Another Newbie

[Kevvan]

Hello
I have been lurking on here for a few months on and off, but now that I've ordered a exdemo purple ocean for next week I thought I'd better hold my hands up.
I'm veering between 'what have I done' (I've never driven a bus before) and leafing through pamphlets on the finest 100 views in England (although its really for work, I'm spending two nights a week in a hotel at the mo) reality bites in Preston at the weekend
Kev

 

[Hotel California]

Ahh , one of those "lurkers"....

Welcome , love to hear your adventures!

 

[Fast Freddie]

Glad you have taken the plunge - bus driving is great fun - enjoy your adventures and post pictures and stories -

 

[sapto]

Welcome Kevvan
Look forward to see the purple van and here about the advantages from your point of view. IMO driving is just great!

 

[Trailertrash]

Hello
I have been lurking on here for a few months on and off, but now that I've ordered a exdemo purple ocean for next week I thought I'd better hold my hands up.
I'm veering between 'what have I done' (I've never driven a bus before) and leafing through pamphlets on the finest 100 views in England (although its really for work, I'm spending two nights a week in a hotel at the mo) reality bites in Preston at the weekend
Kev

Join National Trust and English Heritage..... They own most of the finest views of England and when you join you can park in them and view them for free.

 

[Kevvan]

Join National Trust and English Heritage..... They own most of the finest views of England and when you join you can park in them and view them for free.

thanks, will check this out.

 

[MattBW]

With time you will realise you've done the right thing! You won't be sorry!

 

[Johnboy]

Ref driving a bus......

I find I prefer driving the "bus", sitting high up you better view, see more of the road, less glare from headlights etc etc. And in reality they are no bigger than a family saloon when it comes to parking. Obviously not as fast, but fast enough for me.

I do recall driving back from France in our old Caravelle Syncro to catch the ferry. It was Sunday after the Le Mans 24hrs and we passed loads of so called "supercars" on the autoroute... I was doing 90ish in the outside lane while they were crawling along at 50 !!.
There was so much rain they could not see the road.
It did make me laugh and consider who was driving the supercar....

 

[DM]

Join National Trust and English Heritage..... They own most of the finest views of England and when you join you can park in them and view them for free.

Funny you should say that. I was just wondering what proportion of Vali owners are National Trust / English Heritage members. I'm guessing fairly high.

 

[DM]

They own most of the finest views of England

And - in the case of the National Trust - Wales and Northern Ireland as well.

You can also access national Trust for Scotland properties with an NT membership and Historic Scotland, and Cadw Wales with an English Heritage Membership (not sure about NI).

There are also lots of reciprocal agreements across Europe.

 

[larrylamb]

Kev, I presume you are buying from salesman Guy Vincent? Well known on here and very helpful.

 

[MattBW]

Funny you should say that. I was just wondering what proportion of Vali owners are National Trust / English Heritage members. I'm guessing fairly high.

I let my membership lapse, mainly because as good value as it is, where I live (Midlands) most things are no dogs allowed. This meant we have more than once driven out somewhere to find we are restricted to the carparks. They are grass at least but still not my idea of a nice Sunday walk.

I appreciate not letting dogs in stately homes etc but it effectively made the membership of little use to us until we travelled to the coast where there are more places we could take them.

 

[Lewis]

We've been members of NT for a couple of years and find it really good value - especially with the free pot of tea vouchers!

Just got confirmed English Heritage membership today, wasn't sure about paying for that one but realised we could use some leftover air miles we'd forgotten about so feels like a freebie!

 

[thehorse]

We've been members of NT for a couple of years and find it really good value - especially with the free pot of tea vouchers!

Just got confirmed English Heritage membership today, wasn't sure about paying for that one but realised we could use some leftover air miles we'd forgotten about so feels like a freebie!

I'm a NT member but never heard of free tea vouchers.....Tell me more!

 

[Lewis]

They come with NT greetings cards. Cheekily, whenever we buy cards for birthdays or other occasions we send the card and keep the voucher.

Cards aren't any more expensive than usual quality greeting cards and if you buy online you can get some great reductions too.

 

[DM]

I let my membership lapse, mainly because as good value as it is, where I live (Midlands) most things are no dogs allowed. This meant we have more than once driven out somewhere to find we are restricted to the carparks. They are grass at least but still not my idea of a nice Sunday walk.

I appreciate not letting dogs in stately homes etc but it effectively made the membership of little use to us until we travelled to the coast where there are more places we could take them.

I get what you mean about the Midlands Matt. There is a big gap on the NT map . But I realised that we haven't even been to the ones that are only an hour or so away. Started a project last weekend to visit as many as we can this year. No need for tea vouchers of course because we'll be in our travelling cafe .

 

[Lewis]

I get what you mean about the Midlands Matt. There is a big gap on the NT map . But I realised that we haven't even been to the ones that are only an hour or so away. Started a project last weekend to visit as many as we can this year. No need for tea vouchers of course because we'll be in our travelling cafe .

I love this kind of thing. My OH who is still a little bit sceptical about the Cali lifestyle (first night away next week) surprised me by creating the National Trust Family Planner Challenge. We're now off to every location in the calendar in the month that it appears. Kingston Lacy last month, Tyntesfield this month (all fine) but she didnt realise that the NT extends into Northern Ireland. Castle Ward next month....! Sadly it's too expensive and time consuming to take the Cali for a weekend in a month where we don't have any holidays so Easyjet it is.

Love the adventure though...

 

[DM]

I love this kind of thing. My OH who is still a little bit sceptical about the Cali lifestyle (first night away next week) surprised me by creating the National Trust Family Planner Challenge. We're now off to every location in the calendar in the month that it appears. Kingston Lacy last month, Tyntesfield this month (all fine) but she didnt realise that the NT extends into Northern Ireland. Castle Ward next month....! Sadly it's too expensive and time consuming to take the Cali for a weekend in a month where we don't have any holidays so Easyjet it is.

Love the adventure though...

The Giant's Causeway is NT too.

 

[motacyclist]

Welcome Kev

Around here (near Chester) its better to join Cadw than English Heritage as it's a fair bit cheaper and there are lots of castles in North Wales. After the first year you can get free entry into the English ones anyway (first year is half price, same arrangement the other way round if you join EH).

For picnics and parking NT is best, a lot of EH attractions have no parking, or you have to pay.

 

[Kevvan]

Welcome Kev

Around here (near Chester) its better to join Cadw than English Heritage as it's a fair bit cheaper and there are lots of castles in North Wales. After the first year you can get free entry into the English ones anyway (first year is half price, same arrangement the other way round if you join EH).

For picnics and parking NT is best, a lot of EH attractions have no parking, or you have to pay.

thanks

 

[Kevvan]

Kev, I presume you are buying from salesman Guy Vincent? Well known on here and very helpful.

yes, he was great. Very helpful and showed me all about the van.