By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Travel Blogger
My task was to go to from San Diego to Long Beach for an early-evening event. And here’s my story about getting there taking trolleys, a (Flix) but, a city bus, an automobile and a train.
I really didn’t want to drive (after living in LA for several years I try and avoid it whenever possible) plus, renting a car with gas would have cost $100. So I decided to take direct transportation to downtown Long Beach in the morning, as I could also combine it with another meeting. I booked something called the FlixBus, which is big in Europe but still getting its feet under itself in the States. To say it doesn’t quite have its act together is an understatement. In the 3-4 times I’ve taken it, it has always been 1-2 hours late in arriving and one time, the bus even broke down shortly after we departed. It does, tho, offer incredible convenience by going from San Diego directly to downtown Long Beach; no other transportation has that service.
Even tho I don’t have to be at my event until around 5, I booked a 9 a.m., departure, with an arrival around 11. My experience has taught me it’s best to get an earlier bus than a later one because you never know when it may actually arrive and the next one was not scheduled to arrive until the afternoo.
Well, as timing would have it, the day of my travel a huge rainstorm hit Southern California Great! Ha.
I was expecting things to be running late and that proved to be the case. Fine, even airlines have delays. The problem with FlixBus is that it picks up on a street corner with no signage and, as I and other passengers learned, they have buses going all over the place. Even to Mexico! There’s no signs on them telling you their destination so you have to inquire every time one arrives. Imagine being at an airport being told to go to a gate and having half a dozen planes show up there. It’s chaos.
Plus, it was chilly and raining and I and the others were out in the weather trying to make sense of the situation. The only positive was that the company did have a guy there helping us. Finally, an hour and a half late, the arrived. Once I was on board, tt was nice and cozy, had WiFi and I was able to get some good work done on the program.
Getting Around Long Beach
By the time I arrived, it was time to eat and when I checked in about having a meeting with someone else, he was so hectic he couldn’t get away. a So I went to George’s Greek restaurant in Pine Ave., did some work and had a good two hours before I had to get to the evening event. It’s about 5-6 miles away and to save some money I planned to take a city bus instead of Uber.
Good plan, except I had to figure out the byzantine Long Beach bus system (which number and which direction). I have very good advance planning skills and thought I had nailed it but when the bus arrived, I found out it was going in the other direction and as the driver was telling me that, the bus going in the correct direction arrived.
Yikes!
The correct bus was across a wide street with a bunch of other buses and even train tracks. Now I was short on time and had no choice but to sprint there and, of course, once I made it across the street the bus was another block down the road. As I was running toward it (good exercise!) I envisioned it pulling away just as I got there. I was saved, however, by a guy putting his bike on the rack, which bought me just enough time to barely get on board.
I made it to the venue just in time for the start of the event. Yeah! If you’re planning a trip like this and want to make the journey smoother, consider checking out Compass Specials. Getting a more comfortable ride doesn’t have to strain the budget. Explore more here: https://www.medinacdjr.com/compass-specials.
Leaving Long Beach & Traveling Back To San Diego
Instead of getting a hotel room, I decided to take Amtrak – the coastal Pacific Surfliner – back to San Diego. (The Flix Bus bus was long gone and not an option and even if it had been, I knew from previous experiences I didn’t want to put up with that departure situation after a long day.)
I had booked the last train at 10:45 p.m., but the event ended early enough for me to catch the 8:45. I know from riding Amtrak several other times that if you book a later train and get on earlier it’s okay. If you book an earlier one and miss it then your ticket is canceled. So I always book a later one and have the option to take an earlier one. Clever, right!?
The closest station was in Anaheim, 30+ minutes away, so to get there I took Lyft, which happened to have a 10% discount that day. I arrived at the station in plenty of time, got on the train and cruised into San Diego. The trolley, which is just a 3-4 minute walk from my apartment, took me to the bus in the morning and got me back home from Amtrak at night.
I walked out of my apartment at 8 a.m., and returned at 11:30 p.m.
Would I do it again? Yes, but of course the key to traveling in such a way is that it’s easier to deal with challenging situations when you pretty much know the circumstances ahead of time. And that’s my biggest travel advice, proven by this unique travel advanture.
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