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You Too Can Survive Budget Bus Travel...with These Tips

It's okay to admit that you travel by bus, or even better—by $1 bus specials. The era of cool bus travel has arrived, when it just no longer makes sense to fly between New York and Philadelphia when the bus costs under $20 and usually takes under 2 hours, and it has free WiFi and power outlets. Take that, regional jets!

Especially with today's news that BoltBus is expanding to the Pacific Northwest, we feel the need to remind travelers of the unofficial "bus code." Everyone knows to shower before a long bus ride (and after), but there's a few other tips you mostly learn from actually dealing with long-haul rides.

After the jump, our Top Five Tips For Surviving Budget Bus Travel

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Bus Travel / Portland Travel / Seattle Travel / BoltBus / Travel News / → All Tags

Taking the Bus Between Portland and Seattle? That'll be $1.

Yo yo yo. So you know BoltBus, the Greyhound-owned leather seats-and-wifi bus line that drives you to places like Baltimore, New York, Washington DC and Boston? Well, they've gone bicoastal, launching routes between Portland and Seattle starting May 17.

As is usual BoltBus style, the earlier you book your ticket the cheaper the fare. $1 plus a $1 reservation fee is the absolute cheapest, but the average ticket isn't much more at around $10 each way.

Now let's do some comparison shopping. We checked BoltBus.com for a Portland-to-Seattle one-way on May 31 and found four total departure times, the cheapest costing $6. Over on Amtrak.com, the same route by train is commanding $32 for the same date. The length of trip is about the same at three hours-ish. Only the chance of having WiFi on Amtrak is 50% and the chance of having it on BoltBus is 100% (assuming both are working properly). We'll leave the final decision up to you.

[Photo: Jaunted]

Snowpocalypse 2010 / Travel Tips / Delays / Winter Travel / Weather / New York City / Snow Travel / Bus Travel / Train Travel / Amtrak / Greyhound / Megabus / Boltbus / → All Tags

Airline, Train and Bus Websites and Twitters for Tracking Your Travel Updates

If you've got any hope of traveling into or out of the Northeast today or tomorrow...or really on into the New Year, jot down your airline/bus/train information and stay closely tuned to their updates through these channels:

· American Airlines: a website and Twitter
· Continental: a website and Twitter
· Delta: a website and Twitter
· JetBlue: a website and Twitter
· Southwest: a website and Twitter.
· United: a website and Twitter
· US Airways: a website and Twitter

· Amtrak: a website and Twitter

· BoltBus: a website and Twitter
· MegaBus: a website and Twitter
· Greyhound: a website and Twitter

Bus Travel / Open Thread / Philadelphia Travel / Philadelphia Field Trip / Boltbus / Megabus / → All Tags

To Megabus or BoltBus? That is the Question

In a desperate bid to escape the humid, 95+ temperatures of a summer New York City, we spent this last weekend two hours south in Philadelphia, where it's about three degrees cooler. It was a last-minute decision, and after seeing that Amtrak wanted $45+ per person for a one-way, two-hour ride on a non-Acela between the cities, we immediately turned to the budget bus options, because they at least have WiFi.

So, the dilemma: to Megabus or BoltBus?

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Travel Tips / Bus Travel / Megabus / Boltbus / Greyhound / Lists / → All Tags

The Top Five Tips For Surviving Budget Bus Travel

It's okay to admit that you travel by bus, or even better—by $1 bus specials. The era of cool bus travel has arrived, when it just no longer makes sense to fly between New York and Philadelphia when the bus costs under $20 and usually takes under 2 hours, and it has free WiFi and power outlets. Take that, regional jets!

Not only are there new bus lines springing up every so often, like Megabus, Boltbus, TripperBus, and NeOn Bus, but even Greyhound is getting a makeover with the WiFi and outlet additions on select routes. With stops in 13 states and one Canadian province, Megabus is moving right along as the pioneer of cool bus travel. And with more people opting to take the bus, we feel the need to remind you of the bus code....

After the jump, our Top Five Tips For Surviving Budget Bus Travel

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Bus Travel / BoltBus / Travel News / → All Tags

Boltbus Proudly Bolts Their Millionth Rider

Who remembers back in the day when every McDonald's golden arches sign sported the boast of "Over 1 Million Served?" Today most of the signs have been switched to the much more accurate "billion" or "trillion," but the fact that over a million others have eaten hamburgers before us never fails to impress.

Thus we were similarly shocked upon hearing that Boltbus can also join the movers and shakers club after transporting their millionth passenger.

In addition, they've also launched a real, live phone line for customer service. Calling 1-877-BOLTBUS between 7am and 8:30pm now allows those finicky about booking online to talk to an agent.

So now they have improved communications along with continuing to offer free wifi and in-seat power outlets. What more can we say other than "keep on truckin, Boltbus, keep on truckin."

Related Stories:
· Boltbus [Official Site]
· BoltBus to Baltimore for a Buck, a Success Story [Jaunted]
· Bus Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

Bus Travel / Baltimore / Megabus / Boltbus / → All Tags

Boltbus to Baltimore For a Buck: A Success Story

Any day is a beautiful day when one can get from New York City to Baltimore for less than the cost of a can of soda. And indeed it was perfect sunny weather in the Charm City when on Saturday, we took our own advice and headed down the interstate for the weekend.

After boarding the nearly-full bus at West 33rd Street and 7th Avenue, next to a Sbarro's where tourists were, for some reason, eating breakfast, we settled into the bus' leather seats. Immediately we hooked onto the WiFi signal before the bus had even left, and we enjoyed a stable connection all the way down to Baltimore.

In our frenzy to get online however, we made the mistake of opting for an emergency exit row seat with perhaps an inch more legroom (laptop screen space). Why was this such a bad call on our part? Because the middle few rows on Boltbus do not have power outlets, unlike the other rows with their standard-size double plugs. Rest assured that we would not make this mistake again on the return trip.

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Bus Travel / Baltimore / Megabus / Boltbus / → All Tags

Megabus and BoltBus Going Head to Head in Baltimore

A clash of the cheap bus company titans is about to play out on the unlikeliest of East Coast soils: Baltimore, Maryland. It's to this seemingly average destination that Boltbus will begin routes tomorrow, throwing a huge wrench into the dominance of Megabus' own 32 trips a day between Baltimore and New York City.

Already both bus lines battle to be called "King of the Expressway" on routes to Philadelphia and Boston, but these cities are both larger than Baltimore and already significantly served by other seedier bus companies, which will remain nameless.

Who will survive the bottleneck of the Charm City, however, especially since BoltBus matches the Megabus promotional starter fare of $1 each way? There is a huge difference between the two already emerging, however: Megabus only offers the buck seats to the first few reservations on each route, while Bolt is stamping every seat of their 14 daily trips with the $1 fare between May 7 and May 10—even the Saturday and Sunday drives. Rest assured that we'll keep our eyes on this developing situation, even though it'd be way cooler if we were talking about high-speed trains.

Related Stories:
· Boltbus Launching Service: Baltimore to NYC for $1 [Baltimore Sun]
· Boltbus Versus Megabus, Round Two [Jaunted]
· Bus Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Boltbus photo: Baltimore Sun]

Bus Travel / Buses / Greyhound / BoltBus / Travel Deals / → All Tags

Get Unlimited Travel on Greyhound (Better Than It Sounds)

We don't rave about Greyhound much around these parts – we're much more partial to their shinier little sister, BoltBus. But we were checking out Greyhound's twitter feed today and stumbled upon something kinda cool.

Greyhound just announced a big price drop on their Discovery Pass – an option we didn't even know existed. Turns out Greyhound offers the option of Eurorail-style unlimited travel – you can buy a 7, 14, 30, or 60 day pass, which gives you unlimited rides throughout (most of) the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

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Will You Ever Go Back to Greyhound?

We're pretty big BoltBus advocates around these parts, and when they don't have a cheap fare, we generally go with Megabus or a Chinatown line. Even though we travel between New York, DC, Philly and Boston pretty frequently, it's been a long time since we've been on a Greyhound.

So we're not sure how we feel about Greyhound's new buses—they've got free WiFi, power outlets, and more leg room—basically everything Bolt has minus the $1 fares. We know we shouldn't feel weird about considering taking Greyhound again—after all, they (very quietly) own BoltBus, so what's the difference? But there's something about it that just doesn't sit right with us. Thinking about going back to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and waiting in those cramped underground lines just doesn't seem as cool as picking up Bolt on the curb, even though we know our money is going to the same place.

Has anyone tried the shiny new Greyhound buses yet? Will you go back or are you also addicted to Bolt? Let us know your preferred method for bus travel in comments below.

Related Stories:
· Wanna Ride Greyhound? Tell Them in 140 Characters or Less [Jaunted]
· Handy Search Tool Helps Navigate the Cheap-o Bus Wars [Jaunted]
· Bus travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Greyhound]

Bus Travel / Buses / BoltBus / MegaBus / Greyhound / Washington Deluxe / Bus Junction / Chinatown Buses / Search Tools / → All Tags

Handy Search Tool Helps Navigate the Cheap-o Bus Wars

We can't decide whether to file this one under "best travel search innovation since Hopstop," or "damn! Why didn't we think of this first?"

The savvy folks over at the new Bus Junction realized the only thing wrong with all these cheap-o Northeast bus lines is that it can be time-consuming for cheapskate riders to browse all of them in search of the cheapest of the cheap fares. So they created a Kayak-like search engine—just plug in your date and destination, and they'll show you all of your options, including the Chinatown lines, BoltBus, MegaBus and Greyhound.

They don't seem to have it worked out perfectly yet. Most notably, there's no Washington Deluxe, one of the most reliable lines for DC to NY rides. But even so, this totally just doubled our cheapskate travel productivity.

Related Stories:
· Bus Junction [Official Site]
· BoltBus versus MegaBus, Round Two [Jaunted]
· Bus travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: kenudigit]

Bus Travel / Buses / BoltBus / MegaBus / → All Tags

BoltBus versus MegaBus, Round Two

Have you thrifty travelers noticed cheap-o Northeast bus lines BoltBus and MegaBus have been getting a little less crowded (and a lot harder to get those $1 fares on) lately?

Yes, Jaunted's 2008 Best Travel Newcomer and its double-decker competitor are now very much on the MSM radar. The latest to check them out is ABC Baltimore, which ran a BoltBus vs. MegaBus comparison in anticipation of BoltBus' upcoming Baltimore-to-New York service, where it joins MegaBus, already running an astounding 32 trips a day between the two cities.

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