Top 10 tips for taking the Megabus

Writing the UK cityscapes book means I have a lot of travel to do as I journey from city to city around the UK.  One of the most important points of the project was to use sustainable green transport like trains, planes and ferries and to avoid air travel, slow tourism is a much nicer way to travel, you get to watch the world go by.  However, using the train can often be expensive (by comparison, a return train ticket was £110), especially if you can't book months in advance and months ago I didn't even know I would be writing the book so that leaves me with 2 options, National Express and Megabus, having trialled the Megabus from Newcastle to Birmingham which cost me £5 for the journey there and £15 for the Journey back and took 6 hours there and 7 hours back here's my findings and my top 10 tips for travelling by Megabus.


1. Be prepared for delays, especially if you are travelling on Fridays or through big city rush hours.

2. If you want a plug then you need to be in the window seat, however the plug sockets don't always work.

3. Bring plenty of things to entertain yourself, 7 hours on a bus can seem like a lifetime.

4. Beware of the toilets, imagine an old fridge which has been switched off with the door closed, be ready for the stench to hit you as you open the door.

5. Remember that you're travelling the budget way, this might help you to deal with the whole Megabus experience.

6. The bus will always be full so get to the front of the queue if you even want to have a chance of a window seat.

7. Occasionally there will be a random comfort break at the service station, take advantage and run to the nearest nice loo.

8. On some of the buses there are tables but not all, if you're planning on taking a heavy laptop bear that in mind.

9. Take earphones or earplugs so you can block out the noise.

10. Take a travel pillow if you plan on sleeping, some buses have adjustable seats, some don't.

Travelling on the Megabus in the UK is certainly an experience, I see it as a great way of saving money whilst working on the UK cityscapes project, everything is bearable apart from the loos, for my next bus trip I'm going to experiment and try National Express, I'll let you know how that compares.

Share: