Wanted: Info on Cheap Travel in the USA

stu_iow

Hi guys,

Does anyone know of the best and cheapest way to travel around the US. We will probably get flights to New York, but then wanted to visit Niagara Falls, Chicago, Washington and maybe Toronto.

MegaBus run in the US but they only travel to and from Chicago and the most interesting city looks like Detroit.

Any other websites, coaches, train links or general ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

tryingtosave_3

Greyhound are the "classic" US long distance bus service - they used to do an overnight service from New York City to Toronto, but also to Niagara - which is part of the Canadian / US border. It was (and maybe still is) possible to do New York - Toronto - Niagara - New York essentially on a return from NY.

Try https://www.greyhound.com

Other two way are rail - AmTrack do a fairly good "commuter" service down the eastern seaboard, but also Philadelphia-Chicago (slower and prone to massive delays - 17 hours worth on my journey) and cross country etc.

https://www.amtrak.com

Final option is a little more complex - try and find a rental service that has cars on the "wrong side" of the country and drive them back for them. I don't know anyone who actually managed to get this type of deal - it's pretty cheap (or they might pay you - really not sure) but often there is a time limit so you can't exactly be a tourist. Not sure if another MSEr has any links leads on this ... or can say it's actually an urban myth!!

Good luck - enjoy!

Teahfc

I hired/returned a car for alamo from Syracuse NY state to Orlando FL, I was told I could have the car free but had to pay $12.00 per day CDW insurance and also all the petrol .. still a good deal and got myself a Covertible seebring in the deal. From what I undeersatnd they move as many Convertible cars north in the summer and back south in winter (too hot in Summer for a convertible in florida ?) Also There cars have to a Mot type check and can only be done hwere car was registered ? once again that is what i was told.
Send E mails ( cost nothing) to the city you are landing at and offer your services !

stu_iow

Cheers Guys,

Greyhound looks good and relitively cheap and doesn't need booking too far in advanced. New York to Washington £25 return.

Any more ideas, keep them coming.

Stu.

blindman

stu_iow wrote:

Cheers Guys,

Greyhound looks good and relitively cheap and doesn't need booking too far in advanced. New York to Washington £25 return.

Any more ideas, keep them coming.

Stu.

'China Bus' and other links

Autodriveaway

Phyllis

US train travel is one of the easiest ways to get around and it's good value if you buy a pass (you need to buy one before entering the country). Bradt's USA by Rail guide has lots of useful information.

www.usa-by-rail.com

Voyager2002

Phyllis wrote: »

US train travel is one of the easiest ways to get around and it's good value if you buy a pass (you need to buy one before entering the country). Bradt's USA by Rail guide has lots of useful information.

www.usa-by-rail.com

Agree, but be warned that walk-up prices for train tickets are extremely high. So either buy a pass or book each journey months in advance.

See Niagara from the Canadian side: much nicer.

In fact, Canada is much nicer and more interesting, so I'm not sure there is that much point seeing the USA as well.

lfc321

Voyager2002 wrote: »

In fact, Canada is much nicer and more interesting, so I'm not sure there is that much point seeing the USA as well.

How bizarre.

I love Canada and would recommend it to anyone (and I agree about the Canadian side of Niagra being nicer). But you could travel around The US for the rest of your life and never run out of interesting things to see. A huge variety of landscapes, cultures, climates. I just don't understand how you could think there is no point seeing the USA. In fact what does "seeing the USA" even mean?

elcomandante

Came back a couple of months ago from traveling all the way across the US roughly from NYC, Boston, Washington, down to Florida and across Alabama, Mississippi, Texas into vegas and California. If you are on holiday i would HIGHLY recomend doing what we did and renting a vehicle. You can pick most up at the airport and drop it off at the same or another when you are leaving. China Buses & Greyhound are cheap as far as buses go, but bear in mind that both are not of the best service. in fact far from it. most chinatown buses do not leave till they are FULL...and that means hours of waiting until the bus is full before it will even think about leaving and even then (if its a chinatown bus) they cram more people on down the aisles!..meaning you often end up with some fat chinamans armpitt in your face!..oh yeah and they talk or should i say shout to you in chinese not English...also greyhound has no seated numbering and some buses are very skanky and full of hobo's (worse than the top deck back seats of a double decker by far!). we bought our ticket 2nd in line 2 hours before the bus was due to arrive. We waited for it to arrive and when it did everyone pushed infront of US and we Missed it and had to wait 2 hours for the next. upon complaining they told us there was no orderly queue and that buying the ticket didnt guarantee us a seat on the bus!...can you beleive that!.. its a pain in the !!!! and you litterally have to barracade yourselves up against passage way for hours stood up waiting for the bus to arrive because your ticket means nothing as there is no pecking order and when it arrives its like you are in a 3rd world country or something as people just dont give a !!!! and will elbow you in the face if they have to just to get on the damn thing!

AMTRACK is a great service. fast comfortable fairly relaiable but expensive. If your doing a lot of journeys you may as well have rented that car. works out the same but with the car you have feedom to arrive and leave places whenever you want. And obviously you also dont loose anytime and get to see some real cool stuff that you wouldnt normally see traveling from A to B. :rotfl:

Just my opinion from Experience but DEFINITELY forget Chinabuses and above all the dreaded Greyhound. they are not like the orderly properly run buses over here. I never complain now once the bus is a few minutes late becuase at least i know i will be getting on it!

student100

I did something similar to the OP's request in 2005. We flew out to Chicago (from Manchester there are/were direct flights to Chicago and Boston, but not to NYC...). Then flew from Chicago to Toronto (the flight was almost as cheap as a bus). Then bus from Toronto to Niagara Falls (Canadian side), only a couple of hours, then bus from Niagara Falls (CAN) to Buffalo NY, where we spent a night before getting a bus to NYC (a few hours). From NYC we got a bus to Boston and flew back from Boston to Manchester. This way the bus journeys were all relatively short hops.

With your destinations I'd recommend fly to NYC, then bus NYC to Washington DC (fairly short, I've done that on a previous visit too), then fly DC->Chicago, fly Chicago->Toronto then busses from Toronto back to NYC via Niagara Falls (and maybe Buffalo) as described above.

No idea what the relative differences between Greyhound buses and low-cost US airlines are now vs. 2005, but I expect it's still fairly similar.

Voyager2002

student100 wrote: »

I did something similar to the OP's request in 2005. We flew out to Chicago (from Manchester there are/were direct flights to Chicago and Boston, but not to NYC...). Then flew from Chicago to Toronto (the flight was almost as cheap as a bus). Then bus from Toronto to Niagara Falls (Canadian side), only a couple of hours, then bus from Niagara Falls (CAN) to Buffalo NY, where we spent a night before getting a bus to NYC (a few hours). From NYC we got a bus to Boston and flew back from Boston to Manchester. This way the bus journeys were all relatively short hops.

With your destinations I'd recommend fly to NYC, then bus NYC to Washington DC (fairly short, I've done that on a previous visit too), then fly DC->Chicago, fly Chicago->Toronto then busses from Toronto back to NYC via Niagara Falls (and maybe Buffalo) as described above.

No idea what the relative differences between Greyhound buses and low-cost US airlines are now vs. 2005, but I expect it's still fairly similar.

Good advice, but I would consider taking the Metroliner (the premium rail service in the whole country) between New York and Washington. Affordable if you book well in advance.

Getting from the east coast to Chicago by train would be rather fun, but would take a good deal longer than flying. Worth considering if you want to do something to bring history to life.