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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
Tags: 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]
Tags: 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.
Tags: 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]
Tags: 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.
Tags: Bus Travel / Buses / BoltBus / MegaBus / Greyhound / Open Threads / → All Tags
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]
Tags: 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]
Tags: 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.
Tags: The Jauntys / 2008 Travel Awards / Buses / Budget Travel / BoltBus / Travel News / → All Tags
2008's Best Travel Newcomer Is...
For years the East Coast has had more cheap buses than it knows what to do with, from Fung Wah to Megabus. But until 2008, hardly anyone was willing to take low-budget rides between Boston, New York and DC, fearing accidents, boarding chaos or the sort of horror that can only befall the perennial punch line that is Greyhound.
But 2008's Best Travel Newcomer, BoltBus, made taking a coach classy, with clean seats and bathrooms, on-board WiFi with the power plugs to match and ingenious branding to lure an iPod generation. (That gas was over $4 a gallon this summer helped BB's triumph, too.)
At a time when you can't even check a bag for free, it's a thrill that a bus company will ferry us from NYC to Philly for less than the price of a beer.
Related Stories:
· First Person Bus Reviews: BoltBus [Jaunted]
· Fare Wars: Buses Battle for Your Stripper Money [Jaunted]
· BoltBus Doing DC to NYC for a Buck [Jaunted]
[Photo: ursonate]
Tags: BoltBus / Megabus / Budget Travel / Buses / → All Tags
Adventures of Link: More BoltBus, More $1 Seats
The cheap-but-classy coach line BoltBus will now start stopping in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, connecting it to New York seven times a day. Buses will stop at the Cherry Hill Mall, about 20 minutes from Philadelphia's 30th Street Station.
Since the route was just announced today, there are still plenty of $1 tickets available. Meanwhile, there's lots of other cheap bus news out there.
Related Stories:
· The Walkmen "Bus a Move" [NY Press]
· Megabus: The Cheap Seats to Chicago [Star Trib]
· Bus Travel Grows as Fuel Soars [AP, via WaPo]
· BoltBus and Megabus Hog the Street [City Paper]
· A BoltBus Bathroom Briefing [Jaunted]
[Photo: kenudigit]
Tags: BoltBus / MegaBus / Buses / Budget Travel / Bus Reviews / WiFi / Free WiFi / Deals / → All Tags
First-Person Bus Reviews: Megabus
Megabus is riding high with new double-decker coaches and lots of new passengers thanks to $4-a-gallon gas. But is service on the super cheap bus up to snuff? Sort of!
One recent Megabus rider wasn't looking forward to her trip. Said an Ohio University student:
No one wants to take the bus, but driving and flying are so expensive.
Why wouldn't anyone want to roll Megabus style? Probably because of what another rider experienced:
The scene on 31st Street was TOTAL CHAOS. People lined up on the sidewalk for different destinations. We left about half an hour late, but smooth sailing the rest of the way, and I sat up front with no one next to me. The bus driver had NEVER driven to Boston before, so I had to help him out.
Still... It's only a dollar! Doesn't matter to people in LA: The car-lovers out west never got on board.
Related Stories:
· Distance Bus Travel Revives [Columbus Dispatch]
· You Mostly Get What You Pay For [The Doree Chronicles]
· Buses coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Sung Sook]
Tags: BoltBus / MegaBus / Buses / Budget Travel / Bus Reviews / WiFi / Free WiFi / Deals / → All Tags
Megabus Planning to Ride High
Super-cheap coach line Megabus may not be as slick as BoltBus, but the company's about to introduce something pretty cool.
Megabus says they'll be the first outfit to offer double-decker rides between Boston and New York; the service is scheduled to start sometime in the next four months. As it turns out, folks in the Midwest have already tried the two-teired coaches. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter gave one a go in late May:
Except for a few bug splatters, my front row seat on the upper level of the double-decker Megabus gave me a sweeping view of the Missouri countryside. The guy sitting across from me, Dick Williams, agreed: "You get the panoramic view--it's the best seat in a thunderstorm."
Related Stories:
· Megabus Launches Double-Decker Service [Boston Globe]
· 10 Hours on a Double-Decker Bus [St. Louis P-D]
· Buses coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Sung Sook]
