American flight-free adventures: What’s it like to cross the States on a bus full of strangers?

Singing songs around the fire on an Indigenous reserve, skinny dipping in hot springs and sleeping beneath a blanket of a million stars, my love affair with slow travel began. It was 2000, I was 19 and I was meandering my way across the USA on a bus full of backpackers in bunk beds. This year the aptly named Green Tortoise celebrates 50 years of carrying travellers slowly but sustainably around North America. Onboard, most of the seats have been replaced by wooden platforms covered in padding to create sleeping spaces. Passengers eat together en route and sometimes sleep out under the night sk…

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