If watching your roommates pack snorkels and bikinis has left you wishing you’d booked something other than a last-ditch trip to New York on the Chinatown bus, take heart. You may have missed the boat on spring break, but you can still spend Memorial Day weekend relaxing at a sunny beach paradise, all without boarding a plane. That is, as long as your idea of a sunny beach paradise is broad enough to encompass the great state of Delaware.
According to their website, “With Rehobus, just getting to the beach is half the fun.” With a destination as high profile as the Rehoboth Beach, you can bet that getting there is probably more like 95 percent of the fun. Unlike the Chinatown bus, where your seatmate is just as likely to blow his nose on your jacket as he is to say “hi” to you, the passengers on Rehobus revel in a communal, summer camp-type atmosphere.
The “motor coach” departs Friday evenings from 18th and U Streets and arrives in Rehoboth Beach a mere 4 hours later. As you settle into a comfortable, reclining seat, the staff will pass out cups of ice for whatever self-provisioned beverage you’re drinking. (Laws prohibit them from selling you anything stronger than Diet Coke.) And forget about greasy truck stop food en route: Passengers can pre-book a hot meal from Duplex Diner online, and it will be waiting when they board.
A visit to Rehobus’s website will confirm that the bus operators seem to cater to a decidedly masculine clientele, but don’t let that deter you. These friendly guys welcome anyone in the spirit of good fun.
Tickets are $78 roundtrip. That may seem a bit steep, but you can buy a book of six for just $225 and share with your friends for a total cost of just $37.50 per person roundtrip. Toss in a seedy beach motel, a weekend bike rental, and a six-pack of your favorite domestic brew, and you’ve got a weekend getaway for a little under $100 bucks.
