Anyone who took off for the long weekend probably knows that traveling - no matter how you do it - can present a set of trials and tribulations. The only person who may be more aware of these inconveniences than most people is Polina Raygorodskaya, Co-Founder and CEO of bus travel startup Wanderu.
In fact, the Babson alumna was so passionate about making travel easier and less stressful that she gave up her first business to focus on eliminating these types of frustrations.
“My Co-Founder vowed that day that we’d never be stuck in the forest without being able to come up with a game-plan again.”
The idea for Wanderu was sparked by a couple of unfortunate personal experiences. For one thing, while Raygorodskaya was still heading up her PR firm Polina Fashion, she had to trek from her SoHo loft to places all over the country - and with very little notice. Planes aren’t her style, so she’d opt to go by bus more often than not. That’s when she realized booking multiple legs of a bus trip last minute was a real pain, especially if you’d prefer to leave some money in the bank.
“When I’d book a plane ticket, I’d never go to individual airlines,” Raygorodskaya said. "I’d go to Kayak, so I could compare all of the prices and get some sort of deal. I never understood why you couldn’t do that for busses. That process really frustrated me.”
The final push to launch Wanderu comes from an unlikely source: getting stranded in the woods of Virginia.
She and a group of her friends - including Co-Founder Igor Bratnikov - were completing a cross-country circuit, as part of the GreenXC initiative. In an effort to create awareness of national parks, the group was hitting up all of them and documenting their travels. What’s the caveat? The posse would only make their way from one park to another via ride shares.
For the most part, the gang didn’t find any trouble hitching rides. But when one of their volunteer chauffeurs cancelled on them last minute, they ended up stuck in the Woods of Jefferson. They spent hours trying to come up with potential routes - various combinations of buses and trains from different cities - to get them to their next stop in Indianapolis.
In the end, they broke down and rented a car. While they may have cheated on their mission to travel solely through ride shares, they did come out of the experience with a business plan in mind.
“My Co-Founder vowed that day that we’d never be stuck in the forest without being able to come up with a game-plan again,” Raygorodskaya told me. "We knew we had to come up with something that lets us pinpoint the nearest station locations and gives us potential routes to get to wherever we need to go.”
Travel tips from a pro
While I had Raygorodskaya’s attention, I figured I might as well get some solid travel tips from her. She’s been to every single state in the country (thanks to her New Year’s resolution last year), how could I not ask her for advice?
When it comes to her first words of wisdom - do a cross-country trip while you’re still in school - I’ve already missed the boat. But that’s not to say I shouldn’t share it with you all.
“When else will you have the time to go across the country and meet amazing people than while you’re in college? You won’t,” she concluded.
As you plan to make your way from state to state, Raygorodskaya recommends that you consider flying out of other airports - not just the one that’s closest to you. It can be cheaper and even take less time (when you factor in layovers) to jump on a bus and then fly out of a different airport than you normally do. She advises you compare prices and travel times for all airports that are within 3 or 4 hours of you via bus.
Also, there’s a reason services like HotelTonight are so appealing: You can book accommodations last minute for considerably less money. Keeping this in mind, Raygorodskaya said you should do some quick research on where the cheapest hotels are for the weekend and book a trip around that, making sure you do it with little notice so you get the best deal.
Image provided.
