Founded in 2013 by three young entrepreneurs in Germany, Flixbus is a low-cost bus service (“coach” in Europe), whose initial mission was to provide a “reliable and green alternative” to carpooling and the Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s train system. However, the business quickly took off. In 2015, Flixbus expanded into the international market. Then in 2018, Flixbus acquired Megabus to add even more routes than ever before. Today, Flixbus travels to more than 2,000 destinations, offering more than 300,000 daily connections Europe-wide.

And prices are cheap: in some cases, less than €10 one way. The buses offer comfy seats, free Wi-Fi with plugs for your devices and an on-board bathroom. Although in most cases Flixbus doesn’t make any unnecessary stops, you can buy low-priced snacks and drinks on the bus.

The bus service also offers eco-conscious travelers the chance to help compensate for their carbon footprint. To help offset their individual CO2 emissions, travelers can opt to add 1-3% on top of their ticket price, which Flixbus donates to an internationally certified climate project.

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Tips for riding (and saving on) Flixbus

Below we’ve gathered some tips for hitching a ride on Flixbus, as well as some ideas on how to save.

1. Book your ticket as early as possible

You can book Flixbus tickets about four to six weeks before your departure date. To do so, visit Flixbus’s website or download their app.

Important: Prices go up the closer you get to the travel date, so to secure the best deals, we recommend booking as far in advance as possible. For most destinations, you have a wide range of options for departure times, and some long-distance journeys also offer a night bus where you can snooze as you go.

Related: Germany’s discount bus craze: How to score a €1 fare

2. Cancel or change your ticket through their website

If you need to make any changes or cancellations, it’s generally not a problem. Just go to Flixbus’s “change/cancel booking” section on their app or website and make the changes up to 15 minutes before departure. A cancellation fee of €1 will be charged per passenger and trip. And if you book a new trip with a higher ticket price, you will have to pay the difference.

Arrive at least 15 minutes early for a ride on Flixbus. Photo: MP

3. Board the bus with the right docs

On the day of your trip, Flixbus recommends you arrive at the designated station 15 minutes before departure. To board the bus, you need to show either a printed version or QR code of your booking confirmation. If your trip takes you across country borders, be sure you have all relevant documents with you, such as your passport or visa, as needed.

4. “Open Tickets” can save the day

If your bus is delayed or the trip has been canceled, don’t despair. It still may be possible to travel to your destination on an “Open Ticket.” All you need to do is hand your booking confirmation to another bus driver headed to your destination. Once you have done so, they will scan your ticket and re-book you if a free seat is available.

Please note there is no guarantee here. If no seats are available on the other bus or too many passengers wish to re-book, you might not get a spot. The Open Ticket can also only be used for direct connections, not trips where you’re required to transfer at another location.

5. Know the baggage policy

As far as baggage goes, for each bus ride, you are allowed one small carry-on and two pieces of luggage marked with your name and address. The carry-on should contain all your valuables and be no larger than 16.5 x 12 x 7 inches and weigh no more than 15 pounds. Normal luggage should be no larger than 26 x19.5 x 10.5 inches and each passenger is limited to 66 pounds of luggage in total.

Extra luggage: If you need to book extra luggage, you can do so for a fee of €5, provided you contact customer service at least 48 hours in advance and the bag weighs no more than 33 pounds.

Please note this does not include on-board baggage, which is always limited to one carry on. If you need to bring bulky baggage, such as ski equipment, musical instruments or bicycles, you can do so for an added fee of €9. Again, to arrange this, you need to get in touch with customer service at least 48 hours in advance. Learn more about the baggage policies on the Flixbus website.

6. Save even more with group discounts

If you’re traveling with others, Flixbus offers a group discount on their regular service for groups between 3 to 40 people. You can add on the group discount during the booking process as long as you book at least one day in advance. If you’d like a bit more flexibility or wish to travel in a group to destinations not normally covered by Flixbus’s normal schedule, it is possible to charter your own bus at charter.flixbus.com.

7. Riding with kids or limited mobility travelers

Children and minors (15 and under) travel at a reduced ticket price. If you’re traveling with a child aged three and under, you must bring a car seat along which can be secured by a two-point seatbelt provided on the bus. Children and minors between 10 and 14 can travel alone if they have written permission from a legal guardian, and as long as they do not cross any international borders. Adolescents 15 and above are free to travel alone with Flixbus, but be sure they have all necessary documents if they’re crossing into different countries.

To arrange travel for passengers with disabilities or limited mobility, contact Flixbus customer service two weeks at the earliest or seven days at the latest before the date of the trip.

A few last-minute notes about Flixbus

Although Flixbus is definitely an amazing travel option for travelers on a shoestring budget, the company has seen its share of controversy. The media has occasionally covered stories of Flixbus’s “unfillable contracts with sub-contractors” which has led to both “excessive working hours for drivers and low salaries.” However, official inspections have appeared to disproved this claim, demonstrating that the working conditions are better than previously assumed.

But recently there has been speculation that Flixbus’s rock bottom prices might soon be a thing of the past. When Flixbus acquired Postbus in 2016, they gained around 80% of the German long-distance bus market, creating more or less a monopoly, which the media has criticized. Because they now have far less competition, Flixbus’s prices could well go up in the future. Our advice? Book now and enjoy the cheapest deals while they last.

Looking for more ways to travel for cheap in Europe? Use CheapoSearch to find affordable flights and car rentals.

Your tips for riding Flixbus

Have you taken a ride on a Flixbus? Tell us about your experience and share your tips for a smooth ride in our comments section below, and thanks!

The post Riding Flixbus: Tips for riding Europe’s largest budget bus service appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Since the 2013 liberalization of a law preventing most long-distance bus service in Germany, the market for Greyhound-style travel around the country has been booming. Steep competition between new carriers has led to low fares on some routes starting at just €1 as well as a rapid expansion of service to both nationwide and international destinations. Much like the low-cost carrier boom a decade earlier, the uncertainty of the fresh bus market meant lots of cheap travel opportunities and exciting experimentation as these young companies attempted to maximize their profitability and market share.

At the beginning of 2015, the merger of FliXBus and MeinFernbus was announced. Together, these two companies carry 75% of Germany’s long-distance bus passengers. Their merger won’t be complete until August, but it offers both benefits and potential costs to travelers. Let’s have a closer look at what this merger could mean for this travel market.

Same service, more regular scheduling

While the two companies are still in the process of sorting out their overlapping schedules and destination maps, one of their top priorities is to eliminate simultaneous or close departures to the same destination. They have stated publicly that their intention in such cases is not to decrease the number of services to these destinations, but rather to spread them out to offer more regular service on the same routes.

Using a hypothetical example, if there were once FliXBus services between Berlin and Hamburg leaving at 9 and 10 am and MeinFernBus departures leaving at 9:15 am and 11 am, the new company would attempt to offer half-hourly service with the same buses at, say, 9, 9:30, 10, and 10:30 am. This gives the consumer more choice, reliability, and flexibility when it comes to selecting travel times.

More stable (read: higher) prices

At the same time, however, we can also predict that decreased competition between these two companies will result in fewer low-price seats, especially at popular times. Where once (like in the above example) there were two bus companies within 15 minutes of each other vying for passengers with cheap tickets, there will now only be one bus for the merged company to fill.

Price-sensitive passengers may be able to adjust their travel to less-popular times in order to score lower-cost seats, but those who are unable to pick a different departure time will more often find themselves paying a rate close to the “full price” of the ticket – often double or three times the advertised discount price. This upward price pressure will compound if the remaining 25% of the bus market has difficulty holding their share in the face of one behemoth competitor.

Tighter network, more international destinations

Having quickly captured the overwhelming majority of the domestic bus market, these merged companies have the potential to do two things that will be great for bus riders. The first is the opportunity to differentiate their overlapped regular services slightly in order to reach an even greater number of destinations across the country. If we consider again the route Berlin-Hamburg, perhaps every four hours the bus detours from the direct route to also pick up and drop off passengers in Schwerin. Similar tweaks could fill out the map across the rest of Germany, bringing even more travelers into the bus fold and deepening the existing network substantially.

Second, the increased economy of merger means that resources will be freed up to expand its routes further outward, offering additional overnight and international bus routes, thereby expanding low-cost travel opportunities and improving competition (even with train companies) in bordering countries as well.

We’ll keep you posted on the further effects on low-cost bus travel as FliXBus and MeinFernBus finalize the details of their merger over the coming months. In the meantime, grab those cheap €1 euro fares while you can and let us know your thoughts!

The post Bus company mergers in Germany: What does it mean for budget travelers? appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Transit time from Berlin to Kraków (or vice versa) is 8 hrs 14 mins. This is faster than any rail connection between the two cities — and since the last remaining direct train was axed last December, the bus has the advantage of not requiring an en route change.

Bus versus train

Whether one wants to spend eight hours on a bus, even one with all mod cons like the IC Bus, is a good question. We’ve never been inclined to rush, so we would most likely still opt for the train, even if it does involve a change and take an hour or more longer.

The fact that the bus beats the train is less a comment on the niftiness of the bus than a reflection of how woefully slow the cross-border trains are. In the 1930s, the fastest trains sped from Berlin to Wroclaw in less than three hours. Now they take almost twice that time.

Train tickets for the bus

The new bus link is fully integrated into the DB ticketing system. So the great-value “Europa-Spezial Polen” fare can be used to book a through journey from anywhere on the DB system to Kraków, allowing travel to Berlin by ICE train to connect there with the bus to Poland.

Tickets go on sale three months in advance, with one-way fares from principal German cities (including Frankfurt, Cologne and Hamburg) to Kraków starting at €39.

If all you are looking to do is ride the bus from Berlin (with no connecting train to Berlin), then look to pay €29 one way — provided of course you book in advance. If you hold a DB BahnCard 25, then you’ll get 25% off all fares on cross-border journeys on the new IC Bus.

First IC Bus within Germany

Also in April, DB launched a domestic bus service between Munich and Freiburg im Breisgau. This is a key link between Bavaria and the Upper Rhine Valley and connects two cities where the rail journey would be circuitous. It can certainly be handled by train, but you’ll always have to change on the way, usually at Mannheim or Karlsruhe.

The new IC Bus is no faster than the train, but it wins out on convenience. It is direct. And it can be very much cheaper. One-way fares start at €19 (with a discount for BahnCard holders). There are six journeys a day. The transit time is 4 hrs 35 mins.

More routes to come

The DB website suggests more routes will be launched in the future. IC Bus looks like a brand that’s set to grow.

DB already has two other bus routes linking Nuremberg and Munich with Prague in the Czech Republic. These were launched to compensate for the relatively poor cross-border rail connections between Bavaria and neighboring Bohemia. It will be interesting to see whether these two routes are in time assimilated into the new IC Bus brand.

The post Deutsche Bahn’s new bus service connects Berlin with Krakow from €29 appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

In recent months, budget coach operators have been edging into the cross-Channel market, providing deeply discounted fares for travel between London and the near continent. And no doubt giving established operator Eurolines cause for thought.

Megabus connections

Megabus’ garish yellow-and-blue coaches (shades of Ryanair in their choice of livery) started running from London to four continental destinations last spring—a big step for a company that has hitherto focused on its extensive UK network.

The budget company offers now two routes across the Channel: London to Paris with an en-route stop in Boulogne, and London to Amsterdam with a stop in Brussels. Checking for travel dates in January 2013, we found fares from London on both Megabus routes to the continent from just four pounds (about €5) one-way. A real travel bargain.

An iDBUS in London. Photo: Eastleighbusman

iDBUS crosses the Channel

iDBUS launched in July this year. The long-distance coach operator is a wholly owned subsidiary of French rail giant SNCF. iDBUS based its first hub in Lille and last month opened a second base in Lyon.

iDBUS’ debut routes linked Lille with Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and London, but the company has expanded rapidly.

iDBUS departures from London

From London, for example, iDBUS now offer nine departures a day to France. There are seven coaches each day from London to Paris, with four of those services making an en-route stop in Lille. That’s only a short hop from the autoroute, so the Lille stop just adds an extra 25 minutes on to the London to Paris travel time (upping it from 8h 35m for the non-stop services to nine hours for those which make the short detour into Lille).

The two other departures from London each day run to Lyon, each stopping along the way at Charles de Gaulle Airport (which is located just off the autoroute northeast of the French capital). London to CDG takes eight hours, while London to Lyon takes 16h 30m.

Slow but cheap

Compared to the train, iDBUS is slow, slow, slow. London to Paris on Eurostar typically takes just 2hrs 20mins, and Eurostar’s direct London to Lyon service (which launches on May 4) will link the two cities in well under five hours.

So on both the Paris and Lyon routes the bus takes more than thrice as long as the train. But with one-way fares from London to Lille and Lyon of just £9 and £29 respectively, iDBUS makes a pitch to budget travelers who might otherwise just stay at home. These fares are very much cheaper than the best offers by rail.

London to Italy by coach

Last month, iDBUS added new services from Lyon to Italy to its network. Although they are not yet advertising through fares from London to Milan (via their Lyon hub), those with a real appetite for long-distance coach travel can now create budget itineraries from London to Italy.

The post Discount Coach Routes: London to France and beyond appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

The Berlin dispensation

The grip of the Bahn has generally militated against the development of coach services in Germany — despite the country having an excellent network of highways. There are one or two exceptions. More relaxed rules have applied on routings to and from Berlin, a legacy of the Cold War period when West Berlin was an isolated fragment of territory (occupied by the United States and its allies) in the heart of East Germany.

Particularly since the unification of Germany in 1990, a consortium of coach operators (running road services with the blessing of the railways under the Berlin Linien Bus banner) has linked Berlin with cities in western Germany, compensating for what were — particularly in the early days after unification — poor rail services from the principal West German cities to Berlin.

New markets, new players

Yes, you get the drift. The German Railways have effective stifled competition by long-distance coach services. That changes at the end of this year. A number of non-German operators are eyeing up the inner-German market. Britain’s National Express is a player to watch. French transport conglomerate Veolia Transdev is also said to be interested.

Return of the Postbus and international operators

There will surely be some German operators, too. The Deutsche Post is edging into an alliance with ADAC (an unlikely partner, some might say, as it is a membership organization that promotes the interests of automobile owners) to launch coach services on German highways. It seems that the return of the postbus is nigh.

Among the other home-grown talent are Deinbus, MeinFernbus and Flixbus. All are young companies poised to catch a share of this new market.

The change in law will also greatly benefit the many international operators who run ultra-long distance coach services across Germany, but who are presently precluded from taking any inner-German traffic. Their services are currently only available to passengers making international journeys.

Changing attitudes

Many Germans find it hard to get their heads round the idea that anyone might actually want to take a long-distance coach rather than a train. Were they to look to their European neighbors, they would find many countries where road and rail compete or offer complementary services in the long-distance domestic market. England is one such, where the National Express network not only links major cities, but really comes in handy for certain cross-country journeys where there may be no competing direct rail service.

Learning from the East

For a few lessons on road-rail competition, Germans might look over their eastern border to neighboring Poland, where PolskiBus aggressively set out to capture a slice of the domestic leisure travel market, often undercutting the journey time on parallel rail routes. In practice, they have also picked up a loyal following among business travelers too.

Further east in the Baltic States, coaches trump trains as the first choice option on most domestic routes and also for international hops between the Baltic capitals. Regular buses run non-stop from Riga to Tallinn in less than five hours. The once-daily rail connection between the two cities takes more than eight hours, and travelers must change from a Latvian to an Estonian train at the border.

Following the Irish lead

In many peripheral areas of Europe where rail networks are sparse, the coach has long been the preferred means of transport. Comfortable Bus Éireann coaches speed from Sligo to Galway in just 2hrs 45mins. In theory, one might take the train, but it involves a long detour via Dublin and a journey time of over six hours.

New links

Now German travelers will be able to discover that coach transport can be fast, comfortable and safe. Würzburg and Heidelberg are just 90 miles apart. But the fastest train connections between the two cities take well over two hours. A new network of domestic coach services will help plug the gaps in the German rail network.

Liberalization, of the kind that Germans are about to witness, has already transformed coach travel in many parts of Europe. Next week, in our last article for EuroCheapo in 2012, we shall look at a bright new crop of entrepreneurial coach operators providing budget travel between London and the near-Continent.

The post Coach Travel: A revolution on German highways appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

But for bus fiends, devotees of road transport who feel inclined to coach the highways of Europe, most rail passes are of little help (although some locally sold passes, such as the Explore Wales pass, do usefully combine road and rail transport).

Easy connections by road

But if trains are not your thing, or you just fancy trying something different why not opt for a pass to explore the Eurolines coach network?

If you don’t know about Eurolines, check out our article earlier this month which gave a few key facts on why coach travel can be a credible alternative to taking the train on many European journeys.

From €175 for 15 days

Current pass prices start at €175 for 15 days of unlimited low-season travel between major cities in two dozen countries across the Eurolines network. That fare holds for anyone aged under 26. For older travelers, the fare for the same 15-day pass edges up to €205. 30-day passes are also available, with the current adult pass costing €310. All passes carry premium prices during high season.

Critics of the Eurolines pass have often argued that the scheme emphasizes larger cities at the expense of smaller places (although Eurolines’ dense network really does serve many out-of-the-way spots). The Eurolines consortium responded in 2011 by adding in a few secondary cities to the pass scheme. These newcomers include Rennes, Tours, Dijon, Nancy, Alicante and Kaunas.

From Ireland to the Baltic States

Once you have your pass, you can roam at will between cities included in the scheme. The geographical coverage is impressive, extending from Dublin and Edinburgh to Rome and Bucharest. Of course, you will need to change coaches on many long journeys.

Eurolines services are intended mainly for international journeys, but there are some domestic hops that can be booked by pass holders. Barcelona to Madrid is one, and Edinburgh to London another (though Catalonian and Scottish nationalists might well argue that both journeys are international in spirit).

Reserve seats in advance

Eurolines offers a hassle-free way of exploring principal cities across Europe in comfort, but a little advance planning pays off. All seats can be reserved, and on popular routes the coach can be full. So Eurolines strongly advise that travelers reserve each leg a few days in advance. Any specific sector can only be ridden twice during the validity of a pass.

You will find a wealth of further information, all very impressively ordered, at www.eurolines-pass.eu and www.eurolines.com/eurolines-pass/.

Rail pass options

Interested in seeing a full list of rail pass options? Visit our booking partner, Rail Europe, to compare rates, destinations covered and see their latest promotions.

The post Eurolines Coach Passes: Are they right for your trip? appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

The Eurolines network

The most convenient network of services for travelers looking to travel around Europe by coach is coordinated by Eurolines. This is not one company but a strong alliance of coach operators who coordinates their timetables and provide integrated ticketing for international journeys across Europe. This gives a continent-wide brand for marketing purposes and allows passengers to plan complicated itineraries that criss-cross Europe.

There are of course many long distance coach services in Europe that are not part of the Eurolines network. For example the Czech company Student Agency runs some two dozen routes from their hub in Prague. PolskiBus has a network of eight routes from Warsaw, the fledglng company’s growing network now also serving Vienna, Berlin, Bratislava and Prague. There are many itineraries where these non-Eurolines operators precisely fill a gap, but for its Europe-wide reach to over 500 cities, Eurolines has no serious rival.

Useful long-distance links

Eurolines does offer some intriguingly long routes. For example, service 350 operates thrice weekly direct from Amsterdam to Lisbon (“Lisboa” in Portuguese), a 36-hour journey that connects two cities some 1,500 miles apart. Even longer direct routes link cities in western Germany with provincial centers in the Russian Federation.

Good for shorter hops too

The Eurolines network thus often steps in with a convenient direct link on a routing that would require several changes of train. With Eurolines, you can board a bus in Switzerland and travel directly to Macedonia or Moldova.

But such long hauls may not be for everyone. And we find that Eurolines-affiliated services are also perfect for shorter hops, particularly in those parts of Europe where rail services are sparse. For example, comfortable long-distance coaches, most of them operating under the Eurolines umbrella, are far better than trains for journeys between the capitals of the Baltic States: Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius.

And there are times where it is just fun to travel by road for a change. There are several Eurolines coaches each day from London to Paris and other French cities. While most Eurolines schedules from London to France use the Eurotunel vehicle shuttle service, some are routed via the P&O Ferries link from Dover to Calais – always a great way to cross the Channel. And with return fares for the London to Paris run starting at just £39, the coach option can make good sense for budget travelers.

Book online

Bookings can be made online for most journeys, usually on the website of the Eurolines affiliate in your country of departure. But that does NOT mean that you need to know which particular company flies the Eurolines flag in each country. The organization maintains an excellent web portal, where you can click on the country of departure to be redirected to the relevant national site.

Here are some sample travel times (with the travel time of the fastest direct train shown for comparison):

• Brussels to Zürich: 9h 45m by Eurolines (train 8h 19m)
• Berlin to Prague: 4h 30m by Eurolines (train 4h 30m)
• Zagreb to Munich: 8h by Eurolines (train 8h 25m)
• Copenhagen to Stockholm: 9h 45m by Eurolines (train 4h 20m)
• Paris to Amsterdam: 8h by Eurolines (train 3h 19m)
• Vienna to Budapest: 2h 55m by Eurolines (train 2h 55m)

National partners

Although Eurolines coach services are principally intended for international journeys, in many countries you can also use Eurolines services for domestic journeys that cross no international borders. And many of the participating companies in the Eurolines family also have comprehensive national networks which allow you to switch seamlessly from international to national services.

For example the UK participant in Eurolines is National Express. And you can use the National Express website to book a through journey from many provincial spots around Britain to the continent. A single ticket (for example Manchester to Paris) covers travel on a National Express coach to London where you connect onto an onward Eurolines service for the continent.

More on Eurolines

Now that we’ve introduced Eurolines coach journeys, it’s time to take a little closer at their fares. Read our next post on Eurolines passes, with some tips on getting the best deals, and see how a coach pass can allow you to roam at will across Europe on Eurolines services.

Rail pass options

Interested in seeing a full list of rail pass options? Visit our booking partner, Rail Europe, to compare rates, destinations covered and see their latest promotions.

The post Eurolines: International coach journeys in Europe appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Several coaches each day speed from Riga to Tallinn in less than five hours. Just once a day there is the option of doing the journey by train. You change trains at the Estonia / Latvia border and the whole rail journey takes over eight hours. You can see why coaches have cornered the market in traffic between the two Baltic capitals.

“Bus” versus “coach”

Yet we stumble already. Bus or coach? In American English, the word “bus” tends to prevail and may refer to any form of public transport by road, be it a short ride through New York City or a coast-to-coast marathon with Greyhound Lines.

Things are a little different in European English. A “bus route” is essentially a local service, geared to local traffic. You cannot normally reserve seats in advance. A “coach service,” by contrast, is usually a longer-distance service, often one where advance booking is recommended (even if often not absolutely necessary) and usually operated by a vehicle that has more comfortable seating than you would find on a local bus service.

Buses stop often, express coaches less so

Buses stop frequently: usually at every bus stop along their route. But coaches stop infrequently, often only once in any particular city and then more commonly at the central coach station (or near the train station). Note that in some European cities the “central coach station” may not be particularly central.

This distinction between buses and coaches (as defined above) must be something in English genes. When an Englishman says “I took the Oxford to Cambridge bus” he means he took the X5 Stagecoach which is not a whole lot faster than the horse-drawn carriages that once plied between the two university cities. Okay, slightly faster, but the X5 still takes 3 hours 20 minutes for the 80-mile ride.

And he means a bus, not a coach, even though the vehicles used by Stagecoach on their X5 service are pretty comfortable single-deckers with leather seats, free Wi-Fi and air conditioning. This is luxury stuff for what is essentially a limited-stop local bus service, albeit one that plies a longish route – and, a little improbably for a “bus,” it does not actually stop at every stop along the way. So, yes, the X5 is a little unusual. It’s frequent (half-hourly, every day of the week), you don’t need to pre-book, but it has coach-like qualities with its propensity to skip stops.

Linguistic subtleties

Shift to other European languages and the fine distinction made by Brits between bus and coach may not be sustained. Germans refer to a bus to allude to the short ride to the shops or the 24-hour journey from the Rhineland to a Mediterranean sunspot.

Horses for courses

Local bus services come into their own for shortish journeys within cities or into the rural hinterland of a city. They serve small villages and rural areas that are often well beyond the nerve ends of the rail network. Many routes are done and dusted in just an hour or two. That Oxford to Cambridge run is unusually long for a bus service.

Many buses are short on creature comforts. Don’t hop on a London omnibus and ask the way to the rest room. There isn’t one. Yet these local bus services fill a niche in the market, and there is even a new travel guide for Britain that celebrates the merits of such local journeys. (Yes, yes, we have to come clean here and admit that we edited the book. It is published by Bradt Travel Guides).

By contrast, long-distance coaches can be very comfortable indeed. Reclining seats are the norm. Some offer the chance to buy coffee or snacks. On some premium services, such as the new Eurolines Business Class network, you’ll find a level of comfort that begins to match first class on a train. But of course you just don’t have quite the chance to move around. That’s the big plus of rail.

We shall return to the question of long-distance coach travel in Europe in further posts over the winter. Sometimes it’s a credible alternative to rail travel and it is often great value. In the next post on this theme (in December), we’ll look at those areas of Europe where canny travelers know that the express coach is the top choice.

The post Bus and Coach Travel in Europe: Understanding the difference appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

What is it?

Busabout operates a “hop on hop off” bus line that shuttles young and indie travelers along “loops” of major European cities. You purchase a loop pass (for $639) and are bused about from one city to the next — usually about 12 cities per loop.

You can get off at any of these cities and stay as long as you like, and then hop on the next bus that passes through town. (A bus passes through all 30 cities every other day from May 4 through October 30.) You can book each of these stops in advance through their website to ensure that you’ll have a seat on the bus.

For example:

The “Western Loop” takes you along the following path: Paris – Bern – Nice – Avignon – Barcelona – Valencia – Madrid – San Sebastian – Bordeaux – Tours, and back to Paris.

The “Northern Loop” hits Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, and Munich (among other cities).

The “Southern Loop” buses from Munich, through the Alps to Venice, Rome, Florence, Nice and more.

How much does it cost?

A Busabout single loop costs $639, and allows you to travel at your own pace from one city to the next. The more loops you buy, the cheaper the pass becomes. Two loops costs $1069, while three will set you back $1319. (We can’t quite imagine what state we’d be in after three loops, but maybe that’s just us.)

Another option is the “Flexipass” that allows riders to ride between destinations already covered by any loop. The pass costs $549 and each “hop” costs $59.

Who is it for?

Busabout really pushes the “backpacker angle” on their website, reaching out to young, student, and independent travelers looking to have a good time and meet like-minded travelers. This, of course, is not everyone. But the “big blue buses,” as they refer to them, are ideal for meeting others for exploring (and partying) in the next city on the loop.

Single travelers, the company notes on their site, are especially welcome, and “Many people start traveling on their own on Busabout and very soon have a group of friends to travel with.”

First-time travelers to Europe, in particular, may appreciate the loop structure, as being bused from one big city to the next without any choice over destination certainly “simplifies” the planning process!

Who is it not for?

Truly independent travelers who just want to get from point A to point B would not want to mess with Busabout, its fun philosophy, or its loopy schedules. If you simply want to get from one city to the next, you’d be better off taking a national bus line or booking a seat on the Eurolines bus service.

Eurolines, in fact, offers its own bus passes, providing unlimited trips over the course of a 15 or 30 day period.

Rates are generally cheaper than Busabout and vary depending on age and travel season. A 30-day unlimited adult pass during the summer costs €439 ($649 US) and doesn’t force you to follow a pre-determined loop.

But then again, on Eurolines, your chances for finding the right party are greatly diminished.

The post Backpacker Tip: Consider a “Busabout” adventure this summer appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.