Flixbus interflix pass Experiences? W. Europe

Hi,

I'll be in Europe at the same time taking one of these routes, Frankfurt to Paris,

This is where I allow myself to get a discounted ticket, 92 days out, ie locking myself in to a specific date and departure, 49 Euro on the TGV or ICE, 1st class. Last June I took the opposite route, dep from Paris 0720 hr , arrived at Frankfurt Hbf at 10:58, sat in 1st class for 49 Euro. It was a Saturday, at one point the 1st class coach was 95% occupied, quite a surprise since I had expected otherwise.

How long does this bus ride take?

Last summer I took Flixbus for the first time. The trip was from Heidelberg to Colmar. The bus was both a time and money saver. The bus was clean and comfortable. 99€ for five trips seems like a sweet deal. Enjoy the savings.

Have you looked up times for Flixbus? It is 2-3 times slower than the train.
Example, there are only 2 departures per day London to Amsterdam, takes 17-18 hours (overnight), includes a change of bus in Paris (very indirect route) and leaves you at Amsterdam Sloterdijk (requires a train to city centre). The train takes 4h38 and there is a departure every 2 hours.
Amsterdam to Frankfurt is 6½ hours by bus (plus time getting to Sloterdijk) versus 3h50 by train.
Frankfurt to Paris is 10h40 by bus versus 4 hours by train.

Admittedly it is a lot cheaper than a train. It is your time your comfort and your money. Your choice.

We were in Europe May-June of 2017. We used Flixbus for Frankfurt-Heidelberg round trip, Berlin-Cottbus one way, and Zagreb-Zadar one way. The buses left on time, arrived on time, were not overly crowded, were comfortable, and stopped periodically for a break. The longest trip on bus was 3 hours. As others have said, trains are better for many of the routes you suggest - Frankfurt-Paris on the high-speed train was about 3 hours. I'd do trains for any trip longer than 3-4 hours, because the trains are probably faster. But the flixpass sounds like a great deal.

We aren’t really worried about the shortest route because we plan on saving money on hotels by taking overnight buses and sleeping on the bus.

@Fred the Frankfurt to Paris direct overnight bus is 8.20 hours.

@ChrisF the overnight bus from London to Amsterdam is actually 11h on their website. To be clear, I am only interested in direct routes. If I’m not mistaken, direct routes are the only ones valid with the interflix pass.

@ tyrus...Got it! Thanks for the info. Sleeping on a night bus is no problem, more preferable than sleeping in six seat train compartment, even though my experiences with that have been admittedly satisfactory. Given a choice between a night bus and train compartment, I much prefer the bus as long it arrives at a decent time, ie 0600 to 0900 hrs.