Bus Travel

SniperGuy

So I've got a friend that wants to come visit me, and via bus seems to be the best option. She'll be travelling from Murfreesboro TN, about an hour outside of nashville, to Columbia MO, about an hour outside of St. Louis. Greyhound appears to be fairly expensive, so does anyone have a good suggestion for getting a bus ticket?

Einhander

Greyhound tickets can get really cheap if you get a bus that leaves in the middle of the week, and if you buy the ticket at least two weeks in advance. Sometimes even a bus that leaves yout town at two in the morning from a connection will be ten to twenty bucks cheaper than a ticket that leaves at noon. Try different days on their website and see if that helps with the price.

Tell her to bring a book or a handheld or something, a nalgene bottle, and a sweater or something she can roll up into a pillow. Tell her not to bring anything ridiculously valuable unless she plans on wearing it the entire trip, and bring a few bucks for food and water at the stops.

I don't know how long the ride would be, but I took a three day bus ride once, and spray on deodorant is worth it's weight in fucking gold. Your average Greyhound will be really warm, sorta loud, and it will probably smell a little spicy. If she's attractive at all she'll probably be approached by one or more bored guys looking for someone to talk to on the trip.

That said, Greyhound rides can be fun as hell, and I've had some really interesting conversations with some really interesting people on them.

edit: I just checked, it's only like 300 miles. That's only six hours on a bus. Tell her to drive it.

SniperGuy

From where I live usually, it's a 6 and a half hour drive, longer if you ever stop. From where she lives its another hour and a half to two hours. Also, she doesn't have a car. Is about 90 bucks for a round trip the cheapest I'm looking at?

EggyToast

Probably. The annoying thing about most mass transit is that there's an initial fee that gets you on the vehicle, and then the price difference is marginal from destination to destination.

For instance, back in 99 I took a grayhound from Minnesota to New Hampshire, and it cost $160. For being over 1000 miles, you'd think it would be drastically more expensive than going from Minneapolis to Chicago, but only by $60. Only way to make it "cheaper" would be to split it between the two of you.