Typical as I have just spent a small fortune on Eurostar and a night train to Perpignan for my next visit to Spain.
Anyway Megabus has started doing coaches from London Victoria to Barcelona, it seems to cost £25 each way! That is £50 return and they have a 25kg allowance.
It is a daily service from what I can tell and the timetable works out far better than Eurolines offering and a lot cheaper, in fact time wise it competes with Siesta and Ferris and the journey is broken up by a 3 hour connection wait in Paris.
Sadly as usual what puts me off is no mention of leg room but as my last experience with Ferris in this regard was dire I might give it a go. I have next book to go to Spain in early to mid September so I doubt I will use Megabus this year, it will be too much going to Costa Brava or Daruda three times in a year.
I just thought I would mention it on here. The funny thing is I was only saying a couple of weeks ago I don't know why Stagecoach have not gone into the London > Spain market it now they have :).
I should add that it leaves London around 10:30am (I think it was) and gets into the centre of Barcelona at 11:30am (next day). It doesn't stop at Girona or Lloret like the Euroline one does so it might be a little frustrating if staying in that part of Spain going south to go North but for Salou this service might be very handy.
I am quite excited about this if I can find out about legroom because it means I can have a holiday in Spain for stupidly money and avoid the things that annoy me with package holidays.
well, i have had a quick look at this and at first glance it does appear a good deal.
i have e-mailed megabus to ask about seat pitch and also about toilets and ciggie breaks.
from their FAQs it appears that they will try to have a toilet on all services. TRY
however, although this looks like a good deal and will compare with eurolines and offer cheap travel for some who would use that sort of travel option it does seem that it has plenty drawbacks compared with buying a seat only trip with ferris or siesta.
prices do start from £ 25, but like low cost airlines there are only a certain number of seats at that price and when they are sold the price goes up.
the route/stops are heavily centred round boulogne/paris so you get the ferry to calais then go to boulogne then to paris where you wait in a coach park for around 3 hours while they presumably play musical chairs(i can see no other reason for this length of stop) and then head south. they do not offer comfort stops so you are on the coach for the next 12+ hours.
there also does not appear to be any pick-ups in the south east other than london or canterbury(not even dover) so that discourages me a bit.
i will wait for a reply from megabus before i look at this any further but, although it will undoubtably offer a viable alternative for some travellers, i think i will probably stick with a combination of ferris and low cost flights unless megabus can answer my questions to my satisfaction
i have e-mailed megabus to ask about seat pitch and also about toilets and ciggie breaks.
from their FAQs it appears that they will try to have a toilet on all services. TRY
however, although this looks like a good deal and will compare with eurolines and offer cheap travel for some who would use that sort of travel option it does seem that it has plenty drawbacks compared with buying a seat only trip with ferris or siesta.
prices do start from £ 25, but like low cost airlines there are only a certain number of seats at that price and when they are sold the price goes up.
the route/stops are heavily centred round boulogne/paris so you get the ferry to calais then go to boulogne then to paris where you wait in a coach park for around 3 hours while they presumably play musical chairs(i can see no other reason for this length of stop) and then head south. they do not offer comfort stops so you are on the coach for the next 12+ hours.
there also does not appear to be any pick-ups in the south east other than london or canterbury(not even dover) so that discourages me a bit.
i will wait for a reply from megabus before i look at this any further but, although it will undoubtably offer a viable alternative for some travellers, i think i will probably stick with a combination of ferris and low cost flights unless megabus can answer my questions to my satisfaction
Comfort is my biggest worry too and I would never try it unless I know other people have used it. As for the toilets I think they may mean UK services. I have done a few Megabus journeys in the UK this year as the train is getting too expensive and Megabus are a lot quicker than National Express as they only stop in the major cities. All of the coaches have had working toilets.
I've found that Megabus do usually offer a comfort break on the longer UK services but I went down to Exeter with them in May but the M6 had awful traffic so I was stuck on that coach for 8 hours without been able to get off ;(.
My problem with Ferris is I find the return journey far too much, if the traffic is bad the journey from Dover to Manchester can be at least 1/3 of the entire journey. I think if ever do Ferris again I will get on at London or some where else in the south east just to break it up a little bit. I think next year though I will try Siesta for the extra leg room but do it coach only.
I think the biggest problem with these cheap deals is it is easy to book then sat in the comfort of your own home but then so easy to curse when you're on a coach with no working toilet, no legroom etc.
I suspect the long break at Paris is to allow the coach to be a bit late, also I suspect the second coach down to Spain may not be operated by Megabus but outsourced to another firm.
I've found that Megabus do usually offer a comfort break on the longer UK services but I went down to Exeter with them in May but the M6 had awful traffic so I was stuck on that coach for 8 hours without been able to get off ;(.
My problem with Ferris is I find the return journey far too much, if the traffic is bad the journey from Dover to Manchester can be at least 1/3 of the entire journey. I think if ever do Ferris again I will get on at London or some where else in the south east just to break it up a little bit. I think next year though I will try Siesta for the extra leg room but do it coach only.
I think the biggest problem with these cheap deals is it is easy to book then sat in the comfort of your own home but then so easy to curse when you're on a coach with no working toilet, no legroom etc.
I suspect the long break at Paris is to allow the coach to be a bit late, also I suspect the second coach down to Spain may not be operated by Megabus but outsourced to another firm.
well i got a quick reply from them.
i asked
i am looking to use your service to barcelona but at 6'3" i need to know about the legroom on your coaches. are you able to tell me the standard seat pitch on the coach you use for this journey.
also, if the toilet becomes unavailable on route for any reason do you then make additional stops.
finally, when you stop on route are passengers able to get off the coach for a quick cigarette
their reply
It is standard coach with standard legroom i do not have the exact measurements. If the toilet became out of use the driver would then use comfort stops for the passengers at different points along the route.If you get off the coach unless advised by the driver you do so at your own risk of being left behind as the driver will depart without doing any head counts. Hope this helps.
so it does not really help, except that as they have said it is a standard coach i will take that to mean the legroom will not be sufficient for me.
so, if anyone does decide to take them up on a foreign trip can you please update us with the amount of legroom.
i asked
i am looking to use your service to barcelona but at 6'3" i need to know about the legroom on your coaches. are you able to tell me the standard seat pitch on the coach you use for this journey.
also, if the toilet becomes unavailable on route for any reason do you then make additional stops.
finally, when you stop on route are passengers able to get off the coach for a quick cigarette
their reply
It is standard coach with standard legroom i do not have the exact measurements. If the toilet became out of use the driver would then use comfort stops for the passengers at different points along the route.If you get off the coach unless advised by the driver you do so at your own risk of being left behind as the driver will depart without doing any head counts. Hope this helps.
so it does not really help, except that as they have said it is a standard coach i will take that to mean the legroom will not be sufficient for me.
so, if anyone does decide to take them up on a foreign trip can you please update us with the amount of legroom.
Well I think that counts me out then, I am 6ft and struggled even with Ferris last time. I suspect they don't have the exact measurements because it is not a Stagecoach service.
Incidentally after reminding Ferris I got a reply about the legroom all they could really say was that not all platinum seats have the same amount of legroom doesn't really help me so as a solo traveller I think I will have to count Ferris out in the future unless I could sit next to a friend or had both seats to myself.
Incidentally after reminding Ferris I got a reply about the legroom all they could really say was that not all platinum seats have the same amount of legroom doesn't really help me so as a solo traveller I think I will have to count Ferris out in the future unless I could sit next to a friend or had both seats to myself.
NoAir wrote:Well I think that counts me out then, I am 6ft and struggled even with Ferris last time. I suspect they don't have the exact measurements because it is not a Stagecoach service.
Incidentally after reminding Ferris I got a reply about the legroom all they could really say was that not all platinum seats have the same amount of legroom doesn't really help me so as a solo traveller I think I will have to count Ferris out in the future unless I could sit next to a friend or had both seats to myself.
Hi no air
Although coach travel has various issues that you have to accept it isn't on if they sell you a particular offer and don't provide it
Basically if I was you I would push a little further And ask them to clarify exactly the legroom that a platinum seat provides
To say "they vary" is not only unfair but would come under various consumer rules as misrepresentation of a product.
Depending on whether you can be bothered or not and I assume you can as you have told us all about it and if I was you I would be asking for a partial refund or more .
If you do check the small print and if no clarification then you have a case .
Hope that helps
Is all a long time ago now and would rather just forget it, I am going back to Spain in September and going by train and staying a night in London making that part of the holiday (it has been a couple of years since I have stayed in London).
If I ever was to use Ferris again I think I would need to travel down to the south east, to me the UK leg of the journey back to Manchester is the big part of the nightmare if things go wrong on the motorway network.
I will be back on here to let people know my railway journey went but it is basically this.
Manchester > London > Paris > Perpingnan > Girona > Calella > Barcelona > Salou > Barcelona > Perpingnan > Paris > London > Manchester.
I am spending 1 night in London, three nights in Calella and four nights in Salou, the other two nights will be spent on the night train.
If I ever was to use Ferris again I think I would need to travel down to the south east, to me the UK leg of the journey back to Manchester is the big part of the nightmare if things go wrong on the motorway network.
I will be back on here to let people know my railway journey went but it is basically this.
Manchester > London > Paris > Perpingnan > Girona > Calella > Barcelona > Salou > Barcelona > Perpingnan > Paris > London > Manchester.
I am spending 1 night in London, three nights in Calella and four nights in Salou, the other two nights will be spent on the night train.
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