If you have ever travelled through Europe, you will know, or have heard, of FlixBus. It basically gets you from point A to point B for a very cheap price. However some of the pitfalls that entail for paying almost nothing to travel in between countries is the amount of time you are on the bus and all the nuisances along the way. Some busses have working WiFi, outlets, and bathrooms, but not all of them -- despite what the website states.
Last minute, I purchased a seat on FlixBus to travel from Nice to Florence to visit my friend. The main reason why I chose to subject myself to an eight hour bus ride is because it is extremely expensive to fly into Florence and the train times did not work with my schedule. Hence, the headache of using a budget bus system.
The first bus I took was one from Nice Bus Station to Genoa Principe Bus Station. Before I had booked my seat on the bus, I did some investigation on the service I would be getting and a lot of the reviews basically told me you get what you paid for. My bus was supposed to leave at 8:50 and I was told by the reservation email to arrive 15 minutes before the bus was supposed to leave so I got there around 8:30. However, the bus did not even arrive there until 9:10, so it was pointless for me to arrive that early and stress over whether or not I would get a good seat. The way the seating works is if you decide to pay a fee, you get to choose your seat in the priority seating within the first 4 rows. If you decide not to pay a fee, you get to sit anywhere on the bus with a green square next to it. Thankfully, this bus happened to have multiple outlets, a bathroom, and working WiFi.
But oh my goodness, the bus from Genoa to Florence was a hot mess!
To start, I had a two hour bus “layover” in Genoa, which I thought was going to fly by. Ahh was I ever so wrong. Genoa is very scenic and beautiful, but there are limited places a girl can go with a backpack and a suitcase attached to her. I spent about one hour just looking for an iron patch and the other hour trying to find a bathroom that I could use without paying 1 euro.
Finally when it was time to board the bus, THE BUS WAS LATE AGAIN. I was using the FlixBus app to track my bus and when it was time to board the bus, it was 20 minutes away at the Genoa Airport. I patiently waited for the bus at the station and made some limited small talk with a very nice Italian woman in the mean time. We smoothly boarded the bus and waited for everyone to pack on. After 20 minutes of the bus literals doing nothing and the driver just smoking and standing outside, everyone exchanged confused looks. Turns out, the engine was smoking! I had to ask several people before someone spoke broken English to inform me of why we were not moving. After about an hour of waiting, we zoomed out of Genoa and were on the last leg to our journey to Florence.
Screenshot from the FlixBus app
On my returning bus from Florence to Genoa, I was screamed at in Italian because I placed my bag in the wrong baggage destination area.
I wanted to tell him that screaming louder in Italian won’t make me magically understand what you’re saying; I still don’t know Italian.
And again, the bus was about 10 minutes late and I boarded the bus with a peeved expression and a frozen nose. When crossing the Italy/France border, the bus was stopped by border control and everyone was asked for their passports, along with any visas if they asked how long your stay was.
I don’t mean for me to come off as one of those complaining Yelp reviewers, rather I just want to inform everyone what they will be getting themselves into if anyone chooses to use FlixBus during their trip throughout European journey. There are definitely some apparent pros and cons of this budget bus company, so do with them as you wish.
Will I ever ride in a FlixBus again? Most likely, simply because of the unbeatable prices.
Will I enjoy every second of my time in the bus? Probably not, but it is one of the risks.
If you’re on a budget and just need to get from point A to point B with no time constraints, then FlixBus is your best option.
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