Happy Valentines Day
With Valentines Day just around the corner, we’ve been catching up with our driver Chris to give us some top tips on where you can take your loved ones this year!
CALLING ALL TEACHERS AND SCHOOL PUPILS
WIN a day out for you and your class on our Welsh Team Coach!
UK Transport Awards
We won!
🏆 Edwards Coaches have been awarded:
Best International Coach Tour Operator – Wales for the 2021 UK Transport Awards
Huge congratulations to all who work Edwards Coaches along with our fantastic suppliers and incredible customers, thank you.
The journeys never about one individual, our team is much stronger than that. We are blessed to have some of the best suppliers in the game working alongside us and our customers are just incredible.
Red Dragon Tours
Here’s one of our tour drivers, Andrew Martin. Andrew has been with Edwards for many years so he’ll be a familiar face to many of you!
Nicola from our Groups Team
Whatever your group requires, Nicola Davies our group booking expert will be on hand to offer a wealth of first class knowledge and not only help you, but inspire you. She can offer the entire group package and guide you from start to finish, organising everything from days out to tours in the UK, Europe including travel, accommodation, attraction visits and event tickets.
Our journey to 2021 . . .
A great visual on our journey to 2021!
Happy Burns Night!
Here’s an update from one of our drivers Stuart. Stuart often drives our Scotland holidays and has a wealth of experience touring around this fantastic country. Let’s hear what he has to say:
Our Staff
Following on from email updates to our clients, here we will be adding our “Team Members” with a little information over the next few weeks.
Our friendly team is here to help whenever we can and we can be contacted via the website, email or telephone for all your travel needs.
With 2021 ahead and Covid-19 vaccinations on the roll out, we now can look forward to putting some holiday / short break plans in place. And here our staff highlight some of their favourite destinations:
EDWARDS COACHES WINS BEST COACH OPERATOR FOR GROUPS AT THE GROUP TRAVEL AWARDS 2020
Award winning South Wales based company Edwards Coaches has added another trophy to its cabinet as it wins BEST COACH OPERATOR FOR GROUPS 2020.
In different circumstances this year, the awards were broadcast live on YouTube TV. The Group Travel Awards are the highlight of the group travel industry year.
Competition was particularly strong but ultimately it is the travelling public who decide the winners by voting for the travel companies they consider the best in the business.
Edwards said: “In this difficult year we are delighted to have the honour of calling ourselves Group Travel Award winners once again. Being the only Welsh Company to win an award is both very exciting and humbling.
We cannot thank our incredible customers enough for their support over the years and for voting for us in the awards, they’re all amazing!”
Ends.
Company Overview:
- Edwards Coaches Ltd was established in 1925
- Celebrating 95 years in business this year
- Award winning National Express operator, including the Gold Standard Operator
- Winner of its second British Travel Award in 2019
- Winner of ‘Livery of the Year’ at the 2019 Wales Transport Awards for its Red Dragon coach and local service bus vehicles
- Still family owned and run, now in its 5th generation.
- Owners of 3* The Portbyhan Hotel in Looe, Cornwall
Notes to Editors:
- Edwards Coaches are a well-established family business and one of Wales’ leading premier tour operators boasting a history of innovation that began in 1925.
- The company has grown from a small operator of 18 vehicles in 1970 to 60 vehicles by the year 2000. Today (2020) there are 270 vehicles operated.
- Edwards continues to operate a popular local bus service which operates from the Pontypridd to Cardiff area, including the Royal Glamorgan Hospital.
- Edwards transport over 54,000 clients on their own holiday programme
- In addition Edwards boasts a team of enthusiastic and knowledgeable group travel experts, who give large groups the opportunity to tailor their own tours and can assist them in making their ideas a reality. They also have an extremely busy private hire department that provides coaches for not only local clubs and societies but the Wales rugby and football teams, Cardiff City football club, The British Lions and most of the visiting teams to the Principality Stadium. Edwards boasts an unrivalled educational tour department called Edwards Education and Youth Tours, which provides high quality tours and travel for schools and colleges. In addition they own and run the Portbyhan Hotel in Cornwall.
AM Congratulates Students on Green Christmas Card Designs
Mick Antoniw, Assembly Member for Pontypridd has congratulated the winners of the annual Pontypridd AM & MP Christmas card design competition. The theme of this year’s competition was ‘the environment at Christmas’.
The Christmas card competition, which is now in its sixth year, has proved popular with primary schools across the Pontypridd constituency and this year, for the first time, secondary schools were invited to participate.
Mick Antoniw said:
“I visit local schools on a regular basis and I am always impressed by the students’ enthusiasm about the environmental projects they are working on, so it was very easy to decide the theme of this year’s competition.
“Once again the standard of the artwork submitted was absolutely fantastic and choosing the winner was a very difficult decision. I’d like to congratulate everyone who entered and in particular Sophia Andrews, whose winning design has already been made into a Christmas card and sent to hundreds of people, including Wales’ First Minister.”
Receiving a framed copy of her winning design and her prize of a £50 book token, Year 9 student at Y Pant Sophia Andrews said:
“I really enjoyed the challenge of presenting environmental issues alongside a Christmas theme.”
Explaining the inspiration behind her design Sophia said:
“The hand represents us on Earth. The Bauble Represents the Earth. The thread between us shows the Earth hanging on after all the damage we have caused to the Environment.”
Head of Art at Y Pant school Jo Gold added:
“Many of our students have a keen interest in environmental issues, so they were particularly pleased to be given the opportunity to participate in an art competition, where the theme allowed them to express their views in a creative way.”
Since its introduction the Christmas Card competition has been generously sponsored by Edwards Coaches, who are based in Llantrisant. Nathan Griffith-Williams, Head of Marketing at Edwards said:
‘We are absolutely delighted to once again support this fantastic competition which we have done for a number of years. The standard of artwork was fantastic and all entrants should be extremely proud of their efforts.’
The competition runners-up were Ben Watkins, year 9 from Tonyrefail Community School and Lorna Doyle, year 9 and also from Y Pant High School.
Legendary Edwards Coaches Matriarch Sadly Passes Away
It is with a very heavy heart that Edwards Coaches announce the passing away of Mrs Jean Edwards, 3rd generation of the family business. Mike Edwards’ mother was fondly known by all as ‘Mrs E’ and peacefully passed away on Monday 27th May at the Royal Glamorgan Hospital with her family at her side. Jean was aged 91 years young.
Jean worked for Edwards Coaches as a minder/escort on home to school transport for many years, only finishing because of the cold winter mornings whilst in her eighties. She was an unstoppable lady and just last year when asked what she wanted for Christmas she replied with “a new pressure washer”.
She was a Bus and Coach person through and through, consistently reading the local newspapers to check on Edwards’ adverts and wanting to know why the windows were dirty on a local service bus going past.
Managing Director, Jason Edwards said: “My nan was an absolute legend of a lady and will be greatly missed by many. Her passion and love of life was infectious. She would always give a very straight answer followed up with a laugh and a dance around the kitchen. She was truly a remarkable lady.” She leaves 4 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements have been made for a cremation at Glyn Taff on Friday 14th June at mid-day and then refreshments at the Llantwit Sports and Social Club (The Spit).
EDWARDS COACHES ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF ITS CHARITY COMPETITION
Award winning South Wales company Edwards Coaches Ltd. has announced ten winners of its recent charity competition despite initially intending to offer the prize to four charities.
The competition was launched via Facebook on 1st April 2019 offering charities a free advertising space on the back of one of its brand new local service buses.
A total of 84 charities entered in quick succession and, overwhelmed by the response, Edwards has decided to award ten charities with a space on a selection of its school and local service buses.
These buses are seen throughout South Wales, particularly in the Pontypridd and Cardiff areas, and each charity advertising space will last for one year.
Jason Edwards FCILT, Managing Director of Edwards said: “When we launched this competition we did so with the aim of helping four fantastic charities gain excellent exposure across our network. However, we were so genuinely overwhelmed by the response that we decided to help more brilliant causes and increase the number of charities to ten and give them publicity for 12 months. We want to help as many people who help people in communities as we can.”
Rhian Mannings, Founder and CEO of 2 Wish Upon a Star said: “2 Wish was established after the sudden death of my son George. Five days after his death his father Paul took his own life traumatised by his loss. There was no support available and our family were left alone to cope. 2 Wish Upon a Star has helped over four hundred and eighty families, many in the South Wales area, but we know there are still suddenly bereaved parents in Wales that need and deserve our support. We desperately need to raise awareness and being selected to feature on an Edwards bus will be instrumental in helping us to achieve this goal. We are incredibly grateful for this opportunity and very much look forward to working with Edwards.”
A full list of the winning charities:
• 2 Wish Upon a Star
• Age Connects Cardiff & the Vale
• Believe Organ Donor Support
• Blood Bikes Wales
• CF Warriors
• Cariad Defibrillators Wales
• ELITE Supported Employment
• The UK Sepsis Trust
• Thrive Cardiff
• Y Bont
EDWARDS COACHES PARTNERS WITH ABER VALLEY MALE VOICE CHOIR
Award winning company Edwards Coaches is pleased to announce its partnership with the renowned Aber Valley Male Voice Choir.
The partnership builds upon Edwards’ continued support and investment in its local community, including transport for fundraisers at Velindre Cancer Hospital and its competition to offer free advertising for a charity.
Aber Valley Male Voice Choir celebrates its 60th anniversary this year and has sung across the globe including performances in the USA, Canada, France and Spain. In 2015 and 2016 the choir was invited to sing at the InterCeltic festival in Lorient, Brittany, which was the largest ever.
The choir have used Edwards’ coach hire department for years and so it’s very fitting that the two have now joined forces.
Geraint Evans BEM, musical director said: “Our motto ‘Have Song, Will Travel’ is certainly an apt description of the choir’s relationship with Edwards Coaches. We have hired their coaches for many years and found the company very accommodating to our needs. The choir’s relationship with the company couldn’t be better.”
Jason Edwards FCILT, Managing Director of Edwards Coaches said: “The choir is as much a part of the DNA of South Wales as daffodils growing on the hills and so they are a natural fit for us at Edwards to partner with. Both organisations have a long history in the area and the opportunity to support such an institution is nothing short of an honour. Not to mention that they’ve promised us a free performance at head office!”
