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I took one of the longest bus journeys in Europe, the flixbus from Berlin to Bucharest, so that you don’t have to. (really, you don’t have to. please don’t put yourself through it!)
I went in to it expecting it to be an extreme boredom test, but it actually ended up being way worse than that, for multiple other reasons.
This was shot just at the start of summer, and thankfully we had decent weather for the run through Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania. The Romanian part of the coach journey, especially, was really beautiful and I can’t wait to actually travel and see some parts of this country!
I used a Flixbus discount voucher to go this whole way for about $15 USD, since I bought so many of their FlixDeal vouchers 3 years ago.
I hope that you’re doing well and staying safe.
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0:00 the longest bus journey in Europe
0:59 Flixbus Germany to Romania
1:30 food and rest stops
2:20 overnight Flixbus to Bucharest
4:10 crossing the Romanian border on a bus
4:40 Flixbus discount vouchers
5:21 Flixbus Romania
6:35 bus travel in Romania
7:53 Berlin to Bucharest bus complete
34 Comments
So interesting! I must say, I did a similar thing, albeit in 2016, when I took Flixbus from Barcelona to Leipzig – and I was actually quite happy with the experience!
I got on at noon on a Sunday in Barcelona and, after a 24hr stretch to Düsseldorf, 2 hours of layover time, and then 7 hours on another bus to Leipzig, I arrived there in time for a (late) dinner on Monday.
And actually for a quarter of the price that airtravel would have cost me. Paid a total of 60€ for Flixbus, while a flight ticket, for that particular week with a bank holiday in Germany and 2 bank holidays in Spain, just the seat on a Ryanair to Berlin would have been 129€ iirc. Then you'd have to add 39€ per piece of luggage, of which I had 2. Adding in airport transfer and a train or bus from Berlin to Leipzig, (booked rather spontaneously), that would have come in at a rough total of 230-250€. And would also have taken a complete day of travel, from the early morning hours to 9pm, with multiple changes (I think 7, including metro and airport transfer), all while hauling around 2 large pieces of luggage, plus a carry-on, all by myself. No, thank you.
Compared to 60€ including all my luggage, and traveling from city centre to city centre (both bus stops within walking distance from the respective sleeping places) and only 1 change where I had to haul my luggage around. MUCH more comfortable!
AND I must say I actually slept quite nicely on that bus, as it was, on purpose, only half-booked through the dark hours of the night (10pm to 6am or so) so each passenger got a 2-seater bench to themselves, plus they were quite adjustable in terms of reclining and even sliding the aisle seat about 4 inches into the aisle… it was way comfier than I had expected!
(edited to add: in case anyone is wondering about these prices, they do go up with demand and I only knew the exact travel date less than 48hrs in advance due to circumstances out of my control. I know there are much cheaper ways to book all of these tickets, if you're used to planning your travels a few weeks or even a couple months in advance.)
I don't know what people exactly expect for this price, but it won't be a luxurious ride!
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
Took a ride from Kosice to Krakow and it was a PAIN! Yeah, FlixBus is cheap but long bus journeys are just the worst.
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.
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
Back in the days, when I was living in Kassel I visited my girlfriend several times in Berlin, often with Flixbus or – back then – Meinfernbus.
I still totally dislike it for a number of reasons. As soon as I found out about the Quer durchs Land ticket, I switched to taking the train. This still took a lot of time and wasn't pleasant, but I would trade my left arm for knowing in advance where my mode of transportation stops at what time and being able to use a bathroom, get some food or a drink or even taking a short walk around the train station.
Still, bus routes like the one to Bucharest or other distant destinations like Athens, Riga or Helsinki would in my mind be interesting, but only if the service would be much, much better. Let's say the seats had much more legroom, were wider and would recline a bit more and there were fixed and in advance announced stops at places where one could use a bathroom, get breakfast or a coffee and the on board bathroom would be a bit bigger and more comfortable to use at night when you are shaky – I would maybe pay 100 Euros or even a bit more, if I would travel on a budged and time wouldn't matter that much to me.
Is suffering that much worth it in the end?
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.
i tip my hat to you. I barely survived bus ride from krakow to lviv
I did 14 Hours from Salzburg to Paris, to be honest if you bring stuff to entertain you with, netflix or smt, and noise cancelling earphones to sleep it's ok, althought I was lucky there was no one sitting by my side hahaha
I think you missed the city of Brno, which you obviously forgot to mention
Tim Thorton took a Flixbus for 30 hours so we don't have to. We are him very grateful…
Watching the ordeal was enough for me. Still a nice video though
I once went to Spain by bus — which is probably half the journey you're taking here — and that was an absolutely horrible experience. It's warm, you can't sleep, it stinks and it's noisy. I I didn't even have children on the bus, or people using a radio. So I feel for you.
I did a 10 hour trip from Cambridge- Paris and then back 2 days later (got like 2 hours sleep max each way) not worth it and the way back was stressful for a number of reasons! but I will say don't use flixbus (and I probably wont ever again)
this evening i will travel from Munich to Utrecht(netherlands)
In a happy green Bus…. oh boy
Sure hope this goes well
If you are in Bucharest, do you plan to try a train trip over there? Something like Bucharest do Vienna or Budapest?
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.
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
in case it's any consolation to you: i can't sleep in situations like these either, which once resulted in absolute disaster. i had a flight at 6 in the morning, already failed to sleep the night and then i traveled to cuba via paris with a 5 hour wait to connect, then the plane had to do an emergency landing at the WRONG airport in cuba and i had to go another 14 hours by bus. when i arrived at the hotel i had been awake for more than 55 hours, without any drugs whatsoever. in my room in instantly collapsed, woke up 14 hours later at 4:30 in the morning, as well rested as i have ever been in my entire life. but boy was it a torture to get there.
This further affirms me than rather than going through this hell for as cheap as possible at any length, I'd rather not go at all.
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!
We used to got on vacation from central poland to the south of Italy every year. The bus was always full mostly with older people going to work there. I believe that was around 24 hours or so for me but much longer for people going all the way to the heel. It's crazy it's only 15 euros. We used to pay over 100 which I can see is still the norm. People go on bus for many reasons: some don't like flying, many have a lot of luggage which you just can't take on an airplane but is not a problem on a bus, a lot of older people have never been on a airplane and are not about to stary flying now.
BTW doing a journey like that without sleep is insane.
Would love a decent train to România. There is only one and it's almost impossible to buy tickets online.
I am used to such rides (to eastern Poland, 19 hours, 1000 km ) and you can survive them best, with a good music playlist (with headphones!), some fruits and some sandwiches, something to drink, some coffee a pillow for the head leaning against the window and as much sleep as possible.
I can not read a book, because I will get sea sick, so music works best for me. there a pills in the pharmacy for this issue and as I child I had to take them, because I had to through up often on such long rides. (not today thankfully)
Biggest problem is the pain in the ass and the legs and the back. the bus drivers take a lot of breaks, because they too need to strech out their legs and take some fresh air.
go as often as possible out of the bus, on every occasion.
edit: Okay, on polish bus you wouldn´t have people, with loud music without headphones. so it probably depends, where the destination is and what kind of culture you are riding with.
First world problems lol
There are direct buses from Eastern Romania / Moldova all the way to Spain / Portugal. They take 2 days or more.
Brave. I quit bus travels after an 11 hour ride. It was too rough, even without co-passenger incidents.
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.
If you think time is the challenging factor in long distance bus rides you have never been traveling by bus in the US. I was studying abroad in the US and did some bus rides there since as a student I had not much money to spent while I felt quite resilient to most travel tortures. While most of the rides maybe had strange/amusing moments I couldn't imagine what I was about to experience when I took that Greyhoundbus from Las Vegas to L.A. at 1am… I don't know if you can imagine as an European Flixbus traveller sitting right next to the toilet, someone playing games on the phone sharing all the sound effects with everyone while another one is just commenting on every thing we were passing on the bus… snoring people… just everything. At the end of the ride I was so used to the smell that I was afraid I lost my sense of smell. I was so relieved smelling fresh air when we got off the bus.
Who tf is paying 100+ € for a bus trip this far when (like you said) fying is so much cheaper?!
I would even pay 5x more for the flight instead of driving with a bus.
From all public transport options, bus driving is by far the worst…
I love trains and planes but yeah buses, for everything longer than an hour I get insane in buses.
#asmrgaming Embark on an incredible journey as we take you on a 30-hour bus ride from Germany to Romania, all for an unbelievably low price of just $15. Get ready to experience the thrill of traveling across multiple countries, immersing yourself in breathtaking landscapes, and discovering the unique charm of each destination along the way.
In this video, we'll cover:
The Adventure Begins: Join us as we board the bus in Germany and set off on our epic journey to Romania. Witness the excitement and anticipation as we embark on this budget-friendly travel experience.
Cross-Country Landscapes: Marvel at the stunning vistas and diverse landscapes that pass by your window during the bus ride. From rolling hills to majestic mountains, each country offers its own scenic beauty.
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I think the two longest trips i did with flixbus were Aachen – Hamburg and Genova-Venice, both overnight and max 8hours, and for me the most problematic thing has alqays been going to the toilet on the bus.. And plugs/wifi not always working! Chapeau for your 30hrs, i would never!
There is a regular bus route that goes from Madrid to Bucharest.
That's way crazier.