Newbie travelers can think bus to be a perfect transport. You move towards the required place, see landscapes through the window, and can even sleep if you want: pure ideal! But in reality, long bus trips can be much harder and tiring than getting to the summit of a mountain. Here are tips from greatpaper.co.uk and experienced travelers, which should make you prepared to a trip in a way you could get only pleasant impressions from it.
Long bus trips have some nuances, which can cause negative effects if you neglect them. Unlucky travelers come to the destination point being tired, sleepy, with their necks and legs feeling bad. Bus night is remembered as the worst dream, they swear to never use buses again. For nothing, because it is not that difficult to provide oneself with comfort and safety in a bus travel.
Safety
1. Estimate Your Route
Try to find out about the route of your movement using any possible way. If there are busses regularly falling down into abyss during the travel, accidents and robberies happen, maybe it is better to change your route to the one which is safer, or to choose day bus at least.
2. Choose First Class
There are various transport companies working on the same route in many countries. Prices for tickets of different companies can be significantly different. How is the economy provided? Maybe, because of bad wheels, no air conditioner and only one driver who will work the whole night long? Maybe, your bus is going to stop in every small living place and take everyone on board? At any case, it is worth to think if the economy of couple dollars is fine for sacrificing your comfort and safety.
3. Luggage
Before taking your seat in a bus, get all your valuable and important things with you in a small bag, and don’t leave it alone even for a second. Take it with you during bus stops. Keep it on your knees all the time. If it is not comfortable, put it on the floor and keep the belt in your hand.
4. During the Stop
If you want to go out of the bus and to shake up a bit, ask the driver about how long the stop is. Remember the bus number and a place where it stopped. It is better not to walk too far away from the station or stop-point, unless you want to get into a criminal life of that place. It is especially active near stops and stations.
Comfort
1. Choosing a Place
Not every seat in a bus is similar to others. If to look at the safety, then it is better to choose a seat in the middle part of the bus. If to look at the comfort, there are much more factors that you should take into account.
- Window or Passage? Lots of people choose places near the window because of landscapes. Plus, glass surface is where you can put your head down and sleep a bit. Still, there are no landscapes during night drives, and your neck is going to start hurting in half an hour. So, all the advantages of the window-place can become useless. Still, sitting near the passage, you will always have more space, especially for your legs.
- Front or Back? Remember that you can’t recline back seats, and the bus shakes you more when you are in its back part. If to sit in the front part, then you’ll need to hide your eyes from car flashlights and to see all the road turns.
- Near a Man or a Woman? If places are not numbered and it is you who chooses place where to sit, you should estimate the adequacy of your neighbor first, and then his or her sizes. Man, or woman? It depends on your taste :)
2. Light and Sound Isolation
When travelling for the first time, you look at those people taking earplugs and sleep masks with them as on silly persons. Later you get envy on them, and start blaming yourself for not being prudent enough. Don’t repeat this mistake. It is difficult to sleep in a bus at night. And without these cheap gadgets it becomes even impossible.
3. Blanket and Pillow
Yes, of course, there is no talk about those things we all use at home. It is better to take special inflatable neck-pillow, that keeps your neck and head in the optimal position. It is a generous invention of humanity, crumpled bags or coats will never reach that level.
About blankets… it is better to take a light plaid or a long jacket which you’ll be able to put on yourself. Sometimes, the temperature differences on the road can reach tens of degrees, especially if passing through mountain areas. So, if you don’t want to shake of cold during the night, take care of your warmth beforehand.
What to Take
A bus trip is not a space flight, but one should prepare to it with the same preciseness. You’ll be “packed” inside the relatively small place of your seat, so it is better to make sure that everything you need is under your hands. Here is the small list of things you can use as a template.
- Small bag with the most important things. Docs, money, tickets, cards, smartphone and so on.
- The bigger bag with things you might need.
- Sleep gadgets: earplugs, a mask, a plaid or a jacket, an inflatable pillow.
- Entertainment: smartphone, tablet, books.
- Medicine which can be useful for motion sickness or poisoning (and those your doctor prescribed you to take).
- Water and some food if needed: nuts, energy sticks, sweets.
- Toilet paper!
Hope these bus travel tips will be useful. They saved many people already.