A YouTuber Took the World’s Longest Bus Ride From Lima to Rio de Janeiro. Here Is What It Was Like.
There’s very little YouTubers wouldn’t do to garner views, including putting themselves in extremely uncomfortable situations. Noel Philipps is one of them.
Philipps is a YouTuber who mostly specializes in producing funny and unpretentious flight reviews. In his weekly videos, he can be seen flying the fanciest first-class seats in the world, landing at rarely used airports in the middle of nowhere, as well as traveling on the dodgiest, most unreliable airlines. Occasionally, however, he also covers train and bus travel. Recently, he took it upon himself to test out the Transoceânica, i.e. the longest bus ride in the world, so you don’t have to.
The Transoceânica travels between Lima, the capital of Peru, and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, in both directions. The journey of 3,900 miles from coast to coast across the South American continent takes no less than five full days. Unsurprisingly, Philips qualifies the ride as “gruelling” and “hell.”
While the seats on the double-decker bus look padded and comfortable, they only recline a little and don’t fully lie flat, making it difficult to sleep properly. Although Philips managed to get some decent rest, he certainly was happy to find a hotel bed at the end of the journey. The fact that the bus is also packed with people, some of whom don’t use earbuds while using their phones, is probably what made the trip mentally exhausting for Philips.
“Nobody has [headphone]. Everyone just plays everything on full blast. And when they can’t hear it above everybody else’s, they just turn theirs up so in the end you just have 15 phones playing different things at 55,000 decibels,” he says in an irritated tone on the second day of the trip.
The bus is equipped with a very small but practical and clean bathroom with a toilet, a sink, and towels. A water dispenser is also available for passengers to stay hydrated while on the road.
Needless to say, the bus makes multiple stops along the way, most often at low-key restaurants where passengers can stretch their legs and enjoy a meal. The map below lists all the stops on the itinerary.
While the scenery throughout Peru was varied and exciting, upon entering the Transoceânica highway, it became repetitive, according to Philips. Riding the Transoceânica probably isn’t the best way to see the magnificent landscapes that both Peru and Brazil have to offer.
It isn’t the first time that Philips puts himself through the nightmare that is long-distance bus travel. In late 2023, he traveled across the US (from New York to Los Angeles) by Greyhound bus, a five-day trip that seems way less comfortable, more dangerous, and less reliable than the Transoceânica.
“It was absolute hell,” Philips explains in the video description.
The Transoceânica, the longest bus ride in the world, was inaugurated in 2016 and is currently operated by the Brazilian bus company Trans Acreana. At the time of writing, the bus leaves both Lima and Rio de Janeiro every Thursday at 1 PM for the five-day journey; however, the 2025 schedule is not displayed currently and bookings for the new year are not open. The cost of riding the Transoceânica on a reclining seat (the only kind of seat available), is 1,300 Brazilian Reals or approximately $225. Booking a ticket on the Transoceânica can be done in a matter of five minutes online.
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