Budget travel – mastering the art of Priceline hotel deals

by Scott Carmichael on

You have probably seen the commercials – poor traveler needs a hot deal, and in jumps William Shatner, “The Priceline Negotiator”.

Priceline has been around for almost 10 years, and in those 10 years they have helped me (along with millions of others) snag a hotel room where I need it, when I need it, for the price I want.

I know it sounds like I’m being paid by Shatner himself, but when you can book a room for $50 when all other sites are still selling them for $200, you’ll learn to appreciate how handy Priceline can be.

Sadly, the whole process of “naming your own price” can be a tad daunting, I can still remember the first time I submitted a request to their site. There is something amazingly scary about handing over your credit card to a booking site and telling them to go ahead and just book you “something”.

It’s like haggling at the market – you never know when you’ll get a good deal, or when you’ll walk away with your trinket with the sad realization that you overpaid.

Thankfully, there are some handy tricks to becoming a master of Priceline – and ways you can be sure you’ll get the best value for your money.
But first, a little bit about Priceline and how they operate.

Priceline does a lot more than just “name your price”, they also operate as a regular travel booking site, with hotel, air, cruise and car rental rates pretty much on par with most of their competitors.

For the sake of this article I’ll only focus on the name your own price feature, as that is the one that makes them stand out from most others, plus it’s the best option out there for budget minded travelers.

Your first step in making a bid for a hotel room is to pick your destination and required dates. Once you have selected this, you are presented with a map of the area, and the various Priceline “zones”.

STOP

Before you do anything else, you’ll want to stop for a minute. Sure, you may know where you want to stay, and how much cash you have available for the dates you require, but what if you bid $50 for a hotel you could actually get for less? Or what if you bid $40 when Priceline only has rooms available for $90?

This is where the Internet can help you. You are not alone – many people just like you use Priceline, and take advantage of a weakness in the Priceline system – sharing information.

See, the whole name your own price system only really works in their advantage if everyone overbids. Sure, plenty of people will blindly enter $75 and get a room that costs Priceline $50, but the real pro’s only pay $50.

So, head on over to betterbidding.com and spend some time checking out the various winning bids from fellow Priceline customers. You’ll get a much better idea what kind of deal you can get, and which hotels are currently being offered on the site.

Betterbidding.com uses a fixed format for all submitted deals, and in each post you’ll find all the information you need to snag yourself a similar bargain.

Once you locate a date/area that matches what you need, open up the post to see exactly how they managed to place a winning bid.

You’ll see that most of these users base their initial bid on previous deals scored by others ,and that they take the information provided on the site and use it to their advantage.


The free rebid – your best friend on Priceline

William Shatner may pretend to be your best friend on TV, but in reality Priceline doesn’t really like it when you try and get too smart. The free rebid is one of those tricks that will help not only get a good deal, but get a good deal for the price you want, often even in the hotel you want.

If you make a bid for a hotel, but the bid is not accepted, Priceline will allow you to bid again, with a higher amount – BUT, only if you change at least one of the requirements for your reservation. This means you’ll either have to change the star rating of your desired room, or change/add a Priceline zone.

Here is an example – lets say you need a room in Chicago. You entered the dates you want, picked a 4 star hotel, and bid $60. You go through the booking process, and Priceline denies your bid.

At this point you raise your bid to $63, but in order to get a free rebid, you need to change one of the requirements on your request. Of course, if you add a different zone, you run the risk of being stuck with a hotel miles away from where you need to be. Unless of course, you add a zone with no hotels with the star rating you requested!

Here is how that works – you go back to Betterbidding.com, and select their Illinois hotel list. You’ll see that plenty of Chicago suburbs lack a 4 star hotel. So, pick one of those poor zones, and hey presto – you can successfully submit your free rebid.

Now, simply rinse and repeat until you find the price Priceline is willing to accept.

Sounds too complicated? Check out this real life example from someone at Betterbidding. In that example, you’ll see that they wanted a 4 star hotel in the downtown area. Their initial bid was declined, so they added a new zone (one without any 4 star hotels), denied again, added another zone (once again, a zone with no 4 star hotels), denied again, added yet another zone (once again, no 4 stars in that zone), and bingo – they got what they wanted.

$57/night for a downtown Chicago hotel is a steal. Just how much of a steal? Check out the going rate for rooms on those specific dates, at that hotel:

Thats right – Priceline got them 2 nights for less than the price of one night when booked through Hyatt.com.

If it sounds too simple, then it’s probably time to post a couple of warnings – the hotel lists posted by sites like Betterbidding.com are not guaranteed to be correct. Priceline is not stupid, and they can upgrade or downgrade hotels whenever they feel like it.

This means that playing the free rebid game may come with some risks, and the worst that could happen is that you end up 20 miles away from where you wanted to be – not a nice way to spend your time.

If you don’t want to run that risk, and you have some time to spare, then you can make a rebid 24 hours after the previous bid, without the requirement of changing things.

Another thing to be careful of, is doing free rebids and using a zone with no hotels with the rating your want, but if it DOES have a higher available hotel.

For example – if you want a 3 star hotel and get declined, you decided to play the rebid game and add a zone with no 3 star hotels (but one or more 4 star hotels), Priceline may decide to “upgrade” you to the 4 star hotel in the zone you really did not want to stay in – oops.

If you really want to master the art of getting what you want from Priceline, I recommend reading the successful bookings posted at Betterbidding. You’ll learn in a short amount of time what kind of tricks work, and of cour
se, which tricks do not work.

Once you are confident enough to click the “book now” button, you’ll be surprised just how often you can score a fantastic deal.

Will the hotel know I’m a Priceline customer?

One question I often hear is “will the hotel know I’m a Priceline customer”. The simple answer is yes, the hotel will almost always know you are a guest arriving on a Priceline reservation.

In most cases, this won’t matter, but I’ve occasionally come across a hotel that did not treat me as well as a “regular paying” guest. Unless they are spitting in your face and calling you names, I’d suggest ignoring it and enjoying the money you saved.

If you are a member of the hotel frequent guest program, try calling them in advance with your membership number, and make sure to call the hotel directly with any specific requests (smoking, non smoking etc). I’ve regularly been upgraded to a suite on my Priceline stay, all because I added my hotel elite status to my $40 reservation.

Priceline rooms are generally booked as non smoking, but if a hotel has nothing else available, they usually won’t have a problem sticking you in a stuffy smoking room, so as with all hotels, bring some Febreze.

Anything else to keep in mind?

Yes – when you name your own price, any accepted bid is locked in stone. There are no changes, no cancellations, no refunds and the reservation is not transferable. Priceline is pretty well known for being strict about this rule. If you are a regular Priceline customer, they may make a once in a lifetime exception for you, but it’ll require a lot of begging. If all else fails, try contacting the hotel directly, often their reservations department may be able to help you out.

Bottom line is – book with caution. Check and double check your dates, check and double check your zones before bidding. Yes, if you start using Priceline regularly, you may end up with a couple of reservations you messed up, and it will result in a waste of money when you can’t use them.

So there you have it – a couple of tips that should help you become a real pro at booking cheaper rooms. Got any tips of your own? Share them in the comments section below!

Budget Travel: StudentUniverse.com

by Alison Brick on

Do students know how good they have it? Discounted travel, I mean. They even have their own discount student travel agencies that book travel that’s cheaper and tailored to their needs, which anybody older than 26 years-old couldn’t cash in on.

When I was a student, I tapped into STA Travel, which is still going strong with those spring, summer, and winter break deals. But it’s only recently that I’ve heard of the other student discounter on the block: StudentUniverse.com.

They’re an online travel agency out of Waltham, Massachusetts that gives students the resources to research and buy discounted travel products (hotels, flights, rail, cars, hostels) online. They get the extra-good deals because they have special agreements with 30 airlines, including many of the big players like American, Air France-KLM SA, United, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, and British Airways PLC.

Which do you like better: STA or StudentUniverse?
At a glance, STA and StudentUniverse are similar–both target the same demographic of 18-25 year-old students (as well as teachers), focus on student travel periods, and work with most major carriers and offer hotels, travel packages, destination guides, etc.

You can book with either company to get the perks of a student ticket:
• Book closer to the departure date
• Buy one-way tickets at half the cost of a round-trip ticket
• Stay up to one year (whereas other round-trip tickets are restricted to 30 days)
• Get reduced fees for refunds and changes, in comparison to non-student tickets

All of these things are ideal for students who need the flexibility when they don’t know the exact dates of exams or returning home from a summer abroad.

But each company stands out for different reasons.

STA:
• Offers in-person consultation at more than 100 offices across the US. Students may enjoy researching online, but find that it’s comforting and encouraging to talk with someone in person.

StudentUniverse:
• Doesn’t require an International Student Identity Card (ISIC), and instead verifies student status through its own proprietary web technology
• Offers flexible date search, which allows you to simultaneously search three days before and after your preferred dates
• Gives you the chance to offset your carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions with renewable energy credits (REC) through ECO2llege Class service for less than $10 per round-trip flight

But when it comes down to it, it’s all about price, right? I compared prices for myself: testing out StudentUniverse and STA (along with Orbitz, Cheaptickets, and Kayak) on routes within the US, and between the US and the Pacific, Europe, Asia, and Central America.

What I found surprised me. I figured that StudentUniverse and STA would be neck and neck, with the flights on the other websites coming in as more expensive. But Kayak and STA ended up tied as the strongest. It made sense that StudentUniverse’s prices improved compared with the others when I tried to book closer to the departure date (four weeks in advance, rather than seven weeks), but Kayak and STA still proved to be the cheapest.

The exception was the US-Europe route and several of the one-way tickets, where StudentUniverse was the best. At four weeks out on a round-trip Chicago-Paris flight, StudentUniverse was $508, STA was $556, Orbitz was $574, Cheaptickets was $574, and Kayak was $563. For a one-way Chicago-Paris flight, StudentUniverse was $231, STA was $264, Orbitz was $468, Cheaptickets was $468, and Kayak was $279.

Lesson learned: I’d recommend that students take the time to search several websites, and consider StudentUniverse for its strengths–one-way tickets and US-Europe flights.

If you’re in the middle of booking your spring break trips through StudentUniverse, let us know your experience. While you’re on the website, you might want to sign up for the chance to win $100 every day in their Spring Break Oh-Nine Giveaway.

You can also stay connected with StudentUniverse on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Budget Travel: European Spring Break

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Europe. For Spring Break? You must be joking right? Surely in this time of economic crisis and tightened budgets the European continent is out of reach for most, especially for the student traveler looking to save a few bucks on their Spring Break. And that’s why we’re here to tell you just how remarkably affordable AND easy it is to spend that week off partying it up in Prague, museum-hopping in Madrid or beer drinking in Berlin.

Believe it or not, Spring is one of the best times to visit most European countries. Most travelers wait until summer to hit the continent, but that’s exactly why Europe has a reputation for being so crazy expensive. By traveling in the off-season you’ll have access to some incredible deals on airfare, not to mention you’ll get most of the museums, restaurants and trains all to yourself.

So why blow all that money on a Spring Break trip to Florida, the Caribbean or Mexico? For not much more money, you could be hanging out in world class museums during the day and partying till dawn at some of the world’s best nightspots. How’s that for some Spring Break fun? Come along on Gadling’s Budget Travel Guide to Spring Break in Europe.
The European Airfare Game
I like to think of finding a cheap airfare to Europe as a game. Getting from North America can often be one of the biggest expenses facing the European budget traveler – an obstacle that often threatens to break the bank. But fear not, with a little flexibility and planning, you too can win the European airfare challenge. Here’s how to do it:

  • Check the “Big Five” – the vast majority of European flights from the U.S. are funneled through just five airports: London Heathrow, Paris Charles De Gaulle, Frankfurt am Main, Madrid Barajas and Amsterdam Schipol. Even if you plan on heading somewhere else, flying into one of these hubs and then connecting elsewhere is often the cheapest option. Once you arrive, consider grabbing a flight on a European low-cost carrier or taking the train to your final destination.
  • Use the Budget Carriers – Europe is known for its cheap inter-country low-cost carriers like Ryanair and EasyJet. Even if you fly into one of the “Big Five,” the low-cost carriers ensure that getting to your final destination can still be a bargain. For the full rundown on the low-cost carrier game, make sure to read Scott’s great Low Cost Carrier post from last week.
  • Be flexible – as Grant pointed in this cheap airfare post, finding reasonable tickets to Europe is all about being flexible. Try and avoid flying on the most popular days like Friday and Sunday and schedule your trip at off-peak times. And don’t get your mind dead-set on one particular destination. Is London showing up too expensive? How about Dublin instead? Can’t find a cheap European flight out of Philadelphia? What if you took the train up to New York for your departure? The more options you give yourself, the more money you can save.

So just how much money are we talking for Spring airfares? A quick search of Kayak for European filghts in March pulls up flights from New York to Dublin ($308), Madrid ($367) and Berlin ($380) among plenty of other options. Boston has fares to Dublin for $365 and Chicago has flights to Frankfurt starting at $424. Anything to Europe for under $450 is practically a steal.

Where to Stay
Not surprisingly, the fallback option for many budget-minded European Spring Breakers is going to be the hostel. Sites like Hostel World let you review ratings and prices and make bookings right from the web.

But if you’re like me and you’ve reached an age when a dude strumming his acoustic guitar in the lounge until 3am is not going to cut it, consider renting an apartment. Most decent size European cities offer a thriving market in vacation rental apartments, many of which can be had for not much more than your average night’s stay on an uncomfortable bunk bed. Check out sites like VRBO or Craigslist’s “Vacation Rental” category and look up something you like. Couch Surfing can also be a great option for thrifty travelers looking for a more adventurous experience staying with a local.

Top Three Spring Break Cities
It’s not any fun to be in Europe if you don’t have the money to enjoy it. Here are our picks for the best “cheap” European destinations that mix great nightlife with some interesting sights at a lower cost.

  • Berlin – Berlin offers the best of both worlds for Spring Breakers, combining world class art and culture with one of the world’s more hedonistic and creative nightlife scenes. Not to mention it’s one of the cheapest cities of all the big European capitals. During the day make a stop at the Pergamon, home to one of the world’s greatest collections of Greek and Middle Eastern antiquities (8 euros). Art lovers should check out the Hamburger Bahnof which houses works from 20th Century masters like Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg (free on Thursdays!). Berlin is also home to a thriving music scene. Electronic music fans should head to the Watergate Club, where partiers can dance till dawn against the club’s floor-to-ceiling windows along the River Spree.
  • Dublin – Dublin has the honor of being one of the closest cities to the U.S. mainland, ensuring a cheap flight over. That said, Dublin is also hugely entertaining base for a Spring Break week, offering a lively pub scene in the Temple Bar area, as well as interesting sights like the Book of Kells at Trinity College and the National Museum of Ireland. Booze-lovers can head for either the Jameson Distillery or the Guinness Storehouse to learn more about how the beverages are made and get a free sample.
  • Prague – Prague is the Spring Break trip’s secret weapon. The Czech capital is not yet on the Euro, meaning your dollar goes a lot farther and there’s also plenty to see and great nightlife to be had. Start your visit with a trip to Prague Castle, an imposing fortress that sits across the river from the main city center. On your way you’ll cross the atmospheric Charles Bridge. It’s free and the wide stone footbridge is lined with vendors, street artists and ornate statues of the town’s historical figures. End your evening with some Jazz at one of Prague’s many underground Jazz clubs or dancing at the Roxy, which operates out of an old movie theater.

European Money-Saving Tricks
So you snagged an insanely cheap flight, you’re staying in an apartment or hostel, and you’re traveling to one of Europe’s bargain-priced cities. What else can you do to keep costs manageable? Never fear, here’s a few more money-saving tips to make that Europe trip all the more affordable.

  • Carpe Diem – as Latin majors can attest, Carpe Diem translates as “seize the day.” And with the Dollar to Euro exchange rate hovering at its most favorable point in almost 2 years, there’s never been a better time to take advantage. Skip this Spring Break and who knows if your money will go nearly as far for Spring Break 2010.
  • Eating In – sure, it might seem painful to skip out on a plate of tapas or that extra croissant, but cooking your own meals can save you some serious money (while also being quite delicious). Virtually all hostels have a kitchen for guests – not to mention if you rent an apartment you’ll have a kitchen all to yourself. And shopping for fresh local ingredients at markets like La Boqueria in Barcelona or the Campo de Fiori in Rome can be a fun experience in and of itself. Feel bad about passing all that great food? Consider using the Euros you have left over at the end of your trip on a big fancy meal to make up for your frugality!
  • City Pass – are you planning to visit museums and attractions like it was going out of style? Many European capitals offer city passes, which bundle admission to a variety of attractions along with unlimited access to public transportation for one price. Sites like European City Cards sell passes for a variety of European tourist destinations. And check your guidebook – many museums offer FREE admission on certain days of the week.
  • Public Transportation – whenever possible, stick to the metro and buses. Most European transit systems are extensive and will take you just about anywhere in the city confines for one low price. And consider buying an unlimited pass for the length of your stay – it will be much cheaper than paying as you go if you plan to take a lot of trips.

Budget Travel: Ride the rails

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Travel by train means that you must enjoy “getting there” as much as “being there.” Since it takes a lot longer than flying, you have to make transportation part of the experience. Don’t just think about hopping on a train to get somewhere. Instead, you’re going to the train! And, eventually, it will lead someplace.

Even with fantastic deals on flights right now, travel is still expensive. A long flight followed by a long stay in a hotel adds up quickly. Because the economy is circling the drain right now, a lot of frequent travelers are changing their habits. Vacations that would normally last a few weeks are being pared back to a few days. Trips abroad become trips in the United States. Dreams of Hawaii are confined to the lower 48. Weeks are becoming weekends.

This is where the train can help.

If you’re looking for a weekend getaway, deals by rail abound, and you can replace short flights with reasonable train rides. You’ll pay a fraction of what you would for a flight, enjoy the journey and still have plenty of time at your eventual destination.

Before we even talk about at train fares, let’s look at the hidden cost of flying. I’m not referring to taxes and fees … we all know about that. Instead, reflect on your last trip to the airport. I just flew out of JFK two days ago. It cost me close to $60 to get a town car from my Upper West Side digs. While that sounds like a relatively luxurious way to roll, a taxi would have cost about the same. I could have taken the subway, but that would have required lugging my baggage around for two hours. I’ll have to pay the same amount to get home from the airport next week. Transportation from the airport to my hotel wasn’t as bad, but it’s still another hidden cost.

If you don’t live in a city, you may wind up driving yourself to the airport. Depending on the length of your trip, that could cost at least as much as my town car rides, maybe more. There is no way around it. Expect to add at least $100 to the cost of your airfare to get a real sense of how much your flight is going to cost.Trains are different. I can catch Amtrak from Penn Station, which is a short subway ride ($2), or around $7 by taxi. When I get to my destination – for me, it’s usually Boston or Washington, D.C. – I can do the same. Train stations tend to be in the cities to which you’re traveling, while airports are on the outskirts (at best).

You also save time.

A flight from New York to Boston, for example, takes less than an hour. But, I have to spend 45 minutes in a car en route to the airport. And, I have to spend at least 45 minutes at the airport waiting for my flight. For peak travel times, it’s smart to arrive at least an hour early. Then, depending on traffic, it’s at least another half hour from Logan Airport into Boston. All in, my trip is more than three hours long. By train, it’s 15 minutes to Penn station, three hours on the train and 10 minutes from South Station to the downtown.

Okay, since it’s break-even on time, let’s talk about cost. You can get lucky with prices on these short run flights, but you have to be careful. If you wind up on a peak time for business travelers – who don’t usually shop for bargains – you’re competing for space and paying a premium. This happens with the train, as well, but not to the same extent.

Most of Amtrak’s hot deals are on the East Cost right now, where a roundtrip ticket almost anywhere seems to cost less than $50 for a weekend getaway. Out west, there are plenty of low-priced tickets, as well, including a round trip between San Diego and San Francisco for less than $150.

If you need some peace for the weekend, the train may be the best option you never thought about. There aren’t many good flights for under $100, even for the short runs that you could cover by train. And, you’ll avoid the hidden costs of air travel. The best part? There’s no flight attendant galley for Uma Thurman to disrupt!

Budget Travel: Hop on a bus

by Jamie Rhein on

Depending upon the time frame you have to go from one point to the next, bus travel is a worthy option when looking for a bargain. Last summer, I opted for Greyhound as a way to get back from New York City to Columbus with my son. It was a perfect trip with few kinks. At the time, the bus fare was much cheaper than a flight, and I didn’t want to drive myself.

A few years back, I made a similar trip (from Cleveland to New York City) with my daughter when she was five with equally favorable results. And, well before that, I traveled with a friend for three months across the United States, criss-crossing from Kentucky to California–mostly by bus.

Here is a look at bus options in addition to Greyhound as a way to save money. Plus, a bus gives you the opportunity to watch the scenery glide by and hear songs like Simon and Garfunkel’s “America” playing in your head. [The photo posted by bobster1985 is of the Greyhound bus terminal circa 1936.]

First up, Greyhound: With a network that stretches across the United States to 2,300 different destinations, Greyhound is more likely to get you closer to the places you might want to go. If you’re heading to a major city, golden. If you have a small town in mind or a national park, lots of luck.

When my friend and I were mapping out our trip, we nixed several places because getting there was impossible, or too inconvenient. We also found out that the further west we went, the later a bus departed–or the earlier it arrived. However, we spent a whole day Salt Lake City and Denver without staying overnight by arriving early in the morning and leaving after midnight. Granted, it’s not a picnic at a bus stop in the middle of the night, but it’s not awful.

Because a Greyhound bus tickets can be purchased the day of a trip at the station, you can build flexibility into a vacation. When we bought our tickets, we figured out the route we wanted to take and the stops we could make in order to maximize our tickets. One leg went between Lexington, Kentucky to Racine, Wisconsin with stops in Louisville and Chicago.

For bigger savings, Greyhound has several budget options. Book ahead and on-line for up to a 20% discount. Right now, you can purchase a ticket 14-days in advance and get anywhere in the U.S. for no more than $99 one-way if you’re traveling on Monday through Thursday. At other times, a 14-days in advance purchase can get you a 35 % discount, and 7-days in advance can save 20%.

Unlike air travel, children, senior citizens and students also get discounts. Children under 2 can travel for free. Children ages 2-11 can get a ticket for 40% an adult rate. Seniors can get a 5 % discount. If you’re a student, with a Student Advantage Discount Card, you can save 15%.

Find out if you can get a Family & Friends companion fare. It’s still listed on the Greyhound website. If you’re traveling with another person, one person pays full fare, and the other person pays 50%. For a parent traveling with two children, each child pays 50%.

About Trailways and Peter Pan: Trailways is included in the Greyhound network. In many cases, you may be on Trailways bus for part of the trip and then switch to Greyhound. Greyhound specializes in coast to coast travel, while Trailways service is focused within distinct regions. A Trailways issued ticket is good on a Greyhound bus.

Peter Pan bus line operates in New England and is one way to get to smaller cities and towns. I’ve taken Peter Pan to Wooster, MA. Booking on-line offers cheaper ticket options. Like Trailways, Peter Pan dovetails with Greyhound.

Megabus: When Josh wrote about Megabus last October, a couple of people left comments giving a thumbs up to their experience. Touted as having bus fares as low as $1, bus fares go up as seats sell. As of last May, the company had served 1,000,000 passengers. The company now offers service to seventeen Midwest cities, seven West Coast cities, eight East Coast cities, and into Canada, however buses have very specific routes, so the reach may not be as wide as you need. You can also hop on a Megabus in Great Britain.

The map on the website shows the bus routes, and a drop down menu lets you know which destinations are connected to each other. For example, from Columbus, I can only go to Chicago, Cincinnati or Indianapolis on one ticket. From Chicago I can head to Minneapolis. In order to get to Memphis or Kansas City, other destinations, I’d have to go to Chicago first. If the price is right, why not? Otherwise take Greyhound.

When booking a Megabus ticket, you can block out several return date options if you want flexibility. As a point to be aware of, you can only bring one checked bag that doesn’t exceed 50 pounds, and one small carry-on bag. Greyhound allows for more.

Unlike Greyhound that operates out of bus stations, Megabus has specific bus stops that may or may not be near a bus station, but stops are clearly marked. Although most of Megabus’s business is done on-line, you can make reservations by calling their telephone reservation line.

I’ve never ridden a Megabus, but from the the description, they remind me of the more deluxe buses that went between Hsinchu, Taiwan where I used to live and Taipei–roomier than Greyhound and quicker because there are less pick-up points in between.

BoltBus: Grant took a BoltBus from Washington, D.C. to New York City last March and was generally pleased. Similar to Megabus, BoltBus offers an inexpensive option for going between Boston, NYC, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Ticket prices start as low as $1. Like Megabus, Boltbus also offers Wi-Fi access and plug-ins. Grant, though said that the Wi-Fi wasn’t working for him.

To buy a ticket, go to www.boltbus.com to purchase on-line. For the best deal, it’s recommended that you purchase tickets a couple weeks in advance. You can buy a ticket buy showing up the day of departure, but you’ll pay more and may not get a seat.

If you do buy a BoltBus ticket, be sure of your travel date because tickets are non-refundable. (Megabus allows you to change for a fee) Like on Greyhound and Megabus, children under the age of two can travel for free with an adult.

Chinatown Bus: Last year I found out about the “Chinese Bus” that leaves Columbus for New York City, every night (I think). Since then, I’ve discovered a vast network of buses that connect various cities to Chinatown. If you choose this option, book early on-line to make sure you get a seat, but be prepared that you may have to wait for another bus since buses fill up.

Like Boltbus, you can only buy a ticket on-line. Unlike Megabus, you must have a printed out boarding pass in order to get on the bus. Also, like Boltbus, tickets are non-refundable. (For more answers to questions you might have, click here.)

Departure cities range from Mobile, Alabama to Syracuse, New York and Spartanburg, South Carolina. This company also offers vacation package tours. There’s a three-day tour from NYC to Toronto that takes in Niagara Falls and Thousand Islands, for example. Excluding meals and admission fees, the tour costs $190 per person for a double occupancy room. If you buy two, the third person goes for free.

For a look at what traveling on a Chinatown Bus may be like, click here. One detail to know beforehand is that before you hop on one of these buses, make sure you are getting on the right one. Several leave from the same stop. Now, that really does sound like Taiwan.

An advantage of this bus over Greyhound is that it makes less stops so you can arrive at your destination more quickly. However, like Greyhound, departure times are hit and miss. The schedule, in a way, is a suggestion of when a bus might leave. Still, don’t arrive late or you might be out of luck.

Within the Chinatown bus offerings, The Fung-Wah Bus only travels between New York and Boston. You can either buy a ticket on-line or at the ticket office at 138 Canal Street.

Another company with the same service is Lucky Star. Currently, there is a promotion where you can pay $1 for a one-way fare, but this is first come, first serve.

For other bus company options, check out RK Chin, a journey through Chinatown. There are a few more you may want to consider.