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You’ve got a few bucks and want to travel to somewhere that isn’t where you currently are. But you’re a college student (or otherwise broke person) and thus your few bucks are definitely not enough to fly, especially on short notice. What do you do? There are plenty of trains and buses to grab and if you get your tickets early enough (usually a week to three days), they are much cheaper than if you bought them at the counter. If you have a student advantage card, even better!

Buses

Greyhound is an option….if you don’t really need to be anywhere in a hurry and don’t mind backwards systems that may leave you stranded for a few hours (or days). They are cheap, which is a definite plus, but that’s where the benefit stops. Other options are Megabus (they tout $1 fares) or similar systems and in the northeast anyway some merchants (usually Chinatown merchants) have really cheap buses going places like New York City ($30 bucks to get to NYC any day of the week? Awesome). Buses are an easy thing if you want more stops than a train and don’t mind smaller seats. Your luggage is usually your responsibility so don’t transfer buses and forget your bag! Note: if cars aren’t moving on the roadways, buses won’t be either.

Trains

Amtrak is slower than driving, but cushy. Big seats, lots of place to put your luggage and huge windows to look out of. Some trains have electrical outlets at the seats, while others make you use outlets in the club car or pay for a room to get a space with outlets. For the most part, the only stretching your legs will be between major stops. Trains stay relatively on time so even 30 seconds late may make you miss that train. Some train cars are older, but they are all still pretty nice as long as you don’t get stuck next to Andre the Giant or psycho woman (I’ve had both experiences). Your bags will be transferred to the next train for you so only worry about your carry ons. Amtrak doesn’t go everywhere, but oftentimes even the remote places can be reached through combinations of Amtrak and Greyhound or other bus service.

Food

What do you eat when traveling for the cheap cheap price? If you want to continue to save money, you’ll pack your own soft sided cooler with drinks and sandwiches or something else you like to eat (and plenty of cool packs or ice to keep it cool). Otherwise, expect typical quick food fare that will cost you about 5-10 dollars a meal including drinks, but only if it’s a major stop on either line (smaller stations have no food, maybe a vending machine). Amtrak has a club car with food and drinks, but all food on a Greyhound you gotta bring on yourself. If you’re not a fan of fatty foods or greasy foods, you really might want to bring your own food either way.

What’s your favorite way to travel??

Share your WordPress plugins list with us - and let us know which ones are your favorites and why. Perhaps there’s a killer plugin that we haven’t heard of but adds some extra functionality we want to our sites - or just a fun plugin that makes things a little more fun.

Here’s my top 5 plugins:

SRG Clean Archives by Sean R. — This plugin is designed to display your archive listings in a clean, uniform, single-query fashion that’s Search Engine friendly on a dedicated page or in your sidebar. I really like the clean, easy to use functionality of this plugin. It was easy to set up and even easier to maintain.

Better Comments Manager by Keith Dsouza — Better Comments manager allows you to view your comments post wise, it also allows you to reply to your comments from within admin panel without you having to visit the site to respond to comments. I couldn’t make replies to my comments without this one! It makes it so easy to reply to comments that I actually get sad when I run out of comments to reply to!

In Series by Travis Snoozy — Gives authors an easy way to connect posts together as a series. I use this plugin for my 101 Steps to Becoming a Better Blogger series, and it works like a charm.

Link A Dink by Dax “The Hammer” Herrera — Replace strings with links or other words. Saves me a ton of time in linking to different webpages because I can just put the code in the administration screen and let this plugin do the work. A must have if you like to blog on the go or you have frequently used phrases or links.

What Would Seth Godin Do by Richard K Miller — This plugin rocks because you can customize your welcome message to say whatever you like, display as many times as you like and basically encourage people to do whatever you like. I have tweaked it to ask new visitors to subscribe if they like the site and to visit again. But, you could use this to announce contests, feature special content and more!
Share your top 5 plugins in the comments!

Inspired by Darren of ProBlogger