Every country has its positive and negative aspects. Mexico, one of my favorite places on earth, has a lot of positives. And I have to be honest. For some things, Mexico just does a better job than the United States. One of the most noticeable, for travelers headed cross country by land, is the long-distance bus experience.
I recently took a combination work trip and vacation to Guadalajara, Mexico‘s second-largest city. One of my best friends accompanied me on the trip, and we decided to do a three-day side trip to Guanajuato, a historic city in a neighboring state. I’d already taken a long-distance bus trip in Mexico before, so I knew the best way to get to Guanajuato was by land, and with comfortable first-class service.
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Depending on the route, you may find at least three different classes of service offered by long-distance bus companies in Mexico. Generally each brand specializes in one class of service. I chose ETN, one of the top first-class bus lines in the nation.
Booking bus reservation in Mexico is easy. While I was still at home in New York City, I went on the ETN Website, purchased tickets, paid for them and even chose seats. I printed our boarding passes and receipts at home. The total roundtrip cost per person for the four-hour trip was about $45 roundtrip, per person.
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THE DEPARTURE: On the day of our bus trip from Guadalajara to Guanajuato, we took Uber from our Airbnb apartment to the Central Nueva de Autobuses, a clean and modern facility that in some ways resembles a small airport terminal. We didn’t need to stand in line at the ticket counter since we’d bought ours ahead of time, so we checked out the small array of restaurants, food vendors and shops. Then we headed to the departure area, which was also quite clean (until I spilled my delicious torta on the floor, of course).
From the time you start boarding, you know the Mexico bus experience is different from taking Greyhound or Megabus in the United States. An attendant wheeled a serving cart in front of the bus, and every passenger stopped at the cart to have their boarding pass verified, and also to receive a small bag with a sandwich labeled “lunch” (in English, for some reason). The attendant also allowed us to choose a free bottle of water or soda pop.
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WHY THIS MEXICO BUS IS AMAZING: There are two seats on one side of the aisle on the ETN buses, and only one seat on the other side — good news for solo travelers who don’t want to be close to other people. A total of just 24 seats fills up space that in the United States would probably accommodate 50.
The seats offer lots of leg room and are equipped with leg rests and the ability to recline to a business-class-style pose that’s not bad for sleeping. Seats are furnished with free headphones (to watch the seat-back video screens, which feature mostly Spanish-language music, TV programming and movies), A/C outlets and — supposedly — WiFi, although that never quite seemed to work for me.
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The ride is so smooth and so quiet —and the seats so comfortable — that it’s hard not to fall asleep when traveling around Mexico by bus on ETN. The big windows have both a shade and a curtain, making it easy to shut out the natural light for an even more sleep-inducing experience.
I guess a bus service like this wouldn’t be as feasible in the United States. The bus fares would have to be much higher in the USA, for one — and that would make it less attractive and possibly harder to compete with planes on some routes. But in Mexico, bus travel is a great way to go.
https://departurelevel.com/mexico/whats-it-like-to-use-a-coworking-space-in-mexico/