The Gran Tour

By Ben Aitken

When Aitken discovers he can go on holiday for a few hundred quid, he decides to join six of them, and get to know some retired folk while he's at it.

He sets off on coach holidays to Scarborough in Yorkshire, St Ives in Cornwall, Llandudno in Wales, Killarney in Ireland, Lake Como in Italy, and Pitlochry in Scotland.

It's a charming, easy-reading book. At times laugh-out-loud funny and at others rather meaningful, it never feels contrived.

I'm not usually a fan of first-person travel books. I often find them self-indulgent or pretentious, or they try too hard to find deep meaning in everything they encounter. This book is something different. It artfully combines straightforward narrative with facts about the places Aitken visits and life lessons from older people in a way that feels down to Earth.

It's a rather lovely thought: to live slowly for a week or so, shun social media-influenced trips to Dubai or stressful backpacking in South America in favour of places closer to home. To fall into the relaxed rhythm of a group of older people, to go where you are taken, follow an itinerary someone else has prepared, or no itinerary at all. To wander around our towns and take them all in. Forget trawling through Google reviews for restaurants, eat at the hotel each night. Don't worry about bus timetables, just board the coach that waits for you each day. Don't feel pressure to go clubbing, get involved in bingo. Let go of the pressure of finding and planning the perfect, Instagram-worthy holiday. Choose a nice seaside town not too far from where you live, go there and relax. Learn a bit about where you are, see the sights and take it easy.

Aitken is proof that you can write simply about simple things and create something enjoyable and beautiful.