Peak Sightseer: I caught the open top tourist bus through Derbyshire and hated it - at first
The best days out with the kids are the ones where you’re excited too - and who doesn’t like an open top bus ride?
So imagine my disappointment when the Peak Sightseer arrived and the upstairs was full.
That this could happen had simply not crossed my mind. And my bottom lip was stuck all the way out as we sat in the gloom on what could have been any old bus, staring at the familiar Hope Valley countryside.
This new service from Stagecoach runs on two routes in the Derbyshire Dales and promises grandstand views of some of the country’s best landscapes and prettiest villages.
But only if you’re on the top deck.
We got on in Hathersage and chugged boringly through Bamford and Hope - before our fortunes changed. In Castleton, virtually everyone on the top got off and the downtrodden, downstairs passengers suddenly got their chance.
Up we leapt, laughing at the height and the view and the light. It got even better as this massive vehicle set off to tackle the fearsomely steep but breathtakingly spectacular Winnats Pass.
I’ve never seen a bus on this narrow winding road, let alone a double decker, but up we chugged, passengers gawping at the incredible limestone formations and waving at walkers.
We stopped for five minutes at the Blue John Cavern where the valley was laid out before us and the vertiginous and tottering face of Mam Tor loomed behind. The phone camera grew hot as, despite being a local living in Sheffield, I behaved like an excitable tourist.
Going down Winnats was even better as the ground dropped dizzyingly away. It was reassuring that the bus - and therefore presumably its brakes - looked relatively new.
Other highlights included hitting tree branches and being showered with leaves and a couple of low railway bridges that provided will-we-won’t-we thrills as we approached. Glimpsing private gardens was another feature not mentioned in the literature.
Some reviews from 2023 referred to the bus going too fast and a lack of commentary. This had clearly been taken on board, with just enough information to keep it interesting, but not intrusive. The bus driver was also very nice indeed.