To really make the most of your time away there’s no doubt that you’ll find yourself traveling by coach or bus at some point…..possibly for days on end!

As well as being the one of the oldest forms of long distant transport, coaches and buses are probably the most ubiquitous. Some type of coach or bus will be able to take you almost anywhere there’s a road – from the Amazon jungle to deepest Patagonia. And whilst you may well find yourself squashed between a goat and some sacks of rice for 5 hours solid, coach travel gives you a great way to interact with the real world and absorb some local culture.

Whilst journey times on coaches tend to be longer than on trains, coach travel is usually the cheapest form of transport. However, if you’re planning a particularly long overland journey the costs can still add up, and it may well be worth researching car hire, trains or air travel.

The plus side of long coach journeys is that you’ll get your accommodation thrown in free in the form of an overnight trip! If this is the case you’ll probably want to invest in some water and snacks before the journey starts. Taking some warm clothes on board with you is also a good idea as temperatures can drop during the night time, and even in hot locations the air conditioning may be on all night.

While you can usually just turn up and get on a local bus in most of the developing world, there are a growing number of coach companies in the west that are aimed at the backpacker market:

Australia Coach Travel: A wide range of specialized bus and coach services are operated specifically for backpackers. Some companies include stop offs at hostels and attractions - effectively tours by another name. For independent hop-on hop-off coach travel in Australia check out Greyhound.

UK Coach Travel: National Express are the main coach company in the UK, with routes all over the country. More recently MegaBus have launched a no-frills bus service aimed at the real budget traveler.

European Coach Travel: Eurolines offer fairly luxurious coach travel across Europe and beyond, allowing you to travel from Moscow to Casablanca on one ticket. Alternativley you can buy a pass for unlimited travel over 15 or 30 days.

North American Coach Travel: With a Greyhound Discovery Pass you can travel to over 3,000 destinations in the US, Canada and Mexico.