The Stagecoach Bus Trip Challenge - A Day in Sunny Cleethorpes!

Ad - This post is a collaboration with Stagecoach, but all thoughts and experiences are my own.

A family day out on the bus isn’t something I’d normally do. But with the cost of living rising, and the fact that we’re a one-car family, it seemed like an intriguing prospect. When Stagecoach reached out to see if I’d like to take their bus trip challenge I was keen to give it a try.

The challenge involved planning am affordable day out. This included using the Stagecoach journey planner, getting the bus and doing some fun family activities.

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Stagecoach Bus Trip Challenge – Cleethorpes

We live in Grimsby, so the most obvious day trip choice was Cleethorpes beach. There’s tonnes to do there for the family, and the day we chose turned out to be sunny too. We were really lucky that Greg got an extra day off during term time (I think due to the extra bank holiday falling in the middle of half term), so we were able to head down on a weekday. Despite our trip taking place on a school day, the beach was still packed (probably because the weather was gorgeous).

Planning our trip to Cleethorpes

Our house is on the outskirts of town, so there’s no direct bus route to the beach. Even so, the journey is relatively door-to-door. I looked on the journey planner to see what time bus would be best to get and how long it was likely to take.

The journey planner gave me a few different options and a choice of where to get the bus from. We planned to leave shortly after I’d taken my older daughter to school so as to miss any sort of lunchtime rush (we had big plans for brunch).

The planner said it would be just under 20 minutes to the bus station in town, then just over 20 minutes to get to Cleethorpes Beach from there.

The journey to Cleethorpes Beach

We didn’t have to wait too long for the bus and Greg got a real kick out of sitting upstairs at the front. I was the only one who had to pay full, as Greg was charged at a child’s rate and Orlaith was free because she’s two, so it’s a cheap enough journey to make.

The journey itself was smooth and not overly crowded. I couldn’t fault it, and we were lucky in that the next bus we had to get on was already waiting at the bus station – making our journey even quicker!

A day at the beach

When we arrived at the beach we were super hungry (having missed breakfast) so we made a beeline to our favourite café for brunch. The kids had pancakes, while I was feeling greedy and went for a full English (which was lush).

After we’d fuelled up, it was time to hit the beach. The tide had just been in and was going out, leaving plenty of rock pools and areas to paddle in.

We spent a few hours paddling, making sandcastles and playing football, then it was time to go so we could meet big sister back home when she finished school. I’d already looked at the journey planner to get an idea of bus times, but I also double checked the app while I was waiting.

Final thoughts

It was really easy to plan a day out on the bus and I’ll definitely be doing it again. The kids loved travelling on the bus and it was part of the excitement as far as they were concerned. During the summer, I think we’ll probably make lots of bus trips because it’s cheap and convenient. By travelling on the bus, we made our day out budget go much further.

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