Portland to San Francisco

There are two ways to go to San Francisco from Portland (forget the plane, is hella too expensive). There is the train option, using Amtrak. It is 150$ during the weekends and 139$ from Monday to Thursday. It takes 15h50. The other option is to take the bus at the Greyhound Station, just next to the Amtrak Station. It is 85$ when you book your ticket online. It takes 17h50 to get to San Francisco, doing a connection at Sacramento.

They are two buses that leaves Portland to San Francisco a day. One at 6:15AM, and the other at 6:15PM. I took the second one, which means that I arrived at SF at 12:05PM the next day. The Greyhound policy specifies that it is first-come, first-serve seat, so if you buy your ticket on Internet it doesn't mean that you have a seat reserved for you. It is encouraged to go one hour minimum prior the departure time, to reserve your seat in the bus, by letting your bags in the queue.

You have to check-in your bag if you want to put it under the bus, its 15 pounds limit weight, and I think it is only one per person. You can have one or two carry item inside the bus.

The bus station at Sacramento has a TV, which was cool during the soccer world cup. The bus arrives at there around 7:00AM and the next one leaves at 9:30AM.

The Greyhound Station in San Francisco is located next to the Bay Bridge, at the East entrance. It is down the hill. I mean that San Francisco is really sloping, and to get to the most popular youth hostels (Hostel International, USA Hostel...), you will have to walk up to the "San Francisco hill", which is not easy. Stay motivated!


PS: Greyhound is a kind of dog that runs very fast! That is why the company logo is a dog (I was glad to learn)