We are beginning to see a bit of light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel and are becoming increasingly optimistic that we will be able to restart our regular, public, Day Trips from York in March next year!
We are fully prepared and ready to operate our tours on a COVID-secure basis in accordance with the Visit England “We’re Good To Go” Industry Standard.
We use spacious 16-seat Minicoaches and will initially be operating with capacity limited to max 10 passengers to leave plenty of room for social-distancing, with the added benefit of all passengers having a window seat! Everyone will need to wear facemasks whilst inside the Minicoach but the journeys between stops are all quite short so this is a small price to pay to keep everyone safe. We have also fitted a Hand Sanitiser dispenser at the entrance to each vehicle for everyone to use each time they enter/exit and introduced regular enhanced interior cleaning measures for the touch-points.
Our public Day Trips from York are now available to book on our website here – Day Trips from York
All our Day Trips can also be booked as Private Tours, with pickup from anywhere in the York, Harrogate or Leeds areas, for groups of up to 4 or up to 8 people so these are ideal for family outings. We are also very happy to welcome dogs on our Private Tours but, unfortunately, cannot accept them on the public tours. Follow this link to see the Private Tour options – Private Tours of Yorkshire
That is the question we have been asking ourselves since entering lockdown after our Day Trip to the Yorkshire Dales from York on the 18th March! We were extremely busy for the first couple of months of lockdown (only processing cancellations and refunds though!) but we are now able to look forwards.
For the last seven years, our primary business has been “public” day trips around Yorkshire from York for up to 16 passengers, supplemented by a few Private Tours from York, Leeds and Harrogate, using the same 16-seat Minicoaches. Our customer split has been around 60/40 (International/Domestic) and the overwhelming majority have been overnight visitors to those three locations, with very few locals. We, therefore, clearly needed to have a rethink!
Keen as they probably are to get out into the countryside and explore Yorkshire after lockdown, we think people are likely to have an initial resistance to joining “Public” tours, so we have decided to change our main focus to “Private” tours. We have also introduced private tours for smaller groups of up to 4 and up to 8 passengers, which makes them much safer for both our driver/guides and passengers, in terms of potential virus transmission, and makes them more affordable for small family groups. We have also made all the options available to book online on our website and our private tours of Yorkshire from York now start from only £250.
It currently looks like accommodation and attractions in Yorkshire will be opening up in July, but we have decided to initially just offer private tours in August then aim to re-start our public tours from the 1st September, all with appropriate additional coronavirus precautions in place, of course!
So, that is our plan to start rebuilding our business and returning to having #morefuninyorkshire!
28th June 2020