Taking a Greyhound bus for the second time in my life.

Yes all Pompei. As you know pictures don't do the area justice. Did you see Hurculaneum? (better than Pompeii IMHO). Vesuvius itself. Paestum with Greek ruins was amazing to me as well. Positano and of course Amalfi.

I wanted to visit Salerno but we didn't make it there.

We "lived" in a little town called Sant'Agnello far enough away from Sorrento to be out of tourists, maybe 30-40 minute walk. The people were great. Sorrento is a great place to dine, regardless. Again just walking and trains to or near the spots with the occasional cab ride if living it up.

I want to do 3-4 weeks in a small town in the north of Italy, but right now all kinds of family issues.
That's the way to do it, spend a few weeks immerse yourself and try to be away from the tourists. We only saw part of Pompeii, we were there of maybe 12 hours. Herculaneum and the rest are definitely on the to-do list.
 
Used to ride a Greyhound every other weekend when I came home on leave from military school, wasn't too bad. Richmond VA. to Springfield VA. still took almost 3 hours. Transferred to James River Bus Lines for the ride back to FUMA from Richmond. Had the same driver more times than not. It was, uh, "interesting" as he told some really off-color jokes over the P.A. I still know most of them 😁.
 
Not one shred of any of this thread is as nasty as economy Air France SeaTac to Paris. End thread.
Just took a new AF A350 in business class - very nice. However - “rude” falls short of describing the ground staff - maybe it was seasonal bcs the witches were out 😵‍💫

IMG_3838.webp
 
In the late '80s I frequently traveled from LA to Marin and back by train and bus to visit and stay with my grandparents. That took half a day. I also used to go from LA to Mountain High via Palm Springs by AMTRAK as a teen. It took about 3 hours. And in the early '90s when we were living in the UK I went on a 10-week continental trip with two friends. This was just a few years before the Channel opened. We traveled from London to Dover and took a giant Mountbatten Class hovercraft ferry to Calais. Nowadays you can ride the train from London into the heart of Paris. From there we traveled around Europe mostly by train and sometimes by bus. We rented bikes and circled Lake Garda. We mostly stayed in youth hotels. My fellow travelers and friends were an English rapscallion with street smarts and an Indian boy who spoke fluent French and some German. Traveling by train across Europe was a great experience. The French TGV was the fastest train we rode. The ICE seemed slow in comparison. When we returned we looked like unlikely youthful hobos. I still have the backpack from back then!

I haven't traveled by train in years. Maybe the Orient Express is in my future. Proper luggage and a porter, I reckon.
 
It would have been the first place I looked too, but you occasionally hit the $900 one way rentals too.
A buddy who has exchange students told me he had a student XMAS 2023 who did a one way PHL to YYZ, and it was about a thousand. I said is that worth it? He said these kids are from wealthy families, so it is to them. Whatever happened to hitchhiking? I did it Albany to Miami, also Albany to Cincinnati. I also would routinely stop for girls as well.
 
I don't know if this bus line still exists, but a lost (but not forgotten) Vietnamese friend of mine used to frequently take some unmarked, white bus from San Jose to Los Angeles.

The driver would ask where passengers wanted to be dropped off along the way and made sure that they had contact info, with who was to pick them up. No one got dropped off unless they had this info. They also got a sandwich and a bottle of water, all for $40, one-way.
 
Took the greyhound one time to pick up a car a few hours away. Other than the only pickup time being 4am it was fairly tolerable. Sad to have no more nationwide bus service in Canada.
 
I still remember fondly my Greyhound trip 25 years ago. Liked the passengers - very different from airplane travel. Much more friendly and fascinating people. At the time I think the service wasn't as bad as I see on youtube travel channels.
 
Back
Top Bottom