Travel where ever you want for low costs (National Express)

Member Name: michaelvelvick

Product:	National Express
Date:	04/09/08 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Comfy seats, good price and reliable

Disadvantages: Long waits if you have to transfer

The National Express is a coach service which travels through most of the country and definitely goes to all major bus stations.
I use National Express to go on business trips and sometimes we use it to go on holiday, my girlfriend uses it quite alot to go to the various training courses she goes to.
You can buy a ticket for National Express at main bus stations and you can buy them online. If you buy a ticket online you can either print it off or you can have a text message ticket.
I find it is often much cheaper to use national Express than it is to travel by train but journeys can take a long time because there are many stops and they often take a long route so that it services many different places.
The seats on National Express are quite comfortable, you can recline them and get a bit of sleep and the windows have curtains so you can shut out the light. There are little buttons above your seat so you can put on a night light and turn on air conditioner, but I have found that about 40% of the time the air conditioner is not working, you may also have to ask the driver to turn the system on.
There are toilets on 99% of the National Express coaches but they are for emergency only is what you are told when you start to travel.
If you are disabled or have a concessionary bus pass you will get 50% off the price of your ticket. My girlfriend has a concessionary pass due to a bone problem which makes walking difficult so she always gets 50% off her tickets, if you book in a ticket office they usually ask to see your bus pass to give you a disabled ticket, but if you book online you just tick a box and we have found that when you get on the bus they do not check your bus pass, they just look at your ticket, so this is open to abuse I think.
There are only a couple of times when my coach has been delayed, they usually seem to be very prompt and they also arrive on time. One thing is if you are going a long way you will have to swap coached usually, most times I swap at London Victoria, a few times I have swapped at Stanstead airport, this can be annoying as you ca be waiting ages, once I had a 4 hour wait and got very bored.
I do recommend National Express, you need to make sure you check your travel times, sometimes it pays to leave a little earlier or later than you planned if you do not have set times for where you are going because the time you leave can change the price of your ticket.
You can usually get codes to get discounts on your tickets if you go to freebies websites or money saving expert. Also National Express offer discounts loads, like their recent travel for £1 offer, or their current £5 offer. You may find it is cheaper to book 2 tickets and get the offers then do a straight ticket where you will most likely have to do a change anyway.
I will continue to use National Express because it is cost effective and their coaches run late into the night and are comfortable and usually go to the places I need to reach.

Summary: Better than using te train as long as you are not in a hurry