I saw these buses at Brussels Midi when I was there a few weeks ago, on a Eurostar day trip (4 hours) from St Pancras. Another bucket list trip completed ✅
Nice to see Charleroi now has a decent transfer situation - last time i flew into there it was an absolute nightmare of local buses, train from the town and then hoping to god you got back. Pretty typical prices but its frustrating that they coin it in, shame there isn’t a viable alternative to drive prices down. Thanks for the video!!
At four in the morning, I'm snuggled down in the feathers, with the bride of my youth. But I really enjoy your self sacrificing spirit Scott, as you record your adventures at all sorts of crazy hours. I can watch them at my leisure between sunrise and when it becomes time for me to head off to Mattress Mountain again. Looking forward to your next informative RU-vid excursion old sausage!
I used this service a couple of months ago to get from charleroi to bruges. 2 hour transfer but was much more pleasant than the 1 hour flight over to belgium from manchester with ryanair!!
Really enjoy your journeys, if ever you decide to try Egypt, I'll be your guide if you need one , more here to see then just the pyramids , btw enjoyed your Egypt day in Scotland, it was really enjoyable ✌
I have recently subscribed to your channel and you have become one of my favourite RU-vidr in a short time. Your videos are the real deal and they really show your passion and Knowledge!!!! Keep it up!!
My you do get out and about. Beats sitting around like most advanced year foggles. Super little video. Pleased to see Charleroi has got the act together. Even I was getting dizzy on the last trip and I was sat in the chair.
I always enjoy your videos, especially your calm understated style, but - I hope you don't think I'm being facetious - I also really love your choice of BGM - it always works!
Until you mentioned the plastic screen between the driver and passengers as you were showing the road ahead, I thought you were being very artistic in your filming - it reminded me of the Lonely Planet/Globetrekker videos.
Flibco was the first operator with green/white colour. Flixbus‘s colours were originally blue/white. They merged with meinfernbus which had green/orange/white colour. And FlixBus took the their colours because meinfernbus was way bigger and way more well known at the time. It seems that they have ditched the orange colour in the last view years….
Gordon (I’m guessing that’s your name!!) you need to check out blabla car for some serious deals and maybe do an interrail video or two at some point. Love the content, keep it up!
If you are below 26 years old don't take Flibico to Brussels Midi!!! It is cheaper to go by express bus line A1 to Luttre train station (€6) and then buying reduced train ticket to Brussels (€7.50) instead of paying €20 for flibico. Trains are very punctual and good quality.
Flibco was activated fairly recently in Italy, effectively from the 25/03/2022, as you rightly said between Turin and Malpensa Airport, stopping at three different spots in Turin. However, Flibco charges €22 between Turin and Malpensa, with 10 daily trips in each direction,and there is a stiff competition which Flibco has to face on this service. For instance, Arriva Italia (Turin branch), has a service between Turin and Malpensa for the same price but with 3 additional trips per day comparing to Flibco. At the same times, Flixbus also operates on the said routes but at a lesser frequency and, if booked in advance, tickets are as cheap as €11.99
The coaches are Mercedes Benz tourismo's. A really easy and re!axing drive. The best coaches I've ever driven. I worked for national holidays pre covid
13 £ beats having to take a TEC city bus to the train station (there are none at 4 AM) first, then having to catch a train to Brussels-Midi (there are none at 4 AM).
Do not mention Charleroi to me. Still getting it in the neck form her who knows best. Arrived for a flight to Genoa except at the main Brussels airport, some distance from Charleroi. Never mind got to Genoa on an overnight train from Luxembourg
Nice little video with lots of information.... BUT, I'm sure I'm not the only nosey parker who wants to know why you disappeared for 12 hours in Belgium until 4 am! (You said you had 'business to attend to!') I'm guessing you visited a waffle factory?!) Keep up the good work; I love your videos and quirky destinations!
Caught a Flibco bus from Brussels Midi/Zuid to Charleroi a couple of weeks ago but the driver did not have permission to enter the airport and just dropped us all off with our luggage outside on the approach road. After much complaining via email we did get a full refund but that didn't help the many people left stranded with heavy bags, kids etc. Our driver on the journey a few days earlier from Charleroi to Midi/Zuid was behaving erratically, shouting at other traffic on the road, singing along with the radio, eating while driving, speeding and swerving between lanes repeatedly. All in all it was a very unpleasant experience. Absolute shables of a company. There should really be some competition encouraged on this route so that Flibco are forced to get their act together.
Belgium has a curious public bus situation where the buses are split linguistically!With De Lyn operating in the Flemish areas and TEC in the Walloon areas.As I recall the small German speaking area had TEC as it's bus company despite German being closer to Dutch than French .
It’s not about the language but the region. TEC = Walloon region (the german speaking area is part of the walloon region), Delijn = Flemish region, STIB = Brussels region. 😊
Some people want to keep us in Covid mass hysteria forever, wearing masks everywhere etc ... We have to protect the weak but everybody else should just move on.We have already enough problems with the economy and a war on our doorstep.
The cost of these transfer buses can be pretty steep. From my local airport, Nantes, the airport shuttle charges a hefty 9 euro for a 20 minute trip, whereas you can catch a local bus and change onto the tram for 1.70; and the journey only takes about 10 minutes more.
20 years ago after failing to find out where the shuttle buses went from the city centre I ended up getting local buses (changing vehicles at Charleroii bus station) which was cheaper. I was attending a conference and cadged a lift as one of the olther delegates was on the same inbound flight as me. It was a dreadful airporrt then , was less than impressed with Ryanair (I had to ask at the main desk to find out where check-in was (as the monitors were displaying a closed desk) and holler to the waiting queue there. Also its hub of Stansted is off the beaten track for someone living in Yorkshire. The following year I used the proper Brussels airport,. The secret station Brussels-Congress was closest to where I was staying so I got the train from there.
What a shame they use this awful contravision over the windows. You seem to have been lucky to get a clear window, but you can see other windows that are very hard to see out of. Why operators think this is going to attract passengers, goodness knows. I for one would make every effort to avoid them, even if that means forking out fot a taxi.
