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Flixbus "Direct" Routes and Your Experiences?

Posted by on

My sister and I are planning a trip to Europe March 20 - April 25. She is wanting to try out the Flixbus pass that allows you to see 5 cities for just 99 Euros. She has chronic fatigue and thinks bus trips would work well for her, and she is eager to see the European countryside out the window.

I looked at the Flixbus web site and still have some questions. She wrote to the company, but they didn't understand her well, so we didn't get very satisfactory answers to our questions.

I'm in hopes some of you have used the Flixbus and can give us some advice. First of all, is there a direct route from Amsterdam to Rome? If not, what would be a most scenic way to take the Flixbus to Rome from Amsterdam? Or would it be a more interesting route to take it from Paris to Rome? Is there a direct route from London to Rome? When I look at their web site, I see a jillion pinheads, showing a zillion routes, but I can't make any sense out of it, other than the ones they have named in text, but they say there are many more, but all I can find are the pinheads???

If you have taken the Flixbus, I would appreciate hearing your thoughts about it. We are trying to plan our Flixbus adventure so that we see the prettiest scenery during daylight hours and sleep through the areas that aren't as scenic, but I don't know whether this is possible. Are there any routes you would avoid? For instance, I read in a Blog that Amsterdam to London is not a good route to take, that it is interminable? However, Nuremberg to Prague is beautiful, with farms and castles to see along the way? This will be late March/early April, so I'm thinking southern Italy will be the greenest.

I would love to hear your favorite Flixbus routes. I'm thinking a trip from Amsterdam to Rome might use up all 5 cities, unless there is a DIRECT Flixbus route from Amsterdam to Rome?

We are budget travelers. We have ridden the plush train from Paris to Amsterdam and plan to do that again, but we want to take the Flixbus into Austria and Germany at some point on this trip. We may have to buy several Flixbus passes.

Posted by
5687 posts

I took a FlixBus from Ljubljana to Trieste last May. The bus was about 45 minutes late, but because I had installed the FlixBus app on my phone, I knew it was late so I wasn't left wondering (not much in the way of sign boards at what passes for Ljubljana's bus station).

The bus was comfortable enough, comparable to other European buses I have taken. But personally, I'm just not a big fan of buses for long rides. I hate being stuck in a small seat, and I like to be able to get up and walk around. That's one reason I greatly prefer trains, and I always use them when it's a practical choice vs. buses. Most European countries have a good if not great train system, and tickets are affordable if you buy in advance. Why not use the trains?

I guess 99 Euros to connect five cities is a pretty sweet price, but you couldn't pay me to take a bus from Rome to Amsterdam, especially not a direct one where I'd be stuck in a seat for such a long time. On the other hand, I recently trained from Venice to Paris via the Italian riviera, over about ten days, and it was a lovely experience. The scenery along the Italian and French rivieras is great, and central France is very beautiful by train. However, some would suggest going through Switzerland instead, which looks breathtaking (not something I wanted to do on that trip).

If you want to know if there's a direct route between city A and city B, try checking for tickets between them on the FlixBus website on dates in March-April and see what comes up. They show you which routes have stops and which ones are direct.

Posted by
8159 posts

There is the Hague to Rome with a bus change in Frankfurt. Haven take the train that way I don't recall the landscape as scenic.
I took Munich to Salzburg it is a good route pretty scenic that is where they shot that movie The Sound of Music.
But that was in July when everything is in full bloom.

Also the bus makes other stops people getting off so you have to keep an eye out that no one walks away with your bag

Posted by
16503 posts

As trips can depend on the day you want to take them, you'd have to input your exact dates to see if there is a bus from X to X, if it involves transfers and where.

But there's no way I'd take a Flixbus from Amsterdam to Rome; it's too far. Just inputting a random date for this month, journeys take between 28.5 and 32 hours with 1 transfer (different places). That's wasting valuable sightseeing time, IMHO, so I'd definitely fly.

Posted by
2487 posts

Are you sure that travelling on long-distance buses is a good idea with your sister's condition? (I won't mention night rides, which you must forget. They are already an assault on fit and healthy people.) Trains are much more comfortable, even 2nd class-only regional trains. They have better sitting arrangements, have a smoother ride and allow for moving around.
I have never used long-distance buses in Europe, but they will ride along the motorways, hardly an inspiring environment. Trains follow routes which connect larger and smaller cities and villages, and offer a much greater variety. Train rides through the Swiss, Italian and Austrian mountain ranges are a pure joy.
Trains will be more expensive than the EUR 20 per leg which Flixbus seems to ask, but can be amazingly cheap when you buy tickets in advance. The direct train, for example, between Austrian Salzburg and Villach (a most scenic trip, as is the Innsbruck-Verona line, going over the Brenner Pass) can be bought for EUR 9, and the international train from Villach to Venice can be as cheap as EUR 29. In Italy the so-called Regionale trains are already cheap without advance buying: Venice to Florence on the slow train is just over EUR 20, and Florence to Rome a little bit more at EUR 21,65.

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