffs on one side and the sea on the other. These niggles aside it was lovely to read about places that I know and love.
I'm afraid that although I raced through the book in a few days it will not induce me to retry my experience of the coach holiday. I prefer a holiday where I can do my own thing and mingle with people who don't tend towards reading the Daily Mail!
Well worth reading for the amusing observations of people. Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy of the book.

I truly admire Ben Aitken for embracing the world of coach travel, normally the realm of older folk on a tight budget. He embraces the experience by taking four different trips and recounting tales of bingo halls and drinks coupons, set meals and hotel entertainment. But this is more than just a comedic view of how the aged like to traverse the nation with flasks of coffee, finger rolls and lashings of camaraderie.

There were moments of laugh out loud delight but these were skilfully balanced between snatches of real life recollection, moments of poignant interaction that make his travel companion characters both real and relatable. The loneliness of old age, the sad realisation that the body is failing, the rifts and resentments that you feel after a lifetime of work, family and responsibility. Aitken has delivered a social commentary on how the young have so much to learn from their elders, how the dynamics have shifted and how sharing experiences with people half a century older than you can be uplifting and joyous.

This is a book full of witty, sharp observation with some fabulous one-liners. It's probably the best advertisement for Shearings Coach Travel that they could ever wish for. In this age of post-pandemic 'staycations' I'm actually considering this as an option for future excursions. Why not?

This is a charming book. The premise is pretty simple the author goes on coach holidays filled with elderly people and learns about life. The book let me say is a delight and a great insight. One particular excursion when he goes away with his Nan is both moving and poignant in its telling (I will not give the game away but I found it fascinating to see how the authors thoughts on his Nan and who she was change). There are character a plenty in the book each one telling their own story.
The book will not change the world but it a great read and makes you want to travel to the places mentioned (though the far flung one maybe not by coach!).
Highly recommended read.

A personal, rambly memoir where the inanity is the star of the show.

The footnotes don't really add much and there's certainly space for more full stops.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book and I'm still not clear if it is entirely fact based. Stories involving older people are always interesting with their reminiscences and misunderstanding of current culture. It's a shame that Shearings is no more if this is the sort of thing that happens on their short breaks. Witty and amusing.

I LOVED this book! Being a fan of Coach Trip during my uni years, I always loved the idea of the package coach holidays and reading about Ben Aitken's experiences I am quite onboard with trying one at some point now! Funny, touching and just wonderful!