Budget Travel Between Washington DC and New York City: Megabus

View from Megabus on the way to NYCWhen we lived in Maryland, literally, on Washington DC border, we visited NYC quite often. There are a number of options for traveling between these 2 cities: train, plain and a number of different bus lines. Nowadays, traveling by plane, by far, is least of my favorites: you have to get to an airport about 2 hours prior to your flight, taking my shoes off is the best way to put me in a foul mood for the rest of the day, and getting from an airport to the NYC (any airport there) takes time and money. Train is prohibitively expensive. Hence, bus looks like the best option: it starts and ends in the middle of respective cities and travel time is the same as by train. There are a number of different bus providers: Greyhound, Bolt, multiple operators originating in DC Chinatown (I can not even remember any of their names) and Megabus. Among major bus carriers, Megabus is the last one joining the show. It came to the US about 5 years ago from the UK and did make a splash on DC roads: double deckers painted in bright blue were easy to spot. With prices comparable (and in some cases even lower than Greyhound and Bolt) they presented an irresistible opportunity – who would not want to ride a double decker, right? I am not talking about low cost Chinatown-based buses due to their dismal safety record (I want to get to my destination in one piece, thank you very much). Over the time,  Megabus popularity definitely grew, and it quickly became a household name. We took numerous trips between DC and NYC on Megabus. Admittedly, there were couple glitches: once, WiFi did not work; another time the power outlet was broken… However, with the price tag between $20 to $40 (depending on time and day of the week) it was a great deal.

Sharing is caring!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Don’t miss the fun!
Subscribe to Traveling Bytes updates.