Flixbus Europe

The cheapest mode of transportation across Europe is through using bus services, getting from one part of the city to another, or to another country within Europe with the vast network that is operating by companies like Flixbus. Bus travel across Europe seems to be rather popular among tourist and Europeans to get to their destination without hurting their wallet.

AMSTERDAM - PARIS:

Walking to this little bus stop outside a major train station which isn't lit up or have good signage that points you there, and they are calling it an international bus station (which it technically is). Our bus arrives a few minutes before departure time, all the passengers rush towards the entry (I am assuming to get a good seat since most are free seating, however I have pre-purchased a table seat). After putting my luggage on the hold and check my passport, I was allowed to board. While we were in the process of boarding, a young Asian lady was refused boarding because she does not possess a physical passport and another passenger defended her by telling the driver that she is legally allowed to travel between Europe with the ID she has (I am not sure about the law around that so I can't comment), after a 20 minutes delay we started our journey to Paris.

While I was on the bus, I tried using the smallest toilet that is built for a baby, the first thing I saw was a panel door under the sink swinging as the bus moves, which I am not impressed by it. After finishing, I went to wash my hands but only to find there's no water or sanitizing, luckily I bought my own hand sanitizer but it's very gross to think that others using the toilet and not being able to wash their hands. Since there are many hours to kill I tried getting some sleep on this 8 hours overnight journey. I got woken up a couple of time with people boarding from different stops, but it has been mostly fine since I took a sleeping pill, ear plug in and eye shade on, When I got up again we were about less than an hour away, so I got up and get some work done by connecting to the slightly challenging to connect wifi.

PARIS - COLOGNE:

I get to the bus station which was really crowded and everyone was looking at that 1 information monitor to wait for the gate assignment. After 30 minutes (15 minutes before departure) they finally show the gate number for my bus so I walked towards the gate, however the bus with my bus number was a few gates off to the one that was showing on the info board. After getting on the bus, I found a guy sitting on my seat (since I paid for that seat, I asked him which was his original seat, if it's just opposite since there are 4 seats on the table, I wouldn't mind taking the one on the other side instead of having everyone moving around, but after a bit of staring he got up and then he moved over to 1 row behind me which was where his friend was sitting as well, so I am not sure why he took my seat but I guess table seat is popular). This is supposed to be a 10 hours journey however the previous bus has also arrived earlier than scheduled, I am assuming this will take about 9 hours. There are 2 stops in Cologne, the first one is North of Cologne which I felt there may not be as good of an option to get into Cologne but I might be wrong, and the 2nd stop will be the airport which definitely will have transportation easily connect to Cologne city centre.

COMFORT:

Even though the seats are reclinable, there aren't much room, so if you have bags with you (which you are only supposed to bring a small personal item that fit under the seat but they don't seem to enforce that as long as you don't occupy another seat, you will be compromising your own legroom. Their overhead storage compartment is so small that you can't even fit a small personal bag. As I am travelling with 2 suitcases, I have pre-purchased a piece of additional luggage, on the first leg they didn't check my ticket but the 2nd leg they did not trust my word and wanted to check my ticket. I get that if everyone starts bringing 2 pieces and the driver doesn't check if they have paid the extra it may be an issue. Since I have nothing to hide I am not worried as long as they do not refuse carriage since I have paid for it.

Hamburg to Berlin (SINGLE DECK FLIX BUS):

The Flixbus journey between Hamburg and Berlin is rather different than the ones I have been on the last 2 trips. This bus is a single deck bus with some different features. This bus doesn't have the Flixbus branding on the exterior, however the interior colour is the infamous Flixbus green.

The seat on this bus comes with a small tray table, a personal storage compartment and 2 coat hangers, and 2 handles (assuming for easy getting in and out of the seat). On the window seat, you can find 2 USB outlet in front of the seat (assuming that the aisle passenger will be sharing it). This seat includes a leg rest, which makes it more comfortable. The seat comes with a personal air vent and reading light located right on top of the window seat. On the aisle seat is an adjustable shoulder rest, which slightly increases seat width when lowered.

The key difference on this bus is the overhead storage compartment, which is much larger than the double decker bus and people ended up storing it up there instead of under the seat. There are sunroof installed on the middle front of the bus and middle rear of the bus which provides extra lighting into the cabin.

When boarding the bus, there was no air conditioning which makes it really stuffed and smelly even though it’s wet and cool outside. The journey between Hamburg and Berlin is about 3 hours drive, departed on time and arrive about an hour later than scheduled due to traffic congestion.

On departure, there was a pre-recorded message to welcome passengers and inform us of amenities that are available on this bus, however one thing that they mentioned isn’t available on this bus is the wifi. This seems to be a common theme with Flixbus as well, their wifi is usually a hit or miss, so I would say that it’s better to not bet on their wifi.