Posts Tagged ‘Holiday Time’

Hiring a Minibus for a Holiday Club

April 15th, 2011 Tushar Mathur

Running a holiday club can be an excellent way for teachers and other school staff to earn a bit of extra money during the school vacations, and it’s not hard to think of exciting activities to get the young people engaged. The best option is to have a trip booked as part of the week’s entertainment, possibly as a final day celebration or as a way of expanding the children’s horizons. This comes with its own set of problems, from raising the money to pay for entrance fees and travel to completing the necessary risk assessment paperwork. This article aims to give some pointers about hiring a minibus as transport for the trip.

Firstly, see if there are any minibus companies that are attached to the local council for use by youth groups. This might not ensure the cheapest price, but the vetting of the company will have been done already, and you don’t need to worry about have to get a criminal background check done on the driver. However, during school holiday time, there will be dozens of other holiday clubs running, so you may run into competition for locally approved services.

The next step to try is to call the local high schools a few weeks in advance. They are often very keen to make contact with their feeder primary schools, and will do what they can to help out. Because they go on so many trips and sports fixtures, they tend to have several minibuses and staff who are trained to drive them. By explaining what you’re doing, and proposing some sort of link with the high school (possibly going up and using their facilities during the holidays), you’re likely to be able to hire their minibus for free. Again, this relies on a number of factors to work, not least whether the staff who are qualified to drive are available.

If that fails, get a list of local minibus companies who will recognize the name of the school that you work for. This will hopefully make them a little bit more sympathetic to your cause, and you may be able to negotiate a discount with them. They may also have a connection to the school. Be sure to remember to ask for a background check, and if the company baulks at that, then don’t hire them. When transporting children, all drivers must be able to display a clean police check, and should already have one in place for their job.

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How to Plan The Perfect Christmas Vacation

November 20th, 2008 Tushar Mathur
Christmas time is a great time to get away to see family and friends or visit a place that you have always wanted to see but have never done so before. However, if you want the perfect Christmas vacation, you should always keep these three tips in mind.

Make Your Christmas Vacation Reservations

If you are flying by plane, be sure to reserve seats on a flight. Get those tickets ahead of time. You save money along with getting the seats and dates you want to leave. You can do reservations by phone or on the Internet. You can also work with a travel agent to get just what you want.

Be sure you have your hotel reservation made as well. Holidays are one of the busiest times of the year and everyone will need a place to stay. Be sure you book your room in advance too.

Christmas Vacation Budget

Make sure you stick to a budget during the holiday time. This can be rather hard to do when you still have presents to buy as well. How can be sure you have the perfect Christmas vacation and stay within a budget? Start early. Be sure to do some research on your trip so you can get an idea how much it will all cost. Make budget allowances for unexpected problems. Once you have all this figured out you can go ahead and start saving a certain amount every month.

Plan for Unexpected Surprises

Planning for the perfect Christmas vacation means taking into account the problems that can creep up. For instance, car travelers should:

Have a mechanic look at their vehicle before the road trip;
Have blankets and food on hand;
Have a flashlight that works with spare batteries; along with other super handy items like a compass, first aid kit.

You don’t want your perfect Christmas vacation ruined because you were unprepared to handle any problems.

If you decide to travel by airplanes, never wrap presents. If the security guards need to know what they are, you wasted time and money wrapping them. You can always ship them to your destination instead of taking them with you on the plane. You’ll want to make sure they get there in time for the Christmas celebration so always check with your postal service for services and times.

Planning the perfect Christmas vacation isn’t hard as long as you plan way ahead of time and have the essentials you need to see those smiles coming from the kids.

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