Let me hear your opinion on traveling by public land transportation or air transportation for a long-distance trip. For a long-distance journey of 1000 kilometers or more, what are the advantages and disadvantages of going via air or land transportation and which option would you prefer? That's where our discussion will evolve.
But I share this part of my post discussing the 18 hours of travel by bus from Riyadh to Tabuk as the basis of sharing opinions. And my conclusion here is based on what I viewed the event. You have yours, so share it, please.
I got used to traveling a long trip as a resident of the province back in my homeland, the Philippines; every time I need to go to Manila, I always travel by land. I seldom do it via air travel; from my province to Manila takes six to seven hours when traveling at night, and traveling daytime will take eight to nine hours.
But I don’t feel any difficulty because, in my place, we have numbers of bus options to ride, from ordinary non-aircon to aircon bus, and the VIP trips which are equivalent to business and first-class in the airplane. We have all these options, so I always go with VIP trips, costly though, but convenience is something that money cannot buy. Convenience is convenient, that’s it.
My travel to Tabuk is indeed a kind of challenge because we don’t have the options in my place in the Philippines, so I only need to go via SAPTCO as my best option and choice. I would have tried the VIP Express of SAPTCO, but on the travel date of my trip, there is no available, so I could not try and tell you about it. I decided to go for the land trip to see the coin on all its sides.
Anyway, traveling to Tabuk City from Riyadh by bus takes long hours of ride and plenty of patience is required. It has both the advantage and disadvantages: excitement and boredom.
But if you want to know the places between Tabuk and Riyadh, traveling by land through public transport is a good option. It gives you an idea about the topography, terrain formations, and sights that only a few are fortunate to see. It is somewhat hitting multiple birds in one shot of the sling and a lap of the trip on a marathon visit. Now, let us talk about the favorable and unfavorable sides of making the trip by land:
Advantages:
Low cost of transportation fare. The fare cost for a round-trip ticket is way cheaper than a one-way airplane ticket.
Chance to see the vast open land and the changing colors of the deserts.
Enjoy the sights around and between each town and city getting passed by the bus.
Sometimes on your trip, you will have the chance to experience sudden sandstorms happening in the identified sandstorm areas.
Every stop-over for a blogger like me creates another segment of the story.
Chance to meet instant friends.
Disadvantages
Exhausting
Long hours of travel spending times that rather for some essential and beneficial activities.
Encounter and seated along with the inconsiderate passengers making annoying noises inside the bus.
The absence of luck may find you seated next to a smelly passenger, which you need to suffer for the whole duration of 18 hours.
You are postponing the call of nature’s necessity until you reach the specified stop-over area.
Generally, traveling a distance of 1,340 km is relaxed and fun. Tiring, yes, but the feeling experience depends mainly on how the travelers perceive everything that goes along the trip. If one makes it difficult and horrible, of course, it’s terrifying. But if you perceive it as excellent and look at everything on the positive edge, traveling to Tabuk from Riyadh by land is a kind of experience worth every mile a smile, just like how I see it from my experience.
To see more of this story, please click here: TRAVELING TO TABUK BY BUS – ADVANTAGE, AND DISADVANTAGE, BOREDOM AND EXCITEMENT. (underratedadventures.com)