I’m not the only one who takes bus vacations.

From today’s Seattle Times:

Riding Metro’s Route 255 from Kirkland, I’d begun my “travel-by-bus vacation,” an experiment inspired by Rick Steves, Edmonds’ budget-travel guru, whose guidebooks extol using public transportation in European cities to save money, see the sights and meet locals along the way. It works there; it could work here.

After one trip, I was hooked. The journeys were as interesting as the destinations. Routes wound through neighborhoods I’d have never found on my own. It was continuous sightseeing.

Even paying full adult fare, the trips were incredibly cheap. I paid more for a double-tall latte at Snoqualmie Falls than I did for the round-trip fare to get there from my hometown of Kirkland. And not a single stop for $3.75-a-gallon gas.

This writer’s local travels included: Ballard (one of this bus chick’s favorite places to visit), Snoqualmie Falls (I told you!), and Vashon Island (a bus + ferry excursion). When she’s ready to move to Level II, we’ll hip her to Hike Metro.

Thanks for the link, Matt.