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I'd also look into ride-share opportunities. Back in my day, they were posted on bulletin boards at local colleges, but now I think they are all online. Craigslist Raleigh has a rideshare board, and if you google "ride share NC" you'll find more options.
Im not a public transportation expert, but Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh each have their own bus system. There is a separate system called Triangle Transit Authority (TTA) that is geared for commuters and mostly runs between the towns and to the research triangle park. Chapel Hill's system is geared towards students, but seems pretty extensive. Durhams system (DATA) is reasonably extensive, but there are only about 2-3 places in Durham you would probably want to go and for the most part walking would be fine/easier. Raleigh has a city system and there is another bus system for NC State, but I don't know how extensive or useful either system is. I would avoid grayhound like the plague.
I would strongly recomend you get a credit card. I mean - you expect to survive a visit to America with neither a car nor a credit card?!?! Ha! Next thing you will tell me you don't even have a gun! But seriously, even if you cancel it immediately after the trip, you should go ahead and get one just because it will be a huge hassle to do anything here without it - not just car rental (hire, in my best BBC voice) but hotels will also require one. Some places don't even take cash any more and debit cards don't always work internationally. On the plus side, most cards don't have fees anymore and you can get some with travel insurance or a cash back rebate and its good to have access to credit for an emergency. Just pay off the statement balance it wont cost you a thing!
On the other hand, I cant imagine a more boring place to visit than here, but I suppose if you're going to be riding your bike on the highways and sleeping in greyhound stations then it might just be pretty exciting!
I'd pick a different city to visit that had better public transportation. For example, you'd have no problem getting around Washington DC or New York City without a car!
I had a friend come visit from Australia who didn't have a credit card - he wound up getting one as he was unable to rent a car at any of the major agencies without it. He didn't try Triangle Rent A Car, though.
Boston is another city that is easy to get around without a car.
Just a question - ever rode greyhound yourself? Or are you just going based on what "everyone says".
My experiences on greyhound have been that it is barebones travel. The buses are often full so it can be cramped, the schedules can be inconvenient, and the buses sometimes get behind schedule, but it is safe, pretty cheap, and gets you where you're going.
It's all about the mindset and expectations. If you expect to be pampered of course you will be disappointed. If you pretty much just mind your own business, and appropriately expect to get what you paid for when it comes to customer service, then no sweat.
I would, however, avoid any overnight layovers in greyhound stations. I did that exactly once, in Charlotte, about 5 years ago. I actually felt quite safe. FWIW I am male, but my sister has done it too and her experiences echo mine. The station was busy and there were lots of employees there including a security guard, but there was nowhere to sit but the cold tile floor and I was miserable from sleep deprivation.
If you can take Amtrak, though, I recommend it over Greyhound any day.
Just a question - ever rode greyhound yourself? Or are you just going based on what "everyone says".
I took a Greyhound bus from DC to NYC years and years (and years) ago. It wasn't a totally horrible experience but I haven't taken a long bus trip since! I guess I just got spoiled by cheap flights and then by having a car.
When I lived in the DC suburbs I had a young friend (18 or so) visit from the UK. He stayed with me about two weeks, and when he wanted to go sightseeing I dropped him off at a train station near my office and off he went. He had a great time, and I didn't have to play taxi the whole time. When he wanted to do something in the suburbs though it was another story - I had to drive him around. When my Australian friend came to visit me here in Raleigh we ran out of things to do rather quickly - mostly because he was supposed to come for a long weekend and it somehow became 10 days. Raleigh is nice, but it can't compare to DC for things to do and see. To the OP, I would really recommend hopping Amtrak and heading to DC for at least a few days (unless you have already been there).
I do two types of vacations - one where I rent a beach house (or maybe a mountain house), stay in one place for a week and just chill out. When I want to actually SEE new places I take a motorcycle tour - I've gone to southern Spain, Nova Scotia/Newfoundland and the length of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I can't imagine doing any of that just on public transportation - and I don't see ANYTHING wrong with using a motorized vehicle under your own control on a trip! My dad & stepmom went to the UK a few years back, and they rented a car! It's probably just an American thing - I like the freedom to go where I want, when I want, without having to rely on a bus/train schedule (unless it's somplace like DC where trains run every 10 minutes!).
Anyhow, to the OP - be sure to post how your vacation turns out. I'm sure all us "car addicts" would enjoy reading about it!
toot68, that was exactly was I looking for: kind, positive encouragement plus a succulent bone. )) thank you so much!
i want to take the chance to apologise to anybody who might have felt hurt by my comments. i realised only afterward that my writing could have come accross as a bit too harsh. *AM DEEPLY SORRY DUDES!*
any other walking itinerary, yes?
Apology accepted.
Hope you find an itinerary that will provide you with great pleasure.
the main reason why i travel by public transport is because it's the best way to get in touch with the locals and try to understand the way they live. as simple as that!
we all know that whilst on holiday you're bound to get in touch with the community regardless
--unless you spent the whole time sleeping in your car, eating the food that you had brought along from home, never making eye-contact with strangers etc etc--
but what kind of contact you get from the hotel/restaurant/chauffering staff? the polite, detached, tourist-orientated one!
I visited the States several times and I've naturally done already the big cities' route. NY, DC, Boston, Miami, Orlando, Philly, San Francisco, LA, Santa Monica and so forth.
They were all wonderful and big, but they also were.... surprise surprise: so similar to each other! Nothing wrong against Starbucks and the likes, long live iced coffee!, but it is a bit disheartening nowadays to get the same decaf everywhere you might be, from London Uk to New York, from Hong Kong to Tokio, etc etc.
I keep on coming over there because i've always been so fascinated by the majesty of the local wildlife and nature, especially its diversity, from the canyons to the deserts, from the parks to the big lakes and so on.
Nevermind if I have to meet some American citizen too along the way, eheheh!
A part from my silly jokes, had not been for my way of travelling, I would never had experienced certain realities, even the uncomfortable ones. For instance I didn't know that so many teeenagers leave home and become homeless. It was utterly heart-breaking seeing these young girls begging very quietly for an hamburger! They were well behaved and very contained, not drunken in a foul mood or loose behaviour, and they didn't ask money as all drug addicts do. And that happened in several posh small cities in Florida! Where did it go wrong?
Other experience: being Italian I have the classical mediterranean-latin features. Oh boy you don't have idea how many times I was mistaken for a Mexican and how people just shouted abuse at me! I felt outraged, not only because they didn't get my nationality right! :P
Other interesting facts? While in New York, I called a long lost friend who had moved back to the Us after her marriage to an Italian bloke had collapsed (blame it on the mama's boy I'm afraid!)
Well, when she came to pick me up outside my hotel she got in a deep shock when I told her to get the metro to go downtown! Apparently 15 years had gone by since she had last taken the tube! I laughed my head off and I dragged her along with me and she was fine after all!
And what about the time I was in Puerto Rico and had the bad idea to ask for directions of the local bus to a posh Northener who was on holiday too?
She looked at me with frantic eyes and said "why would you take the bus? take a taxi instead" and i promptly answered "what about the fact that it's only 3pm, the bus service in the island is brilliant, cheap and quick, taking me straight in front of my hotel?!?" "oh i see" was followed by her dirty look up and down. priceless!
Ohi! talking about different points of view, has anybody tried this one out yet? flying over north carolina in a small red plane, pretty much like Snoopy when he was impersonating the Red Baron!!! over_north_carolina
Well, momix76, if you want to put hours and hours of research and effort into navigating the multitude of unconnected, crappy bus schedules throughout the state ... have at it.
But if this is correct:
Quote:
the main reason why i travel by public transport is because it's the best way to get in touch with the locals and try to understand the way they live. as simple as that!
then you're not going to accomplish your goal. The way most locals live is to drive. The people with whom you will interact are a small segment of this society.
Well, momix76, if you want to put hours and hours of research and effort into navigating the multitude of unconnected, crappy bus schedules throughout the state ... have at it.
But if this is correct:
then you're not going to accomplish your goal. The way most locals live is to drive. The people with whom you will interact are a small segment of this society.
You're absolutely correct. It's true - when you take transit in the southeast US, you are not traveling like the average middle class American. You will only wind up interacting with a subset, generally a poorer subset, of the population.
The thing is, when you drive, you interact with absolutely nobody, beyond certain "pleasant" gestures through the windows. You're in your air conditioned steel and glass isolation bubble the whole time. It's comfortable, quick, and easy - and given the distances and the awful layout of our cities, you can see why nearly everybody in the US who can afford to do so travels by car. But it's also very dehumanizing, and is unbelievably sterile. You see your destinations but almost completely miss everything in between because you're stuck staring at the brakelights of the driver in front of you.
I've had dozens upon dozens of nice conversations with folks when I ride the TTA bus around the area. I'd hazard a guess that most folks on this board have little or no experience with the local transit system. So, FWIW, contrary to the perception of public transit, TTA seems to actually have a pretty good cross section of "normal" people on board: poor to middle class, students, professionals, all races, etc.This compares with perhaps 1 or 2 occasions when I've been near someone who gave me the creeps. Half their drivers are all business but the other half are really quite friendly. CAT and DATA are somewhat more in line with the stereotype, but nothing that has ever made me feel uncomfortable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nashwolfpacker
Riding the bus to get to class at UNC and NC State was a pain. It was always easier to walk than wait for the bus. Our bus system is a little screwed up. Sometimes the buses just pull over and sit on the side of the road for a while. They say it is because they are ahead of schedule or some lame excuse if you ask them why you are just sitting there.
I'll allow that the NCSU and UNC bus systems do cover very short distances so walking is sometimes better and taking a bike is almost always faster, but the above post demonstrates a lack of understanding about how transit works. It is a good example of the mentality that depending on the car so much brings about.
No matter what country you're in (US, UK, Japan, France, etc) and the mode of transit (train, bus, tram, etc) if the vehicle arrives at a time point before its scheduled departure, it will wait until the scheulded time to depart. Why? If a bus gets to a timepoint 5 minutes early, and leaves right away, then what about the person who gets to the stop 4 minutes before the bus is scheduled to depart? They're screwed. It's not a lame excuse: it's just how transit works. I expect that anybody from Europe, or anyone who is experienced with public transit, would be aware of this and find it to be a complete non-issue.
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