Experiencing the BoltBus from New York to Boston
This past weekend I finally had the opportunity to take the BoltBus (which I have covered extensively here and here) from Boston to New York! I didn’t get one of the “as advertised” $1 fares, mine was $15 due to my lack of planning and having to purchase the ticket as the last minute.
I won’t rehash my entire 4 hour journey but it did go something like this: Boarded, sat down, plugged in laptop to the a/c outlet, connected to the free Wi-Fi, and 4hr 30min later I found myself in the middle of Manhattan. All in all, the 
trip was great and I found that the power outlet and free Wi-Fi allowed me to be productive on the trip.
Here is a quick pro and con list of the BoltBus:
Pros:
- Free Wi-Fi
- A/C outlets
- Inexpensive (from $1 to $20)
- Boards by zone so no chaotic boarding
- Super-friendly drivers
- Clean bathrooms (nicer than airplane lavatories)
- Bolt Rewards Program (buy 8 one-way trips and receive 1 one-way free)
- Never felt like my life was in jeopardy (driver never slammed on the brakes, driver never swerved, didn’t hear gasps of horror from other passengers, etc.)
- Bus smelled like cinnamon (which was nice for 5 minutes)
Cons:
- The Boston buses arrive and depart out of Midtown which was absolutely chaotic on Sunday afternoon
- It took us 45 minutes to drive from 125th Street in Harlem to 34th Street in Midtown because we went down Fifth Avenue. Is there no better (faster) way?
- Bus smelled like cinnamon (which made me sick after the first 5 minutes)
Words of advice: When I purchased my ticket online it showed that it only had “Zone C” boarding available. At that point I backed out of the screen and joined the Bolt Rewards program. When I returned to the purchase screen as a logged-in Rewards member I got a “Zone A” boarding, good for priority boarding. Not sure if this will work every time, but its worth trying!
Photo credit: personal collection
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6 Comments
A bus with Wi-Fi is just brilliant. I’m not sure how much work I could get done because I can’t read in cars or buses (but I’m fine on trains, subways, and planes), but I could at least watch videos or something to amuse myself.
Hi Sherry, I absolutely understand. After about a half-hour of work I started to feel just a bit queasy. But like you said, the outlets were great so you can watch a movie without completely draining your laptop battery.
I am always a little apprehensive about plugging my laptop into an outlet on a plane, bus, train, etc. A few years ago, while a flight attendant for a large airline, we had outlets on some of our wide-body jets. The business people loved it until there was a glitch in the system and it ended up frying the laptops that were plugged in. Thankfully, my laptop didn’t meet the same destiny on the BoltBus!
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[...] The good news about crummy air travel is that other options are starting to look pretty good – how about the BoltBus from Boston to New York? [...]
The Bolt Bus is pretty awesome, I’ve ridden it a number of times and love the wifi. A good place to find tickets for Bolt Bus, Megabus, and a number of other lines is BusJunction. Check it out!