Las Vegas to new York by land...anyone?

rustyf81

hey,
So just wondering if anyone has ever travelled by land-either bus or train- from Vegas to New York. We were looking at trains but they only go from San fran and not Vegas. This I wouldn't mind.
I'd love to buy a multiple trip ticket and stop off along the way. Any recommendations?
Going to look into Greyhound too.
Just thought I'd ask her and see if anyone's ever completed it.

Sounds a bit exciting as opposed to flying!

ProudDUB

I have never traveled from Vegas to New York by land. But I do know that traveling around the US by Greyhound bus is not for the faint of heart.

rossie1977

ProudDUB wrote: »

I have never traveled from Vegas to New York by land. But I do know that traveling around the US by Greyhound bus is not for the faint of heart.

yes those greyhound buses attract all kinds of colourful individuals, about 13 years ago i got the greyhound from vegas to san francisco (overnight trip with short stops in reno and sacramento), the stories i could tell from that trip

InTheTrees

Train is by far the best option.

It looks like this route is the best for connecting with Vegas, although you could just make your way to LA to get on it there. http://www.amtrak.com/southwest-chief-train

You'd have to get another train from Chicago to NY.

I love multinight trips on trains. It really can be fun. Food is free. You need to get a cabin though. We got a "roomette" and I was worried it may be too small but it was perfect. Gives you enough privacy, a door you can lock etc. and is fine for two.

The sleeping cars are great too, you're segregated from the coach passengers and the loos and bathroom/shower rooms are kept really clean. I was really impressed by the service. (Be prepared to leave a tip for your attendant.)


http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=AM_Accommodation_C&pagename=am%2FLayout&cid=1241210576173

InTheTrees

rustyf81 wrote: »

Going to look into Greyhound too.

If you're young and on a tight budget it can be an option.

Greyhound is really only for the desperate though. Its not really a tourist thing.

As others have pointed out.

whomitconcerns

i got one from NYC to Baltimore once.......ermmmmmmm nuff said

coylemj

ProudDUB wrote: »

traveling around the US by Greyhound bus is not for the faint of heart.

rossie1977 wrote: »

yes those greyhound buses attract all kinds of colourful individuals, about 13 years ago i got the greyhound from vegas to san francisco (overnight trip with short stops in reno and sacramento), the stories i could tell from that trip

whomitconcerns wrote: »

i got one from NYC to Baltimore once.......ermmmmmmm nuff said

Could you guys be a bit more specific about your experiences?

What type of people were on the bus and what type of behaviour led you to make your 'don't do it' comment?

I suspect there is a level of PC cutting in here because the passengers came from a specific ethncity/race and there's an element of self-censorship involved.

rossc007

whomitconcerns wrote: »

i got one from NYC to Baltimore once.......ermmmmmmm nuff said

I've gotten 2 different buses from New York to Baltimore and DC in the past six months, absolutely no problem either time. Never heard of a NYC to Vegas trip by land before, that's a serious journey. My first thought would be to rent a car and do it Griswold style.

InTheTrees

coylemj wrote: »

Could you guys be a bit more specific about your experiences?

I've done three greyhound trips when I was younger. I've also collected numerous people at greyhound stations.

Its really not a race thing at all, greyhound buses are scuzzy and generally full of low lifes. And the bus stations can be even worse.

As I sad in a post above, its desperate travel not tourist travel.

I've heard there are alternative bus services available.

ProudDUB

coylemj wrote: »

Could you guys be a bit more specific about your experiences?

What type of people were on the bus and what type of behaviour led you to make your 'don't do it' comment?

I suspect there is a level of PC cutting in here because the passengers came from a specific ethncity/race and there's an element of self-censorship involved.

Nope, its not a colour/PC thing really. In the US, owning and driving a car is much, much easier and cheaper than it is here. So pretty much everyone has one. Air travel is also much easier and cheaper than it is here. So the only people who don't drive or fly are people who are too poor or sick or mentally unstable to do so, or who want to be able to indulge in behaviour that wouldn't cut it in an airport. And by poor, I mean on on the breadline or homeless. Greyhound bus stations are usually located in very bad parts of inner cities. They often act as unofficial shelters for homeless people. They (and the buses themselves really) have a very bad reputation for petty thievery, crime, anti social behaviour and just being rather unpleasant places to be.

This may come across as being rather snobby on my part. I can see why you'd think that, but its hard to explain the culture of being on a Greyhound bus to someone who has never been on one, or who is using the Bus Eireann travel experience as a valid comparison. It really isn't. There are some private inter city coach operators that would offer an all around nicer experience than Greyhound. I don't know the names of them off the top of my head, but I would definitely suggest you look into them before deciding to do such a long trip on Greyhound.

trihead

I echo most of the above comments re greyhound bus from my own experience. I travelled down the east coast a few years ago when I was young and bascially didn't give a ****:pac: - was up for any experience. The stations are generally in rough areas and are dangerous particularity at night. As pointed out you get alot of people who are homeless using the service and others actually moving state with all their belonging on the bus. Now this isn't a big deal but there tends to fights and bawls and other dodgy behaviour, people being robbed when asleep etc. Mental issues are very common with homeless people. Now I did travel on loads of journeys - most were fine - day time trips are best but sometimes you cant avoid getting a night bus. I got night bus from atlanta to florida and I was awoke at 2 or 3 in the morning with loads of shouting - a woman was on the bus with her young kid. Her x decided to turn up a service station stop with a gun to take back the kid - no joke!! Cops and loads of shouting followed. Great fun - was half asleep - was the only thing that stopped me from crapping myself - I had actually totally forgotten that trip till I saw this thread.

Good luck with the travels if you do travel greyhound - just be careful and have you wits about you and you will be fine:D.

clairefontaine

Did you try megabus?

That or rent a car and do it.

Greyhound, I took it once and that was only because there was no other way from getting from where I was leaving to where I was going.

WhatNowForUs?

rossie1977 wrote: »

yes those greyhound buses attract all kinds of colourful individuals, about 13 years ago i got the greyhound from vegas to san francisco (overnight trip with short stops in reno and sacramento), the stories i could tell from that trip

It was probably the San Fran part that brought out the characters.

DaisyD2

coylemj wrote: »

Could you guys be a bit more specific about your experiences?

What type of people were on the bus

Apologies for long post but ^

I can only back up what others have said, Greyhound (or other smaller companies) are only used by those who can't afford to fly &/or are mentally incapable of driving.

That said Best trip of my life was an Amtrak Eastern Rail Zone hop on & off ticket in my 20s with my best bud (USIT sold them and there were different prices for different zones & time frames). Highly reccommend train but do your research on how to get from stations to hotels/downtowns etc, it worked out but we near came unstuck at 1 or 2 stations in middle of nowhere, particularily unmanned stations.

Total adventure from time we got on our first train from Penn Station through Philly to Washington. Adding to it was fact we were travelling south to New Orleans as Hurricane Floyd rumbled up north so we had to be bused around a couple of damaged lines. We never slept a wink on overnight trains cos of the weirdos mumbling & eyeing us up but that bit was fine, the dodgy bit came when we missed Savannah to Florida train because our inbred taxi driver was first late & then stopped altogether to check out 2 traffic accidents on way to station - she was a nut!

As trains only ran every 3days we had to get to Greyhound for overnight through Atlanta & down to New Orleans - sweet jaysus it still gives me night terrors to think of. We were two young white women from Ireland so we stood out miles. Our fellow passengers were United Nations of ages, races, colors & sizes. The driver drove like a mad woman & all I could see was huge blown out tyres on freeways & yet trucks still passed us like we were stopped - I was sure we were going to die in freeway fireball lol.

As if that wasn't bad enough an old white cowboy started pacing up n down the bus screaming racial abuse & worse at black female driver over the air conditioning. We had two of the most charming but you could only picture them as "gang bangers" chatting us up who obviously & quite rightly started to take offence but in fairness to them stayed calm & tried to talk him down but then out of nowhere the front passengers of bus erupted cos he tried to take the wheel! We ended up all being taken off the bus at next stop, cowboy got arrested & we were all put on separate buses to continue journeys. In Atlanta at 2am & there were more cops dragging people off buses & a "banshee" under a blanket getting taken away by ambulance after herself & boyfriend had had a punch up on their bus & left each other bloody pulps!

Greyhound is NOT for faint of heart!

Btw it actually didn't put me off, I went to Toronto on my own following year (fab town but more of a city break) & decided to take a Greyhound up to Niagara Falls. Met four terrified retired teachers from Brighton at bus terminal who were agog at junkies shooting up & the smells! Got talking to them & had great fun on the bus ride up.

have always thought Greyhounds are the liquorice all-sorts of the travel world

InTheTrees

We just bought tickets from Minneapolis to Seattle by train. In May. next month.

$400 each. With a 2 berth tiny cabin. Considering meals are included and that its two nights accommodation I think its pretty good value.

Plus you have a front row picture window view of the remote high plains whizzing by. The route is amazing, just south of the Canadian boarder through the wilderness of Montana and North Dakota. We did it once before but it was in the winter, in the snow, and it got dark early, so we should see more this time.

My better is from Minneapolis and we'll be visiting her family there for a week first and this is a nice way to end the trip.

spideog7

ProudDUB wrote: »

Air travel is also much easier and cheaper than it is here.

I would tend to disagree with that, air travel in the US is typically more expensive than in Europe and I don't think it's easier either; the security is a pain in the arse and travel to and from many airports is almost impossible without a car.

Other than that I would echo the sentiments of everyone else here, I wouldn't go Greyhound, Megabus is grand but not much fun for a holiday. Renting a car would be how I'd do it but I've heard trains are nice too, haven't tried them yet though. I figure much of the trip would be relatively boring in terms of scenery too.

SHOVELLER

Have used Greyhound a fair amount of times and never had a problem. Mostly the NY to Boston route which in fairness is only 4 hours.

But one time I did Savannah to NY which was 17 hours. Nothing much happened except some guy asked the driver where he was from and the driver stopped the bus and proceeded to come back and berate this guy! Must have missed the back story!

As someone who is aware of a lot of mentally ill people here I have been lucky stateside! Maybe that's the reason I go over so often.

con1421

Iv never experienced anything bad happening on a US bus. Iv done NY to Baltimore, NY to Boston, Atlanta to Florida and Vegas to LA. The only bad thing is if you over night (which really cuts down the travel time) you will come across lots of homeless people sleeping in the bus stations.

Hazys

SHOVELLER wrote: »

Have used Greyhound a fair amount of times and never had a problem. Mostly the NY to Boston route which in fairness is only 4 hours.

The Boston NYC route would be pretty normal, as it takes as much time to fly or get the train for the same route and its waaay cheaper. NYC and Boston are not great places to drive to if you want to park easily or just get around. You would get a lot tourists and students on those buses.