Tour bus seat "etiquette" help please, and other bus questions

Been on several tours....
Seats are picked each day, but the guide will ask that folks rotate so that people don't just claim the first row or the back for that matter....and because the coaches are bigger than the group, many folks take two seats, not always, but some just to have some space.
Driver or guide will let you know if you can keep stuff in the seat at stops or not, but yes, there is "long term storage" under the bus if you don't want to bring in the whatever...and I would not assume that you could get stuff over night....the driver may not be around or may not be able to "work" because of the strong rules around driving...that is one of the reasons they stop every two ish hours...

There is not always long term storage on all tours. It would be a mistake to assume that this always exists. People choose seats daily with the idea that you move around the bus some so everyone gets turns near the front. I try to leave the very front seats for those who may battle motion sickness because it is not an issue for me. The buses often park a distance from the hotel and the driver’s time is his own after a day of driving. I would not expect to be able to access anything left on the bus overnight.

My guess is that you will have the same bus/driver for the entire tour on “Best of Turkey”, but that is not always the case on tour.

I've been on tours now with 3 Rick Steves tours, all. had some bus travel.

1. People board the bus each morning and chose whatever seats they want. With only 20-24 people, I was able to get my own row and my wife was able to get her own row, though many people sat together. The only seats that we are not supposed to take is behind the driver and the first seat by the door. That is reserved for your tour guide.
2. The seats are NOT reserved. At the end of a bus day, you have to take all your stuff off the bus. So the next time you use the bus, you are free to choose another seat. We were asked to change our seat selection, so that others could sit in front or back. So some days I sat in front, or in the middle or in the back.
3. You do not leave your personal items inside the bus at your seat overnight. Sometimes, it isn't the same bus the next time you board.
4. On my Best of Scotland tour, we had the same bus, so the driver was willing to store our bags in the "long term storage area" I never saw one bag for the entire trip until the end. But on other trips, we were told that we wouldn't have the same bus, like in Madrid, we had two days in the hotel, so the bus went back to it's company lot and the next time we boarded the bus, it was a different bus. We had to take all our luggage and wheel it (or carry it) a distance from the bus drop off to the hotel and visa versa.
5. In most places, the bus is NOT on site and even if it was, the driver is not around to help you retrieve. The driver must be permitted to have time off and not be bothered. The guide will not be able to help you because they probably won't have access to the bus. Hope this helps.

I did the Turkey tour in 2019, and then we did have the same bus and driver from departing Istanbul until the end of the tour. As someone mentioned above, ‘personal items’ were taken with us each night, but there were people that left some packages in the hold for the durations, mostly spices and small rugs.

If you have a problem with people hogging the "good" seating, and want to move around, don't hesitate to talk to the tour leader.

We found that after the first couple of days, most people settled into the same seats unless asked not to. It's kind of like a school bus - the kids who want to socialize gravitate to the back rows, while teacher's pets stay close to the tour leader so they can ask questions. If you have motion sickness, by all means bring it up to the leader so they can seat you where you need to be. All good.

Good answer, Stan.

Less motion sickness near the front, plus the "teacher's pets" can also play the role of "assistant to the tour director," and maybe get to reprimand people for violations of tour standards.

I wish we could select a seat and that's ours for the duration of the trip.

These are excellent questions and you should email them directly to the RS office for their answers.

On the Best of Turkey tour (which I took last year) the answers to the first 2 questions depended largely on the tour members.

On our tour, after the first day or two, people settled into their favorite seats. Those who wanted to sleep between stops took the back of the bus. Those who wanted to hear the guide and ask questions, took seats in the front. Our tour left the front seat open for those with motion sickness. There were only one or two days during which it was used.

Personally, I preferred the view from the picture windows. I found that in the front seat, I was annoyed by traffic and didn't enjoy the scenery as much.

The Best of Turkey tours have the same bus throughout. You can leave personal items on the bus during the day at sightseeing stops. You can leave items in long term storage overnight and throughout the journey. You could retrieve those at the last stop of each day, when you retrieve your luggage. But if you need something every night, it should just go in the luggage compartment.

The bus was never accessible at night and our guide made a very clear point that we wouldn't be able to retrieve items overnight. When one tour member forgot something, even though the bus hadn't parked for the night yet, it was an ordeal to retrieve the item. And certainly infringed on the bus driver's personal time.

Thank you very much everyone. This is VERY helpful and muchly appreciated.
Tracey

There are a couple of days on the Best of Turkey tour when you're driving on winding muountain roads. Our guide warned us and learned who might want the front seat. One gal with motion sickness sat in front the better part of a day.

I tried the front seat, but found I actually preferred the normal picture window seats. I carried non drowsy dramamine and took it on 2 or 3 days as a precaution.

I disliked the front seat because it felt like I was riding in traffic, watching the cars in front of us, instead of the scenery.

The Best of Turkey tours have a supply of cold water bottles inside the bus. They were 5 TL (0.5 liter bottles) each in May, 2022, likely more now. You keep track on the honor system and pay the bus driver at the end. Most people "overpaid" as a courtesy.

You'll want to have water bottles in each hotel room - even some of the modern business hotels had signs in the bathrooms that the water wasn't drinkable - so it's good to either buy them at rest stops (they were 3TL during our tour) or make a habit of taking some as you leave the bus at the end of each travel day.