We wanted to travel from Prague to Karlovy Vary for the weekend – out Saturday, back Monday. I’d normally take a train and wouldn’t normally consider a bus. The train takes an indirect route with a journey of over three hours. The bus, run by a company called ‘Student Agency’ is direct and takes just over two hours.

The cost for a one way ticket was 160Kc (approx. 6EUR).

I’m sure like me, before I took the journey, you are picturing a completely different level of service from a student agency bus service than what is provided.

We arrived at the Florenc Bus Station (around the corner from the metro station) with e-tickets and assigned seats. It was easy to find the departure stop.

The bus was on time. The bus was modern, clean, with comfortable seats, each with a seat-back video screen. The overhead lockers were quite small and the doors were on a strong spring. That made it hard to put anything in the locker as I needed one hand to hold the door open, leaving only one hand to put a small case and coat inside.

After departure we were offered free headphones – it’s nice that they don’t nickel and dime you and charge extra for these. The movie selection was excellent and included movies in English.

There was free wi-fi and this worked really well.

An attendant came around and offered free tea and coffee. You could also buy beer and snacks for very reasonable prices. I only bought one can of beer and wish I’d bought two as they ran out later in the journey. On the return journey, I bought two and later found they’d run out of beer again.

There is a toilet on board.

We arrived on time after what was a really comfortable journey – better than most short haul airline flights I’ve taken.

I’d certainly recommend this company’s bus service – apparently they also fly planes and run trains. It’s a pity they are called Student Agency as this gives a different impression – they are a luxury bus service. I think they’ve grown from what was a student travel agency and are aware of the name issue as their website states:

It may seem we only have products for students but the opposite is true! We have something for everyone 🙂 STUDENT AGENCY offers flight tickets, euroweekends, insurance, visas, language and study programs abroad for all ages, work and au pair programs abroad, and operates luxury yellow coaches to domestic as well as European destinations.