Night buses dramatically range in comfort, how much room you get, how flat the seat lies, if its freezing or boiling, or whether they’re going to play a movie on repeat all night, and we mean all night, like Avengers Assemble, all night, you get the picture. Are they worth it? It's usually down to personal preference, we hope our tips will let you decide for yourself.
1. Time Saver, sometimes
Night buses are generally used to save time, travel through the night so you get more time in the city, however, if you generally can’t sleep that well on public transport, we’d say take this as a omen regarding how well you’ll be able to sleep on an overnight bus. If its generally not that great, you really might not save much time. You’ll rule out the day of arrival exploring the place like a zombie, not taking much in, or you’ll crash straight away, if you have early check in. The only perk you might save money on accommodation? We had 6 in total in South America alone, we started to dread the next. We’ll personally be avoiding them in future, for sure. Don't let this put you off entirely, decide for yourself, maybe only prebook 1 in advance, when they're cheaper, see how it goes.
2. Seat allocation and Toilets
Request a seat not near a toilet, if you can request seats and are designated a number, if not get there early and get yourself a seat away from the toilet. It's common knowledge you're only meant to wee on a bus toilet, do people listen to this, no. You've also got the combination of potentially travel sick people from winding roads, and hungover backpackers, so we won't go on, you get the picture. Just try not sit by them if you can get away with it.
3. Comfort
Take a neck pillow or inflatable pillow, it's a no brainer. You might also find an eye mask and ear plugs helpful.
Night buses dramatically range in comfort, how much room you get and in particular how flat the seat lies, it might move back a couple inches or nearly lie flat, it was always a surprise to us. In hindsight maybe we could have checked at the desk or seen what it said online regarding this. Shop around, see if it's worth paying a bit more, for a bit of extra comfort on a long journey.
It's worth noting, we haven't been on any night buses that have 'proper' beds, we’ve heard generally negative things as to whether it’s worth paying the extra for one of these buses, in South America at least, let us know if anyone has had good experiences of these, or if they have a better reputation elsewhere!
4. Layers
Layers are your best options. We mentioned that you might either be sweltering hot, with hot air blowing up through the vents and scolding your foot or it might be absolutely freezing, there's no way of knowing, so prepare for both, layering is the answer.
5. Food and Drink
Take snacks, although on some overnight buses we got food, we can’t say it was food that was great, take your own snacks and water, definitely water.
6. Entertainment
Netflix, books, games you name it, take it as entertainment. Download movies, tv shows on to your phone, if you're in a different region, don't make the mistakes we did, finish the TV series before you go back home and it's not available, and you're on a cliff hanger. Download a playlist or podcast, download a book or make sure you have a book, plenty of travellers will do a book swap with you if you’ve finished yours. Some have USB ports, some have broken USB ports, we'd recommend taking your own portable charger for back up.
7. Valuables
Obviously, your big bag will have to go in the luggage compartment under the bus, but as for your valuables keep them all on you, and where you can see them, we were generally advised not to use the overhead shelf. By all means chuck your jumper or snacks up there but keep the rest by your feet or on your chair, exactly where you can see them.
8. Arrival - safety
Overnight bus obviously, don't all take all night, and as mentioned earlier, they may arrive early or late. Question whether a bus that arrives at 3am, in the middle of the night, is the place you're arriving to, a safe place to be at that time, consider how you're going to get from the bus station to where you need to go.
9. Early check in?
This ties in nicely to point number 8. Check if you’ll get early check in, in advance to your hostel, hotel, holiday rental, campsite you name it. If you do is it free or does it cost extra? Sometimes there's cheaper rates for travellers who need this. At the very least check your accommodation allows you to store bags. Be prepared to arrive at your destination later or earlier than planned, have a back up plan for this.
It's also worth noting, sometimes a late check out or one day room for your entire party can be nice to freshen up after a days activities before the night bus as well. Usually, splitting the cost with the entire group, will amount to little each and is worth it.
10. Breakfast
Finally, breakfast, you've made it but make sure you know where you're headed. Check for somewhere nice for breakfast before you set off, you won’t want to be searching around for good food after an overnight bus, trust us on this one!
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