nun

Non-bike transportation is sometimes required on a bike tour to get to a starting point or to get back home. Cost, time, comfort and dealing with the luggage that you bike becomes are all factors. So what is your preferred way to travel long distances? A flight is quick and inexpensive, but very unromantic and flying with a bike can be worrying. Amtrak coach will cost the same as a flight, but take far longer, or you could pay multiples more for the comfort of a sleeper. The bus is cheapest and probably very uncomfortable.

staehpj1

My take is this. The train takes three days or more and often costs more than flying. The bus is pretty awful too, I have met some real characters on the bus though, often drunks or released prisoners on their way home.

I much prefer flying. Just pick a bike friendly airline (I like Southwest).

Rowan

Driving a rental car is something we have done on quite a few long trips in the North America. The bikes are always with us and we often plan routes the take us places we wouldn't otherwise see. We can also stop along the way to ride as suits our fancy. We just drop the car off at our destination.

We've also used our own or another family member's car to do the two trans-continental trips we've done (E-W and N-S). And we have flown several times, and I've done the Starlight train trip once, but never again. And certainly Greyhound never ever again.

fietsbob

I since I had to deal with the air carrier anyhow , I Just Leave the US.. Tour Other Countries ..

Oddly enough with better Public Transport Used By a Wide Range of people .

The ones on the Bus are not just the Ones who cannot afford a Private car ..

Though making the Public transit Suck Does Help Push Car Sales .. all part of the Nefarious Master Plan... BWA Ha Ha Ha





When I lived in Eugene there was the Green Tortoise Bus .. It plied I5 I used It To Go to the Bay Area , where My Parents still Lived ..


But for a Table and some facing seats that folded away , The Seats were largely Removed and it was 1 Big Mattress at Night.
when the Fellow passengers all rolled out their sleeping Bags ..

In the middle of the Trip, near Roseburg OR, there was Dinner southbound , or Brekkie north bound , to get out stretch your legs ,
use the Sauna and a dip on the Creek there, .

wash dishes and get back on the Bus again..

It closed down, long Ago, but since the question was Favorites , Thats It .


Current POINT Bus to PDX from the Coast is Deluxe . +The LBS takes in Boxed Bikes, both ways, so You dont Have to deal with It .

But its just a half Block to drag the carton if you put it on the Bus . the LBS will offer a corner and some Loaner tools .

mev

If all else is equal, I like the train. Seating is a lot more comfortable than airline seats. I can sleep or watch my journey unwind. Getting a sleeper an extra bonus. Last trip across US, I took Amtrak back. It took three days, but I has sleeper for nights one and three and enjoyed seeing places where Southern Tier and train route coincided.

If I'm more pressed for time, then plane for far distances and rental car for shorter ones.

staehpj1

I to have gone the rental car route a few times, but never coast to coast. It worked well. I have driven coast to coast and back for a backpacking trip. I enjoyed it and wasn't in a hurry because I was retired.

I did a 17 hour Amtrak leg on a tour and found the seats really uncomfortable and actually was more sore and tired from the train ride than from the tour. It took longer and cost as much as a rental car would have. I may use Amtrak again, but probably not on any long trip.

I want to love the train. I like the idea of it, but found that after 5-10 hours or so it starts to suck pretty badly.

bikemig 

I love trains. They remind me of why I like to travel. So do bikes.

shipwreck

I love trains a lot. The nearest train station is a four hour drive away, so probably wont do that unless its during a tour, which I have done.
If I ever fly to a tour I will ship my bike to the destination rather than mess with taking it with me. I will pay extra for the over the top shipping cost due to over packing it. If I take a bus I will do the same, already have a bike shop contacted near my next big tours start that will take it.

I have done greyhound once, but not with a bike. I guess I was expecting a sort of rolling crack house vomitorium filled with guys with prison tats all over their faces, panhandling lepers missing noses from untreated syphilis, and screaming children with switchblades and tubercular coughs. What I saw was people who had somewhere to go, and less options for going all the way to the airport, or to a train station, or less income. There were some rough characters, and one cougher, but oh well. I was looking kind of rough myself, and was in fact the only person the driver gave a funny look at, when I was loading my sewing machine...(long story, but I had traveled almost 4,000 miles with a 1975 Kenmore, by plane, rental car, train, taxi, and then bus, for an art project I had worked on, insisting on having my own machine with me).

I was really surprised at how comfortable it was, it took forever, but was not the rolling cesspit I had feared. When it stopped halfway and the driver said it was for a routine cleaning I was surprised, as it seemed clean to me, and I am a chronic germaphobe. Maybe I got lucky on a ten hour trip. My next trip will be a 36 hour, three transfer ride, possibly I will have a radically different opinion after that!

Robert C

I work in Kansas and my wife lives in Utah. As such I tend to fly on holidays.Of course sometimes it doesn't work out (thanksgiving the airline sold 13 tickets but sent a 9 passenger plane, guess who was #11 in line). Getting hime this christmas took two days due to equipment issues leading to missed connections; however, generally it does work the way it is supposed to. For the distance I am going the train is just too slow.

andrewclaus

As usual, it depends. If I'm going solo, I'll ship the bike and go by plane and not deal with luggage. If I'm going with a companion or two, car rental can be better with bikes on board. If Amtrak is convenient or has a classic route like the Coastal Starlight, I'll take that. I've only done regional buses, not cross-country. It's just never been the best option.

staehpj1

I like to do that on the way home. I generally pay a bike shop to box and ship it home. Between their packing fee and the shipping it has generally been about $100 total. At the end of the tour in a strange city I like to be able to drop the bike off and head to the airport with no messing with finding a box, boxing the bike, getting it to the plane or shipped.

I have found that the bike shop usually gets a better deal on the shipping than I would as an individual. Sometimes it is enough cheaper to cover their charge for packing the bike. I boxed my bike and took it to a UPS store, despite having used a smallish box and keeping the weight low they charged me more than a bike shop ever has to do the packing and ship the bike. We had a similar experience with a friends trailer where the UPS store gouged for an exorbitant amount.

I much prefer to not ship the bike on the way to the tour, but rather to fly with it as baggage. I get a kick out of riding out of the airport 20 minutes after the bike comes off of the baggage carousel and am happy to not have to find the place where my bike would be shipped and get there while they are open.

andrewclaus

Yes, that's happened to me at UPS. I used Bikeflights.com leaving home for about $60, but you need a computer and printer. One the way home, sans printer, I checked online and UPS's site quoted about $80, still OK. When I got to the place, they charged me $130. When everything arrived, I wrote to UPS with a claim and to my surprise they quickly refunded the difference so I remain a happy customer. Lesson learned--I should have found a place with a printer and used Bikeflights.

(Sorry for the thread drift.)

Walter S

I love trains. I sleep well on the trains. The seats are big and comfortable. The clactyclac feels like a gentle rocking. The staff is usually much more polite and accomodating than are airlines. There are more likely to be interesting and pretty views outside.

staehpj1

That is so not my experience. They are big but I have found them exceedingly uncomfortable after a few hours. I always woke up very stiff and sore after sleeping in train seats. I can't imagine doing a coast to coast trip on the train without a sleeper and I am too cheap to pay for one.

I do have to agree with that. I have seen some beautiful country from the train.