GotoBus is the leading online marketplace for bus tickets, tours, and sightseeing activities. In February 2007, The Washington Post featured GotoBus.com as one of the best travel websites and named it "Best of the Web" in the "Motorcoaches" category.
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Travel to one of the most popular cities in the Pacific Northwest – Seattle! Enjoy the picturesque 360 degree view of the Seattle skyline from the Space Needle observation deck or get entertained and educated at the Washington State History Museum. If sports are your thing visit Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners baseball team and Qwest Field, home of the Seattle Seahawks! Seattle Duck tours and Argosy sightseeing boats also provide a unique way to view the city while you float. Labels: 2010 Winter Olympic Site, bus tickets, Duck Tour, Qwest Field, Safeco Field, Seattle, Seattle Bus, Shuttle buses, Space Needle
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Labels: bus tickets, NYC, Shuttle buses, Washington DC
Labels: bus tickets, Bus Tours, Mexico, Shuttle buses
Many would-be travelers dream about strolling down the Avenue des Champs-Elysees but are not willing to mortgage their future to finance the trip. However, traveling Europe on the cheap does not require backpacking and hitching free rides from strangers! One affordable solution that offers a happy medium between a super luxurious getaway and "roughing it" is a packaged bus tour.
Packaged bus tours offer the best value per day, due to the tour operator's ability to secure group rates on hotel accommodations, ground transportation, and sightseeing attractions. They also provide peace of mind, which is priceless: the discerning traveler does not need to obtain an international driver's license, rent a car (let alone remember on which side of the road to drive!), or read train schedules in foreign languages.
To get the most out of a European bus tour, remember the following travel tips.
Tips to enjoy a Europe bus tour:
Labels: Bus Tours, europe, Shuttle buses, Where to go
Labels: Bus Tours, Shuttle buses, sightseeing, Where to go
Labels: Bus Tours, holiday tours, NYC, shopping, Shuttle buses, Where to go
Labels: Shuttle buses
A Guide to the Chinatown Bus
The word is out—the cheapest way to get from one major U.S. city to another is on the “Chinatown bus”. In recent years this has become transportation option of choice for budget travelers in New York, Washington DC, and Boston, and more recently on the West Coast. Students, backpackers, and an array of other savvy travelers have long loved the rock bottom prices that these bus companies offer. Despite the popularity of these bus lines it can still be difficult to find information on Chinatown bus service.
What exactly is a “Chinatown Bus”? Read on and you will have the inside track on this great budget travel option.
Chinatown Bus history
The Chinatown bus phenomenon began in the late 1990s when an entrepreneur in New York’s Chinatown started running daily bus service from Chinatown in New York to Chinatown in Boston. The service was aimed at Asian immigrants who wanted to shop or visit relatives in either city and needed cheap and convenient transportation. The service was bare bones—no advertising, customer service, or bus stations. Customers simply went to the bus stop, waited for the bus (or van), and paid the driver upon boarding. For those willing to do without frills, they offered virtually the same service as traditional bus companies at a substantially lower price. Before long, the word spread and all kinds of people started using the service. It became especially popular with students, budget travelers, or people for whom the service was simply more convenient.
Soon more bus companies duplicated this model and started offering service in other cities. Now you can find this type of bus service in Philadelphia, Virginia, Baltimore Washington DC, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Francisco. At this point the term “Chinatown bus” is used more loosely to describe this sort of low-cost/low-frills service. Many, if not most, of the companies do not have Chinatown as their main location and may not cater to the immigrant population at all. These operators are also sometimes referred to as “curbside” operators.
How can tickets be so cheap?
$15 between New York to Boston? $25 from Las Vegas to Los Angeles? It seems hard to fathom. Chinatown bus companies are able to keep prices low because they operate in a fundamentally different way from traditional carriers. Foremost, the service is very basic. There is little in the way of customer service or amenities. Most of these operators do not have formal stations, picking up passengers at bus stops instead. They eschew traditional advertising in favor of word of mouth. Further, many of the operators play a very hands-on role in the operation—you will not see idle executives at a small independent bus company. Finally, these operators make sure they fill their buses. That is why Chinatown bus operators usually only operate on heavily trafficked routes. Indeed some companies only run buses at peak times.
Are they safe?
When these companies first started operating, concerns were raised about safety standards. There is still controversy within the bus industry about whether these newcomers are complying with the same regulations as the traditional companies. However, a task force set up by the Federal government to look at safety issues found that Chinatown bus companies did not perform better or worse than other types of bus companies (ie. charter, tour buses). All bus companies operating in the U.S. must undergo the same inspection standards and must comply with the same rules. Realistically there is probably a range of quality among Chinatown bus carriers. Some are fly-by-night operators trying to make a fast buck, while others are legitimate entrepreneurs who plan to grow and operate a long term business.
What you should expect
Violet Sorenson works for GotoBus.com, the leading online marketplace for bus tickets and tours in the USA. You can find out more information about the company at: http://www.gotobus.com/. The author can be reached at marketing at gotobus.com.
Labels: Shuttle buses
Labels: Shuttle buses
Labels: Shuttle buses
Labels: Shuttle buses
Labels: Shuttle buses
Labels: Shuttle buses
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