30-hour Flixbus from Germany to Romania (for $15)

[@thornton]

What's the longest bus journey you've done before? And how did you survive?? Give me tips for the next time that I am so stupid as to get myself in this situation again... 😅

[@omicronceti42]

Hamburg - Glasgow last September, about 35 hours it was I believe. Listening to music, trying to sleep, watching the landscapes and cityscapes outside, talking to my seat neighbours… but it still felt like an eternity. All worth it though. First time I’ve been to Scotland and I didn’t want to fly but trains were too expensive.

[@nasimal-tamimi3399]

Amman to Bucharest, 12 times :)

[@makijezakon]

Munich to Rijeka(Croatia) about 13 hours. We took Flixbus, they were cheap enough and I had no experience with them at the time. Bus that arrived wasn't a Flixbus, it was a regular intercity bus that had no toilets, drivers were rude rednecks, stops were rare and short. All in all, terrible experience since they promised extra legroom, phone chargers, toilets and we literally got none of those. We felt like we were scammed to be honest. Since then, we take trains.

[@Mansch007]

Did a couple of 20 hour trips in Argentina. The experience there was sooo different, with zero or almost zero intermediary stops, with meal service and red wine, with straight roads, and with an affordable upgrade to a better seat. I'd rather do another 20 hour trip across the Cono Sur than a ten hour bus ride in Central Europe or a five hour adventure in the Balkans.

[@didivicky]

I did Bucharest-Strasbourg once when i was younger and poorer :))) would i do it again? Not necessarily :)))

[@NerdX151]

I did Copenhagen-Vilnius back when Eurolines still existed. I remember the journey through Poland, where we took a detour to the driver's village, where we ended up parking in front of his house for 3 hours because he wanted a nap. We also had a long stop in Poznan where a group of men greeted the driver, got onboard and asked if anyone wanted to buy drugs, and then started dealing with multiple passengers while the driver was patiently waiting.

[@juilescieg]

As a Pole myself, I must add some positive facts to the old Eurolines, Sindbad and such sort of buses: I was traveling with them very often. ( a couple of times in a year ) And it was always very normal without such weird happenings. Only issue, before Poland got in the EU, was the waiting at the border. That took often 2 hours waiting, checking the passports, checking some luggage) but besides that, everything was fine. I mean, the ride was long and exhausting, but normal.

[@goduxunike]

What the….

[@kreonsunvernunft8010]

big biznes

[@Lak62_101]

"a group of men greeted the driver, got onboard and asked if anyone wanted to buy drugs, and then started dealing with multiple passengers while the driver was patiently waiting." hahaha i would be so happy to get some for a trip like that. a trip for the trip

[@Admix98]

And later you just woke up?

[@frida3025]

Did a much shorter flixbus journey this spring, and those few short hours were enough for me… this is some resilience on another level!

[@thornton]

you mean you did some normal travel like a normal person? teach me

[@frida3025]

@@thornton unfortunately I think you’re a lost cause… but so am I, I would totally do this for a good enough deal

[@KennyNGA]

I drove with a bus from London to Germany 26 hours including the ferry and I was 10 lmao maybe that's why I manage to survive 6 hours in a train every few months

[@Tyexx_]

@@KennyNGAim going from Berlin to Amsterdam soon, very excited

[@ileanabica1760]

And still plenty of people do this every year. There's millions of Romanian in Diaspora and do this trip. Me myself I do it at least 2 times a year that counting as 4 tikes a year of you add the round trip.

[@haddockman30]

I did Bucharest to London on Flixbus. 48 hours of fun. :)

[@thornton]

you have my respect 🏆

[@cehaem2]

@@thornton I knew people that would sometimes take the Moscow - Düsseldorf coach back in the day....

[@valentinDS96]

hahah

[@specularverzide9972]

In my youth, 2005, I've done Bucharest to Zaragoza with eurolines, must've been more than 60 hours overall.

[@Slavko_Husam]

​@@specularverzide9972lol😂

[@spamspam541]

The baby crying when entering Romania is just evolutionary survival reflex.

[@andrineslife]

I've done 16 hours on a flixbus and swore to never do it again. I usually live vicariously through you but this time you just have my sympathy 😅

[@Andrij_Kozak]

Same. My last FlixBus ride was 15 hours and this is already the limit. More would be pure torture.

[@Intel-i7-9700k]

Same, will never do it again. My first one was doable, but my second one I started to feel claustrophobic at times. Will from now on make road trips by car with cruise control and freedom, much much better.

[@jonasanderss8n]

Congratulations for surviving the Eastern European Bus Odyssey - I write this as someone from this part of Europe myself. I used to travel a lot with the bus that went from Bari, Italy to Rzeszow, Poland which had kinda similar vibe to it: I remember the odd smells, people smoking cigarettes like it is their essential food, constant stopping at the petrol stations, strange loud music, someone sitting in front of me having some sort of sexual activities with the person next to them and so on. It was like giving part of your dignity as a price of a ticket, I discovered that with time and settled for a train as a more self compassionate way of traveling. Thanks for sharing, hope to see part two from Bucharest!

[@ashishkulkarni9783]

The experience sounds similar to the Greyhound buses that run across USA

[@alexandrufrateanu]

Very spot on. From Romania to Italy or Germany it was the same thing. The old days :)) Would not do it now if you paid me :))

[@blacov89]

Wow thank you for your comment. I am from Poland too and every time I took a long journey and I wasn't flying I drove my own car. Yes the bus would have been a lot cheaper but I can't imagine spending the best part of a day in such a small compartment with such inconsiderate people around me.

[@BerndBadewanne]

Last time I traveled with Flixbus, 15 mins after leaving Vienna the bus driver missed a highway exit, tried to still make it, realized he wouldn't, almost crashed into the guard rail and made a full break to come to a stop on the hard shoulder. Fair to say everyone on the bus was quite attentive afterwards

[@_WanderIust]

My first time with flixbus last under 1 minute because the driver back off into another bus. All windows in the back broke. So we decided to leave the Bus and take the car instead..

[@johannestravels]

Kinda reminds me of experience in Finland about 2 years ago in long distance bus. Driver missed a ramp which had a bus stop on it, decided to stop in the middle of a lane on busy motorway on rush hour, open doors and yell to the bus stop on ramp if anyone was coming to this bus.

[@styx814]

I spent two months travelling Argentina and Brazil recently. Took 5 bus trips over 20 hours. The longest Iguazu - Rio was 27 hours including 3 hour stop in the middle of nowhere due to flat tire. Yes, they are very long journey but not a big deal really. Long distance buses are generally comfortable and you get to see a lot. I see this long bus trips as adventure. We have been spoiled by technological advances. People used to spend months on ships to get to faraway destination yet we moan about 30 hours spent sitting in rather comfortable seat.

[@w1ndt]

Holy smokes I need to go to romania, this country is looking so beautiful.

[@oasee8386]

Romania has its share of beautiful places, please do you due diligence before visiting and hope to have a nice trip. And please don't torture yourself with getting in by bus ;)

[@Flbari]

It's beautiful and the people are friendly. And some.things are much cheaper then western Europe.

[@georgobergfell]

The fact that you did this without noise cancelling head phones baffles me the most 😂

[@ronclark9724]

He complains no one on the bus is using a earphone with their electronic devices, but alas is himself TOO CHEAP to buy ear plugs... What a nitwit hypocrite.... If you know before you are going to be riding in a airline, train, or bus in coach and don't want to be disturbed, use ear plugs... I wouldn't have any hearing left in my senior years after working in a very hot and noisy power plant generator room for decades. Ear plugs are CHEAP compared to a ear pod or a headphone...

[@MrFahrenheit9]

if you ask why people don't fly and use Flixbus for such long journeys, I got two strong arguments for that. First of all, it's about luggage, innit? when you really need a few suitcases with you, it's ridiculously uncomfortable and expensive to fly. But secondly it's just easier for older generation. For example, I'm living in Köln with my mom and sister. And when mom wants to go back home to Ukraine, she needs to go to the closest Polish border because nothing flies there. And she would get lost in any airport in a second. One time I had to literally stay on the phone with her while she was navigating an airport in Barcelona. She arrived at the wrong terminal and didn't know where to go. So it's easier for me just to escort her to the nearest Flixbus stop in 10 minutes by foot, and in 20 hours she'll just hop on a train home from Przemysl. Me personally - I'd prefer flying. But it ain't cheap either and there are not so many useful flights from Cologne to Poland for example. I'd still spend the whole day in transit.

[@thornton]

oh that makes sense :)

[@MrFahrenheit9]

@@thornton thanks for an awesome video once again. I also have love-hate relationship with Flixbus. So it really strikes a cord🤭

[@juilescieg]

Another plus is, that those buses, are often very on time. You really can rely on them. And everything is very simple. I simply need to be at the main station in hamburg, for example, maybe 15 min earlier. wait for the bus, show my ticket, put my luggage in the trunk, make myself comfortable on my seat, hope to have both seats for myself (sometimes it works out), put music on and "enjoy" the ride as much as possible and have nothing to worry about. But I have to say, that I got used to those buses from an early age. I visited my family in poland a couple of times in a year and that bus was a normal thing for me. You learn, how to sleep and how to sit there. You know the differences between middle seats, front seats and back seats. sometimes it is better to sit near the row (you can strech your legs) and at the window seat, you can lean the head against the window. I was experimenting with different seats. All have their plus and contras. My ride was 18 or 19 hours. The first 10 oder 12 hours were no problem, but after that, my but hurt. ^^ But all in all, it is very uncomplicated, as you said. And there are no airports in eastern poland. At least, no direkt flights from hamburg. I would have to flight to london, wait some hours, take a propeller plane to a small airport somethere and after that, I still would need to take a train or bus, to get, to where I want. those buses (sindbad for example) are driving almost exactly to the town, where my family lives, so another plus point to the list.

[@MrFahrenheit9]

@@juilescieg yeah, absolutely. I'm also team row seat! And for example I discovered this fantastic route from Amsterdam to Przemysl: at 7 am you hop on a bus that's literally in the center of a small town where I live and in 4 hours you are in Amsterdam enjoying the day ahead. Amazing! And I feel your struggle with finding a proper plane connection to Eastern Poland (we need it desperately too). Haven't found one without sketchy layovers that are either too short or too long. Or too expensive (I'm looking at you, Lufthansa)

[@cehaem2]

@@MrFahrenheit9 LH is expensive just like any other normal airline. Plus there's literally zero point in them having a direct service to Rzeszow. They offer combined flights via Warsaw - that's why they're are so expensive.

[@schwuzi]

My friends and I took a Flixbus from Amsterdam to Salzburg in 2016. It was €20 I think and it took a little over 24 hours. Our bus stopped in Rosenheim at 2 AM and another one would pick us up at around 6 AM. We went into a bank/post office and just emptied our suitcases to sleep on our clothes on the floor. The banks security came in later and told us he had to throw us out unfortunately but the doors to the ATM section would remain open and he won't come back again. That was so nice of him. Of course he had to throw us out because that's his job but he basically let us know that we could just go right in again. I'll never forget that whole trip but honestly it was similar to yours and a nightmare for all of us in the bus. I haven't taken a Flixbus since and I probably never will again. It's fun when you're young and don't have much money to spare but I'm done with all that😅

[@snubbeltraden2]

I doubt I could withstand a bus journrey of even five hours, so massive respect to you! I love to see videos of all of these silly journeys, keep up the good work

[@thornton]

hahaha I also could not withstand it, I guess :) thanks a lot!

[@Diefenthalka]

because of the war now i need to do 12 hours bus journies, did it already 5 times, its a hell and it takes couple days to recover physiclly and mentally from that long trip on bus

[@alexg3745]

I had a 56hour journey a few weeks ago 💀

[@Diefenthalka]

@@alexg3745 💀💀💀

[@trazkey]

I did a journey in the philippines once on a small, cramped and overloaded mini bus for almost 24 hours, with a flaten tire and small stops of course and I survived it. The only thing was that my legs and knees were hurting afterwards. Mentally I did fine.

[@hershmysson]

Just love how bus rides are bus rides... just everywhere, all the same vibes that I get when I go to São Paulo every once in a while.

[@TetraDax]

I think Hamburg-Amsterdam in 11 hours was about the maximum I could bear, I am in awe of your strength.

[@PasiDays]

I did Karlsruhe to Barcelona in about 18h and i loved it

[@galdersrontgorrth]

why did it take 11 hours for that distance?!

[@Quast]

What a champ you are. I don't go for more than 4h, the surprise factor is just too big....

[@fahadahaf]

I did the Munich to Berlin route on Flixbus, 10 hours; absolutely hated it. I was pissed off at DB for almost a 2 hour delay while going from Berlin to Munich, so I decided to give Flixbus a shot. 10 hours in Flixbus made me realize how good ICEs are 😅(specially the newer ones)

[@TetraDax]

@@galdersrontgorrth Well it was supposed to be 7 but apparently the bus driver didn't feel like it.

[@yoshy2628]

As a Romanian living in Munich, I took the bus twice to Bucharest and I don't need this travel style anymore. As for the plane let me educate you: Tarom, the national airline, no longer has flights from Munich, or Germany, to Bucharest, Lufthansa have taken over most of the flights to Romania, that's why they almost doubled the prices. Who does not have things to do in Bucharest prefers the bus because it is still cheap and they can get home faster. From Bucharest they should take the train or bus again to get home, another money, another expense and time. I flew in May and a round trip ticket costs 280€, by Lufthansa you get only hand luggage for this price. With Tarom a round trip was 220€-230€, with baggage included. Lufthansa wants another 90€-100€ for luggage, total will be around 380€ mark. A Romanian who works for 1000€ net in De is normal to look at 180€ difference, plus he has to pay the train or bus from Bucharest to get home.

[@Zolkte]

As a Romanian, I can say that I expected you to abandon the bus while still in Germany, you have the mettle that very few possess my friend.

[@Oismyurl]

I've done the Copenhagen to Bucharest a few times (44-46 hours) and you were VERY unlucky on this trip. It's usually not that bad. But fun to see anyway! 😁

[@christinetraier5976]

Absolutely loved this! As a frequent Flixbus traveler (by financial circumstance, not by choice) and a native Romanian living in the thinking man's Berlin (never heard Leipzig be called that way before, but I love it!) I very much enjoyed you go through the magic of traveling in a very tight space with eastern Europeans... I can definitely relate to your experience, so thank you KZbin algorithm for randomly throwing you my way.

[@elgoog-the-third]

"by financial circumstance"? Going by train is just as cheap. I took an example date, 28th of August this year. Train: 80€. Flixbus: 76€, underpaid sleep-deprived bus driver included.

[@alexspata]

I'm from Romania, and I hate travelling by bus, even for 1-2 hours..I've traveled through Italy and Switzerland with Flixbus but it was for maxium 6 hours...for me, it's very hard to do it, it takes me 2-3 days just to recover from such a trip. The worst experience I had was from Iasi (Ro) to Istanbul back in 2013 with an old bus, we did like 25 hours..smell, noise, narrow space, it haunts me even after so many years..

[@wesleymeijer4261]

Watching this video brings back so many memories haha. Like sitting next to a woman watching videos and listing to music without earphones for 5 hours straight or a baby that didn't stop crying behind me. My Flixbus days are over for now.

[@GordyThomas]

Great editing Tom @thornton - I remained engaged throughout. I can truly appreciate just how much time and effort it took to pull this all together. Most excellent! 😎👍

[@BM24DK]

Fluxbus is awesome if you’re only going on short trips (3-4 hours). On my eurotrip in 2019 my favourite journey was going from Lyon to Milan and Milan to Interlaken (Switzerland). I paid 2 extra euros to get the front seats and it was so worth it. The views along this trips were just insane. Highly recommend these cheap bus rides if the distance is short. 🙂

[@sunshine037gv]

Agreed. I have travelled plenty with Flixbus from Aarhus to Copenhagen and back (both are in Denmark) and it has always been a great and unexpensive way to get to and from the CPH airport.

[@BaurJoe]

Holy hell... Been wondering how one of these 24-hour-plus bus rides work! You're a brave man.

[@thornton]

brave, stupid, same same

[@johnnygomez7063]

Hi from Prague - actually the stop in Bratislava, Slovakia is not "multystory car park" . but the biggest shopping mall in Slovakia, opened very recently in downtown area , where the central bus station is located under the mall in garage area.

[@freddy96.]

I did a similar route almost 12 times in a year, after a while if you are prepared you just get used to it, but you don't realize how having the seat next to you free makes the whole trip ten times more bareable

[@zhalt123]

Brave of you, to say the least. I found the 7,5 hrs from Brno to Ljubljana to be approximately 7 hours too long, and I'd prefer to walk the distance rather than spend 30 hours onboard a Flixbus.

[@spotstate3548]

My longest ever coach bus route was Munich - London (changing in Paris) which took 24 hours, but because I could stretch my legs in Paris and on the Ferry over the channel, it really wasn’t that bad

[@alien-vu7yl]

You are a madman. Curious to see what you got up to in Romania, seeing your country through foreign eyes is always interesting.

[@jonathanadorjani3838]

I did a 25-26 hours (or so) Flixbus journey last year, from Budapest to the Hague, with a change in Munich. Never again. 😅 Edit: Actually it was 2 times about 26 hours, since I went by flixbus there and then got home the same way.

[@WujiErTaiji]

Back in 2016 I drove with Flixbus to Paris for a day trip as it was like 10€ total. It was an 8 hour drive over night and this was already pretty hard even though the bus was relatively quiet. I think with your trip there I would just go insane.

[@thornton]

a day trip to Paris wow! good effort

[@FigaroFigarotheVillain]

Same man, Rotterdam - Paris; took 8 hours. It was horrible I definitely wouldn’t do a bus trip over 10 hours

[@pajasene]

Recently travelled with flixbus from Copenhagen to Frankfurt, from 22:00 to 13:13 the next day. So a whole night and half a day's journey. Was actually better than expected, but the home journey was done by train, witch was far better in every way. Thanks for a nice video

[@mattihp]

I went from Stockholm to Prague on Flixbus. 24 hours. The most annoying things were that men were not discouraged from standing in the loo so every visit started with cleaning piss off the entire loo and that the lengths of stops was completely random and never announced for length. But hey, it was cheap and I could avoid flying.

[@riina___]

I went from Duisburg to Berlin with 3 Japanese friends on a Flixbus and at one stop we actually left with two of them still in the restroom outside. With a bit of begging I convinced the driver to stop again luckily 😂

[@alexandrufrateanu]

As a Romanian, I can tell you that that is how many Romanians travelled to western europe in the early 2000's, when work and study visas were abolished. Flying was not yet as cheap and plentyful. Then, as a 20 year old, I visited my cousin in Rome in 2006. It was a 28 hour ride. I do have some fond memories, and there is some romance in being lost on those highways, but that is mainly because I was young and Deep Vein Thrombosis was not in my head. Now I would't be caught dead 30 hours in a bus. We all use WizzAir or Ryan these days. Greetings from Arad, Romania 🙂

[@alien-vu7yl]

The ~10hr train to the seaside is the longest non-flying journey I’ve ever done and that’s because I was a kid and nobody was asking my opinion. I don’t think I could survive any longer trip with my sanity intact since I’m one of the unlucky people who can’t sleep on any moving vehicle even though I’m short enough that leg room is never an issue. I’d be asking to be let off by hour 3.

[@Zaurkax14]

Couches like this are a thing because they take off from crazy many cities, and usually the main station there, meanwhile airports tend to be on the outskirts of the city, often much less accessible to people with no car. They also connect less popular cities, are less stressful - no security checks, you can take whatever food and drinks you want with you, and many people are scared of flying. I took flixbus once, Łódź-Hamburg, and I'd never do it again though.

[@siddhantgoyal1397]

In my student days, my friends and I went from Cologne to Prague in a bus. It was with one of the student travel groups which are cheap but put you through physical hell. As if the overnight journey was not enough, the bus driver also shut the toilets, saying that they get too dirty if used. It was December and I vowed to never ever repeat the experience.

[@angourakis]

Congrats on the trip, Tom! I actually did it once from Lisbon, Portugal to Luxembourg (by air) and to Warsaw, Poland (with flixbus) as my friend and I were in a budget. The bus trip took 21 hours in total (1h30 was resting in Berlin) and it was not the end of the world but, definitely, very tiring. We enjoyed a lot resting in a park in Luxembourg, could eat some delicious food and even slept a bit in front of a lake. In Berlin, we also went to a park so we could rest a bit more and drink something. It didn't help the fact the we both got into some arguments haha but, at the end, we got to our destination safe and sound. Would I do it again? Probably not. As much as I like to travel by bus, it is too much (even staying in the airport, during the night, waiting for a connection, is pretty tiring).

[@thornton]

Thanks! Oh that does sound like a long way. Glad you survived :)

[@KennyNGA]

I think you guys should have get drunk or took drugs

[@alrightletskeepgoing890]

A couple of years ago I went from Rotterdam to Zagreb on Flixbus. I don't think it was as long as this, and we changed buses in Munich so we had a bit of a longer break there, but this definitely reminds me of that trip. Thankfully I was able to sleep a little haha

[@heikozysk233]

I think you find people buying those quite expensive full fare tickets for Flixbus when they cannot plan a trip in advance. Then also saver fares for trains or planes are usually no longer available, and even if LCCs like Ryanair or Wizz should serve that route, their fares can also be expensive when you must travel tomorrow. When you want to travel from Berlin to Vienna on short notice, one-way fares are typically €250 for a plane ticket, €200 to go by train or €50-70 for Flixbus.

[@popix33]

Yep, and also on the bus you can bring more luggages and the other advantage compared to Plane it's that it cover more cities than the plane.

[@ChokyoDK]

Flixbus is pretty amazing when it comes to pricing. You can take a bus from Bordeaux (South West France) all the way to Bucharest (Capital of Romania) for 190 USD. That's a 49 hour bus journey covering 2800 km or 1740 miles. That's 10 cent per mile or 7 cent per km.

[@Andrei2patrU]

As a student, I had a 36 hour bus ride from southern Turkey to the middle of Transylvania and I swore to myself that I will never take busses for long distance travel no matter how much it costs. 12 years later, I'm still sticking to that and the only long driveI took was from the Germany-Netherlands border all the way to the middle of Transylvania (with similar results - swearing to myself that I don't do it again). For every travel I do now, I plan plentiful breaks and even though it's longer, I assure myself that I arrive relaxed at my destination.

[@Intel-i7-9700k]

Good minset right there. I do the same thing with long car trips, plenty of breaks, food, visiting small towns, taking walks, it's a thousand times better than bus journeys.

[@tom99pek]

3 months ago I did Czestochowa - Munich, 16h plus 3h of delay, it was terrible experience. But the reason why coaches solds out for those price is easy - you can transport the entire wealth of life for reasonable price. Taking 30kg worth of luggage jack up price of air traveling.

[@walterxbenjamin]

Furthest I've gone on a Flixbus is Vienna to Hamburg - that was a little taxing, but doable. Berlin to Bucharest is obviously another level. The longest bus journey I ever saw being offered was on a time table in Praha Florenc while interchanging with an hour to spare in the middle of the night, so I had plenty of time to look at the time tables: Kharkhiv to Bradford. I think it was stretched over a little over two days or something to that effect.

[@Mandarin9900]

Kharkiv to Bradford*? Quite random towns I feel like, but it probably hits important connections on the way. But that's a crazy length.

[@walterxbenjamin]

@@Mandarin9900 Bradford, not Bedford - that is a little less random. But yes, the bus connection basically connects both Yorkshire as well as London (possibly even the West Midlands? I can't remember that) with the Czech Republic, Poland and Ukraine. I highly doubt a lot of people ride the full length, though.

[@Mandarin9900]

@@walterxbenjamin My bad, edited.

[@Krudesis]

30h in a bus seat without a neck pillow gives me second-hand neck pain lmao, impressive resilience you have. Did a 14h Flixbus journey from Bremen to München recently (~7pm to 9am). Definitely something you need to have enough entertainment pre-downloaded for, or pray the wifi works (though I have had bad luck with that recently) & hope that the other passengers are not the worst. My return journey was also quite interesting, >15h from Vienna to Bremen, with ÖBB and DB, in the night during/after the recent storm in middle and northern Germany. Actually got super lucky for most of the trip, though the last train then randomly changed its destination to one not even previously on the route, without any announcement or explanation, leading to a last minute switch at Hannover. About the ticket price: Flixbus has *very* dynamic pricing: If you book far enough in advance, you should see lower prices than those you showed. For example rn you can book this bus on 30.08. for 69.99€ (nice). Also the time of year (e.g. vacation time in summer, and public holidays in general) can have an extreme effect as well, sometimes 2x or even more. For example there is one route I need to do in early August, which normally would be 25€, but is now 75€ during that time, making it more expensive than DB even. As to why people do not just fly when it's similarly expensive, that is a good question indeed, I can only guess fear of flying and/or luggage costs.

[@BStudios]

Romanian highways infrastructure and cleanliness have developed so much in the last 10 years - wow. It seems like the same level of quality as Hungary.

[@sikerslalatm3147]

Romania is actually a tad bit richer than Hungary now but you’re right, it did change a lot!

[@nebunudesalam8191]

@@sikerslalatm3147 No, GDP per capita is higher in Hungary. Also, the highways are better in Hungary and I'm a romanian.

[@Lemonrollcake]

I once took a bus early in the morning from Berlin to Kopenhagen. I takes 8h to get there and because we were cheap we traveled back on the same day at 10pm for another 8h. The worst part was having to leave the bus in the middle of the night, because you are not allowed to stay on the bus while on the ferry.

[@Quast]

Lol, that's good to know! xD

[@Senteri]

I did a flixbus journey from Piran to Trieste. I was this close to calling a cab to bring us to Trieste. In the end the flixbus arrived with a delay of more than an hour with no notifications anywhere that it was delayed. We were greeted by some grumpy Italian operator who threw our bags in the bus and told us to sit quickly. ^^; I mean it was only 1 hour of a ride, maybe? Sure felt way longer.

[@u2goDD]

Hi Tom, congratulations to finished that long ride. I had a round trip with flixbus in april this year. From Dresden to Strasbourg, from Strasbourg to Freiburg, from Freiburg to Lausanne (and Montreux), from Lausanne to Chamonix (and Mont Blanc), from Chamonix to Milano (and Portofino), from Milano to Munich and Munich to Dresden. All 7 main routes with Flixbus and in 8 days with many mountain views and no problems.

[@416KPD]

I did Paris-Wrocław on flixbus last summer, which was around 22 hours long. My journey was quite comfy to be fair. We booked the panorama seats on upper deck with my girlfriend and had plenty of space to lay down. Spent most of the journey sleeping. Though I'd say it all depends on your luck, I had very unbearable 4 hour trips on my usual Wrocław-Berlin route. Many domestic Turkey coach trips actually last 15+ hours, however those buses are often equipped with entertainment system and they serve some refreshments on board. Most of them don't have a toilet though, so you have to wait for the next stop.

[@seekingtravel]

I don't know about other nations, but Romanians, love taking the coach to bring back goods and many things from abroad back home, things like clothes, trinkets and many other things which would make their luggage cost hundreds on a plane. That's usually one of the main reasons, other being fear of flying *but that is a small percentage.

[@Nico-kz9bv]

I highly recommend the bus tour from Arica (Chile) to La Paz (Bolivia) through the atacama desert. Price approx 15 USD with a duration of six hrs. Even if this is a more dangerous one due to curvy streets in the desert mountains, its lovely

[@johnp5515]

There are direct buses from Eastern Romania / Moldova all the way to Spain / Portugal. They take 2 days or more.

[@ZostalesZarazony]

crazy, ive been on a flixbus ride for 10 hours and i swore to never do that to me again, at the end i was really exhausted despite just sitting down all night

[@TravelSignal]

Fascinating journey, thanks for taking one for the team! I'm sure I recall the longest scheduled bus in the world was Rio to Lima? About 4 days... 😂

[@thornton]

haha yes I also read that! maybe one day?

[@AeiKei]

I think my last long travel by bus was 17 years ago from Ploiesti (72 km away from Bucharest) to Brussels. We lost a lot of time at the hungarian border of course, the process was way lenghtier at that time, there wasn't a highway between Romania and Hungary. Miraculously the drivers not only managed to recover the 5 hours delay but we arrived 2 hours earlier in Brussels (I do remember some very mad fast driving during the night especially in the corners but I did enjoy that). Of course you only see this kind of circus where romanian management is involved (the bus you were travelling with belongs to a company in Pitesti as far as the markings on the bus say). Definetely my 2006 ride was the last long one, it's just too much to handle

[@antichicmusic]

I used to do the eurolines bus from Munich to Strasbourg often, which was cheap and fine and only 4 hours..... but the worst was the return trip, the bus would arrive in Strasbourg at 4am from Paris and was always packed with people who were all sleeping and drooling with their shoes off, the stench when boarding the bus was really something else I remember vividly. One time a non company marked bus arrived two hours late, and everyone already on the bus was either crying or in a terrible mood but weirdly....only some still had shoes on or had a bag on their lap. I remember the driver getting out and smoking 10 cigarettes whilst we boarded, he was cursing in French a lot and was very, very pale faced despite being a night time driver. It turned out, they had all gone through a nightmare, the original bus from Paris had its climate compressor violently catch fire on the motorway, immediately stopping and everyone, including those sleeping were swiftly evacuated off the bus, in less than 10 minutes the bus was reduced to a skeleton because off all the plastics that are built in these vehicles. The electrical fire also rendered the undercarriage unusable thus luggage compartments wouldn't open. Many people were stranded without shoes on the motorway in their jogging pants and t-shirt and most had lost all their belongings and documents that were in their suitcases too, being a non boarder crossing tour. This is where I learnt, always keep you're shoes on, and pack a light overhead storable backpack and do so ever since, world wide. Driving out of Strasbourg finally at 6:30 I saw the the skeleton on the opposite lane, a skinny metal cage without tyres or suitcases. That was the bus I was supposed to travel in. Scary Shit, that poor driver and those passengers went through hell.

[@busyBaldurus]

It's amazing that you can travel this route so cheaply. It's excruciating to travel, but still pretty cool that it's available.

[@simonmrnka3405]

Actually, your stop in Bratislava had an entire shopping centre on the upper floors, hence the car garages you mentioned

[@audioupgrades]

Brave. I quit bus travels after an 11 hour ride. It was too rough, even without co-passenger incidents.

[@felix-the-mongoose]

i guess the reasons people might buy flixbus instead of flying are: - Fear of flying, - Wait time before the flight, - Environmentalism I'm not sure either why someone would take such a trip. but shorter ones can be cheaper than any other mode of transportation.

[@johnhawks5035]

Thank you for the CC in the parts where there is a lot of background noise. Very thoughtfully produced/edited.

[@Jan-bi3vr]

in 2015 a friend and i took an overnight flixbus from hamburg to copenhagen. the on-board toilet was out of order and we only stopped for a single toilet break on the entire 8 hour journey. i dont know if that was because they thought everyone was asleep anyway or if it was just one rogue iron-bladdered driver, but it was one of the worst experiences of my life, and enough to put me off bus travel forever lmao

[@Doc_Rainbow]

its just such a nice feeling to live in Europe, i mean man you can go to every place without big borderchecks and within 30 Hours your in 4 Diffrent Nations

[@popix33]

Actually, there is a border check between Hungary and Romania.

[@Doc_Rainbow]

@@popix33 true! but nothing like for example when you go into the US from Canada or something, most of the time there just a Toolbooth show your Passport and thats it and there do some Random Controlles here in Europe

[@popix33]

@@Doc_Rainbow Even in Europe for countries outside of Shengen area it's king of the same I guess. All vehicles must stop and we must show our ID or Passport at the tollbooth.

[@Blast-Forward]

@@popix33 Schengen or Shenzhen? 😝

[@Doc_Rainbow]

@@comemela never ever had a control, from Germany to every other country i travled... Belgien, France, poland, Netherlands, Swiss, Austria, Lichtenstein, Denmark...

[@dianaw248]

I really love your channel…and this post was so very exciting! Sooo glad your survived this journey!!!

[@thornton]

Aw thanks Diana!

[@ag.3820]

There are much longer routes still going like Bucharest - Alicante - 55 hours lol I did Cluj - Valencia in early 2000s, crazy stuff to live 2 day on a moving chair.

[@101Julia]

where do you find a ticket for 15 euro for this route?

[@reamsel]

my anger issues would be raging high after the lack of sleep, food, so much noise and having to wait in traffic. I can barely manage myself in the 3 hour buss journey to my parents

[@m32bmine]

Bravo Tom! Couldn't even conceive of doing something like that...glad to have accompanied you from the comfort of my desk chair, made for a nice lunch break. Keep up the good work, Cheers from Canada!

[@thornton]

Aw thanks! Greetings to our transatlantic cousins

[@henrydvorak6014]

Ten years ago I travelled by bus from Aberdeen, Scotland to Brno, Czech Republic. I transferred to another bus in London (45 minutes) and then again in Prague (15 minutes). The bus rides took me 34 hours and covered ca. 1700 miles. When I finally stepped off the last bus in my destination I swore to myself never again.

[@Paco1337]

I did some some shorter trips with a buses (Around 10-12hr) It's hard to deal with border crossings since I travelled outside to inside EU and I think what can make trip easier is a driver who makes short bathroom breaks so people can stretch out and relax a bit, AC is a must during a summer. But yea you always need a day-two to recover from that kind of travel.

[@pietvx532]

I drove with flixbus two times from Karlsruhe to Luxembourg and from Prag to Karlsruhe. I don't wanna do it again because I'm scared that someone will steal my luggage is literally not secured, anyone can take it. Don't you worry about these things?

[@colinseeney471]

I'm in awe of your stoicism. A two and half hour train on Transpennine Express gets me extremely grumpy 😅

[@thornton]

that's also fair tbh

[@pflaumenaugust876]

Abour ten years ago, when there where multiple long-distance-bus-companies, I used them a lot, but never for a journey that took longer than 10 hours. Flixbus was by far the worst of those companies, but mostly the cheapest. The seating comfort was so bad, I almost instantly was blessed with backache. Travelling with one of the more expensive bus-companies was worth every Euro, considering the better leg room and the more comfortable seats.

[@andrejmjk_]

About those stops. Lorry and bus drivers are required by law to have breaks in set intervals and durations, so they have to stop more often than the refueling takes place. :)

[@alph5230]

You could have taken an ICE to Vienna and then a night train, that would have been MUCH more confortable, and faster

[@chrnovids]

Another great video Tom, thanks for taking us on your adventures

[@thornton]

thanks mate :)

[@yournemesis192]

The longest bus ride I was ever on was from Vancouver to Calgary on a Canadian greyhound service. Sadly greyhound creased operations in Canada 2 years ago.

[@Qix3357]

I was on a 50+ hour ride from Chisinau to Berlin. It took such a lot of time only because the bus stuck at the romanian border for more than 10 hours

[@NortherlyK]

So here in the states, a lot of people take buses because the security is more relaxed. It let's them carry things you can't take on a plane.

[@thornton]

Oh no, I'm glad I wasn't thinking of that at the time!

[@NortherlyK]

@@thornton now for us that is typically marijuana.

[@JackGillies]

The overriding feeling I get regarding coach journeys like this is for some people it is just easier. If you are a large family that don't drive flying is just as expensive and considering how mean budget airlines are with baggage the bus does make sense for a larger group of travellers.

[@CamerHD]

Seriously what is it with Flixbus and arguing breaks?! Drove from Southern Germany to Genoa once and our two bus drivers literally started a fistfight at 2 a.m. Never. fucking. again.

[@jolotschka]

That's a journey i dreamed as a kid of once to do. Thumbs up 😊. This bus fits western standards. Thirty years before we traveled in Eastern Europe by bus sitting on the bare ground as overbooked. And it was freezing cold winter with snow of twenty to thirty centimeters high.

[@goatgamer001]

yeah i think that this is a very good price. in some countries you can't go by train 100km but with this bus you can 1000km

[@Hope00Love]

I know some people who have such a fear of flying that they would rather travel for days by land. I don't know how you did it, but I think it's good that are alternatives to flights.

[@SilverNightKyle]

Such an epic, inexpensive journey, well done, mate! Was amazing…😁

[@thornton]

Thank you Kyle! Hope you’re doing well :)

[@sbkr4906]

As Romanian I did a bus ride back home from London when no flights as some Volcano in Iceland disrupted airtraffic for a long time. It was like 40 hours in a full bus. The experience was traumatizing, I arrived with swollen legs I could and exhausted, I need it 3 days of sleep to recover. Never again, long bus rides!

[@napoleonsdauphin]

My God you're a trooper, Tom. After watching this footage I want to buy you a drink.

[@thornton]

I'm always willing to accept that drink my friend

[@maxthurner]

Longest flixbus I took was 17 hours from Hamburg, Germany to my homeplace Graz, Austria. Although I went with my girlfriend, and I am used to travelling long distance (LDR) it was the most exhausting trip I ever took and I only travel this distance by train now (also only 11/12 hours, and way more comfortable) So I don't even want to know how horrible those 30 hours were for you. Also, could you maybe test the railjet and new nightjet trains in austria? 😃 I heard there are some new sleeper trains with mini cabins as well as some new railjets rolling out.

[@hfb_blaacc2591]

My experience with Flixbus so far has been rather mediocre. It seems that the low prices attract people who simply have no respect for fellow passengers, who don't turn their phones down, who don't keep conversations quiet, and so on... I certainly would not do this trip, especially since I can't manage to sleep on the bus...

[@eedragonr]

This is the labor class

[@thegrimnok]

Did Frankfurt - Bratislava and back a couple of years ago. Was lucky not alone. But those 13 odd hours were really exhausting. 30 seems like punshiment.

[@aaakottaselkkus]

If you were wondering why many people take the bus instead of flying, at least some do it for climate purposes. Great thing you took the bus too!

[@canaldandachons4140]

Just amazing how flixbus can give us the opportunity to travel around europe even if we have to be patient to endure the long rides. My longest ride was Lyon-Prague it took a bit over 14 hours. I honeslty like traveling by roads, you can see the sights, it is a whole experience in itself. Although these buses are definetly not made for you to be sit in it for that long. Great video.

[@micozur15]

Before 2022, there was a bus route from Szczecin, PL to Mariupol, UA. Circa 36 hours, going through Wrocław, Kraków, Lviv, Kyiv, Kharkiv and then to Mariupol.

[@Satorinaut]

Well you've earned my sub, that's a crazy journey. I've just done the Baltics by Flixbus and I can't imagine the brutality of 32 non-stop hours of that.

[@thornton]

oooo Baltics, I need to do that! any recommendations?

[@krastycz1810]

I was on a short flixbus ride about 3.5 to 4 hours and I didn't like it. Some of the passengers were ignorant, there were some arguments and so on. I could not imagine travelling 30 HOURS like that. You deserve a medal!

[@masterofdiesaster4001]

I once did a 24 hour Flixbus ride from Southern Germany to Oslo. It was the cheapest way to travel, but definitely not the best.

[@lenjka4160]

Yesss I just saw the KZbin Short and was wondering when this video will be up!

[@thornton]

quick turnaround here these days 👏

[@trulsdirio]

I used to go from Düsseldorf to Amsterdam every other week with Flixbus as it was the cheapest option and I had a long distance relationship with someone living in Amsterdam and having done that for a few months and spend countless hours on Flixbus combined I have to say, I would have thrown myself out of the window barely half way through the 30 hours. You are built different to go through with this lol