OMG – Mega Bus USA ! 

I had never heard of Mega Bus before. The only long-distance bus company in the USA I knew about was Greyhound. And Greyhound buses tend to be expensive. During several family visits in recent years I had taken Greyhound buses between family homes on occasion. A 4-hour trip cost $50 US.

I don’t know about you, but I consider that very expensive. In all SE Asian countries, comparable bus journeys cost roughly $6-10 US. Often much further journeys are in that price range.

So this year when I had to take a bus across Florida from St Petersburg to Ft. Lauderdale to attend TBEX (Travel Bloggers Convention), a roughly 4-hour journey, I was cringing to look up bus prices.

To my astonishment, when I Googled ‘cheap buses between St Pete and Ft. Lauderdale’ I found trips for the unbelievably low price of only $10 US with Mega Bus! On a different day, that same trip cost a mere $5 US.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. In fact, if I hadn’t discovered Naked Bus in New Zealand last year (which offers $1, $5, $10 long-distance trips) I would have been extremely skeptical about my Google find as well as the quality and safety of said $10 trips. Even being a frequent patron of Naked Bus in NZ, I was still curious about what Mega Bus would be like.

Never the less, I booked my super cheap Mega Bus ticket and hoped for the best. My day of travel arrived. My mom and step-dad drove me to the bus station in Tampa.

We were all quite curious to check out this super-budget Mega Bus. Would I be riding an old clunker with dirty broken-up seats, a stinky toilet, ghetto-raised and jail-bait passengers, and the clear possibility of breaking down? We were about to find out…

Mega Bus arrived. It’s bright red exterior looked lustrously polished and spanking new. The driver was actually friendly, relaxed and helpful with loading all the passengers’ luggage. Even more unusual, Mega Bus was a double decker! Who ever heard of a double decker bus in the USA?!

Soon enough I bid farewell to my family and climbed aboard Mega Bus. It looked just as spotlessly clean inside as out. Aisles were swept clean; seats were plush, clean and new.

I quickly proceeded upstairs and grabbed a seat at the front. All the seats were luxurious, putting me in mind of riding an airplane. In fact, the whole Mega Bus experience put me in mind of a comfy airplane trip. Windows were large and plentiful. The upper deck front windows spanned the entire bus from side to side, providing uninhibited views along the journey.

I went downstairs to check out more. To my further amazement, two sections of the bus sported long tables between seats. Several passengers were already seated, busily working online on their laptops. That meant – Mega Bus has free wifi! Even more astoundingly, every seat has two power outlets for passengers to charge their electronics. Say what?!

By this time I wasn’t surprised to find the bus toilet absolutely clean and odorless. Having completed my investigation, I returned to my plush upstairs seat and waited a few minutes to get underway.

As soon as we headed out, the driver greeted us over the mic system and detailed the journey, bus rules and amenities. Then a recorded message played, further welcoming us on-board and detailing the types of seats, bus amenities, safety and emergency procedures. Once again, I was reminded of an airplane flight.

We proceeded down the highways to Ft. Lauderdale, a direct journey with zero stops en route. That ensured us the fastest possible bus trip of only four hours, the same time it takes to drive a car there.

To say I was impressed with Mega Bus is an understatement. I was practically flabbergasted. Man oh man, what a bus company!

Before booking my ticket, I had naturally also researched Greyhound buses to Ft. Lauderdale. The cheapest trip I found was $25 US, which to be honest, isn’t all that expensive either for a 4-hour bus ride in the US. But obviously it’s still 2-5 times the price of Mega Bus.

Worse, though, Greyhound took a whopping seven hours to reach Ft. Lauderdale! That’s nearly twice as long as Mega Bus and nearly a whole day’s journey. In addition, my previous experiences with Greyhound were that the majority of passengers seemed a bit dodgy, giving the trips a rather creepy feeling.

That might have changed by now. (Anyone know?) But Mega Bus certainly seems geared to a slightly more hip, upper class customer who appreciates comfort, web connectivity and cleanliness.

The only downfall of my Mega Bus trip was the freezing temperature. Ultra-freezing, in fact.

Now I do tend to get cold easily and greatly dislike air-conditioning. But that bus was absolutely, ridiculously frigid. I wasn’t the only one feeling cold. Every single passenger on board complained repeatedly about it. We were all utterly uncomfortable. It was a freezing temperature that was impossible to forget about or ignore.

Luckily for me, I had several layers of long clothes plus my plushy padded vest with hood. I even had to put on my visor, not to keep sun out of my eyes, but to keep air-conditioning from blowing down on my face. It was so cold that I was seriously concerned I might get ill.

To make matters worse, it was raining stiffly outside during most of the journey. Even though we were in Florida and it was, no doubt, a warm rain outside, just seeing the grey sleet-y rain made the cold feel even worse psychologically.

Funnily enough, two days later I came down with a bad respiratory illness in Ft. Lauderdale that kept me practically incapacitated with exhaustion. I even had to abandon the last day of TBEX convention early to go rest in bed, midday!

Quite unfortunately for me, I had a flight to Guatemala two days later. I arrived in Central America, for the first time in my life, still utterly exhausted. Instead of eagerly exploring UNESCO Heritage City, Antigua, and climbing an active volcano, as I’d planned, I had to declare myself on vacation for a week in order to recover.

Did I get sick because of the ultra-frigid Mega Bus trip? Impossible to say, but the Antarctic temperatures must have at least been a contributing factor. Too bad, because otherwise, Mega Bus was fantastic.

Conclusion:

Despite being turned into a Popsicle, I still vote Mega Bus all the way! With its super-clean interiors, friendly & helpful driver, free wifi, plentiful power outlets, grand views and top deck, Mega Bus is a phenomenal way to take buses in the USA.

So if you’re going to travel overland in the States, check out Mega Bus. Just be sure to take you winter coat along…and possibly a wool scarf, gloves and a fur-lined baklava. Lol.

QUESTIONS:

Have you ever taken Mega Bus in the USA?

If so, how was your experience?

Would you recommend it to other travelers? Why or why not?

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Spirit Airlines – Excellent Budget Flights

My Recommended Airlines and Online Flight Booking Services 

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