Sitting in one place for long periods of time can get to the best of us, especially when the seat in front of you is touching your knees or ‘that person’ that sits in front of you keeps adjusting his chair making it an even more confined space.

Bus seats are spaced further apart giving you that extra leg room. They are generally also more comfortable and not that firmer type of seat that planes offer. Bus companies like Cooee Tours who travel by bus to Wine Tasting on the Sunshine Coast have put in large windows which also present a better view of the outside world, reducing the feeling of being confined and sometimes offering pleasant distractions with views and scenery passing by as compared with the smaller, not as accessible windows on planes, with views of mostly only the sky and clouds. With the extra legroom and seat adjustability, your time spent mostly sitting down can be quite comfortable, especially with the adaptable Air Conditioning above you .

 Luggage Considerations When Traveling By Bus 

Whilst not necessarily the case for Wine Tours Sunshine Coast, have you ever been to the airport and loaded your suitcase onto the conveyor at the check-in counter to be weighed and sent through, only to find that it’s a couple of kilograms over or there’s something in there that needs to travel with you on the plane and can’t be stowed under, so you have to take it out and quickly retrieve the offending item and embarrassingly try again.

Also, the dreaded hand luggage restrictions on that bottle of water that is more than 100ml or the emptying of the contents into a tray before passing through the x-ray and then stashing it back in before heading to the departure lounge. When traveling by bus there are no weight limitations or size restrictions of hand luggage or what you can take on board, within reason of course.

Late bookings When Traveling By Bus

If a plane ticket is booked close to departure time, the cost is often significantly more expensive than the if you had booked a couple of months in advance. This is not always possible due to leave approval restrictions or last-minute decisions etc. However, with a bus trip booking, you will find that tickets are the basically the same price either 4 months in advance or just before the trip.

If you are traveling by bus, or have planned a Sunshine Coast Winery Tour and you need to change your departure date, then that’s usually a simple exercise with no penalty.  Cancellation is almost fully refunded within a certain time frame whereas a lot of plane tickets are non-refundable

The Bus Trip Versus Boarding the Plane

In summary, now with the ability to maneuver around the bus, stop regularly to stretch the legs and grab some food, being more comfortable with the seating arrangements, access to power to recharge your phone or tablet while watching your favorite movie and munching on the snacks you just bought at your last stop, bus travel has little amounts of negativity compared to air travel, aside from the obvious difference in speed.

Yeah, sure you’ll get there faster if you went by plane but the necessity to get to the airport up to two hours before departure, the queuing and shuffling through the different security checks can be frustrating. Then after being confined to your seat due to turbulence, you disembark and make your way through to find the baggage carousel and collect your luggage.   Airports are usually at a distance away from the central business district as well, so there is more time and money to be spent in taxis or looking for a hire car or maybe even a shuttle bus.