I would like all of you to know – Ohio is huge.
Best way to begin this blog post is to notify you of this fact. I swear the bus left Michigan and 10 seconds later I was in Ohio and then spent seven out of the next eight hours just driving through the state of Ohio. Massive.
Last week I was visiting my family in Detroit for the weekend and then had a conference to attend in Pittsburgh. I figured there was no point in driving back four hours to re-enter Canada only to have to exit Canada all over again, so bus it was!
Above is the transit information for the Greyhound bus booking I made. It would take just under eight hours to get from Detroit to Pittsburgh. That’s fine by me, I knew the bus would have Wi-Fi, a bathroom and at least no border crossings would be involved.
The cost? $33.99 USD = $45.20 CAD
For an almost eight hour bus ride I thought this was a great price!
I arrived at the bus station at 6:40am to drop off my big bag and to make sure I got a decent window-seat. I really didn’t know how packed this route would be so I wanted to be on the safe side.
The drop off for luggage was very simple, the location of the Greyhound station in Detroit is super accessible and I should mention it has a BUNCH of vending machines if you want snacks. We boarded on time, the bus was pretty empty and we also left on time at 7:00am heading towards the first stop – Toledo.
I was lucky enough that my aunt had packed me a bunch of corn muffins for the road, and I grabbed two water bottles for it as well. There are plugs on the bus, but make sure to choose wisely as not all of them worked. I switched between three seats before I found functioning plugs. The Wi-Fi was OK if you have to check mail or maybe use your WhatsApp. I wouldn’t suggest streaming anything on it, I chose to pre-download all the movies for the road.
The stop for Toledo ended up being about 25 minutes instead of 10 minutes because we were ahead of schedule. This was a good time to get a breakfast sandwich at the Subway inside the station if you’re extra hungry.
We departed at 8:30am from Toledo and headed for Cleveland. Until the Cleveland stop, the bus continued to be really empty. Everyone had almost a whole row to themselves.
Then we got to Cleveland. This stop was one hour long and it was kind of nice to be able to get up and stretch your legs for an extended period of time. I personally think the one hour layover is a bit long for someone trying to go all the way to Washington (that’s where the bus I was on was going to, Pittsburgh was just another stop along the way).
Leaving Cleveland the bus got full to capacity. Every seat had a body in it and I unfortunately ended up next to a dude who kept falling asleep on me. Luckily, I have very strong elbows and made sure that every time his head fell – he was going to need a helmet next time he did that.
There were two more stops, one in Akron and one in Youngstown, prior to arriving in Pittsburgh.
The entire ride literally felt like an Ohio-sightseeing tour. It was like ‘okay here’s 5 minutes in Michigan, 7 and a half hours of Ohio and another 5 minutes of Pennsylvania‘.
I arrived in Pittsburgh on time and the entrance was pretty awesome. You suddenly see a bunch of bridges and then Heinz field. So cool.
That is my recap of what taking the bus from Detroit to Pittsburgh is like. I would definitely do it again, I wasn’t too phased by it and I was comfortable enough for $45.00.
- Mirna