Tag: Megabus

The Megabus

The Megabus

When you are a student from out of state, it can be expensive to go home for school breaks or weekend visits.  Plane tickets can cost hundreds of dollars, and it is not always easy having a car in the big city.  Thankfully, there are other, less expensive options for those students needing a trip back home.

The Megabus is one such option, and offers cheap tickets to over one hundred cities across the country.  While they advertise tickets for as low as $1.00, it has been my experience that round trip tickets usually average between $30-$60 depending on your destination.

Last weekend, I took a trip to Cleveland, Ohio with a friend to visit her family.  The entire trip only cost me $35.  The trick is to book your tickets early enough to get a good price, which is easy enough to do online.  For that price, it is hard to complain.

Yet the Megabus does have its drawbacks.  Though Megabus uses fairly spacious coach buses, it can still be uncomfortable to sit in their seats for six hours.  Not to mention that the bus often times has a hard time keeping on schedule.

All in all, however, the Megabus is a great option for college students.  After taking a few trips, you begin to recognize familiar faces.  Students from Loyola, DePaul, University of Chicago, and many others frequent the Megabus.  And for only $35, it is a great way to save some money on travel!

A Weekend in Ohio

A Weekend in Ohio

Something I consider to be a HUGE perk of college is getting to meet new people from an array of places all over the world. It is so fun for me to hear different accents, learn about cultures and if the opportunity presents itself and travel home with them.

This weekend I got the opportunity to travel home with one of my good friends that I met this year, Sydney. Being such a travel lover, I instantly jumped at the opportunity to take a trip to her hometown Akron, OH.

After living in the city for a year and a half now, I thought I had seen all the different forms of transporation. I was wrong. I usually take the Amtrak home and I have of course ridden the CTA trains and busses, but when I saw the two-story Megabus that we would be traveling in, I knew we were in for a journey.

We wasted the 7 hour ride with napping, studying, musicing and talking. When we arrived, we were greeted with the most fun-loving, warm welcome. I had never before spent much time in the Ohio region of the United States, so I was taking in all the different architecture and stores that I hadn’t seen before.

Although we were only able to spend a single day there, we made the most of it. Sydney’s mother made us breakfast in the morning, which is such a treat when college gets too hectic to cook breakfast for yourself. As for the rest of the day, we drove around to see some sights with Sydney’s friends, shopped at the local mall and later attended a family Halloween party. The night ended with a movie that we only saw 20 minutes of after falling completely asleep.

As my own parents were on a trip of their own this weekend, it was great to be in a family home and experiencing a new place. I am so thankful for these connections I have built through my Loyola community that ultimately brought me to going on this wonderful trip.