I can either book a direct 3 hour flight or take a 36 hour bus trip across 1K miles changing buses 2 times in 2 different non English speaking countries but in big cities, so I assume young people and public facing employees at the bus exchanges to speak some of it…
I’d have to wait between 3 and 5 hours to board the next bus. Optimist me says great! I could go sightseeing, but with a large and heavy backpack this might not be a good idea…
Then there’s food, which at bus stations or in tourists areas is neither good nor cheap no matter where you are, personal hygiene, pickpocketing… I’d be traveling solo.
And more noob questions: are travelers allowed to eat in the bus? Am I allowed to bring my own food?
I’ve read the post again and this looks like a really stupid idea… but did you ever do something like this? Any regrets?
No. I took a bus from NYC back to California and it fucking suuuuuucked! Take a train or a plane instead.
Trains are also pretty miserable for long distance trips. We took an Amtrak from Chicago to LA once for a family vacation a long time ago. It was so miserable that we flew back.
Got to see a lot of the country, though! I’d like to imagine that trains have gotten more comfortable in the last 20 years, but the realist in me very much doubts that, so I probably won’t be doing any long train rides again any time soon.
I don’t know about Amtrak, but America is infamous for it’s bad train situation. I know ICE in Europe is very decent, luxurious even.