Jetsettersblog

For The Mature Traveller

Anyone who longs to head off on a grown up gap year adventure but can’t face the thought of sharing a hostel or bedsit dormitory with a group of fellow travellers can now explore the world on wheels with Oz-Bus’s new ‘Comfort’ trip.

Oz-Bus is the adventure travel company that runs overland bus trips between London and Sydney, Kathmandu and New York. Embracing the surge in interest from the mature market, the entrepreneurial overland bus operator has launched a new trip offering an upgraded level of accommodation with twin share hotel accommodation in central locations.

All the adventure and excitement of the unknown will still exist on the journey, which crosses the globe in 88 days, but the new ‘Comfort Trip’ – which takes in 17 countries and three continents – will provide more in the way of creature comforts to appeal to the mature passenger.

Private twin share hotel accommodation will be automatically booked, rather than the current hostel and dormitory style accommodation that is offered to passengers, albeit still using local operators and accommodation that reflect an authentic experience of the country through which the bus is passing. Passengers will still enjoy the great outdoors in Australia where quality campsites are used from Darwin to Sydney.

Latest statistics gleaned from studies made over a year after Oz-Bus was re-launched show that 60% of bookings are from passengers aged over thirty, and 25% are made by passengers over 60.

The oldest passenger that Oz-Bus has hosted was an 82 year old grandmother who travelled all the way from London to New York on the pioneering trip via Russia and China earlier this summer. Almost 58% of passengers are female.

Oz-Bus owner Alastair Chrystal says: “While I was initially surprised by the numbers of older people wanting to travel on Oz-Bus, I am delighted that we should hold such all-round appeal, and ultimately the demand has given us the flexibility to develop our product and offer much more complex and culturally-oriented itineraries, such as the London-New York trip. Having listened to our passengers’ feedback, however, it became clear that many of the older passengers were keen to upgrade their accommodation. The younger adventure travel market is still very important to us and we recognise that this market is highly price sensitive so we have kept the budget trip and just added another level of product.

“I am very confident we will have no problem filling both levels of journey.”

The new Comfort Oz-Bus trip from London to Sydney costs £6799 per person which includes a refundable flight supplement of £600 and a local payment of €400. The original ‘Budget’ London to Sydney trip costs £5299, which includes a refundable flight supplement of £600 and a local payment of €250.

Prices include all travel, accommodation, breakfast daily, tour leader and guides in each country, and national park permits.

In addition to its London to Sydney trips, in 2011 Oz-Bus will be also running four trips from London to Kathmandu, three in budget and two at the comfort level, costing from £2749 per person, and a repeat of the sell-out London to New York trip which completed its pioneering journey on the 21st June. Brand new for 2011 will be the option of travelling by Oz-Bus from London to Beijing.

For more information visit www.oz-bus.com  or telephone:
(UK) 0800 7319427 (International) +44 1480 810080,