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TOURISM

Night bus: How to travel the length of France for less than €15

It's not luxury travel, but for those who want to explore France on a budget, the night bus is an often-overlooked travel option. Student, night bus devotee and self-described cheapskate Stephanie Stacey has the lowdown.

Night bus: How to travel the length of France for less than €15
Photo: Philippe Desmazes/AFP

If you want to travel France on a shoestring budget, the budget night bus is your friend.

Sure, the buses don’t smell great, and rattling down the road for 10 hours straight is hardly the most comfortable experience, but how else can you expect to travel across the entire country for under €15, especially on a weekend or public holiday? 

And it’s not just about the financial savings, though that’s certainly a pretty good incentive.

Travelling by bus offers a great chance to see different parts of the country. You’ll pass alongside beautiful vineyards and spectacular mountains, as well as plenty of standard, but still lovely, green fields. Taking the bus is also pretty good for the planet, especially compared to air travel, so you’ll win some eco-friendly points too. 

Your travel won’t be luxurious, but the views make up for it. Photo by NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP

Travelling at night is also great when it comes to maximising your time and minimising accommodation costs. Although it likely won’t be the comfiest night of your life, you can sleep on the night bus – avoiding any hotel costs – and arrive at your destination first-thing in the morning, ready to make the most of the entire day. 

At present, the two main budget bus operators in France are FlixBus France – a 2015 offshoot of German company FlixBus – and BlaBlaBus – a recently-rebranded SNCF initiative now operated by carpooling company BlaBlaCar. It’s worth checking both companies out when planning your trip, though they often operate similar routes and largely share similar prices. 

For all your ticketing needs, ComparaBUS offers an easy-to-use tool for finding the best times and prices but booking your budget bus ticket is the easy part. The real challenge is managing to arrive at your destination with at least a glimmer of a smile left on your face. 

As a self-proclaimed budget night bus expert (read: cheapskate but keen traveller), I’ve put together a list of everything you’ll need to survive the experience. 

Headphones/ Earplugs

I once sat next to a woman who listened to opera music at full volume for the entire night. 

 An eyemask

Watching the sunrise is lovely, but it can often happen a little bit earlier than you’d like. If you want to maximise sleep, it’s worth bringing something to block out the glare.

A pillow

Sleeping on something comfortable – whether it’s an inflatable cushion, a rolled up jumper, or even a full standard pillow – will make all the difference. 

Snacks

Although the bus will likely stop off at a few service stations, coming prepared with a healthy snack supply is essential. There’s nothing worse than combining hunger-induced rage with uncomfortable travel and difficulty sleeping. 

A blanket 

Buses aren’t often particularly well insulated so the temperature tends to drop significantly in the early hours of the morning. Bringing along a blanket – or at least a spare jumper – can keep you as warm and cosy as possible. 

Deodorant/Perfume

The night bus does not smell wonderful, and neither will you after spending the night crammed in with other travellers. If you want to arrive at your destination feeling fresh, I’d recommend bringing along some strong-selling deodorant or perfume.  

Entertainment

Staring out of the window is nice for a while – maybe even for a couple of hours – but eventually you’re going to want something to do. Bring a book. Download a podcast. Write a novel. Do anything that keeps you distracted. 

Most buses come equipped with power-points for your devices, so you won’t need to worry about running down the battery watching a movie. 

Comfortable clothes

This one’s obvious, but it’s worth stressing. The budget night bus is not the place for fashion. Take care of yourself, and opt for sweats, leggings and cosy jumpers.  

A sense of humour

This is probably the most important one. 

Occasionally, the bus will probably break down or get stuck in traffic for hours at a time, bringing your already-too-long journey into unbearable territory. Sometimes, the budget price of the bus will be manifest in the experience, and it’s healthier to laugh it off if you can, even though I certainly wouldn’t judge you for letting out a few swear words…

Routes

The buses go all over France, but here are some of the routes currently being advertised.

Paris – Marseille, from €9.99

Montpellier – Lyon, from €5.99

Paris – Strasbourg, from €11.99

Toulouse – Bordeaux, from €7.99

Alternatives

If you’re more of a comfort traveller and don’t mind spending a little more, France has several options for domestic travel.

Train – the French train network is good and relatively cheap. The high-speed TGV routes mean you can be from Paris to Nice in around 6 hours, while Ouigo trains offer a budget option for long distances. Tickets are also free to refund or change up to three days before departure. For those like nighttime travel, France is also rolling out a network of new night trains – both domestic and international.

READ ALSO Everything you need to know about travelling on French trains 

Plane – domestic plane routes do exist, but a new environmental law making its way through parliament means a ban on flights between two French cities if you can travel the same distance by train in less than two and a half hours.

Car-sharing – if you don’t have a car and are visiting somewhere that does not have good public transport connections, check out the ride sharing service BlaBlaCar. Car owners hire out space in their vehicle in exchange for a contribution to petrol money. A bonus for French learners is that chatting in the car amounts to a free French lesson (the Bla Bla in the company name originally referred to the fact that you could specify whether you wanted a ‘chatty’ journey or not).  

Car hire – most French cities have reasonably cheap car hire options, but if you’re travelling a long distance make sure you budget for motorway tolls as well as fuel costs.

Member comments

  1. Interesting. Thank you. I’d not been aware there was such a thing as a “night bus” in France (albeit I am aware of, and have used, similar services in a few other locales). I’m much more of a train person (and as such, look forward to the recently-announced (intended-)expanded “night (sleeper?) train” service within France), but it is useful to know of this bus option.

    Can(? Do?) such buses carry bicycles? (I’ve admit I haven’t checked the relevant sites, Sorry!)

  2. Just a word of warning that there is nothing worse than arriving in a new place and wishing to be full of energy and being totally shattered because you haven’t slept at all. That was my experience. Then I spent 30 euros on a pillow and eye patches and still nothing. I think it is very much yes if you can but if you can’t take the night train! I can sleep in a plane, on a train, in a car, standing up but for some reason coaches are impossible.

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of 420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of 2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some 200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of 2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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