If you missed my article on finding flights via Google’s flight finder, you should check it out. Today, I’ll be walking you through using Wanderu.

What you Should Know Upfront

According to Wanderu, they are “The simplest way to book bus and train travel. We’ll help you snag the best deals to more than 10,000 destinations in North America & Europe.” But, that is only part of the story. First, a bit of bad news. I have to tell you that the website does not work too well with screen readers. The good news is that the app works much better on iPhones/iPads. Here is where you can get Wanderu for iOS or Android.

As of this writing, Wanderu has partnered with the following providers:

• Megabus
• Amtrak
• Greyhound
• Peter Pan
• BoltBus
• New York Trailways
• Concord Coach Lines
• Red Coach
• OurBus
• Jefferson Lines
• Go Buses
• Miller Transportation
• Barons Bus
• Burlington Trailways
• Vamoose
• BestBus
• And many more…

With these partnerships alone, you don’t have to spend hours looking for deals on app after app, or website after website. It’s all in one spot.

Finding Trip Deals

For my example, I’ll be walking you through this app via an iPhone, so things may be labeled a bit differently on the Android app.

Once you open the app, allow it to use your location, and create your account, you are shown the screen that allows you to select your departure and destination cities, along with the dates of your travel. The first box is your departure city; the next box is your arrival city. Between these 2 boxes is the Switcheroo button. This allows you to switch your departure and arrival cities if you need to do that. For this walkthrough, I’ve selected Atlanta GA as my departure city, and Charlotte NC as my arrival city.

When you select your cities you can use your current locations to make selecting your departure city quicker. The other way you can select cities is to enter part of a city name, then select it from the autocomplete list that appears as soon as you begin entering characters.

Selecting Your Dates

Once you have your cities set, it’s time to select your travel dates. The first box you’ll get to will have something like April 13^th. If you treat this like a button you will be able to select a different date. When you activate the departure date box you get the date selection grid. From this point, selecting your date is easy. You just have to keep track of what month you are in. Near the top of the window is a month, such as April 2019. Below that are numbers such as 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. If you scroll down past all those numbers, you will find the next month (i.e., May 2019), with another grid of numbers. Choosing a number under a particular month will select that date. So under April, if I select 20, it will select April 20^th. Now, one more step to finalize that date. On the bottom of the screen is a button called Select This Date. Activate that button, and in the departure date box you will now have April 20. You can perform the same process for the return date if you have one.

Browsing Trips

Once you have your dates and cities set, activate the search button on the bottom right side of the screen. In this example I have 20 trips. On the top right corner of the screen is a Filter button. This allows you to select only direct trips, or filter by time or carrier. You can also reset your filter selection by activating the button at the top of this screen.

Down  at the bottom of the filter screen you have the total number of trips. When you activate that, you’ll see the filtered trips.

As you browse through the trips list, it will show you a quick summary. on my screen I have:

Cheapest: $15

Earliest: 12:35A

Latest: 10:45P

Fastest: 4H 00.

Under that summary are the actual trips. Each trip will have some details that tell you the departing city and station, as well as the time of departure and arrival. Treating each trip as a button will give you the details.

Trip Details Screen

Here you can add a passenger. You will need to fill out the passenger’s details as well as your own. This is also one good reason to keep your account updated, as it makes this process quicker. If you want to go back to the rest of the trips, you can hit the back-arrow button. You can also get a map of the departure cities bus/train station and directions by hitting the “Suggestion” buttons. The first button is the departure station and the second button is the arrival station. Note that when you are in the direction screens, the button to go back is at the top left, but the button is not labeled.

The final button is the book button. This is not labeled, but there is text near it that will tell you what it does. You can either hit the unlabeled button or the book text itself. Next to the book button is the total price. Since I selected the fastest root, my price is $40.

Checkout

Now for the final step. Most of this is going to consist of entering your passenger info, such as name, address, and billing info. Each box has a little green Check button that means you entered the info correctly and there is no error for that box.

You can take  a picture of your credit card by activating the Camera button.

Again, when your account is set up with the information, you do not have to reenter your billing and/or contact info here. Once all of your info is correct, You can complete your transaction by activating the Purchase button, which will also have the price included in the button’s label text (i.e., Purchas|$40).

Confirmation

You’ll get a confirmation email with all of the trip details. You can also print the ticket that should be attached as a PDF file. 🚌 We’re done! I hope this app allows you to find fast, cheap busses, trains, or ferry rides for you, family, or friends like me. If you have other ways of saving on travel, please let me know, either in the comments, or on my contact page.

Until next time, Qapla!