Our Journey To The White House - Getting There

Washington, D.C. is accessible through a number of transportation options. I've always been fascinated with trains and wanted to experience a long distance train ride so we planned on taking the Amtrak to and from Washington.

That was the plan. With strike, after strike, after strike, it's already too late for us to book roundtrip train tickets at a reasonable price. Just a few weeks before, tickets were around $100 to DC from New York and back. But with only a day in between, tickets were now $150 one-way. Yep, one-way! That's too much! Good thing there was another option. The Bus.

A double-decker train to DC

In the movies, there's always that kid who wants to run away or just anyone wanting to get away from it all. You'll see them lining up for an intercity bus with the destination on the signboard. Next scene you see is the kid sitting by the window, bag on lap, and the small town they're from fading in the background. I am that kid, and we'll be riding the bus!

Waiting for our train at Penn Station, NY

But I still wanted to ride the train. Let my credit card worry about the train ticket. So we went to DC by train and got back to NY by bus. Now we got to experience both. The 2 train tickets to DC cost us $304 or Php16,200 and the Greyhound bus tickets were $82 or Php4,400.

No printing required. Just flash your e-ticket using your smartphone and you're all set.

We took the 8:10AM train, set to arrive at Washington DC Union Station 11:30AM. The Greyhound bus is set to leave 4:00PM. Now the question is, can we tour DC in just four hours?!