BUG - Backpackers Guide to bus and coach travel in England, Scotland and Wales

National Express (website www.nationalexpress.com) is the most comprehensive bus operator with services to over 1200 destinations in England, Scotland and Wales. There are a number of other bus companies such as Arriva (website www.arrivabus.co.uk), First (website www.firstgroup.com), Green Line (website www.greenline.co.uk), Megabus (website www.megabus.com), Scottish Citylink (website www.citylink.co.uk) and Stagecoach (website www.stagecoachbus.co.uk) which provide comprehensive services in a specific region or along a particular route.

Arriva

Arriva (website www.arriva.com) operates local bus services throughout Great Britain. In most cases these are just town and city routes but there are some useful bus routes that connect towns and villages over a larger rural area.

Arriva buses cover the following areas: southeast England including London, Hastings, Reading, Oxford, Luton and Colchester; the Midlands including Birmingham, Derby, Leicester and Nottingham; North Wales; the Chester, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston area; Yorkshire including Leeds, Huddersfield, Sheffield, Wakefield and York; and northeast England including Durham, Middlesbrough, Newcastle and Berwick-upon-Tweed.

There are several bus passes available that give you unlimited travel within a specified area. These include:

DAY & WEEKLY TICKETS

There are day and weekly tickets for most towns and cities served by Arriva. However the day and weekly tickets that cover a wider area are the best deal for most travellers. These include the following tickets:

Kent, Surrey & Sussex

Day ticket £5.50

Midlands area

Day ticket £3.75

Weekly ticket £15

North East region

Day ticket £4.50

Weekly ticket £17

North West region

Day ticket £3.30

Wales & the North West

Day ticket £5

Weekly ticket £12.50

North Yorkshire (except Dales and Lakes bus services)

Day ticket £3.80

West Yorkshire (except Dales and Lakes bus services)

Day ticket £3.80

Yorkshire (except Dales and Lakes bus services)

Day ticket £4.80

Arriva 'Go Anywhere' Ticket

This ticket costs £6.50 and gives you one day unlimited travel on all Arriva services (excluding buses in London and some park and ride services). Although it is impossible to travel across the whole country with this ticket because of the way the Arriva network is set up this ticket is still excellent value if you want to travel across more than one adjoining region (for example if you want to travel from Leicester to North Wales).

First

First (website www.firstgroup.com) operate local bus services in over 40 towns and cities across the UK. They also run buses in rural areas including connecting services between towns and cities.

There are a number of regional passes that are a good value way to get around using First buses. These include:

FirstDay (South West)

One day unlimited travel on First buses in Bath, Bristol, Somerset, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Hampshire.

Cost £7

FirstDay Explorer (Dorset)

One day unlimited travel on most First bus services between Exeter and Maidenhead.

Cost £5

FirstDay (Pembrokeshire)

One day unlimited travel on First bus services around Haverfordwest and Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Cost £4

FirstDay (South & West Wales)

One day unlimited travel on First bus services in South Wales (except Shuttle services).

Cost £5.50

FirstDay (South Yorkshire)

One day unlimited travel on First bus services in South Yorkshire plus parts of north east Derbyshire, north Nottinghamshire, West Yorkshire, York and Greater Manchester.

Cost £2.90; £2.50 after 9am on weekdays and all day on weekends

First Bus & Rail Card (Bath-Bristol)

One day unlimited travel on First buses in Bath and Bristol plus First Great Western trains between Bath, Bristol and Weston-super-Mare.

Cost £7

First Bus & Rail Card (Devon)

One day unlimited travel on First buses in Devon plus travel on First Great Western Trains between Totnes and Penzance.

FirstTourist (East Anglia)

One day unlimited bus travel on First buses in the Eastern Counties.

Cost £7

FirstTourist (Herefordshire & Worcestershire)

One day unlimited bus travel on First buses in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and adjoining counties (excludes some night buses and park and ride services).

National Express

National Express (website www.nationalexpress.com) is the only real national bus network with services to over 1200 destinations in England, Scotland and Wales. They serve most towns and villages and have particularly good service between the major cities.

NX2 CARD

The NX2 Card gives discounts of up to 30% off National Express bus travel in the UK. The card costs £10 and is available to anyone aged between 16 and 26.

BRIT XPLORER PASS

The Brit Xplorer pass is good for unlimited travel on the National Express network, but it is not available to British passport holders. The pass is valid for seven, 14 or 28 consecutive days of travel.

It is a simple pass to use, as you don't need to book your travel, you need to turn up at the coach terminal and show your pass to the driver. If there is space on the bus you can hop on board. This pass is only available to international travellers.

	Price
7 Days (Hobo)	£79
14 Days (Footloose)	£139
28 Days (Rolling Stone)	£219

Scottish Citylink

Scottish Citylink (tel 08705 505050; website www.citylink.co.uk) provides an extensive bus network in Scotland with service to over 200 towns and cities.

SCOTTISH CITYLINK EXPLORER PASS

This good value pass can be used for coach travel in Scotland on Scottish Citylink. This pass also gives you discounts on Caledonian Macbrayne and Northlink ferries allowing you to visit the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland islands. It also gives you discounts at over 200 Scottish hostels.

	Price
3 consecutive days travel	£39
5 travel days in 10 days	£62
8 travel days in 16 days	£85

Stagecoach

Stagecoach (website www.stagecoachbus.com) operates a very extensive network of local buses although it can take a while to get around with a network comprised mostly of local routes.

Like Arriva and First buses, Stagecoach is best for exploring a specific geographic area. Stagecoach operates buses in the following regions: the southeast coast; Cheltenham, Oxford and the Cotswolds; northwest England including the Lake District; Ayrshire, Scotland and northeast Scotland.

DAY TICKETS

There is a day ticket for each of the the regions where Stagecoach operate. These are a very good value for exploring an area for a day or two.

Most towns and cities covered by Stagecoach offer day tickets but the best deal for travellers are day tickets that cover a larger area such as an entire county. These tickets are covered in detail under the Local Transport section of each destination.

EXPLORER TICKETS

The Explorer ticket is brilliant value allowing travel on Stagecoach as well as some other local bus operators. Most Explorer tickets are valid for one day but some regions also have three, four and seven-day Explorer tickets.

These tickets are covered in detail under the Coming & Going and Local Transport sections of the relevant destination.

Goldrider

The Goldrider ticket gives you unlimited travel on Stagecoach buses outside London.

There are also Goldrider tickets that give unlimited travel on Stagecoach buses within a wide area (usually within a specified county). These tickets are covered in detail under the Coming & Going and Local Transport sections of the relevant destination.

£1 Bus Fares

EasyBus, Megabus and National Express all offer £1 bus fares to destinations throughout the UK, although this is mostly limited to excursions from London and for links between the larger cities. However it is a cheap way to get across the country or just for a day or weekend trip out of the capital.

These cheap fares are booked online like tickets for a budget airline. A set number of seats are available at the cheap price, with the prices increasing after all the cheap seats have been sold.

EASYBUS

The same company that runs the easy Internetcafé chain and the easyJet budget airline runs easyBus (website www.easybus.co.uk). At the moment they only operate from London to Luton Airport and Milton Keynes so it's not much use unless you're catching an easyJet flight from Luton. Their bright orange minibuses leave from the bus stop outside Hendon Way Motors on Hendon Way in Hendon in London's northern suburbs (tube Hendon Central).

MEGABUS

Megabus (website www.megabus.com) have an ever-improving network of cheap bus routes across the UK. Like easyBus and National Express, Megabus fares start at £1 although they are subject to a 50p booking fee.

They have big double decker buses from London to Birmingham, Bournemouth, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Cheltenham, Chesterfield, Exeter, Glasgow, Gloucester, Leeds, Leicester, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Southampton and Swansea. Other services include Manchester to Leeds, London and Glasgow; Edinburgh to Dundee, Perth and St Andrews; Dundee to Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Perth and Inverness to Perth.

NATIONAL EXPRESS

National Express's Fun Fares are limited seats available at just £1 on routes from London to the following 20 cities: Birmingham, Bournemouth, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Canterbury, Cardiff, Exeter, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Southampton and Swansea. Fun Fares are also available on travel from Manchester to Birmingham, Liverpool and London.

SCOTTISH CITYLINK

Scottish Citylink (tel 08705 505050; website www.citylink.co.uk) also offers £1 tickets, but only on the Glasgow-Edinburgh route. However they also have £2 fares on their Glasgow-Perth and Edinburgh-Perth routes and £3 fares on their Aberdeen-Dundee, Aberdeen-Edinburgh, Aberdeen-Glasgow, Aberdeen-Perth, Inverness-Edinburgh, Inverness-Glasgow and Inverness-Perth services.

Alternative/Backpacker Transport

There are several small bus companies catering specifically to the backpacker. Some of them run really good trips stopping directly at the hostel door rather than the central bus station. These can be a good way to get around and because they are minibuses filled with other backpackers they can be good fun. Some companies have got on the backpackers bandwagon but run structured tours rather than offer an independent travel option allowing you to hop-on and hop-off when you feel like it. There are some cases when this sort of travel option is the best way to get around especially in remote areas with poor public transport. However if you have the option of choosing a tour or the more independent hop-on hop-off option, choose the hop-on hop-off.

MACBACKPACKERS

MacBackpackers (website www.macbackpackers.com) run a flexible hop on hop off bus service around Scotland. The itinerary varies according to the season but it covers the main spots in the Highlands and the jump off points are in places that make good bases for exploring places like the Isle of Skye (not included in the trip but an optional extra).

Fare £65

Departs Edinburgh

Overnight stops Pitlochry, Inverness, Kyleakin, Fort William

ROAD TRIP

Road Trip (website www.roadtrip.co.uk) run trips through England and Wales departing from London. Road Trip also run tours of southern England with an emphasis on Cornwall, but only their five-day four-night Northern Exposure trip has a hop on hop off option. You have to spend a week in your destination between hopping off and on the bus. This trip includes Sherwood Forest, Newcastle, Edinburgh, the Lake District, Liverpool, Wales, Stratford-upon-Avon and Oxford – many of the main tourist spots but also bypassing some important places in northern and central England.

Fare £139

Departs London

Overnight stops York, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Stratford-upon-Avon

SHAGGY SHEEP

Shaggy Sheep (website www.shaggysheep.com) run hop on hop off trips around Wales. The trips visit the main spots in Wales including the Wye Valley, Brecon Beacons, Cardiff, the Pembrokeshire Coast, Aberystwyth, Snowdonia and Caernarfon.

Fare £79

Departs London

Overnight stops Cardiff, Carmarthen, Machynlleth