Legroom on the bus

The leg room is the same except in the front row and, with some buses, the last row where you can sit on the aisle. If its a RS tour, you can usually get a row to yourself and put your legs up.

I can't speak to tour buses, since I've never take a bus tour, but I've ridden inter-city public buses all over Europe. Those traveling between cities of size seem to me (I admit to being short) much roomier than coach-class seats on a plane. I've occasionally taken more local buses (trips that might last 30 to 60 minutes, within the local area) that were not as comfortable and had tighter seating.

There's often (always?) a full row of 5 seats at the very back of the bus. The center seat has nothing in front of it except the aisle, so one could stretch out ones legs if sitting there.

The front row of seats on the side opposite the driver sometimes has some extra room, but sometimes it seems tighter than other rows. In any case, it is usually marked for use by the physically challenged. Local culture seems to vary: Sometimes people grab those seats (best view on the bus) and are just prepare to move if they need to; in other areas, I've seen them left empty.

We took tours in Italy, France and Germany-- all the buses were super comfortable, usually there is enough seats whereby everyone gets their own if they want one. My husband and son are both over 6 feet tall and were fine.

We moved around a bit on our tour bus (21 day BOE) and found all of the seats the same. At least we didn't notice any differences. I had room to cross my legs if I wanted. I'm 5'6". The very front row across from the driver is the "scenic seat", and people usually take turns sitting there for an hour or so. Hubby is 5'11" and had no complaints. There were 22 on our tour and any who wanted had a double seat all to himself. Plus, the bus stops every two hours for a bathroom break of at least 20 minutes, maybe 30. Even on the days where we had a long haul to get to the next city we never felt we had been just sitting on the bus all day. Lunch, stop to explore a church or little city, all of those things broke up the trip. I'd do a RS tour again in a heartbeat.

Assuming that your question is primarily concerned with over-the-road, public buses and not touring or tour buses, our experience with buses is that the seating is a little tight. Not as tight as economy on a plane and not as generous as 2nd class on a train. It is OK but not terrific. All the seats are the same with the one exception of the center seat in the back row. But sometimes that seat doesn't exist because that is the location of the toilet so you don't want to sit in that area. In some buses you will have reserved seats. Our rough target is three to four hours - anything longer -- we will try to find a train if possible. Where are you think about taking buses?

I'm afraid that your question is quite broad and non-specific.

Can you please fill in some of the detail so that better and more precise answers can be given. There's a lot of knowledge here but we need specifics to answer correctly.

You don't give any clue about which country you are talking about, or what you mean by extended times. Are you considering a big bus tour, or a Rick Steves small group tour, or are you considering buses for intercity travel? Where?

Europe is not one big country like the US, where a Greyhound is a Greyhound is a Trailways (or whatever they are called these days). Different countries are all different - some more different than others - and different companies have different standards.

Thanks for helping us help you.

The buses used by RS are chartered coaches, from multiple companies, so there is no standard. Some people prefer the front, close to the tour leader, and some prefer the back.

Sometimes the seats with a view at the very front of the bus feel like they have less leg room. They have a solid panel in front of them, like the bulkhead seat on a plane. The seats behind them have space between the floor and the bottom of the seat in front and that gives you a bit more room for your feet. While I enjoy the view in the front, my big feet prefer a seat further back.

Airlines buying a plane from the manufacturer have options for the seat type and layout to be installed and so do coach companies buying buses. On my tour bus last month, some of us took several days to notice that seats on one side of the coach were installed with more legroom than the other side. I speculated that a different company could charge more for that side when they chartered the coach. But if the seats are too far apart, then short people can't reach the drop-down foot rests and tray tables. Other tour coach expectations mentioned above are typical, such as less legroom in the first row.

Long-distance coaches in Europe must stop roughly ever two hours for a driver break, during which time passengers (or RS tour members) will also get off and stretch their legs.

On my first Rick Steves tour, our bus driver had removed one row of seats on each side of the bus. That allowed for extra leg room when it was needed for the taller people on the bus. I was not one of those people that needed extra leg room. My next tour, we did not have extra leg room. I think it just depends of your bus driver. As, someone mentioned before, buses stop about every two hours when they are on tour.

We've been on several RS bus tours, and the legroom varies. On at least one tour, our knees touched the seats in front of us. (I'm 5' 8"; DH is 6'.) On our first RS tour, the seats were spacious, with plenty of leg room. We didn't really appreciate it until we had a substitute bus and driver for one leg of the trip (EU rules: drivers have mandatory days off.) On the substitute bus, we were squeezed into our seats. We sure were glad to get our regular bus back when we got to Rome!

We've also taken longer bus (coach) trips in Spain and England, and again, there's lots of variation. We do find bus seats in general more comfortable that airplane economy seats, but then again, we not trying to eat and sleep in them.

I agree with Jane. Leg room can vary. That being said, I am 5'2" and SC is 5'10. We have been on multiple RS Tours and have not had an issue. I recall in 2006 we were on a Tour with another company and one of our tour members who we called "Grande' Jim" sat in the front seat for the extra leg room! "Exit row"
seats at the back of bus might be an option.