Etiquette On Coach Tours

[Jennykenny]

Am going on a coach tour of southern Spain later this year with Riviera Travel. Has anyone used them, and what is the etiquette on the coach for seating?
First come first served?
Haven't done a coach tour before and don't want to put my foot in it.

[gangesboy]

See link and scroll down to how are seats allocated
https://www.rivieratravel.co.uk/about/faqs

[jno]

the ones I've been on have been first come first served, though I see from gangesboy's link that this isn't always the case.

[Barmaid]

I went on a coach tour last year - not with Riviera but with another company. Seats were allocated in advance. In my experience of coach tours (I will NEVER do another one, but this was for my aged grandad), once seats are allocated everyone sticks to them. And then everyone develops a siege mentality against the coach firm. And then you all sit in the bar and get shedded.

[woofgang]

My sis goes on coach tours in the US with Titan. They do seat rotation too. She quite enjoys it.

[vindiboy1948]

Self and spouse did Trafalgar in US and in Canada couple of years ago. Seats were pre-allocated with a daily rotate clockwise each day. If you ride in a double-decker avoid the front row up top as there will likely be nowhere to put your toes.
Riviera www site makes no mention of gratuities - which is perhaps good. With Trafalgar we were asked to pay same, on a per day basis, when booking.
Enjoy the trip.

[Jennykenny]

Thanks to all. Part of me is dreading this holiday, but I'm sure that it won't be that bad.

[mikey4444]

If you are one your own, you will have to sit next to a stranger. It happened to me in Italy a few years ago, and we didn't really get on. But as there were no seats spare on the bus, we had no option but to put up with it. That is the reason that I never go another coach trip ever again.

[Cathyhuns]

When we went on one, the guide announced that it was by rotation, ie everyone moved back two seats every day.

On our coach the people who'd been at the back on the first day, got to the coach early and sat in their new seats at the front. Everyone else then complied and moved two seats back every day.

On the other coach, the people who'd been at the front on the first day got there early and sat in the same seats. Everyone else was very British and refused to complain in public (although they all moaned bitterly in private) so they all ended up sitting in the same seats every day. The guide did nothing to enforce the issue.

[vindiboy1948]

Reads like an incompetent guide in the latter case. In both my earlier mentioned tours the guides placed 'Today's seating passsenger names' card in a space at front of the luggage rack above each 2-seats, before anyone boarded, each day. If anyone sat in the wrong seat there were 48 others to help a recalcitrant passenger read the name card and to move along elsewhere pronto. "Shift your butt - that's my seat", kind of thing worked very well for from the second day's boarding everyone got the message.
Go Trafalgar - they're better organised.