Dartmouth Coach

Nice ride. Clean bus and friendly driver. Outlets on the bus and apparently wifi (I didn’t use it). The most convenient way to get to Hanover since it is relatively impossible to get to this small town. Flying into Boston is easy enough and the Dartmouth Coach has multiple busses per day. Highly recommend it.
Don’t forget to print out your ticket when you buy online.

Note: Dartmouth Coach has 3 different Unilocal pages. For readers’ benefit, I’m copy/​pasting the same review across all of the pages.
TL;DR: the most convenient and comfortable way to get from Boston or NYC to Hanover and Lebanon, NH. Worth the price. Don’t even bother flying.
I was planning a campus visit to Dartmouth College and wasn’t sure of which transportation option to pick. I initially only found the NYC Unilocal page for Dartmouth Coach; because it had just two reviews, I decided to fly instead, as I believed that to be a more reliable option.
I was gravely mistaken. My itinerary had me flying from LaGuardia to Boston and then to Lebanon/​Hanover airport (just 10 miles from Dartmouth). It took me an hour to get to LGA from Grand Central via subway and bus. My flight from LGA was delayed, meaning I missed my connection from BOS-​LEB. Upon reaching BOS, I had to transfer terminals by taking a shuttle bus and go through TSA security once more, only to discover that my flight was delayed and ultimately cancelled. I thought I was stranded in Boston when I realized that Dartmouth coach had a bus leaving in about an hour to Hanover, with stops in South Boston and Lebanon.
It took me 10 hours to get from NYC to Hanover. I would have been able to avoid the most stressful travel situation I’ve ever had and decrease my travel time in half if I had just taken the bus to begin with.
Pros: I’ve taken MegaBus and Vamoose from DC to NYC and back multiple times. Though Dartmouth Coach is probably twice as expensive, it’s also twice as enjoyable.
The seats are even more comfortable than those in Amtrak. They’re made of leather with a very comfortable head rest.
The bus from Hanover to NYC (making no stops) had twice as much leg room as the Boston route, and the row configuration was 2:1.
There are movie screens that play a film at a time (in my trips I saw a documentary about an obscure folk artist called Rodriguez, a documentary about Muhammad Ali, and Arnold Schwarzenegger classic «Jingle all the way.»)
And there are also free snacks you can help yourself to (my Boston route had just water and pretzels, but the NYC route offered granola bars and fruit, plus had a coffee machine as well!).
Cons: For some odd reason, Dartmouth Coach makes you hand in print tickets. When I was traveling from Boston to Hanover, I had the receipt on my phone. The driver politely asked me to step off the bus into the terminal, where a ticket counter employee would print me out a pass. I don’t really see why it’s so necessary, and after my grueling travel day I just wanted to sit back and not move.
The wifi is better than that I’ve experienced in other bus routes, but I wouldn’t count on it being reliable enough to do any serious work with. You can probably check some updates or email here and there, but that’s about it.
If you’re going to Dartmouth, this is really the best way to travel.

Good and courteous service, clean bus, and almost always on schedule.
The cell phone policy is reasonable, but some drivers take it too literally. Once there was a woman who got on the bus at Logan Airport, and she was calling family to tell them that she got on the bus. The driver used the PA system to warn her twice. I was sitting in the first row, and heard the driver murmur that he will throw the woman off the bus. Of course he was joking, but realistically, how many people actually turn off their cell phones as the drivers told them to?

We’re stilling riding the Dartmouth Coach to get from Boston to New London and it’s still a great ride with great service.
The addition of WiFi in the past few years is a great addition!

How is a man supposed to feel when he rides the Chinatown buses from Boss to Enyce and the only way to make it bearable is pills and secreted beers and (my special technique) ear plugs PLUS over-​the-​ear noise-​canceling headphones? Well I’ll tell you: a man feels bad.
But after so many times one comes to think that this is just the way of the world, and bus travel must, by necessity, be something like a worn out airplane crossed with a porta-​potty.
So then how is a man supposed to feel when he hops on the Dartmouth Coach and has legroom, wifi that works (well!) and a blissfully quiet ride thanks to an assiduously obeyed «no extended calls» policy? He feels good.
Very good in fact. Five stars good.

I love this company/​service!
Comfortable seats, wifi, power in some of the seats, water & pretzels available, clean bathroom, & a movie as they drive you safely from South Station to New London … why would I drive myself!!! It’s a GREAT deal at $ 45 round trip.
Sometimes Friday nights get over sold and they don’t take reservations to New London/​Hanover. I’ve never missed the cut, but I’ve seen that people have on the Friday 5:30pm bus.

A recent weekend getaway to Pleasant Lake in New Hampshire introduced me to Dartmouth Coach, a bus line that services both Boston and New York with transportation to various parts of «The Granite State.» Buying a ticket online was fast and simple, but be warned that they do not take reservations for their service to Boston. It’s first-​come, first-​board, so be sure to arrive early to guarantee yourself a seat at the time you wish to travel.
For $ 33 (one way to Boston), I got a clean, very spacious seat and a smooth ride that arrived on time to South Station. Little things like cup holders at each seat, complimentary headphones, pretzels and water make this an extra-​comfortable ride. A big plus? You won’t overheat or freeze in this coach. The temperature stays pretty moderate at all times, which sure beats some vehicles that may have you layering up in the middle of July!
Unfortunately, Dartmouth Coach falls a bit short in two areas that matter a lot me in bus travel: free WiFi and electrical outlets. The former is spotty at best and and the latter does not exist! With little alternative for bus travel to this area, these are two things that you’ll just have to work around.

I took Dartmouth Coach on a regular basis when I was attending school in Boston for six years. They have wi-​fi on the buses now which is really great. They ask that you keep phone calls under 5 minutes and I really appreciate that policy. (No having to hear TMI from the person behind from you). There is a cooler with pretzels and water in the front, along with headphones if you care to listen to the on board music or watch the movie. They are usually on time or ahead of schedule (unless Boston traffic gets in the way). I like that you can buy your ticket online now, though you can still do it in person. They don’t take reservations (the ticket is good for a year), so you can be on a bus with 5 people or 50. It also gives you the flexibility of deciding what bus you’ll take. Plans change? No problem. If the bus was full (namely when Dartmouth was on Spring Break) another bus is added. In those cases, sometimes they had a bus to South Station and another to Logan.

Pricing is not too bad for this bus. $ 45 got me a round-​trip ticket from Boston’s South Station to New London, New Hampshire. They are pretty good about being on time, and they’re clean, comfortable, and friendly. I wouldn’t worry about any of the numerous Fung Wah-​/​Lucky Star-​type issues here. The fare includes access to a cooler on the bus filled with small water bottles and bags of pretzels. They also play a different movie depending on whether you’re northbound or southbound. Don’t get too excited, the ones they played the past couple days were pretty bad, but you can’t fault them too much on that (I’m not going to take a star off for that; besides, it’s an extra feature as far as I’m concerned), and at least they were recent releases. They don’t ban cell phones, but they actively discourage using them while in motion, so that’s cool, too. So bring a book or some music, get comfy, and watch the green forests pass by. Not sure how busy it gets on weekends, but I had no problem getting two seats to myself on a Tuesday morning and Wednesday evening.