PLease help! Long bus drives + transfers (Greyhound)

Hi everyone,

I am planning on going to Mexico by bus to explore the United States (I am leaving from Montreal) and I had a coupleof questions.
I am doing it with Greyhound by the way.

I have one transfer at 6ham in Detroit city (bus station)
I have one transfer at 8 pm in Nashville

I wanted to know if it is SAFE to travel with greyhound on long runs.... Of course, I hide my stuff, take care of my luggage and don't walk with an ipod or something like that.... are the transfers at night SAFE if you stay in the bus station?

Any kind of information related to the bus trip would be helpful....any tips or whatever.

Thank you

I did the trip in reverse last May, actually from El Salvador to Peterborough ON, with the US/Canadian portion on the British owned Greyhound, which cares nothing for it's customers!

I used a 7 day pass which allowed me to stop off along the way for a rest, was only a few dollars less than the lowest fare & well worth it IMHO.

To answer your questions, I found no problem with personal safety either on the bus or at it's terminals, I also transferred at Detroit, a new terminal in the middle of nowhere, without a restaurant or snack bar, merely a bank of expensive vending machines, an example of First Group's (the Brit owners) don't give a damn for passengers attitude.

Another thing to keep in mind is that schedules are on paper only & have no effect in the operation. My bus left Nuevo Laredo Mexico on time & that was the last on time departure all the way to Peterborough. Actually missed my connection in Detroit due to being late.

Don't know which crossing into Mexico you plan but if it's Laredo, do yourself a favor by leaving Greyhound/Americanos at San Antonio & using Mexicos Omnibus for travel into Mexico where there are various well run companies to choose from.

Any more bus questions just ask. BTW First Group's Greyhound is the worst run bus-line in the 40 countries I have visited, followed closely by Australia's Greyhound, the only country where I feared for my safety due to overtired drivers!

After quite a few bus trips, a few recently, I can safely say that bus travel in the USA is about the sketchiest form of public transport available, and not always cheapest. Check the train and plane prices, twice, before settling on a bus.

Buses are frequently late, and they treat the passengers like ignorant cattle, making them wait hours for a missed connection without giving any information.
Do not depend on arriving in Mexico on the date and time the schedules say you will.

I found no safety issues on the buses, however, if that is a worry for you. The only safety issue is that frequently you can't leave the terminal between connections because the area the station is in is so sketchy. The terminal itself is fine.

If you do a 7 day bus pass, especially if you're a foriegn passport holder, it might be best to do a few stopovers. There are some nice parts of the USA, after all, and you'll arrive a lot less tired.

I now look on bus travel as an ordeal to be taken only when there is significant money to be saved.

After quite a few bus trips, a few recently, I can safely say that bus travel in the USA is about the sketchiest form of public transport available, and not always cheapest. Check the train and plane prices, twice, before settling on a bus.

Buses are frequently late, and they treat the passengers like ignorant cattle, making them wait hours for a missed connection without giving any information.
Do not depend on arriving in Mexico on the date and time the schedules say you will.

I found no safety issues on the buses, however, if that is a worry for you. The only safety issue is that frequently you can't leave the terminal between connections because the area the station is in is so sketchy. The terminal itself is fine.

If you do a 7 day bus pass, especially if you're a foriegn passport holder, it might be best to do a few stopovers. There are some nice parts of the USA, after all, and you'll arrive a lot less tired.

I now look on bus travel as an ordeal to be taken only when there is significant money to be saved.

Thank you guys! the information was really helpful!!!

I will check it out!

As Tortuga_traveller stated there are lots of good places to visit in the US. Changing buses in Nashville would be a good opportunity to check out some of the music city sites. I took a day off in Memphis to visit Graceland, the terminal there is in a safe part of the city within walking distance of hotels & the famous Beale St, the home of the blues.

San Antonio, home of the Alamo also has a safely located terminal plus the city is worth a couple days exploring. Also here you can end the Greyhound torture test & start traveling on excellent Mexican owned/operated buses. Just beware of Americanos which is a subsidiary of Greyhound & to be avoided.

I already booked my ticket! I took the normal ticket from Montreal to Mexico City.

Do you have an email address or msn so I could ask you acouple of questions if I have any more?

Thanks!

You can PM me anytime. I know a bit about Mexico. Its a shame you booked straight to Mexico city. There are some darned good buses to be gotten from the border towns. Then again, given the safety climate in the border towns, I don't blame you.

Poor guy got sucked into going straight through on Greyhound/Americanos from Montreal to Mexico DF, he may never ride a bus again.

Too bad as Omnibus goes into San Antonio. I switched from Omnibus (no seats available) to Americanos in Nuevo Laredo which meant changing terminals, no problem. However if I did it again I would take ETN to Monterrey then Omnibus to San Antonio.

In the US East Coast and Midwest, I would look at smaller regional bus companies like BoltBus and Megabus. Their fares usually rival Greyhound for the short hops that are customary in those parts of the country, and in my experience the buses are nicer/in better condition, your fellow travelers are less likely to be unsavory characters, and often they pick up/drop off in slightly more convenient parts of town.

BoltBus is 50% owned by Greyhound & uses their operating authority, of course Britain's First Group is the owner.

Megabus is a division Coach USA which is wholly owned by the UK's Stage Coach Group.

However Stage Coach dropped all it's unprofitable routes to concentrate of the higher volume north east.

So no matter how you travel by bus you are enriching a foreign corporation, it's just too bad the OP didn't ask for info before booking his entire trip with First Group buses as the portion from San Antonio onward could have been booked on quality Mexican bus lines rather than the vastly inferior British one.

Not sure what is meant by he remark about unsavory characters as I only met people on my trip.

I took a 'quality' mexican bus line from Albuquerque to El Paso.
It was cheap, anyways.

NO problems until the last time. Then the bus drove me PAST Mexican immigration booths, making me effectively Illegal.

So now I'm taking Greyhound to El paso and WALKING over the border.

Tortuga_traveller wrote:I took a 'quality' mexican bus line from Albuquerque to El Paso.
It was cheap, anyways.

NO problems until the last time. Then the bus drove me PAST Mexican immigration booths, making me effectively Illegal.

So now I'm taking Greyhound to El paso and WALKING over the border.

Never did I mention Quality & Cheap in the same sentence that's an oxymoron.

I meant Quality as in ETN or ADO Platinum, neither Cheap but same level of service, reliability & comfort is nonexistent north of thee border.

Don't think that walking anywhere near the border in El Paso would be a high priority in my itinerary.

Walking across the bridge is not especially dangerous, nor is getting a cab to the "Inmigration" booths where I get my stamp and Tourist Card, both in separate places, of course. It would make too much sense to put them in the same place, I guess.

Then its not so hard to take a cab or shuttle to Ciudad Juarez bus station, where I would catch a bus to somewhere else..
It's better than the possibility of a cheap bus getting paid off not to bring Mexican citizens to the attention of Mexican authorities.

Tortuga_traveller wrote:Walking across the bridge is not especially dangerous, nor is getting a cab to the "Inmigration" booths where I get my stamp and Tourist Card, both in separate places, of course. It would make too much sense to put them in the same place, I guess.

Then its not so hard to take a cab or shuttle to Ciudad Juarez bus station, where I would catch a bus to somewhere else..
It's better than the possibility of a cheap bus getting paid off not to bring Mexican citizens to the attention of Mexican authorities.

To each his own way of travel is cool, personally I would take Omnibus from San Antonio to save a lot of aggravation.