I’ve talked before about my love of taking a bus trip to explore the local area, but since moving in with my boyfriend I have had less chance to do it because he drives so we go out on days out together, but I have used the local buses for a few practical trips I have needed to take and found them easy to use!
However, this weekend I was challenged by Stagecoach as part of their Stagecoach Bus Trip Challenge to have a day out on the buses for £40 – and it went surprisingly well; here’s a look at my bus hopping day out
I actually have the Stagecoach app on my bus already, so making use of their journey planner was nice and easy. What I love about their journey planner is that it doesn’t just help you plan a journey but also lets you know what bus stop you need (including the side of the road yours is on!) and you can track your bus as it arrives. The bus stops near us have just had those electronic boards installed too, making it feel so easy! I bought a day rider ticket for the bus so I knew I could hop on and off as much as I wanted to and the ticket is less than a tenner and here’s what we got up to.
As it was a sunny day, the first thing I did was take Lola for a walk at a local beauty spot before it got too warm. I actually love being able to take Lola on the bus, she really enjoys it too! It’s so nice to know that if my partner isn’t home I can still hop on the bus with the pooch and have a day out or get to where I need to be. There are a couple of major bus routes that pass the bus stop just a few minutes from my house & if I want to go a little further then they all head to the bus station where I can swap to a bus that will take me further out throughout Hampshire and Surrey if I want – and the day rider ticket I buy covers all of that.
We went to one of our favourite beauty spots and had a big walk around the lake; Lola wanted to make friends with the ducks – of course!
When we were tired from there I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get the bus to a local pub for some lunch. I wanted a pub with a garden and plenty of space so we could sit outside and relax, and our local Hungry Horse was perfect for that! Hungry Horse always has loads of deals which meant that lunch cost £15 – which for a Sunday roast and a drink seemed like a pretty good deal to me!
From here, we wanted a small walk around the park just around the corner from here – just a few stops on the bus away and a walk around the park meant we were ready for a reaand then we headed home. We didn’t get dessert from the pub, so we treated ourselves to some posh ice cream and waffle cones from the supermarket with the last of our budget. After we popped home and it was a little cooler, we headed out for a walk at the local park to enjoy our ice cream in the cool of the evening shade (well, Lola preferred the sun!)
However, it was nice to know that we still had our day rider tickets so if we did want to head somewhere else we could have especially when you consider we’ve been to a couple of local parks, made friends with some ducks, had an incredible pub lunch & had enough for icecream and treats afterwards for less than £40; winning!
Have you been out and about on the bus in your local area? I’d love to hear all about it!
*Collaborative post – ‘This post is a collaboration with Stagecoach, but all thoughts and experiences are my own
Debz Louise is a plus-size blogger based in Yorkshire. Behind many nationwide campaigns such as #WeaAreTheThey & winner of Best Blogger at the UK Plus Size Awards, she talkas about life as a plus-size 40-something woman in South Yorkshire.
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