Last night/this morning, I had an interesting and unique (to me) experience. I rode a sleeper bus, from SF to LA. It's a new startup called Cabin, and they are trying to introduce a new way to get between these two cities. It's a bus that's designed for sleeping, with tiny sleeping capsules instead of seats. It's a high-end experience, complete with fancy sheets, melatonin bottles, leather seats, an attendant that makes you coffee in the morning, etc. The idea is that you just go to sleep at 11 pm in one city and wake up at 7 am in the morning in the other one.
So, the big questions: number one, did I sleep? Well, sort of. I went in and out of sleep. The motion of the bus is soothing, as anyone with a child knows, except when it isn't. The bus is big and heavy, and when it goes over certain bumps, you feel it, and sometimes I think it woke me up. It took me about an hour to go to sleep, and then I woke up 3 or 4 times throughout the night. I did, however, sleep, and I woke up feeling fairly good and refreshed. Not the best night of sleep I ever had, but certainly better than any sleep I've ever gotten on a plane. Which really brings me to question two, which is: would I do it again? And the answer here is "Yes". I would. The thing is, you have to compare it to the other options. You want to get from LA to SF. First of all, you could drive. Bad news, in my opinion. First there's wear and tear, and gas. Then, you won't sleep of course (at least I hope not). And, when you get there, you have to park someplace. Of course, in some situations it's the best option. If you have stuff to carry, and if you need a car when you get there, and you have to be flexible with when you leave, then that makes sense. Another choice, of course, is to fly. Flying seems good, but for anyone who's done it, it really isn't. Yes, the flight itself is only 45 minutes, but by the time you drive to the airport, find parking, pay for parking, take the parking shuttle, get through security, wait at the gate, fly, get off the plane, find your luggage, and then take a shuttle/train to where you're going, it can be many hours. On the way out, I woke up at 3 am to get a 7am flight that was a bit late and landed at 8:30am and I got into SF at about 9:15. That's over 6 hours, and it was stressful, and at no point at all did I sleep. The third option is to take a cheaper "normal" bus. That's a good option in many ways: cheap, flexible schedule, luggage is easy. But it really only works if you can sleep on a bus - and I can't. I just don't sleep well sitting up.
So, when you think about it, if you were going to get a hotel anyway, this isn't a bad deal. It's $115 one way. The bus itself is nice and clean. The bathroom is sub-standard and it definitely feels cramped but, yeah, at the end of the day, you get there, it's stress-free, and you even get at least *some* sleep. So yeah, I would do it again.
