Travelling by bus is definitely a blast : long, uncomfortable, tiring and more expensive than plane… you won’t find any better transportation system than this !
You’d like to reach Iran by bus ? Here are all the details of my trip :
Summary of the trip
Start : Lyon, France – End : Bazargan, Iran
- Distance : 3963 km
- Number of buses : 8
- Hours sitting in bus : 63h00
- Days to reach the border : 7 days
- Total cost : 161,90 €
Details of this trip
Bus 1 + 2 : Lyon – Turin – Zagreb
- Company : Flixbus
- Price : 57,90 €
- Booking : Online (link) – 3 days before leaving
- Distance traveled : 1105 km
- Time : 16h45
- Start : 02.02.17 – 1h15
- End : 02.02.17 – 20h00
- Change of bus : 2h00 waiting in Torino
Bus 3 : Zagreb – Sofia
- Company : Florentia Bus
- Price : 36,00 €
- Booking : Online (link) – 3 days before leaving
- Distance traveled : 784 km
- Time : 13h00
- Start : 02.02.17 – 23h00
- End : 03.02.17 – 12h00
Bus 4 : Sofia – Istanbul
- Company : Metro Tourizm
- Price : 22,00 €
- Booking : Online (link) – During travel in bus 3
- Distance traveled : 552 km
- Time : 9h30
- Start : 03.02.17 – 12h30
- End : 03.02.17 – 22h00
—– 1x Night in Istanbul —–
Bus 5 : Istanbul – Erzincan
- Company : Metro Tourizm
- Prix : 25,00 €
- Booking : Online (link) – During travel in bus 3
- Distance traveled : 1020 km
- Time : 15h15
- Start : 04.02.17 – 18h45
- End : 05.02.17 – 10h00
Bus 6 : Erzincan – Erzurum
- Company : Esadas
- Price : 10,00 €
- Booking : None – At the desk
- Distance traveled : 187 km
- Time : 3h45
- Start : 05.02.17 – 10h15
- End : 05.02.17 – 14h00
—– 3 days in Erzurum : See here —–
Bus 7 : Erzurum – Doğubayazit
- Company : Agir Tur
- Price : 8,00 €
- Booking : None – At the desk
- Distance traveled : 277 km
- Time : 4h00
- Start : 08.02.17 – 11h00
- End : 08.02.17 – 15h00
Bus 8 : Doğubayazit – Iranian border of Bazargan
- Company : Minibus Turc
- Price : 3,00 €
- Booking : Aucune – In the street
- Distance traveled : 38 km
- Time : 45 minutes
- Start : 08.02.17 – 15h30
- End : 08.02.17 – 16h00
With some luck, you will get into an “Ibus” produced by the famous “Appel” brand !
Feedback
70 hours in a bus it is long, but we adapt…
Traveling by bus is a really good way to dive into your trip and reset your “space-time continuum“.
Book your buses in advance and specially if you travel during week-ends… From Istanbul to the East, most of buses were full on Friday !
For luggages, I was travelling with : a big ass backpack (+20kg) + another good size bag (+10kg) + my alpine skis. I never paid any additional fee for so much luggage !
Except from Flixbus company, no buses had electric plugs or Wifi !
General advices
Here are some tips for this kind of trip :
- Wether you book your tickets in advance, watch out for schedules – If your bus leaves in the early morning (1.00 am) don’t miss-select the day…
- Keep a safety margin between buses, specially if you are going through main cities (traffic jam, different bus station…)
- Most of booking websites don’t suggest connexions between different buses… Be clever !
- Take some books, musics, films, so you don’t get bored
- Plan well so you don’t have to pay a single night in a hotel
Avion VS Bus
Yes it hurts !
Besides, travelling by bus implies : you’ve already done your VISA – See this post + longer travel time + more food to buy + Maybe hotel to pay…
So why should we take the bus ?
- Be more flexible and take last minute decisions
- Meet and share things with people, you wouldn’t have otherwise
- Suffer a little bit, it creates good memories
- Take as much luggages as you want
- Stop considering “travelling” as a consumption product
- Reduce your carbon footprint ?
Ciao !