Chinatown Busses--A Cheap Ride, and Well Worth It

If you want to travel, say, from New York City to Boston, you have a number of options. You could drive. You could take the train, for around $80. You could fly for a similar price. You could ride a Greyhound bus, for about $30. However, you could also ride a Chinatown bus for a mere $15.

Chinatown busses cover a number of major routes on the east coast, connecting Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, and Richmond. Other busses will take you all the way to Atlanta. Unlike bus companies like Peter Pan and Greyhound, Chinatown busses will not service points in between cities, making them more direct and faster, if not as useful for people going to points in the middle. With the exception of the Fung Wah and the Lucky Star busses in Boston, they also do not stop at bus depots, instead picking up and dropping off passengers curbside in Chinatowns along the east coast. These methods, coupled with crammed busses and shoddy maintenance, make for just about the cheapest ride possible between cities.

These last two factors prove off-putting for many people. They reason that they would do better to shell out a few bucks more for a more comfortable ride and a bit of peace of mind. However, these people are missing out. Although the New York Times frequently publishes stories about speeding Chinatown busses wiping out and injuring its passengers, in my experience Chinatown busses are comfortable and relatively reliable, and certainly worth the money. They attract largely students, who in general make for pleasant people to share a ride with. And, although I was once on a bus on which the driver asked if anyone had a roll of duct tape on them, they don't seem to be overly prone to breaking down. All in all, when compared to other bus companies, Chinatown bus lines hold their own quite nicely, and are usually a much cheaper way to go.

As for specific lines, I would recommend the Fung Wah (www.fungwahbus.com) for the Boston-New York route. Apex Bus Lines, (www.apexbus.com) although it does not serve Boston, runs busses between Richmond, Washington, Philadelphia, and New York. Although quite inexpensive, Apex' busses tend to be dirty and uncomfortable. It will get you where you are going, but try others first. For a complete list of the options, do a Google search. You will find that, especially for students, Chinatown busses are a good way to save money.