Job Discussion Forums

Ackerley81 · Joined: 20 Oct 2004 Posts: 49

I know a lot of people plan on doing some traveling by bus around South America and so I thought it would be a good idea to compile a list of buses that are available and give people the heads up about which suck and which do not. I just spent a month on the road and took a lot of buses, and there really is a big difference between the companies in quality but usually not price. And no matter how much you eyeball the bus before you buy the ticket, you can't tell what it's really like until you spend 18 or so quality hours with it! So here's what buses I took and what I thought about them:

Andesmar: Very nice comfortable seats (the most important part!), ok food considering it's a bus, and good service. And they always play a little bingo game for a bottle of wine which is a good 10 min. of entertainment. One Andesmar bus I took had leather-esque seats.

Via Bariloche: Again, very wide comfortable seats, decent food, and good service. No bingo though Smile

They tend to play their movies in English whoohoo!

Don Otto: Comfortable seats, don't remember the food, pretty good experience.

Via Tac: I had an average experience with them, but I was on semi-cama so that could be the problem. The food was mostly rice Smile

Pullman: another average one. I can't remember much about them so it couldn't have been too bad.

Ormeno: average but they were consistently late--once by 2.5 hours.

San Martin: really awful. Their "coche cama" was a joke and it was cold and we got no blankets.

Ok, well that's all I can remember. Don't forget to always go with coche cama and bring snacks if it's a long bus. Of course, not every experience will be the same but I have noticed that if I took a company that was good once, it was good again. Happy trails!

Sarah

sheena maclean · Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 3:45 pm Post subject:

Thanks for that information Sarah that'll come in really handy. I'm thinking of going to Cordoa soon but I guess I can do that on the regular bus as it's not a long haul. But what about Iguazu? Who goes there? do you think it would be too traumatic in semi-cama? I've never taken a coche caqma before and I've done some pretty long journeys, like 22 hours, is it really worth the extra money? Is it really much more expensive?
thanks for your info so far
Sheena

Ackerley81 · Joined: 20 Oct 2004 Posts: 49

I think coche cama is usually between 10 and 20 pesos more. To me it's worth it because the seats are so much more comfortable. I can actually sleep in a coche cama whereas in a semi cama I can't. I went to Iguazu with Via Bariloche there and back and it was really good. The trip was about 17 hours and it was one of the easiest bus trips I've made. Hope that helps!
Sarah

jasonphos · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 10:03 pm Post subject:

The wife and I took a trip on a "super cama" from Buenos Aires to Bariloche for our honeymoon. This was April, 2001 (I remember the date quite well Smile

. Anyways, my point is that some lines offer a super cama, one step up from the coche cama, and I've got to say that it was excellent. The seat fully reclined to pretty much a horizontal position.

I definitely wouldn't travel in anything less than a "coche cama"...

Jason