Green Tortoise
|
|
The Green Tortoise is a company which hosts tours, mostly within the United States, using converted buses. The buses are customized so that all of the passengers are able to sleep on bunk beds while the bus is moving. This allows the tours to cover great distances at night. Most meals are cooked communally and are often (though not always) vegetarian.
The company is a for-profit venture, but business is reportedly conducted rather informally. The company, itself, advises customers to not assume that its own website will offer accurate information, and recommends that travellers call by phone to ensure that the information they have seen on the website is up-to-date 1 (http://www.greentortoise.com) Even the information one receives from the company over the phone may be suspect, however, according to some reports. Some customers have claimed that they were told (by the Green Tortoise staff) that payments had been accepted before their departure from home, only to allegedly discover upon their arrival that they had been mislead by those that they had spoken to on the telephone. 2 (http://web.newsguy.com/commonsense/burning-tortoise.html)
The social experience should be expected to be considerably more communal than might be had with another carrier, such as Greyhound or Amtrak. Personal space may be quite reduced. Parts of some trips are reportedly clothing-optional, and passengers uncomfortable around nudity, sexual innuendo, or reduced privacy may wish to consider those details, especially given reported incidents in which female passengers were allegedly pressured by employees of the company to become more "open" to being nude or more sexually active, themselves. While some passengers have alternative social views that may mesh well with the experience, others may not readily accept these deviations from accepted social norms. 3 (http://chass.colostate-pueblo.edu/sociology/SROFieldResearchArticle/field_research_for_boneheads.htm)
Passengers with special dietary needs have reportedly had difficulty getting them met, sometimes allegedly even in cases in which those passengers had been assured in advance, by the Green Tortoise staff, that their needs would be met. Under the circumstances, they might consider either bringing appropriate food or making alternate arrangements. Carrying enough cash to deal with unexpected situations is probably wise, especially when the issue of "breach of contract" has been raised as a concern. 4 (http://web.newsguy.com/commonsense/burning-tortoise.html)
Passengers taking the bus trip to Burning Man should additionally be fully familiar with the nature of, environment of, and extremely limited services available at that event; shower facilities are not available, and food cannot be purchased on-site. (Please see the Burning Man article for full details.)
The Green Tortoise company is based in San Francisco and owns hostels in Seattle and San Francisco.
External link
- "Bad Times on the Green Tortoise" (http://web.newsguy.com/commonsense/burning-tortoise.html)
- "Field Research for Boneheads: From Naïveté to Insight on the Green Tortoise" (http://chass.colostate-pueblo.edu/sociology/SROFieldResearchArticle/field_research_for_boneheads.htm)
- Company website (http://www.greentortoise.com/)