Have you slept on a bus, train or plane before? Some people refuse to do it, others, like myself try and take advantage of doing so whenever possible. This article will dive into the positives and negatives of each.
2015 saw me catch a lot of overnight transport from city to city, country to country and continent to continent. More than the previous years that’s for sure.
There was the epic 67 hour train journey on the Trans-Siberian, back to back overnight buses from Chiang Mai to Satun and three consecutive overnight flights from Istanbul to Dubai to Muscat to Chennai.
In total? 20+ overnight journeys, and 30 days or so sleeping overnight on planes, trains and buses. Pretty funny!
It’s fair to say I’m reasonably qualified to talk overnight travel.
Overnight Bus Travel
The overnight bus from China to Mongolia. It’s even got beds that are fully flat inside!
Positives For Overnight Buses
Bus quality can vary. Like a lot. – You can end up on a ‘tourist cattle bus’, where the seats are broken or you could be on a local bus with chickens also on board. Alternatively, you can have VIP buses where the driver and minder take good care of you with free Wi-Fi, power outlets and lush reclining seats. The more you pay the better quality bus you’ll get. This varies country to country though too.
Cheapest option – Overnight buses are usually the cheapest option available. Certainly in Thailand when comparing with trains along the same route. India? Very well known for it’s incredibly cheap trains. Bus travel in Western Europe is significantly cheaper than the train.
Negatives For Overnight Buses
Theft – When spending time with backpackers, you ‘ll eventually hear tales of people having stuff stolen from their bag while it’s below the bus. Always keep your valuables in your small bag.
Bus Crashes – Worldwide, more people die on buses than in planes and trains.
Close Proximity To People – On a regular bus you have about as much room as you do on a plane. It’s not a lot and depending on who you sit next to can have a large role in your level of comfort.
Minimal food choice – Buses tend to have 20-30 minute breaks every 4 – 6 hours, parking up at a 24/7 local restaurant. In Asia these tend to be rundown places with minimal choice. Have you considered fasting on overnight trips? So many benefits!
Bus transfers can be frustrating – as you can’t get live updates where the bus you need to get on is. Very few bus stations have info desks open 24 hours meaning you can be stuck waiting for hours at a poorly lit bus station not knowing if your bus is even on the way.
Overnight Train Travel
Taking the 40 hour train from Mongolia to Russia
Positives For Overnight Trains
Can choose different classes – Most countries have at least a 1st and 2nd class option, sometimes a 3rd class option is also available allowing you to travel in as much or little comfort as you would like.
Every piece of luggage is near/with you – In theory, you can still end up with your luggage stolen but you hear far fewer stories of luggage being stolen on trains.
You can stretch your legs better – Plenty of research has shown that sitting for extended periods of time is not healthy. On a plane and bus you can stand up/walk up and down a little bit but this is far easier on a train. Well maybe not on the trains in India where it is often not even possible to stand but in general you have more freedom on trains.
Negatives For Overnight Trains
The train can leave without you. When catching an overnight train, 100’s of other people could well be on board. If you run off for a quick bite to eat, you better be back on the train before departure time as the train isn’t waiting for you.
Not the best views. This is my experience, but train windows seem to be way dirtier than buses or planes.
Overnight Plane Travel (the red eye flight)
Hopefully no crying babies on this flight! Image courtesy of JerandSar via Flickr.
Positives For Overnight Planes
Airports are safe places to sleep. Mention about arriving at a Greyhound bus station at 2am and people tend to shudder. While not all bus and train stations have a ‘bad, unsafe stigma attached, airports have a lot more security and facilities in them making them a nicer place to sleep while you wait for you wait for your flight at a silly hour.
You know you won’t miss the flight – Sometimes a train or bus can take off from the stop earlier than the listed time, this happened to me in early 2015 leaving me stuck in Auckland for an extra night. Planes 100% won’t leave until the scheduled time and/or all passengers are onboard.
Negatives For Overnight Planes
Most expensive choice – Fair enough though. Planes use insane amounts of gas flying at 100’s of km/h as they get you a large distance while safely suspended thousands of metres above ground inside a piece of metal. Crazy concepts!
Babies crying – For whatever reason, babies crying on planes seem to happen way more frequently than crying on trains and planes. This could be variance.
People become crazy & irrational – I haven’t studied the reasons, but at airports people get way more irrational than in day-to-day life. One theory that came to mind is humans are often late in daily life (more often than early) so when they arrive at the airport late they stress as they can’t just brush off an airline like they do with a friend. They have to play catch-up to ensure they don’t miss their flight. When this happens all niceness/etiquette goes out the window.
Most weather affected – People like to complain. When their plane is 30 minutes late to take off, but won’t complain so much when the train arrives 30 minutes later than expected despite leaving on time. Anyway, back on track, once you are in the air turbulence exists and can wake even the deepest sleepers. Trains and buses don’t tend to suffer any major noticeable changes in weather. All forms of transport rely on the weather gods to be nice when departing of course.
What About An Overnight Boat?
That’s our live aboard for the night in the distance
In theory, many of these trips can be completed on boat also. However besides my month long stay on a barge in Riga, the only overnight stay on a boat was in Komodo Island, Indonesia.
I really enjoyed the overnight trip, which was made better by my fellow travellers all being awesome. Gelling amazingly as a group helped!
Out of overnight bus, train and plane choices, I choose an overnight bus as my favorite form of overnight travel. What about you?
Winner Goes To Overnight Bus!!!
I’m in a minority by choosing bus I believe, but it works for me. Ideally I’ll have a window seat near the front of the bus where I put my hoody and socks on before essentially cocooning up for X hours for the entire journey. I tend to fall asleep pretty quickly on a bus, waking up 6-8 hours happy as larry.
What form of overnight travel do you prefer?
Resources For Overnight Travel
- Seat61 is the best resource for travel by train.
- Rome2Rio is a decent guide to buses around the world. Look at individual bus sites in the country you are in as well.
- SkyScanner is what I use to figure out the best airline to use when I’d like an overnight flight.
