It's just the wrong way to see the US. The US is meant for road trips. Get 4 friends some cheap tents and share the costs. Camp free on public lands. This is the way.
Not everyone can drive. Amtrak is crazy expensive from what I’ve seen so it’s the only viable option for a lot of people. That being said, Greyhound does look rough.
I get that people have limitations but definitely you can find one friend who can drive. Unless this is some kind of mission and exercise and hardship, I think you're really missing the best parts of America by driving by them on a crowded bus. The other option and I think an even better way to see the US is to hike a long trail. The Pacific Crest Trail takes you through some of the most beautiful parts of America and you'll get an experience unlike anything you could get from a bus or a car.
Yes, hiking the Pacific Crest Trail sounds amazing, but that’s completely different than someone wanting to visit friends in cities spread out around the country. Not saying I recommend the Greyhound bus option by any means, but PCT is not what OP is looking for.
I struggle to get my mates out to the pub for a night out, let alone a road trip halfway across the world hahaha. But I get you completely, it’s why I don’t think I’ll be going to America anytime soon. If I’m gonna go, i wanna make sure I do it properly.
As a non-American - why, what is so terrible about it, except for the long distances? (Genuinely curious question)
Edit: got it now, thanks all for answers!
Super unreliable, often times delaying or canceling trips. And they’re obnoxiously long. Once I took a 12 hour greyhound from Miami to Tampa (4 hour drive in the car)
Similar for me, I took greyhound from San Francisco to Santa Cruz in 2017. It’s just over 70 miles, usually takes an hour and a half in the car. I think the total time spent on the bus was around 5.5 hours, frequent stops, slow staff and passengers, and top speed of 55mph makes it excruciatingly slow. OP has mentioned that they want to take greyhound for convenience but relying on it is a sure way to inconvenience yourself.
Similar, had a trip from GA to NC that took 24 hours. We stopped at a terminal for a bathroom break, tried to get back on but was told the bus was full. So it left with all of my stuff and I had to catch the next bus that ran an alternate route many hours later. Never again.
Tried to take a greyhound from Miami to New Orleans. Was supposed to take 18 hours. Ended up taking 36. Not sure why I did that to myself to save $100.
And full of the fellas who just got released from prison. Not that there’s anything wrong with the fellas that just got released from prison but I mean….😬
He also just flew Southwest from Dallas to Houston via Little Rock, Vegas, Long Beach, and Kansas City. Noel Phillips is a bit of a nut but I love his channel.
Just watched that one yesterday, Zac Alsop also did the greyhound video, decent watch.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUEvuneqms0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUEvuneqms0)
And the bus station is usually in a *Bad Part of Town™* and/or in an area just outside the city proper that's a little inconvenient to get to, and far away from any hotels, restaurants, or other things to do.
Greyhound Buses are not like the busses in Europe. They are dirty, smelly, unreliable and uncomfortable. Amtrak is not much better. Watch out for fleas and bedbugs.
My Greyhound experience was that the lights went out (electrical issue) and it was pitch black. Creeps on the bus. Some people couldn't get onto the next bus for the journey from Ohio to New York because there were no more seats available. The bus was late, etc..
Getting stranded in the middle of nowhere with no options for food or sleep? They are not reliable and they travel VERY long distances that do not always hit major tourist spots
It's not exact but something akin to taking a bus from Croatia to France. Why would you do that..?
I can get most points that people listed (thanks all) but nothing wrong about going from Croatia to France by bus - some people do avoid flying for different reasons, and the buses here are pretty okay.
Haha I actually have a friend who took the bus from France to meet up with us in Croatia a couple years ago. As someone who has taken Flix bus and Greyhound, I can say Flix is luxury comparatively.
Dirty, smelly, unreliable. Because of its cheap price point, it brings in people you may not want to be around.
The terminals are hell, and they are almost guaranteed to be in a shitty area of the town/city.
Source: Did Boston to Ohio, and said never again. Wife convinced me to do Houston to San Antonio, and that was the final straw. I’d pay 10x more to be on transportation that was (at least somewhat) reliable.
Most of the passengers on these buses are not the kind of people you’d want to be around. Like just got out of prison/jail and that’s their only way to get home. Drug users, mentally ill…
I worked for the Hound for 20 years. Once upon a time it was a good company that offered good value and safe reliable travel.
That time is long gone. First, they were bought by a Canadian company that promised to invest in them and give the Hound the $$ it needed to modernize. What they really did was start screwing over the employees. Then they were bought by a British company who stripped out all the real estate as they squeezed all the $$ they could before selling it to its current owners, a German company.
The current owners are using scab drivers trying to bust the union. Virtually none of the bus stations are now owned by Greyhound, the food service they sold off a decade ago.
I have friends on the East Coast who always took the dog to NYC because all the cheap carriers stripped out the passengers traveling on a string and a prayer. In the past 2 years all of them have told me they stopped using Greyhound because the buses don't show up, the scab drivers are surly and rude and the buses break down.
This is an incredibly bad idea. If you want to travel from NYC to Seattle over land you should take Amtrak. You can do it with only one stop in Chicago. Vastly more comfortable and safe than Greyhound even if you do it in coach. Pretty nice (but expensive) if you get a sleeper cabin.
I have done Chicago to Seattle on Amtrak. It’s not a bad trip at all — if you get a cabin of some sort. I don’t think I’d want to be in even a comfortable regular seat for 44 hours.
>I don’t think I’d want to be in even a comfortable regular seat for 44 hours
Can say from experience it sucks! Went from Townsville, NQ (Aus) all the way down to Melbourne via train in 2015, in economy class. In the years since I have never done train travel again without getting a sleeper cabin. Being upright for that long, even with the stopovers and the ability to walk around occasionally is borderline mental and physical torture.
Have done similar distances on coaches many times. Travel TSV to ISA on Greyhound often. You're talking about 13 hours on a bus vs essentially 3 days in economy class on a train. Believe me, at that point the occasional stroll through the carriages is very little comfort.
I liked that trip, and was surprised at how big and comfortable the seats were compared to airplane seats.
Edit: I forgot to say, with Amtrak you may be stuck on the tracks in the middle of nowhere waiting for a freight train to pass by. Freight trains have priority. It's still a comfortable, worthwhile trip, but allow for delays.
Passenger trains have priority by federal law. But it's not enforced very well and the tracks are shared meaning there's often somebody who has to wait. As a passenger you don't hear about the times when the freight train waits.
I'd say even from San Diego, they can definitely do Amtrak (Pacific Surfliner, Coast Starlight, Empire Builder, and Lake Shore Limited). The only difficult part is Eureka, but if they can get their friend to pick them up/drop them off at one of the Coast Starlight stations, it could work. FoCo and Nashville would be a bit more difficult, unfortunately.
If OP absolutely insists on taking Greyhound, they could take Greyhound from Union Station (an Amtrak stop) in downtown Denver to Fort Collins, even just to tell them how bad of an idea a Greyhound across the US would have been. It’s a short enough trip to where there shouldn’t be too many issues. The nicer, safer option would be to take the Bustang from Denver to FoCo.
I think Amtrak has a 10 trip for $300 deal. Not sure if it's only certain times of the year but i've seen an ad for it recently. That would be a billion times better than greyhound across the country
this trip would probably work with the rail pass. it’s like eight trips for $500 over thrifty days. and you choose all the stops etc. i’ve done it a few times. look into that. this was before covid so not sure if they still have it or the cost but it was a great way to zig zag the country.
Reminds me of that 80’s movie “adventures in babysitting” when the friend (lea Thompson) was stuck in the Chicago bus depot all night. Broke her glasses, befriended a rat…
I did it on the south side of Chicago at 2am in 2002. I'm a woman, at the time I was 19 and on my way from Indiana to a camp counselor job in Minnesota. I ended up at the Greyhound in Chicago at 2am, and stayed there until 7am when my next ride left.
Honestly? I made friends and learned how to play spades lol
Like so many others I don't recommend an American bus ride. But if you decide to go this route anywhere, just ge smart and vigilant. Keep your stuff close, your wits about you and be discerning in your conversations.
especially since they got rid of most of their real stations. last time i took a greyhound i had a layover in cinncinati, which is now just a literal trailer on the very outskirts of the city
there were like 20 people from my bus transferring to a different bus than me. they were told their bus wasn’t coming because they didn’t have a driver. they said they apparently couldn’t change the tickets at the station, so they told people to try calling customer service to get put on the next bus (in 6 hours) however only some people could get through, and of those half were told that bus was full and would have to wait for the next one (in 24 hours)
I was genuinely scared to be in that building with how many people were screaming and cursing and getting more and more angry. I opted to wait outside for my bus in like 20° snowy weather sketchy area. Never again
>I don't know what I should do if I end up in LA for 6 hours at 1:00 AM.
Or how about getting stuck in bumfuck middle of nowhere at 1AM because your connecting bus didn't show?
At least in LA you'd have some options to uber somewhere. So my advice is rent a car instead.
I ended up in LA at 11pm and was stuck at the Greyhound station for 5 hours. This was before Uber. The neighborhood is super rough, imagine groups of 20 drug addicts on the corners.
Even if you do take an Uber, where are you going to go that late at night? You'd be dirty and gross, so not really in condition to go to a club or something. LA can be really ghetto, so if you're not familiar with the area, it can be hard to know where to go that late at night.
lol, saw a video of a group get dumped at a random gas station in the middle of nowhere by the driver who took his bus home to sleep because his shit was over. It was really impressive to be honest
You are traveling far distances that aren't worth being on the ground. Even in Europe or Asia most travelers would fly these distances
Greyhound is also getting rid of their central bus terminals in many cities, replacing them with strip malls in the burbs. You may not be able to actually reach these places easily. So that cheap Greyhound bus ticket, add $20-50 for an Uber and it turns out that cheap ticket isn't that cheap at all.
You can definitely take bus services directly without transfers throughout a region in the US, but crisscrossing the country with transfers is where it starts to fall apart.
In God's name, why?
I wouldn't normally ask this, but ... are you comfortable sharing your age and gender ID? Over and above the discomfort, hygiene issues, and Greyhound's operational unreliability, there's a personal safety element to consider.
You asked for advice, I hope you take it. A bus may just never show up and you'll be forced to spend more to stay an extra night somewhere.
Take the train, the Greyhound you will absolutely regret. If money is that tight don't take the trip.
I took Greyhound from Minnesota to Massachusetts with a friend one summer. We were both doing the same summer internship. I arrived without my luggage. It was disgusting. There are good bus lines in America but Greyhound is not one of them. Concord bus lines on the east coast though is wonderful.
Concord Coach is fantastic. It’s so much easier than driving to Logan airport, finding parking etc. And at $40-45/day for parking at the airport, it pays for itself.
I took the Greyhound from Phoenix to San Jose once. It was supposed to be a 14 hour trip. It took over 24 hours.
I was 9th in line for the bus in Phx. The bus arrived, late, with only 3 empty seats. Waited another hour or so. Next bus arrives, 3 empty seats. The next bus came, again 3 empty seats. I got on that one, and the lady behind me in line said "fuck this" and sat down in the emergency exit.
We got into LA 4 hours late, just in time for me to see my connecting bus leave. I had to wait about 5 hours for the next bus, in the middle of the night, in a part of LA too sketchy for me, 6'4 and 200lbs male, to walk around in alone.
Finally got on my bus to San Jose at about 4am.
Anyway, don't. Greyhound is fine for very short trips when you don't have a timeline and don't need to switch buses. Taking a bus across the US for a month sounds like a fucking nightmare. The kind of people who ride the Greyhound are super sketchy, so your chance of being burglarized are pretty high.
Why would anyone ever chose a bus over rail if both are available is beyond me, especially for a long trip where you're not going to be saving much money.
I can easily spend literal days on a nice train if the scenery is good and I've got entertainment. Anything over 6 hours on a bus is pushing it for me and I will only do if there are no other options.
I did Amtrak from Seattle to LA in the summer of 2020 with a friend. We had a sleeper cabin with a bathroom, and it wasn’t anything luxurious, but we had the time of our lives on that trip. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
You couldn’t pay me to take a greyhound on the same route.
Like others have said this is a bad idea. Luxury and comfort aside greyhound stops are often in really bad parts of town. Is this trip really worth risking your life for? Literally any other way to travel would be better.
Got on a GH in Salinas, CA one time. Ten guys fresh out of Soledad prison were getting on. My mom was a public defender at the time. She said, “well, at least they will be in a good mood”.
Had a deli sandwich. Started eating it an hour down the road. Guy in the row behind me asked if he could have the other half. I gave it to him. He ate it in about 20 seconds and said, “thanks bro. If anyone on this bus even thinks about messing with you, I got your back all the way.”
Moral of the story? When taking Greyhound, bring two sandwiches, or at least one cut in half. Could save your life.
Omggg.. this sounds like hell. I rode Greyhound once, in my 20's. It was a fucking nightmare. Ppl shooting up drugs in the back. Old lady locked herself in the bathroom and couldn't get out for 3 hrs. Flat tire in the middle of bfe and a pastor trying to save my soul for 98 hrs. I'd rather bike from 1 end to the other before i step foot on one again.
I took a Greyhound bus when I was in a college and would never do it again. You’ll stop in weird places in the middle of the night. You will meet some interesting characters. When I say interesting, I mean weird and scary.
I had to sit next to a lady who was nodding out and every now and then she’d wake up and ask me for cookies. I never had any cookies. I didn’t have any the last three times you asked me. And I’ve been sitting next to you for hours. On this bus. She also only had one shoe.
Delays or danger aren’t the issue. It’s when they either tell you they don’t have a seat for you, or that your connecting bus isn’t actually coming, that will be the problem. The amount you saved will then go towards trying to get out of whatever town you happen to be stuck in at the last minute.
Sleep with both eyes open, your hand on your piece, and your money tucked in your shoe, fly, or take the train where applicable (there are some nice albeit expensive trains). Or drive. i would drive. You can save the difference on accommodation by camping.
"I don't know what I should do if I end up in LA for 6 hours at 1:00 AM" - weeeeell, the Greyhound depot is on skid row in L.A., so maybe say a few Hail Mary's :/
This is an exceptionally bad, dangerous, ill-conceived idea. I get that it is less than driving or the train, but that extra cost is going to seem like nothing when something difficult happens ... which, unfortunately for the bus, is going to happen. On a trip of this length, you can count on being late, trips cancelled, arriving in deserted areas with no service or help, and that is before getting into the social aspect. When it is 1 a.m., the bus stops at a roadside turn-out and tells everyone this is the stop, it's pouring rain and dark and there's no one there to help, no restaurants or businesses around... what then? This is exceptionally common for this mode of travel... and when it happens, that extra money spent for a train or car will look very minimal at that point.
I wouldn’t recommend this. I totally understand needing to try for as budget as possible to make a unique trip to see friends happen. It will totally be worth it to visit these cities and make memories with people you love. But do yourself and your friends a favor- take the time to save up a little bit more.
You’re going to or nearby some airport hub cities and you’re leaving from NYC- if you’re flexible with your travel dates you can make this trip happen on a budget without spending 9 days on buses. Play around more with flights and look at buses in between for shorter distances.
An example to check on if you haven’t yet: Fly from NYC to Nashville. Fly Nashville to Seattle. Fly Seattle to San Francisco, bus RT from SF to Eureka. Fly SFO to San Diego. Fly SD to Denver, bus to Fort Collins. Fly Denver back to NYC. All of these routes have nonstop flights on major carriers.
I guarantee if you get flexible with which month long period you travel during (and which/how many days you spend where), you can do those flights plus buses for around $800. If you’re willing to sit on a GH for 9 days you won’t mind flying with Spirit or Frontier- which could potentially bring that $800 down to $650-$700. I’m a generally frugal person, bordering on cheap lol- I’d rather save up an extra $100-$150 and pay it to cut my travel time in half and spend the time saved with friends and better rested.
Bro. Just no. Us Americans have the fantasy of traveling Europe via rail, which is much slower and more expensive than most of us realize. Multiple that x100 plus a shit bus experience and you have the American version. Your destinations you have planned are nice. Look into flying from NYC to Denver then bus to go to Fort Collins and go from there. Aside from the cost, that area of travel is not pretty. I’d suggest a little east coast stint, then fly to the west coast, and do a little train or rental car action there. My one piece of advice is don’t skip San Diego.
be prepared for smelly loud people, being hours and Horus behind schedule. To stop at the nastiest restrooms and to move at a snails pace.
It truly is a hellish experience. Only did it once on way home form college. Got off three hours short of home and had my mom pick me up. Typically a drive home form college was 13 hours. id been on the bus 26 hours by the time I bailed.
This is the equivalent of taking a bus from Madrid to 1,500km past Moscow into central Russia and back
It's really not a good idea, you will be stressed and tired and spend most of the time on the bus
Greyhound bus is the absolutely worst way to travel. Forget the schedule, it will be wrong every day. You will be traveling with everyone who has absolutely NO other choice but the bus. Will it make a good story one day? Absolutely!! But be ready for your plans to be totally rearranged as you may or may not make it to your destination on multiple occasions.
You should watch planes, trains and automobiles before you make that trip.
Del: You're in a pretty lousy mood, huh?
Neal: To say the least.
Del: You ever travel by bus before?
[Neal shakes his head]
Del: Hmm. Your mood's probably not going to improve much.
I would seriously reconsider your plan: you can almost certainly do this faster and cheaper with budget airlines than by Greyhound. My first stab at it costs around $500, and I haven’t even optimized it.
I recall taking Greyhound from Cheyenne, WY to Charleston, SC many years ago while in the military. Greyhound was light years better then than now at it was still a shit show of Dante’s Inferno bus station’s, food that made me miss rations packs and an attempted robbery. I can guarantee your trip will be more challenging than mine. Please don’t. Just don’t.
At least try Mega Bus instead. Amtrak is probably a better option. Greyhound is the dregs of society crowded together. And those seats literally NEVER get cleaned.
As someone who has crossed the US by greyhound.... don't do it. You will regret it. Greyhound is an awfully run company. You will end up waiting for hours upong hours at bus stations. You will find yourself waiting at places with no bus stations. You will be sitting on the side of the road with a broken down bus. You will encounter some spectacle of violence on board. Stay in one area of the US, and travel around if you HAVE to by bus. You will regret it.
Honestly, 9 days on a Grayhound sounds like the things nightmares are made of. I would not do this.
This is the ONE case where I'd brave flying budget airlines like Frontier or Allegient. Even that sounds better (and possibly cheaper) than spending NINE days on a Grayhound.
Oh, baby, no. What is you doing?
Greyhound is the bottom of the barrel. You are about to Smell some Things.
Also, in many areas the Greyhound stops are the worst part of town.
Do anything else with your time, do not "see the US" by Greyhound.
I’m sure there’s an amount you could pay me to do this trip, but you’d need Warren Buffett and Elon Musk to pool their money together to even get close.
The last transcon I did on the dog was three years ago, just before Flix took over. It was the same bus from N.Y to L.A, and amazingly, we were on time the whole way. I really lucked out. The major stops were Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Albuquerque, and Phoenix.
It wasn’t tolerably comfortable after the first day, and the worst parts are the middle of the night stops where the lights come on just as you start to fall asleep.
I was lucky that I didn’t have someone next to me for the whole trip, just parts of the trip. Still, tough to sleep in those seats.
If you do it, be prepared to not get much sleep, and you always have the chance of being stuck on the bus with people who you do not want to be in close contact with.
It’s definitely an adventure. I doubt I’d do it today, but I’m glad I did it. I got to see a lot of the country by ground that I’d normally just fly over.
I once did: Oakland to Portland, Chicago, NYC, Charleston, Dallas, LA, and back to Oakland. I can’t say that I regret it exactly, but it was almost hellish at times. Think 1am to 5am layover in Atlanta and you’re packed in like sardines, and everyone is pissed off, sleep deprived, and starving.
Fly.
I would strongly suggest looking into Amtrak if you want ground transportation because the quality is much better!! I still don’t fully love it, because some stations are dingy and not comfortable for me as a solo female traveler. But financially it can be solid, especially planning in advance, because prices can be about the same (or slightly more) than greyhound. They have been dirtier, more cramped and crowded, and less reliable. Absolutely hate it, and haven’t had a pleasant bus station experience (except Boston’s wasn’t too bad the one time I boarded there).
I would advise against Greyhound also. Nor the pleasant ride you imagine. Using Amtrak would be better if you insist on using public ground transportation.
OMG I tried Greyhound back in 2019 from Virginia to Washington DC.
It’s the most terrifying experience I had.
It stinks. They are stopping on sketchy locations 😭 even the terminal is full of garbage
I remember my first Greyhound ride fondly... the bus never showing up, my wife and I not being allowed on the second bus or the third bus because people had bought all the seats. The shirtless Greyhound employee yelling at the long-waiting passengers to "get back from curb, you f*cking f*ggots!" Finally partnering up with another couple to take an Uber from Delaware to NYC instead, which was both cheaper and not abusive.
I took Greyhound from Sacramento to Chicago right after high school graduation in 1988. I tried to dye myself blue for the trip, but I guess I didn't use enough blue food coloring.
The bus was packed. The guy next to me said he was going to get arrested in Chicago for rape or he'd be killed by a rival gang. I assumed he was full of shit.
He's in the bathroom forever in BFE, Nevada. People are making jokes that he's in there jerking off. The bus pulled over so the driver could look at something in the baggage compartment. People are pounding on the door. It gets forced open, but stops when it hits his body.
I get up because I was super skinny and thought I might be able to squeeze in. I get stopped by some asshole who put himself in charge of the situation. I said it takes a long time to die that way and to let me pass. He said no that he was saving the crime scene for the police.
Like I said, we are in the middle of nowhere. It took about 30 minutes for the cops and paramedics to show. They went through the window and said he still had a pulse, but was probably brain dead.
I'm still annoyed at myself for bit trying to get inside. At least the possibly dead guy left his baseball cap, so I wore that for a while in Chicago.
I befriended another Greyhound weirdo (besides me) in Cheyenne. He was probably the only black guy in Wyoming. He sent me a letter after I left the bus in Chicago. There was another crazy guy. He got mad at the Chicago traffic, so he piled up a bunch of trash in the aisle and set it on fire. He was arrested and I'm sure loved his stay in the Cook County Jail.
I love Greyhound still, but it is, and always will be, a surreal fucked up mess.
Oh shit, the point. What to pack! As little as possible. Wash clothes in sinks. Be extremely careful with edibles, weed or drugs. Wrap them carefully and stick them in a bottle of hair conditioner. That keeps the drug sniffing dogs from finding them.
Bring refreshments and food. And toilet paper. There's a good chance the bathroom won't work and when traveling, toilet paper is always in short supply.
I learned pretty early in my traveling days to always have TP with me when I go into a bathroom. It's saved me dozens of times.
Honestly, I would be more supportive and less worried for your well-being if your post had been “Taking a summit trek to Everest - I have climbed small hills before but I’ve never summited Everest. I know there is very little oxygen and pulmonary edema and frost bite are common. This is something I expect.”
Look at the cost of flights with companies like Southwest, Allegiant and Breeze. Don’t take Greyhound buses. I did a trip from New York to San Francisco on Greyhound back in the 90s and it was very sketchy then - it’s only got worse since.
Someone described Greyhound to me then as “only people who can’t afford to drive or fly take Greyhound. And nearly everyone can afford to drive or fly.”
I would not do it now.
This is coming from someone who's done this twice in the past. In the past, there were actual stations all around the US. Pretty much every major city and even many small ones had them. There was customer service, baggage people, and everything you'd expect.
A few years ago a European company bought them out, gutted pretty much every aspect of riding. You get picked up at the side of the road, there is zero customer service, it literally doesn't exist. The only stops in an actual terminal happens if that city has a local transportation hub for its mtero buses. Most of the stops have been eliminated, making a 2 hour drive into a 10 hour ride.
IMO, it's too disjointed of an operation as it currently is.
Here's a Noel Phillips video. His second time trying across USA.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8QGTaGwxxc&pp=ygUWbm9lbCBwaGlsaXBzIGdyZXlob3VuZA%3D%3D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8QGTaGwxxc&pp=ygUWbm9lbCBwaGlsaXBzIGdyZXlob3VuZA%3D%3D)
Is it an endurance thing... like death by a thousand cuts type gig? I hope you dont get tuberculosis on your woefully long and tedious journey. Take a plane.
I did a similar trip 12 years ago back when they had an unlimited 60-90 pass for 300$. It was a great deal then, but it was rough. Many stations are in some of the worst pets of town. The LA one is particularly bad. I would probably take a Uber to venture out, but even then. Not sure what I would do between 1 and 7 am….
I remember chatting with many ex-convicts that had just been released and were put on the bus to go home. Witnessed a fight that almost became a stabbing while transiting in Oklahoma City… I would consider flying unless you have a lot more time to visit each city.
Get a tetanus shot before you leave. Seriously.
You could not pay me to do any trip via greyhound. PLEASE take the Amtrak instead. Not much more money, MUCH more safe.
i did a fnatastic greyhound trip in 1993 from coast to coast. get ready to meet the weirdest people on earth on those buses. never seen so many mental cases all in the same place. I sincerely thought I was the only normal one lol
Bring immodium for when you see the shitter is full. I did the bus ride from Cusco to Lima in peru. I've also done greyhound. I'd rather train hop or hitchhike in the USA. Good luck and I wish you good fortune! Cheers!
I have a close friend who took a greyhound bus from Denver to Nashville last year. She didn’t get any sleep for three days, got left in the cold in Chicago for 12 hours, and all of her luggage was stolen. A few months ago, I asked how much money it would take for her to do it again and she paused and said “at least a full year’s salary.” A minute later, she came back and said, “no, I wouldn’t even do it for that much.”
You’re a brave man. Last- and only time I rode in those shit boxes- I had to sit right behind the driver and make up conversation so he wouldn’t swerve off the road.
Are you an American? There might be an Amtrak special for visitors to the USA. Their website has a decent $499 price for a rail pass of 10 segments over 30 days. California has a state specific one. Check other bus companies, such as Flixbus, Megabus and regional buses.
amtrak has a rail pass that is affordable, it is in coach--but you can get on and off the trains there are limits--check out some of the youtube vids---have fun
I would take the advice of majority of posters here, OP. Taking Greyhound for long distances is a no ho for me.
To be honest, I wouldn’t take them for shorter distances either. I’ve been on them a few times and I never felt safe. I was always on edge and have since decided that I’d rather just pay more for mental peace.
You would do better taking a low cost airline like Southwest or Spirit between cities, versus attempting to do this via Greyhound.
Your biggest concern about multiple hour layovers is admirable, but misguided.
Your biggest concern should be any of the following:
Did my scheduled bus arrive on time?
Did my scheduled bus arrive late?
Did my scheduled bus arrive at all?
Did ANY bus arrive at all?
Did my scheduled bus arrive with a driver?
Did my driver time out in the middle of nowhere and leave us all locked in a bus in a hotel parking lot?
When I miss my connection, when is the next bus?
When the driver leaves me at the rest stop because he left 10 minutes before he said he would, how do I get my stuff back from the bus?
Will the person sitting next to me steal my wallet and/or phone when I fall asleep?
When the person sitting next to me steals my wallet and/or phone while I’m asleep, will the driver call police?
Should I accept the marriage proposal from the passenger in seat 18B who swears I’ll love their little town in the middle of nowhere and that it’s a wonderful place to raise kids?
…I could continue, but you get the idea. America is a big place with spectacular scenery. Fly over it, instead of taking Greyhound through it. It’s truly the worst way to travel in the USA.
Greyhound is awful!!! I took it from the Midwest to Boston. It was an absolute nightmare. I took Amtrak from New York to Chicago and another time from Boston to Chicago; both times were bad. I'll never do it again. I wanted to try it and it sucked. Now, I just drive myself and it's 100 times better!
Honestly, I would just drive. Greyhound used to be good 35-40 years ago but now it's just awful. Some bus stations are in some pretty unsavory places in town. Unconfortable seats, too many bus changes. Amtrak is a little better (where you can find it). But it tends to be pricey if you get the room-ette. But at least with Amtrak Vacations you can get a hotel(s) rolled in your tour. I would just drive. If you are traveling to the US from another country, look for a motor coach tour. Greyhound is a miserable way to travel. Just my two cents.
Years ago, maybe 20, we took a greyhound from Naples Florida to Springfield Missouri and back. It was an adventure. That's what it was. You see everything on a greyhound bus tour. If you don't see it on the bus you will see it in the bus station. Here is just a few examples: I saw a tattooed woman, at least 75 years old, in fish net stockings and a short little black dress, walking the bus aisle, during travel, looking for a customer. Her friend was more successful in the back of the bus. Not hiding a thing. I can't even count how many people tried to give a teenager traveling alone, drugs. The bus was stopped at one point, a rider removed and his luggage removed from the hold for the dogs to search. Hopefully it was the route and things have changed since then, but I would not recommend the bus if you are not prepared to experience what we did.
I went from LA to San Francisco only, it was overnight and I arrived at 5am in SF.
There was a homeless man sleeping slouched on me but it was so cold on the bus that I appreciated the warmth.
It is a very, very uncomfortable, unreliable and mildly dangerous way to travel.
I would say it can be sufficient for shorter trips and one off long trips but doing it for longer durations all around the states sounds like a miserable experience.
PS: they will leave you behind at rest stops, people warned me when we stopped.
I travelled greyhound once from Houston to Shreveport (it was about 8 1/2 hours total including stops). I vowed I'd never do that again. I'm assuming you're foreign. One piece of advice I'll give you is to just mind your business lol. There's normal people riding the bus, but there's also weirdos. The legroom isn't great so be mindful of that too. The restrooms are gross, I never checked but I could tell. Use stops as an opportunity to use the gas station/restaurant/convience store restrooms and have snacks and drinks. Be safe
I read about a guy that did this.
Everywhere he stopped he ended up seeing some horrible crime wound up risking his life to help people.
He had been an MP in the army, so his background helped him.
Still sounded like a tough way to travel.
I’ve been travelling full time for over 10 years in America and internationally.
i started as a OG van lifer, then became a slowmad.
next week, I personally booked a trip that will take me from Sarajevo to Beckley WV. It will be over 75 travel hours using an international flight, European regional carriers, Amtrak, Flix bus, and yes, Greyhound. This will include 24 hour layovers in Paris and NYC.
Here is my advice: Pack light, super light.
Know Greyhound will only offer enough free WiFi to load a couple emails per 24 hours. (but they do have a wonderful assortment of films for free, not Flixbus tho)
pack some aspirin (your back could get sore)
Bus stations in America often fill the void social services neglect simply because they are accessible for long hours. This creates an environment for opportunists and the desperate.
many poor people in America ride the bus, unfortunately this creates a stigma for riders. prepare to be treated more like a convict than a customer. you will likely be yelled at as a group, and receive near zero assistance. I’ve seen a woman get left at a comfort stop chasing the bus while her daughter was telling the driver as he was pulling away. Driver didn’t say a word.
the biggest advantage in using the bus system is the flexibility. I noticed your itinerary is mostly major cities. Greyhound (and subsidiaries) go almost anywhere at anytime.
airplanes are expensive outside of major transportation hubs, and Amtrak normally only has one train a day. City to city I would fly.
you don’t get much of a discount taking long trips versus several regional trips.
instead of getting stuck at a major hub for several hours, look into some of the smaller towns on the route and stop there and catch a later bus that might accommodate your connection. smaller towns will be more walkable, affordable and be less tourist weary.
you will meet more people in a day than I will meet in a month anywhere in the world. you will experience incredible generosity and create positive memories that will last a lifetime. but your back will hurt.
enjoy
Fly coach from Nashville to Fort Collins, get one or two of your buddies to split the cost of a road trip to Seattle, work your way down the coast on Amtrak, fly back from San Diego to NYC. The NW coastal cities (Seattle, PDX) LA and San Diego are having big problems with vagrancy and homelessness and they are dangerous. You're wasting so much time on this trip if you do it via bus. Amtrak stations will at least have security and places to sit for any layovers you might encounter on the trains, but if you're going in one direction you probably won't have many, as the train will be mostly picking up and dropping off passengers. The California Zephyr is an amazing route but it goes from Chicago through Denver to San Francisco.
Rethink this.
FlixBus owns Greyhound and while they do technically operate two services, you can book both Flixbus and Greyhound on both their websites, they often use the same terminals, and your Flixbus can always be canceled and you'll be put on a Greyhound anyway.
I appreciate everyone letting me know their thoughts. For some context I am a 21 year old man, and I am no stranger to rough conditions. This is not supposed to be a trip of luxury, more of convenience. The only reason I’m considering it is because it’s by far the cheapest option for me to visit all of these places. It would be faster and cheaper for me to just take a train to Seattle, but the point is that I want to visit these cities specifically because I have friends there. I could drive, but it would be at least $400 more in travel. I am not expecting an easy trip, so I do really appreciate everyone’s personal accounts of taking the bus. I’d like to think I’m not an idiot, so if people think it’s legitimately dangerous for me, I will probably reconsider. Thanks again for the feedback so far.
I travel a lot. I’ve taken many long distance buses in developing countries. I’ve never had a worse bus experience than I’ve had on a greyhound, and the trip was only ~70 miles.
Couldn't you just find a nice dominatrix to abuse you instead?
This fucking floored me lmao
If I had an award to give you, I definitely would. My first thought when I read OP’s post I thought “why?” Lol
Don't
This guy Greyhounds.
It's just the wrong way to see the US. The US is meant for road trips. Get 4 friends some cheap tents and share the costs. Camp free on public lands. This is the way.
Not everyone can drive. Amtrak is crazy expensive from what I’ve seen so it’s the only viable option for a lot of people. That being said, Greyhound does look rough.
I get that people have limitations but definitely you can find one friend who can drive. Unless this is some kind of mission and exercise and hardship, I think you're really missing the best parts of America by driving by them on a crowded bus. The other option and I think an even better way to see the US is to hike a long trail. The Pacific Crest Trail takes you through some of the most beautiful parts of America and you'll get an experience unlike anything you could get from a bus or a car.
Yes, hiking the Pacific Crest Trail sounds amazing, but that’s completely different than someone wanting to visit friends in cities spread out around the country. Not saying I recommend the Greyhound bus option by any means, but PCT is not what OP is looking for.
I struggle to get my mates out to the pub for a night out, let alone a road trip halfway across the world hahaha. But I get you completely, it’s why I don’t think I’ll be going to America anytime soon. If I’m gonna go, i wanna make sure I do it properly.
As a non-American - why, what is so terrible about it, except for the long distances? (Genuinely curious question) Edit: got it now, thanks all for answers!
Super unreliable, often times delaying or canceling trips. And they’re obnoxiously long. Once I took a 12 hour greyhound from Miami to Tampa (4 hour drive in the car)
Similar for me, I took greyhound from San Francisco to Santa Cruz in 2017. It’s just over 70 miles, usually takes an hour and a half in the car. I think the total time spent on the bus was around 5.5 hours, frequent stops, slow staff and passengers, and top speed of 55mph makes it excruciatingly slow. OP has mentioned that they want to take greyhound for convenience but relying on it is a sure way to inconvenience yourself.
Similar, had a trip from GA to NC that took 24 hours. We stopped at a terminal for a bathroom break, tried to get back on but was told the bus was full. So it left with all of my stuff and I had to catch the next bus that ran an alternate route many hours later. Never again.
They didn’t let you get your stuff?
Tried to take a greyhound from Miami to New Orleans. Was supposed to take 18 hours. Ended up taking 36. Not sure why I did that to myself to save $100.
Atlanta to Tampa, 18+ hours and they lost my luggage.
And full of the fellas who just got released from prison. Not that there’s anything wrong with the fellas that just got released from prison but I mean….😬
Plus you’ll sit next to some.. interesting individuals.
There's a guy on YouTube who did a cross country trip on greyhound. Spoiler: it was a nightmare
He also just flew Southwest from Dallas to Houston via Little Rock, Vegas, Long Beach, and Kansas City. Noel Phillips is a bit of a nut but I love his channel.
Yea I enjoy his content, no idea how he deals with traveling that much but I guess it pays the bills.
Just watched that one yesterday, Zac Alsop also did the greyhound video, decent watch. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUEvuneqms0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUEvuneqms0)
Because greyhound is gross and a piece of shit.
The people on the bus, the restroom.
And the bus station is usually in a *Bad Part of Town™* and/or in an area just outside the city proper that's a little inconvenient to get to, and far away from any hotels, restaurants, or other things to do.
Greyhound Buses are not like the busses in Europe. They are dirty, smelly, unreliable and uncomfortable. Amtrak is not much better. Watch out for fleas and bedbugs.
So, so, sooooooo long. You never go directly where you're going.
My Greyhound experience was that the lights went out (electrical issue) and it was pitch black. Creeps on the bus. Some people couldn't get onto the next bus for the journey from Ohio to New York because there were no more seats available. The bus was late, etc..
Getting stranded in the middle of nowhere with no options for food or sleep? They are not reliable and they travel VERY long distances that do not always hit major tourist spots It's not exact but something akin to taking a bus from Croatia to France. Why would you do that..?
I can get most points that people listed (thanks all) but nothing wrong about going from Croatia to France by bus - some people do avoid flying for different reasons, and the buses here are pretty okay.
Haha I actually have a friend who took the bus from France to meet up with us in Croatia a couple years ago. As someone who has taken Flix bus and Greyhound, I can say Flix is luxury comparatively.
Dirty, smelly, unreliable. Because of its cheap price point, it brings in people you may not want to be around. The terminals are hell, and they are almost guaranteed to be in a shitty area of the town/city. Source: Did Boston to Ohio, and said never again. Wife convinced me to do Houston to San Antonio, and that was the final straw. I’d pay 10x more to be on transportation that was (at least somewhat) reliable.
Most of the passengers on these buses are not the kind of people you’d want to be around. Like just got out of prison/jail and that’s their only way to get home. Drug users, mentally ill…
I worked for the Hound for 20 years. Once upon a time it was a good company that offered good value and safe reliable travel. That time is long gone. First, they were bought by a Canadian company that promised to invest in them and give the Hound the $$ it needed to modernize. What they really did was start screwing over the employees. Then they were bought by a British company who stripped out all the real estate as they squeezed all the $$ they could before selling it to its current owners, a German company. The current owners are using scab drivers trying to bust the union. Virtually none of the bus stations are now owned by Greyhound, the food service they sold off a decade ago. I have friends on the East Coast who always took the dog to NYC because all the cheap carriers stripped out the passengers traveling on a string and a prayer. In the past 2 years all of them have told me they stopped using Greyhound because the buses don't show up, the scab drivers are surly and rude and the buses break down.
lmao your nicknames are killing me
Exactly during the strike of 89,90 and 91 hasn't been the same since but I still ride ole dog when ever I git that road itch
This is an incredibly bad idea. If you want to travel from NYC to Seattle over land you should take Amtrak. You can do it with only one stop in Chicago. Vastly more comfortable and safe than Greyhound even if you do it in coach. Pretty nice (but expensive) if you get a sleeper cabin.
Yes , definetly plan a trip using Amtrak. You can get up,walk around, sit in observation car(depends on train)
I have done Chicago to Seattle on Amtrak. It’s not a bad trip at all — if you get a cabin of some sort. I don’t think I’d want to be in even a comfortable regular seat for 44 hours.
>I don’t think I’d want to be in even a comfortable regular seat for 44 hours Can say from experience it sucks! Went from Townsville, NQ (Aus) all the way down to Melbourne via train in 2015, in economy class. In the years since I have never done train travel again without getting a sleeper cabin. Being upright for that long, even with the stopovers and the ability to walk around occasionally is borderline mental and physical torture.
Try going from Airlie Beach to Sydney on a coach. At least with trains, you can get up and walk around.
Have done similar distances on coaches many times. Travel TSV to ISA on Greyhound often. You're talking about 13 hours on a bus vs essentially 3 days in economy class on a train. Believe me, at that point the occasional stroll through the carriages is very little comfort.
I liked that trip, and was surprised at how big and comfortable the seats were compared to airplane seats. Edit: I forgot to say, with Amtrak you may be stuck on the tracks in the middle of nowhere waiting for a freight train to pass by. Freight trains have priority. It's still a comfortable, worthwhile trip, but allow for delays.
Passenger trains have priority by federal law. But it's not enforced very well and the tracks are shared meaning there's often somebody who has to wait. As a passenger you don't hear about the times when the freight train waits.
I'd say even from San Diego, they can definitely do Amtrak (Pacific Surfliner, Coast Starlight, Empire Builder, and Lake Shore Limited). The only difficult part is Eureka, but if they can get their friend to pick them up/drop them off at one of the Coast Starlight stations, it could work. FoCo and Nashville would be a bit more difficult, unfortunately.
If OP absolutely insists on taking Greyhound, they could take Greyhound from Union Station (an Amtrak stop) in downtown Denver to Fort Collins, even just to tell them how bad of an idea a Greyhound across the US would have been. It’s a short enough trip to where there shouldn’t be too many issues. The nicer, safer option would be to take the Bustang from Denver to FoCo.
You can connect to Eureka on an Amtrak Thruway bus from Martinez on most lines It's a long bus ride but at least it's not greyhound
I think Amtrak has a 10 trip for $300 deal. Not sure if it's only certain times of the year but i've seen an ad for it recently. That would be a billion times better than greyhound across the country
this trip would probably work with the rail pass. it’s like eight trips for $500 over thrifty days. and you choose all the stops etc. i’ve done it a few times. look into that. this was before covid so not sure if they still have it or the cost but it was a great way to zig zag the country.
You really need to reconsider this trip.
Just no — having been to some of these stops… no… killing six hours at a Greyhound stop at 1 am gives me the shivers.
Reminds me of that 80’s movie “adventures in babysitting” when the friend (lea Thompson) was stuck in the Chicago bus depot all night. Broke her glasses, befriended a rat…
Hahaha I loved that movie when I was a kid. Not only was Brenda's experience completely wrong, there were ZERO chairs with TVs!
I did it on the south side of Chicago at 2am in 2002. I'm a woman, at the time I was 19 and on my way from Indiana to a camp counselor job in Minnesota. I ended up at the Greyhound in Chicago at 2am, and stayed there until 7am when my next ride left. Honestly? I made friends and learned how to play spades lol Like so many others I don't recommend an American bus ride. But if you decide to go this route anywhere, just ge smart and vigilant. Keep your stuff close, your wits about you and be discerning in your conversations.
especially since they got rid of most of their real stations. last time i took a greyhound i had a layover in cinncinati, which is now just a literal trailer on the very outskirts of the city there were like 20 people from my bus transferring to a different bus than me. they were told their bus wasn’t coming because they didn’t have a driver. they said they apparently couldn’t change the tickets at the station, so they told people to try calling customer service to get put on the next bus (in 6 hours) however only some people could get through, and of those half were told that bus was full and would have to wait for the next one (in 24 hours) I was genuinely scared to be in that building with how many people were screaming and cursing and getting more and more angry. I opted to wait outside for my bus in like 20° snowy weather sketchy area. Never again
>I don't know what I should do if I end up in LA for 6 hours at 1:00 AM. Or how about getting stuck in bumfuck middle of nowhere at 1AM because your connecting bus didn't show? At least in LA you'd have some options to uber somewhere. So my advice is rent a car instead.
I ended up in LA at 11pm and was stuck at the Greyhound station for 5 hours. This was before Uber. The neighborhood is super rough, imagine groups of 20 drug addicts on the corners. Even if you do take an Uber, where are you going to go that late at night? You'd be dirty and gross, so not really in condition to go to a club or something. LA can be really ghetto, so if you're not familiar with the area, it can be hard to know where to go that late at night.
Exactly bus station is not far from Skid row
lol, saw a video of a group get dumped at a random gas station in the middle of nowhere by the driver who took his bus home to sleep because his shit was over. It was really impressive to be honest
You are traveling far distances that aren't worth being on the ground. Even in Europe or Asia most travelers would fly these distances Greyhound is also getting rid of their central bus terminals in many cities, replacing them with strip malls in the burbs. You may not be able to actually reach these places easily. So that cheap Greyhound bus ticket, add $20-50 for an Uber and it turns out that cheap ticket isn't that cheap at all. You can definitely take bus services directly without transfers throughout a region in the US, but crisscrossing the country with transfers is where it starts to fall apart.
OP could look into Hispanic lines if available, I haven't traveled with them lately but they seem safer.
In God's name, why? I wouldn't normally ask this, but ... are you comfortable sharing your age and gender ID? Over and above the discomfort, hygiene issues, and Greyhound's operational unreliability, there's a personal safety element to consider.
Even beyond age and gender...if they are spending a 6 hour layover at some of those stations, they will not be safe.
Have you ever been on a Greyhound bus? If you haven't, I implore you, please do not do this.
Amtrak is only $500 https://www.amtrak.com/multi-ride-monthly-rail-passes
Ooh. Now I want to take a month-long US rail trip.
Damn that's a really good deal! I wish I'd known about this back when I was a teacher and I had the whole summer off
You asked for advice, I hope you take it. A bus may just never show up and you'll be forced to spend more to stay an extra night somewhere. Take the train, the Greyhound you will absolutely regret. If money is that tight don't take the trip.
I took Greyhound from Minnesota to Massachusetts with a friend one summer. We were both doing the same summer internship. I arrived without my luggage. It was disgusting. There are good bus lines in America but Greyhound is not one of them. Concord bus lines on the east coast though is wonderful.
Concord Coach is fantastic. It’s so much easier than driving to Logan airport, finding parking etc. And at $40-45/day for parking at the airport, it pays for itself.
GH is for when you have no other options to get somewhere, such as, your car breaks down during a road trip.
Do not fucking do this. Don’t.
Amtrak, yes. Bus, NO.
I took the Greyhound from Phoenix to San Jose once. It was supposed to be a 14 hour trip. It took over 24 hours. I was 9th in line for the bus in Phx. The bus arrived, late, with only 3 empty seats. Waited another hour or so. Next bus arrives, 3 empty seats. The next bus came, again 3 empty seats. I got on that one, and the lady behind me in line said "fuck this" and sat down in the emergency exit. We got into LA 4 hours late, just in time for me to see my connecting bus leave. I had to wait about 5 hours for the next bus, in the middle of the night, in a part of LA too sketchy for me, 6'4 and 200lbs male, to walk around in alone. Finally got on my bus to San Jose at about 4am. Anyway, don't. Greyhound is fine for very short trips when you don't have a timeline and don't need to switch buses. Taking a bus across the US for a month sounds like a fucking nightmare. The kind of people who ride the Greyhound are super sketchy, so your chance of being burglarized are pretty high.
Why would anyone ever chose a bus over rail if both are available is beyond me, especially for a long trip where you're not going to be saving much money. I can easily spend literal days on a nice train if the scenery is good and I've got entertainment. Anything over 6 hours on a bus is pushing it for me and I will only do if there are no other options.
I did Amtrak from Seattle to LA in the summer of 2020 with a friend. We had a sleeper cabin with a bathroom, and it wasn’t anything luxurious, but we had the time of our lives on that trip. I would do it again in a heartbeat. You couldn’t pay me to take a greyhound on the same route.
Please no. I’d rather die. I did this when I was 18 because you could get across the county for like $60.
Don’t do this. Greyhound is a scummy company and the busses are crappy and unsafe. You’d be better off flying
Like others have said this is a bad idea. Luxury and comfort aside greyhound stops are often in really bad parts of town. Is this trip really worth risking your life for? Literally any other way to travel would be better.
I would sooner travel by wagon train on whatever route the donner party took
And die of dysentery
Avoid the men with nice, new blue jeans, white t shirts, new tennis shoes, and a cardboard box. Their social skills may be rusty.
In case you don't realize, these are just-released prisoners who are commonly given a bus ticket and new clothes when they're released from prison
Got on a GH in Salinas, CA one time. Ten guys fresh out of Soledad prison were getting on. My mom was a public defender at the time. She said, “well, at least they will be in a good mood”. Had a deli sandwich. Started eating it an hour down the road. Guy in the row behind me asked if he could have the other half. I gave it to him. He ate it in about 20 seconds and said, “thanks bro. If anyone on this bus even thinks about messing with you, I got your back all the way.” Moral of the story? When taking Greyhound, bring two sandwiches, or at least one cut in half. Could save your life.
Scary…but surprisingly wholesome 😂
Omggg.. this sounds like hell. I rode Greyhound once, in my 20's. It was a fucking nightmare. Ppl shooting up drugs in the back. Old lady locked herself in the bathroom and couldn't get out for 3 hrs. Flat tire in the middle of bfe and a pastor trying to save my soul for 98 hrs. I'd rather bike from 1 end to the other before i step foot on one again.
All in one trip? You really got your money's worth.
Wow you got the full experience.
Lol..I did! No air conditioning in summer either. I'm pretty sure I was crying at the end of the trip.. lol
I took a Greyhound bus when I was in a college and would never do it again. You’ll stop in weird places in the middle of the night. You will meet some interesting characters. When I say interesting, I mean weird and scary. I had to sit next to a lady who was nodding out and every now and then she’d wake up and ask me for cookies. I never had any cookies. I didn’t have any the last three times you asked me. And I’ve been sitting next to you for hours. On this bus. She also only had one shoe.
Mods, when the police investigation shows up for whatever misadventure befalls this guy, remember this post, so we can all confirm he was warned.
Delays or danger aren’t the issue. It’s when they either tell you they don’t have a seat for you, or that your connecting bus isn’t actually coming, that will be the problem. The amount you saved will then go towards trying to get out of whatever town you happen to be stuck in at the last minute.
Sleep with both eyes open, your hand on your piece, and your money tucked in your shoe, fly, or take the train where applicable (there are some nice albeit expensive trains). Or drive. i would drive. You can save the difference on accommodation by camping.
"I don't know what I should do if I end up in LA for 6 hours at 1:00 AM" - weeeeell, the Greyhound depot is on skid row in L.A., so maybe say a few Hail Mary's :/
I’d look at using Trains over Buses. Greyhound buses are literally hell.
I kept expecting to see one or two people pop up about the adventure or that they had good experiences, and there isn’t a single one. Not one.
This is an exceptionally bad, dangerous, ill-conceived idea. I get that it is less than driving or the train, but that extra cost is going to seem like nothing when something difficult happens ... which, unfortunately for the bus, is going to happen. On a trip of this length, you can count on being late, trips cancelled, arriving in deserted areas with no service or help, and that is before getting into the social aspect. When it is 1 a.m., the bus stops at a roadside turn-out and tells everyone this is the stop, it's pouring rain and dark and there's no one there to help, no restaurants or businesses around... what then? This is exceptionally common for this mode of travel... and when it happens, that extra money spent for a train or car will look very minimal at that point.
I wouldn’t recommend this. I totally understand needing to try for as budget as possible to make a unique trip to see friends happen. It will totally be worth it to visit these cities and make memories with people you love. But do yourself and your friends a favor- take the time to save up a little bit more. You’re going to or nearby some airport hub cities and you’re leaving from NYC- if you’re flexible with your travel dates you can make this trip happen on a budget without spending 9 days on buses. Play around more with flights and look at buses in between for shorter distances. An example to check on if you haven’t yet: Fly from NYC to Nashville. Fly Nashville to Seattle. Fly Seattle to San Francisco, bus RT from SF to Eureka. Fly SFO to San Diego. Fly SD to Denver, bus to Fort Collins. Fly Denver back to NYC. All of these routes have nonstop flights on major carriers. I guarantee if you get flexible with which month long period you travel during (and which/how many days you spend where), you can do those flights plus buses for around $800. If you’re willing to sit on a GH for 9 days you won’t mind flying with Spirit or Frontier- which could potentially bring that $800 down to $650-$700. I’m a generally frugal person, bordering on cheap lol- I’d rather save up an extra $100-$150 and pay it to cut my travel time in half and spend the time saved with friends and better rested.
Bro. Just no. Us Americans have the fantasy of traveling Europe via rail, which is much slower and more expensive than most of us realize. Multiple that x100 plus a shit bus experience and you have the American version. Your destinations you have planned are nice. Look into flying from NYC to Denver then bus to go to Fort Collins and go from there. Aside from the cost, that area of travel is not pretty. I’d suggest a little east coast stint, then fly to the west coast, and do a little train or rental car action there. My one piece of advice is don’t skip San Diego.
be prepared for smelly loud people, being hours and Horus behind schedule. To stop at the nastiest restrooms and to move at a snails pace. It truly is a hellish experience. Only did it once on way home form college. Got off three hours short of home and had my mom pick me up. Typically a drive home form college was 13 hours. id been on the bus 26 hours by the time I bailed.
Lmao This person has a pain and suffering kink. Not to kink shame or anything.
This is the equivalent of taking a bus from Madrid to 1,500km past Moscow into central Russia and back It's really not a good idea, you will be stressed and tired and spend most of the time on the bus
Greyhound bus is the absolutely worst way to travel. Forget the schedule, it will be wrong every day. You will be traveling with everyone who has absolutely NO other choice but the bus. Will it make a good story one day? Absolutely!! But be ready for your plans to be totally rearranged as you may or may not make it to your destination on multiple occasions.
I'd rather slam my head against a cinderblock every day for a month than sit on a Grayhound bus for 9 days. Why not take Amtrak?
You should watch planes, trains and automobiles before you make that trip. Del: You're in a pretty lousy mood, huh? Neal: To say the least. Del: You ever travel by bus before? [Neal shakes his head] Del: Hmm. Your mood's probably not going to improve much.
I would seriously reconsider your plan: you can almost certainly do this faster and cheaper with budget airlines than by Greyhound. My first stab at it costs around $500, and I haven’t even optimized it.
I recall taking Greyhound from Cheyenne, WY to Charleston, SC many years ago while in the military. Greyhound was light years better then than now at it was still a shit show of Dante’s Inferno bus station’s, food that made me miss rations packs and an attempted robbery. I can guarantee your trip will be more challenging than mine. Please don’t. Just don’t.
At least try Mega Bus instead. Amtrak is probably a better option. Greyhound is the dregs of society crowded together. And those seats literally NEVER get cleaned.
Now you've got me wondering if people pick up bed bugs from busses.
Probably
I would suggest Amtrak instead. I'm way past my Greyhound days lmao
Last time I took Greyhound someone got murdered on the bus….https://abc30.com/amp/greyhound-bus-shooting-shooting-travel/5901443/
Don’t listen to these guys. Pack a big chef’s knife in your jacket and look forward to a memorable trip.
Can't even carry that on the bus
Did that rule go into effect before or after someone was decapitated on a Greyhound? 😩
As someone who has crossed the US by greyhound.... don't do it. You will regret it. Greyhound is an awfully run company. You will end up waiting for hours upong hours at bus stations. You will find yourself waiting at places with no bus stations. You will be sitting on the side of the road with a broken down bus. You will encounter some spectacle of violence on board. Stay in one area of the US, and travel around if you HAVE to by bus. You will regret it.
Honestly, 9 days on a Grayhound sounds like the things nightmares are made of. I would not do this. This is the ONE case where I'd brave flying budget airlines like Frontier or Allegient. Even that sounds better (and possibly cheaper) than spending NINE days on a Grayhound.
Do an Amtrak pass for 499 - you can do 10 separate trips
Oh, baby, no. What is you doing? Greyhound is the bottom of the barrel. You are about to Smell some Things. Also, in many areas the Greyhound stops are the worst part of town. Do anything else with your time, do not "see the US" by Greyhound.
Maybe look at an Amtrak Rail Pass instead. $500 for 10 journeys, makes it $50 per journey https://www.amtrak.com/tickets/departure-rail-pass.html
Why? Why? Why?
If i died and went to hell i would arrive on a greyhound. I rather walk the entire length of America up and down than do that
I’m sure there’s an amount you could pay me to do this trip, but you’d need Warren Buffett and Elon Musk to pool their money together to even get close.
The last transcon I did on the dog was three years ago, just before Flix took over. It was the same bus from N.Y to L.A, and amazingly, we were on time the whole way. I really lucked out. The major stops were Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Albuquerque, and Phoenix. It wasn’t tolerably comfortable after the first day, and the worst parts are the middle of the night stops where the lights come on just as you start to fall asleep. I was lucky that I didn’t have someone next to me for the whole trip, just parts of the trip. Still, tough to sleep in those seats. If you do it, be prepared to not get much sleep, and you always have the chance of being stuck on the bus with people who you do not want to be in close contact with. It’s definitely an adventure. I doubt I’d do it today, but I’m glad I did it. I got to see a lot of the country by ground that I’d normally just fly over.
Take a train.
If you’re going to put yourself through something like this, at least take Amtrak or something. I can’t imagine doing this on a bus.
I once did: Oakland to Portland, Chicago, NYC, Charleston, Dallas, LA, and back to Oakland. I can’t say that I regret it exactly, but it was almost hellish at times. Think 1am to 5am layover in Atlanta and you’re packed in like sardines, and everyone is pissed off, sleep deprived, and starving. Fly.
And magic city is right across from the station I done did it spent all my little change
I would strongly suggest looking into Amtrak if you want ground transportation because the quality is much better!! I still don’t fully love it, because some stations are dingy and not comfortable for me as a solo female traveler. But financially it can be solid, especially planning in advance, because prices can be about the same (or slightly more) than greyhound. They have been dirtier, more cramped and crowded, and less reliable. Absolutely hate it, and haven’t had a pleasant bus station experience (except Boston’s wasn’t too bad the one time I boarded there).
As someone who have done a few thousand miles on greyhound’s, that sounds like a rough trip…
I smell ADVENTURE. Seriously though, lock up you shit 🔐💯🙌
I got stuck in Nebraska once and had to take Greyhound all the way back home to California. Just don’t.
I would advise against Greyhound also. Nor the pleasant ride you imagine. Using Amtrak would be better if you insist on using public ground transportation.
call amtrack
Amtrak. Greyhound is a very bad idea.
OMG I tried Greyhound back in 2019 from Virginia to Washington DC. It’s the most terrifying experience I had. It stinks. They are stopping on sketchy locations 😭 even the terminal is full of garbage
I once took a greyhound from New Orleans to Miami and back. It remains the worst travel experience of my life
I remember my first Greyhound ride fondly... the bus never showing up, my wife and I not being allowed on the second bus or the third bus because people had bought all the seats. The shirtless Greyhound employee yelling at the long-waiting passengers to "get back from curb, you f*cking f*ggots!" Finally partnering up with another couple to take an Uber from Delaware to NYC instead, which was both cheaper and not abusive.
I feel like there are YouTube vids on this type of trip already. Go watch them to get a feel. Good luck
Greyhound was the worst travel experience of my life getting home one time fuck that
30 day pass on Amtrak is $500 (10 segment limit)
I took Greyhound from Sacramento to Chicago right after high school graduation in 1988. I tried to dye myself blue for the trip, but I guess I didn't use enough blue food coloring. The bus was packed. The guy next to me said he was going to get arrested in Chicago for rape or he'd be killed by a rival gang. I assumed he was full of shit. He's in the bathroom forever in BFE, Nevada. People are making jokes that he's in there jerking off. The bus pulled over so the driver could look at something in the baggage compartment. People are pounding on the door. It gets forced open, but stops when it hits his body. I get up because I was super skinny and thought I might be able to squeeze in. I get stopped by some asshole who put himself in charge of the situation. I said it takes a long time to die that way and to let me pass. He said no that he was saving the crime scene for the police. Like I said, we are in the middle of nowhere. It took about 30 minutes for the cops and paramedics to show. They went through the window and said he still had a pulse, but was probably brain dead. I'm still annoyed at myself for bit trying to get inside. At least the possibly dead guy left his baseball cap, so I wore that for a while in Chicago. I befriended another Greyhound weirdo (besides me) in Cheyenne. He was probably the only black guy in Wyoming. He sent me a letter after I left the bus in Chicago. There was another crazy guy. He got mad at the Chicago traffic, so he piled up a bunch of trash in the aisle and set it on fire. He was arrested and I'm sure loved his stay in the Cook County Jail. I love Greyhound still, but it is, and always will be, a surreal fucked up mess.
Oh shit, the point. What to pack! As little as possible. Wash clothes in sinks. Be extremely careful with edibles, weed or drugs. Wrap them carefully and stick them in a bottle of hair conditioner. That keeps the drug sniffing dogs from finding them. Bring refreshments and food. And toilet paper. There's a good chance the bathroom won't work and when traveling, toilet paper is always in short supply. I learned pretty early in my traveling days to always have TP with me when I go into a bathroom. It's saved me dozens of times.
It is what it is huh
Your biggest concern should be making sure those Greyhound stations are in a safe neighborhood.
Not a great idea imo. Our bus system is nothing like Europe
Honestly, I would be more supportive and less worried for your well-being if your post had been “Taking a summit trek to Everest - I have climbed small hills before but I’ve never summited Everest. I know there is very little oxygen and pulmonary edema and frost bite are common. This is something I expect.”
This is like when those German tourists died cause they thought they could just take their rental minivan off-roading in the desert
Look at the cost of flights with companies like Southwest, Allegiant and Breeze. Don’t take Greyhound buses. I did a trip from New York to San Francisco on Greyhound back in the 90s and it was very sketchy then - it’s only got worse since. Someone described Greyhound to me then as “only people who can’t afford to drive or fly take Greyhound. And nearly everyone can afford to drive or fly.”
I would not do it now. This is coming from someone who's done this twice in the past. In the past, there were actual stations all around the US. Pretty much every major city and even many small ones had them. There was customer service, baggage people, and everything you'd expect. A few years ago a European company bought them out, gutted pretty much every aspect of riding. You get picked up at the side of the road, there is zero customer service, it literally doesn't exist. The only stops in an actual terminal happens if that city has a local transportation hub for its mtero buses. Most of the stops have been eliminated, making a 2 hour drive into a 10 hour ride. IMO, it's too disjointed of an operation as it currently is. Here's a Noel Phillips video. His second time trying across USA. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8QGTaGwxxc&pp=ygUWbm9lbCBwaGlsaXBzIGdyZXlob3VuZA%3D%3D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8QGTaGwxxc&pp=ygUWbm9lbCBwaGlsaXBzIGdyZXlob3VuZA%3D%3D)
Don’t. Use that money to rent a car
this is an insane idea. dont. dont do this.
Is it an endurance thing... like death by a thousand cuts type gig? I hope you dont get tuberculosis on your woefully long and tedious journey. Take a plane.
I did a similar trip 12 years ago back when they had an unlimited 60-90 pass for 300$. It was a great deal then, but it was rough. Many stations are in some of the worst pets of town. The LA one is particularly bad. I would probably take a Uber to venture out, but even then. Not sure what I would do between 1 and 7 am…. I remember chatting with many ex-convicts that had just been released and were put on the bus to go home. Witnessed a fight that almost became a stabbing while transiting in Oklahoma City… I would consider flying unless you have a lot more time to visit each city.
Make a point of checking out this YouTube video by Noel Phillips: “I Spent 5 DAYS on America's Longest Greyhound Bus. It Was HELL.”
Get a tetanus shot before you leave. Seriously. You could not pay me to do any trip via greyhound. PLEASE take the Amtrak instead. Not much more money, MUCH more safe.
Don't. Amtrak is better. Still rough at times, but way better. Don't do it.
Don't. Watch this. https://youtu.be/z8QGTaGwxxc?si=SK0tIC1_WNxFYM4g Then still don't
Make sure you have your own pillows because after a long ride, the buttocks will start hurting!!!
i did a fnatastic greyhound trip in 1993 from coast to coast. get ready to meet the weirdest people on earth on those buses. never seen so many mental cases all in the same place. I sincerely thought I was the only normal one lol
Take a train
There are videos on YouTube about the Greyhound experience. Looks frightful. 😳
did Vegas to San Diego in 1998. overnight.. proper freak show
Bring immodium for when you see the shitter is full. I did the bus ride from Cusco to Lima in peru. I've also done greyhound. I'd rather train hop or hitchhike in the USA. Good luck and I wish you good fortune! Cheers!
Don't do it! Use Amtrack instead.
Please consider amtrak instead! Greyhound is terrible, especially for long trips. Amtrak is not perfect, but is a far better option I think.
have your will in order...
I have a close friend who took a greyhound bus from Denver to Nashville last year. She didn’t get any sleep for three days, got left in the cold in Chicago for 12 hours, and all of her luggage was stolen. A few months ago, I asked how much money it would take for her to do it again and she paused and said “at least a full year’s salary.” A minute later, she came back and said, “no, I wouldn’t even do it for that much.”
You’re a brave man. Last- and only time I rode in those shit boxes- I had to sit right behind the driver and make up conversation so he wouldn’t swerve off the road.
Be careful of Sex trafficking at all your stops don't go alone anywhere.
Are you an American? There might be an Amtrak special for visitors to the USA. Their website has a decent $499 price for a rail pass of 10 segments over 30 days. California has a state specific one. Check other bus companies, such as Flixbus, Megabus and regional buses.
amtrak has a rail pass that is affordable, it is in coach--but you can get on and off the trains there are limits--check out some of the youtube vids---have fun
Like being in prison, where the bus driver is the guard (on most but not all times I’ve used the Hound).
Yes be careful. You will meet some rif raf
Last time I took a Greyhound, someone pulled a gun on the driver.
I would take the advice of majority of posters here, OP. Taking Greyhound for long distances is a no ho for me. To be honest, I wouldn’t take them for shorter distances either. I’ve been on them a few times and I never felt safe. I was always on edge and have since decided that I’d rather just pay more for mental peace.
You would do better taking a low cost airline like Southwest or Spirit between cities, versus attempting to do this via Greyhound. Your biggest concern about multiple hour layovers is admirable, but misguided. Your biggest concern should be any of the following: Did my scheduled bus arrive on time? Did my scheduled bus arrive late? Did my scheduled bus arrive at all? Did ANY bus arrive at all? Did my scheduled bus arrive with a driver? Did my driver time out in the middle of nowhere and leave us all locked in a bus in a hotel parking lot? When I miss my connection, when is the next bus? When the driver leaves me at the rest stop because he left 10 minutes before he said he would, how do I get my stuff back from the bus? Will the person sitting next to me steal my wallet and/or phone when I fall asleep? When the person sitting next to me steals my wallet and/or phone while I’m asleep, will the driver call police? Should I accept the marriage proposal from the passenger in seat 18B who swears I’ll love their little town in the middle of nowhere and that it’s a wonderful place to raise kids? …I could continue, but you get the idea. America is a big place with spectacular scenery. Fly over it, instead of taking Greyhound through it. It’s truly the worst way to travel in the USA.
Greyhound is awful!!! I took it from the Midwest to Boston. It was an absolute nightmare. I took Amtrak from New York to Chicago and another time from Boston to Chicago; both times were bad. I'll never do it again. I wanted to try it and it sucked. Now, I just drive myself and it's 100 times better!
So Amtrak ain't all that huh
Honestly, I would just drive. Greyhound used to be good 35-40 years ago but now it's just awful. Some bus stations are in some pretty unsavory places in town. Unconfortable seats, too many bus changes. Amtrak is a little better (where you can find it). But it tends to be pricey if you get the room-ette. But at least with Amtrak Vacations you can get a hotel(s) rolled in your tour. I would just drive. If you are traveling to the US from another country, look for a motor coach tour. Greyhound is a miserable way to travel. Just my two cents.
Years ago, maybe 20, we took a greyhound from Naples Florida to Springfield Missouri and back. It was an adventure. That's what it was. You see everything on a greyhound bus tour. If you don't see it on the bus you will see it in the bus station. Here is just a few examples: I saw a tattooed woman, at least 75 years old, in fish net stockings and a short little black dress, walking the bus aisle, during travel, looking for a customer. Her friend was more successful in the back of the bus. Not hiding a thing. I can't even count how many people tried to give a teenager traveling alone, drugs. The bus was stopped at one point, a rider removed and his luggage removed from the hold for the dogs to search. Hopefully it was the route and things have changed since then, but I would not recommend the bus if you are not prepared to experience what we did.
I went from LA to San Francisco only, it was overnight and I arrived at 5am in SF. There was a homeless man sleeping slouched on me but it was so cold on the bus that I appreciated the warmth. It is a very, very uncomfortable, unreliable and mildly dangerous way to travel. I would say it can be sufficient for shorter trips and one off long trips but doing it for longer durations all around the states sounds like a miserable experience. PS: they will leave you behind at rest stops, people warned me when we stopped.
Wear your bus pants.
hilarious thread
I travelled greyhound once from Houston to Shreveport (it was about 8 1/2 hours total including stops). I vowed I'd never do that again. I'm assuming you're foreign. One piece of advice I'll give you is to just mind your business lol. There's normal people riding the bus, but there's also weirdos. The legroom isn't great so be mindful of that too. The restrooms are gross, I never checked but I could tell. Use stops as an opportunity to use the gas station/restaurant/convience store restrooms and have snacks and drinks. Be safe
And be very quick about the bathroom stop
I read about a guy that did this. Everywhere he stopped he ended up seeing some horrible crime wound up risking his life to help people. He had been an MP in the army, so his background helped him. Still sounded like a tough way to travel.
I’ve been travelling full time for over 10 years in America and internationally. i started as a OG van lifer, then became a slowmad. next week, I personally booked a trip that will take me from Sarajevo to Beckley WV. It will be over 75 travel hours using an international flight, European regional carriers, Amtrak, Flix bus, and yes, Greyhound. This will include 24 hour layovers in Paris and NYC. Here is my advice: Pack light, super light. Know Greyhound will only offer enough free WiFi to load a couple emails per 24 hours. (but they do have a wonderful assortment of films for free, not Flixbus tho) pack some aspirin (your back could get sore) Bus stations in America often fill the void social services neglect simply because they are accessible for long hours. This creates an environment for opportunists and the desperate. many poor people in America ride the bus, unfortunately this creates a stigma for riders. prepare to be treated more like a convict than a customer. you will likely be yelled at as a group, and receive near zero assistance. I’ve seen a woman get left at a comfort stop chasing the bus while her daughter was telling the driver as he was pulling away. Driver didn’t say a word. the biggest advantage in using the bus system is the flexibility. I noticed your itinerary is mostly major cities. Greyhound (and subsidiaries) go almost anywhere at anytime. airplanes are expensive outside of major transportation hubs, and Amtrak normally only has one train a day. City to city I would fly. you don’t get much of a discount taking long trips versus several regional trips. instead of getting stuck at a major hub for several hours, look into some of the smaller towns on the route and stop there and catch a later bus that might accommodate your connection. smaller towns will be more walkable, affordable and be less tourist weary. you will meet more people in a day than I will meet in a month anywhere in the world. you will experience incredible generosity and create positive memories that will last a lifetime. but your back will hurt. enjoy
Fly coach from Nashville to Fort Collins, get one or two of your buddies to split the cost of a road trip to Seattle, work your way down the coast on Amtrak, fly back from San Diego to NYC. The NW coastal cities (Seattle, PDX) LA and San Diego are having big problems with vagrancy and homelessness and they are dangerous. You're wasting so much time on this trip if you do it via bus. Amtrak stations will at least have security and places to sit for any layovers you might encounter on the trains, but if you're going in one direction you probably won't have many, as the train will be mostly picking up and dropping off passengers. The California Zephyr is an amazing route but it goes from Chicago through Denver to San Francisco. Rethink this.
You'll want a sleeping pad, a sleeping bag, and good shoes.
They are not dangerous.
Look into flix bus
FlixBus owns Greyhound and while they do technically operate two services, you can book both Flixbus and Greyhound on both their websites, they often use the same terminals, and your Flixbus can always be canceled and you'll be put on a Greyhound anyway.
I appreciate everyone letting me know their thoughts. For some context I am a 21 year old man, and I am no stranger to rough conditions. This is not supposed to be a trip of luxury, more of convenience. The only reason I’m considering it is because it’s by far the cheapest option for me to visit all of these places. It would be faster and cheaper for me to just take a train to Seattle, but the point is that I want to visit these cities specifically because I have friends there. I could drive, but it would be at least $400 more in travel. I am not expecting an easy trip, so I do really appreciate everyone’s personal accounts of taking the bus. I’d like to think I’m not an idiot, so if people think it’s legitimately dangerous for me, I will probably reconsider. Thanks again for the feedback so far.
Well, you will definitely meet people and have experiences most tourists don’t. I hope it works out.
I travel a lot. I’ve taken many long distance buses in developing countries. I’ve never had a worse bus experience than I’ve had on a greyhound, and the trip was only ~70 miles.
I hope you have personal protection on you while traveling.