British Man travels from NYC to LA on GREYHOUND and is TRAUMITIZED

It's a bus. He'd have been better off just renting an rv.

Tap into that better help sponsorship, mate.

Of course it’d be hell. You’d have to be an idiot to want to do this. That’s a ridiculously long trip.

Was he expecting luxury? This is such clickbait. Of course it was hell. What else would it be? You can fly from NY to LA for under $500, no one would do this.

Driving cross country can be a great experience but being trapped on a bus would be hell. Only an idiot would do this.

Amtrak was great.

A bus? No, thanks.

How many stories do we need like this? Yes, America is huge. Lots of hours with nothingness. Every travel site states this.

And, sorry, but Amtrak would be slightly better, but also a hell trip without a private cabin.

Yeah bus travel is pretty awful now

He suffered genuine traumi, OP?

R7, I did New Orleans to LA and Portland OR to Chicago minus a cabin and both trips were fine. The Portland/Chicago is one of the most beautiful train journeys in the world as it passes through the Columbia River Gorge and Great Glacier Park.

Many people from other countries who are not familiar with the US don't realize how HUGE the country is.

He shoulda took a train. Problem is, our trains are SO inferior to what you have over in the UK or Europe. You have to pay a lot of money here to get something comparable.

*

No, they don’t, r11.

I thought it was funny when I was living in Germany about 20 years ago and would drive 6 hours one way to spend a couple of days at some castle, then drive back on Sunday afternoon and go to work Monday morning.

My German coworkers thought I was insane, but I tried to explain that six hour drive is nothing. When I told them it’s a 15 hour drive to NYC and a 24 hour drive to Disney World, they just couldn’t believe it.

This dude was just looking for something to bitch about.

Not as much as I am traumatized by OP's spelling. The horror.

r14 yes they do. Lots of Europeans don't realize how huge the US is and how long it takes to get somewhere

Whoops sorry r14 I misunderstood your post. Never mind.

Question - when has 5 days on a bus anywhere in the world ever been a comfortable and nice trip?

It was always my dream to be a Continental Trailways hostess...

I make do with the doll...

Broken America in all its grandeur. I haven't been on a long distance bus since the 1980s and i see it's still a horrible experience.

Awhile back, I was bored so i looked up prices on-line for various bus trips. The prices were quite high imho. Nearly 200 bucks to travel through just a few states.

America is really a bleak place for the middle class and lower but a wonderful place for the upper class and higher.

Who cares?

Driving cross-country can be a lot of fun, I've done it five times in the last 15 or so years. r21 there's a lot more stuff out there now, places to stop etc.

I wouldn't even take a fucking bus from NY to Boston, never mind cross country.

Has anyone tried to take a bus across the UK?

What makes me think they're not double-decker Rolls Royces manned by James Bond & Friends?

I hired one of those rickshaw drivers in Times Square and told him I wanted to go to Malibu. He thought it was a store in the village but I explained I meant Malibu in California.

It was a long trip and he billed me his city rate so it cost four million dollars, but I really got to see the country. When I paid him his fare he bought a house in California with it and stayed there. I was upset because I wanted him to take me back. I just ended up walking.

Everyone here whining that "Europeans don't know how big the US is" clearly didn't watch the video (DLers commenting on something without reading/watching it? Shocking). The length wasn't the issue, this guy has done these kind of trips before.

It was the shitty customer service. Greyhound forgetting to schedule a driver fora bus, resulting in passengers being told they had to rebook for a later bus that only had seven seats available, and then an extra bus suddenly becoming available, resulting in a seven hour delay, and him having to book a hotel room for the night.

Then after that they somehow messed up his ticket, yet still allowed him on the bus. But this meant he lost the second seat he'd paid for. Other passengers were double-booked too and just dumped in bus stations with no help. In Kansas they were kicked off the bus and had to wait on the side of the road for the new driver, because the original driver refused to wait on the bus until he arrived.

Another stop, the driver drove off early, leaving a bunch of people behind - even though she could clearly see them running towards the bus. Later they were once again kicked off the bus and left to stand on the side of the road to wait for a new driver.

So none of this was about the length of the journey, or the bus itself, it was the absolute piss-poor customer service. Drivers spoke (or yelled) at customers like they were children.

Men used to manage men and things got done. Fear was a factor in this. Now all is a galloping shitshow.

British transport is disgusting. What is he complaining about?

R27, come back and post when you’re sober.

r28 So because British transport is "disgusting" he can't complain about poor experiences in other countries?

Did he not shower for five days?

Foreigners on buses? Leave it to us; only we can fix it.

I just checked on Greyhound's site and they want $250 to travel from Indy to Philly, a trip I took a few times back in my younger days. That would mean $500 r/t. And Greyhound gives you an option to choose your seat but you must pay extra for that. I bet since they have no competition on that route it allows them to screw passengers on ticket prices. I bet on routes with competition (Chinatown buses, Megabus, Bolt bus etc.) the fares are much better.

Some of the comments posted under this video are spot-on.

A man with diabetes unable to afford a bag of candy so that he doesn't pass out on the miserable floor of a Greyhound terminal is just... peak America. Unbelievable.

Noel having that realization that you're treated like trash if you're poor is something I wish everyone could experience.

I use to work as an abandoned semi truck fetcher and greyhound was my main source of transportation in between retrieving trucks. I could write a book on my negative experiences riding greyhound. They don't have to address any of the despicable conditions their customers are subjected to because they don't have any competitors in the mega ground transportation market. You have no choice but to utilize their services if you're not flying or renting a car traveling city to city.

It’s actually very impressive the amount of failures that happened all across the board at every level of this trip. Like it takes serious work to make something fail so constantly and consistently. I’m impressed and disgusted at the service offered by Greyhound and I feel so bad for the people who have no choice but to travel with Greyhound.

As a retired Greyhound driver (Chicago) I am appalled at what the company has become.

I was in Operation Desert Storm, and I spent a night in jail once, and neither experience was as stressful as riding on Greyhound.

r33 I looked it up and I see a $44 flight to New York and then I bet you could get a cheap train to Philly from there. I think these buses are just for stupid people who don't know how to google plane tickets.

The lowest of the low.

Greyhound's Ameripass offers seven-day, 15-day and 30-day tickets priced at $189, $249 and $349 for travel (Ebony Magazine January 1985).

(At link) 1984 Greyhound Bus lines tv commercial "$99 Special, New Orleans To Los Angeles" or "New Orleans to Boston", Greyhound's $99 special one-way with unlimited stop-overs.

Better a good old Yankee Doodle American bus trip than a murderous Canadian nightmare ride

r24 Why, yes. With hotel stays at each comma: London to Wells, Wells to Tewkesbury, Tewkes to Birmingham to York, York to Lincoln, Lincoln to Norwich, Norwich to London. All of it (the coach ride) quite enjoyable. On the long Birmingham to York leg, I had a just-paroled convict fall asleep on my shoulder in the bus. Good times!

I don't know if he did it knowing ahead of time that it's bad, but I've seen where foreigners traveling to the U.S. do things that normal Americans or Americans with taste wouldn't do. Like they go out of their way to try Chili's or Applebee's. Just because something is well-known or ubiquitous in America, doesn't mean it's good.

[quote]I think these buses are just for stupid people who don't know how to google plane tickets.

There are also people who strangely don't want to travel by plane.

[quote]I just checked on Greyhound's site and they want $250 to travel from Indy to Philly, a trip I took a few times back in my younger days.

You couldn't find anyone closer to trick with, or maybe you thought that if you were arrested on a morals charge, word of it from Philly wouldn't reach Indy? Just wondering, no judgement.

r40 His whole channel is basically him doing unusual travel experiences, and this was one his audience kept bugging him to do. He's done a long-haul Greyhound video before, so he knew what he was getting into. Though that actually makes his reaction worse in a way, since he knew going in it would be bad, and it still turned out worse than he expected.

During the video he did mention he met a German couple who were using Greyhound to sightsee the Rockies, and he basically said you could tell they regretted that choice.

My best friend in college took Greyhound from Tampa to Seattle- mid 90's. I still remember his stories as he was a great writer & took great notes. He sketched as well....... We talked about doing a screenplay & taking the trip together to get material. He passed away a couple years ago, wonder what happened to his stories & drawings.

This Greyhound documentary is pretty good. The people riding it were a lot less trashy in 1989

I think some people don't fliy because of the several levels of security and identification you have to go through. The only bus trip I've ever done was in Italy in the mid '70s, and it was a harrowing experience, driving on twisty roads at high speeds, with our luggage threatening to rain down on our heads. I'd rather take the train-it's the only mode of transportation that I'll sleep soundly on, but it's almost as expensive as flying.

He’s so dramatic it wasn’t that bad

I used to take Greyhound back and forth from my mom's house in Flagstaff, Arizona to my dad's place in Norman, Oklahoma. And when I started school in Cincinnati, I would go all the way there and back from Flagstaff. I never had any problems, it was always pretty nice, I thought. I met interesting people, including Travis from England, who I have never forgotten - what a handsome hunk!

I took a cross country bus trip in 1977. Another one in 1999. In 2002 I drove a U-Haul with a car trailer from MD to CA.