Megabus discontinue their Phoenix and Tempe to Los Angeles service
January 7th, 2008 by Tim Uden
It’s the end of cheap LA to Phoenix bus fares. As of today, Megabus will no longer be operating the Los Angeles to Tempe and Phoenix bus route.
Aparently not enough people travelled on this route to make it viable for Megabus. I would have expected it to be quite popular. With fares starting at $1.50 for the seven-hour bus ride it was a great deal. However the Phoenix/Tempe area isn’t such a popular travel destination and the bus isn’t the most popular way to travel in the Southwest USA.
50% off Greyhound Australia’s west coast fares
December 18th, 2007 by Tim Uden
Competition among buses, trains and airlines on Australia’s east coast has meant that this has always been a much cheaper place to travel than the west coast. However Greyhound Australia have a special running until 31 March 2008 that gives you a 50% discount off bus fares between Perth and Darwin.
There are a few conditions: you can’t have any further discounts (ie. no HI/YHA discount); there are no refunds or changes permitted and the special isn’t available on shuttle services connecting the main west coast (Perth-Darwin) route to Kalbarri, Monkey Mia, Coral Bay or Exmouth.
Naked Bus - the Ryanair of New Zealand bus companies
December 7th, 2007 by Tim Uden
Naked Bus is a year-old bus operator with a nationwide network of bus services to most destinations in New Zealand. What makes Naked Bus a good deal is that they - like Megabus in the UK and USA - operate with a yield-management pricing system just like budget airlines such as easyJet and Ryanair. So basically you can ride the bus around New Zealand with prices starting at $1 per trip (plus a 75c booking fee) as long as you book far enough in advance. Although booking everything so far in advance can kill the spontanious carefree spirit of independent travel, the cost savings make it a real bargain.
I rode the Naked Bus from Christchurch to Blenheim (about a six-hour trip) and overall it was a good experience and I would certainly consider travelling with Naked Bus again. It was just a crappy old minibus, but newer full-size coaches operate on many routes. I paid $24 for the trip, but there were $1 fares available if I wanted to take a bus later in the day, although I was on a tight schedule so I paid extra to leave on the early bus.
One very long bus ride
September 15th, 2007 by Tim Uden
Today the first Oz-Bus service departed from London en route to Sydney.
It’s not exactly cheap at GBP £3750 London-Sydney or AUD $9000 Sydney-London, but you do get to travel through some amazing places for 12 weeks and accommodation is included. I am sure it will be a fantastic trip and an experience of a lifetime.
Oz-Bus claim to be the first London-Sydney regular bus service but let’s set one thing straight; this is not a scheduled bus service. It’s a tour! Accommodation is provided in tents en route and in Iran and Pakistan you are provided accommodation in hotels. It’s not a service for independent travellers because there is nothing independent about being told where to go and where to stay.
I’m not saying that it won’t be a great trip. Of course it will, but it would be much more of an adventure doing the same route on your own and it will be a lot cheaper to do it yourself.
Travelling on the Oz Bus will cost over GBP £312 or AUD $750 a week and that is going through some of the cheapest countries in the world and sleeping in a tent. You can spend less that that travelling in Scandinavia with a 1st class rail pass and sleeping in very nice hostels! For a tour it is a reasonable price but for a bus ticket it is overpriced. Overland travel through Asia on local buses should be a lot cheaper than this.
What I would really like to see is a proper overland bus service for independent travellers where you can choose where to stay en route and hop on and off the bus as you feel like it knowing that you can hop on another bus the next day. Something like a trans-Asian bus version of a Eurail or Interrail pass. It wouldn’t be too difficult for a travel company to work out a deal with bus companies in Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Thailand and Malaysia and create a proper Asian bus pass.
15% off Greyhound Australia Kilometre Passes
September 9th, 2007 by Tim Uden
Greyhound Australia have dropped the prices of their Kilometre Passes (between 5,000km and 20,000km) by 15% until the end of 2007.
This special is available for both Adult and Concession Passes.
For example the 5,000km Concession fare was $692, NOW $588, saving of $104! The 15,000km Concession fare was $1789, NOW $1521, saving of $268!
USA Coast-to-Coast for under $125
August 13th, 2007 by Tim Uden
Cheap travel deals like Chinatown buses and the cheap advance purchase fares on Megabus make it cheaper than ever to travel across the USA. By combining the cheapest advance purchase point-to-point tickets you can travel coast-to-coast for just $122.25 seeing a lot of America en route.
Sure there are some great flight deals. When I wrote this Southwest Airlines were selling LA-New York flights for $119.80. But most travellers want to see America, not just visit two cities.
Here how you can do it:
- Los Angeles-Tempe $1 (plus 50c booking fee) (Megabus) coach
- Tempe-Phoenix $1.75 Valley Metro local bus
- Phoenix-Kansas City $73 (Greyhound) coach
- Kansas City-Chicago $1 (plus 50c booking fee) (Megabus) coach
- Chicago-Pittsburg $1 (plus 50c booking fee) (Megabus) coach1
- Pittsburgh-Philadephia $32 (Greyhound) coach
- Philadelphia-New York City $12 (Todays Bus) Chinatown bus
That’s a grand total of just $122.25, assuming you book all the Megabus fares at the same time to save on the booking fee.
In most cases you need to book online around one month in advance to get cheapest fare. These are adult fares so you may get it cheaper with a student discount on some sectors.
Some of the fares are dirt cheap. For instance the seven hour bus ride from LA to Tempe is cheaper than the short hop on a local bus between Tempe and Phoenix (both Tempe and Phoenix are in the same metro area).
Three of these sectors can be travelled overnight, which means that you can save on three nights’ accommodation. That’s especially handy if you want to spend a day exploring Kansas City before catching the next overnight bus (you save a lot on accommodation here as there are no hostels in Kansas City).
The $1 Megabus fares are the cheapest fare that you can generally get by booking three to four weeks in advance. You would generally count on paying $8-20 for each segment if you book with shorter advance notice. Megabus fares incur a 50c booking fee, but you should be able to save on this by booking several trips at once.
The two Greyhound segments keep the price for this coast-to-coast jaunt above $100. If Megabus introduce Phoenix-Kansas City and Pittsburgh-Philadephia routes then the whole trip will drop to under $20!
- when I checked there were mostly $8 and $15 fares available on this route [↩]