Craig Hill: Europe: Coach Touring & Travel Journal

If traversing foreign soil with a bus full of strangers seems daunting, this combined manual, day planner and personal journal could stand you in good stead.

Then again, the point of a coach tour is that they do the planning so you don't have to. And any decent tour guide will saturate you with local history, load you up with maps and answer questions on how to buy bus tickets, where to find the laundry or where to get a decent cup of coffee.

Having worked as a tour leader for 15 years, author Craig Hill doesn't scrimp on detail in his honest 292-page guide, which weighs up the pros and cons of coach travel and provides practical advice. .

The most useful are the chapters with information on destinations, some basic European phrases, local etiquette and advice on tipping, shopping and planning your free time.

But if you're a grown adult who can pack your own suitcase, you'll find most of Hill's advice little more than common sense.

On the crunch question of how to choose the right tour he does little more than remind us that you get the standard of comfort you pay for.

Instead there is a chapter devoted to getting on with others, a reminder to lock up your house while you're away and silly suggestions such as "Start getting excited if you haven't already".

You'd be better off preparing for your trip by reading up on your destination.

* Wakefield Press, $34.95