Urban Sherpa Travel

This was my first time using Urban Sherpa and I choose it because the pickup time and location were to my liking — 430am at Times Square.
When i got on the bus it was pretty quick and i was happy to find that i got two seats to myself upfront. As the bus went along i found that it was getting cold — very cold — so cold that i was uncomfortable — i asked the driver to put the heat on and he flipped some switch but i think he just turned off the air. The bus ride — besides it being freezing — went rather smoothly up to Killington in VT. We stopped at a gas station and i asked two girls if they were cold or was it just me — they said «we are freezing» As we approached the mountain the heat starting coming up and I was like thanks Mr. Bus Driver your a dollar short and a day late.
Upon arrival at the Mountain we were told to be back at the bus by 4pm — the kid that was running this trip and yea he was like 20 something said if you are on a lift and it is 345 that is too late — ok so we are all at the designated stop before 4 and no bus. So while we are all freezing watching other busses load up — our 345 is too late bus is not there — finally around 415 420 the bus shows up.
The way back started the way we went freezing — i told the kid to tell the driver to put the heat on — he said ok and never did — finally i couldn’t take it and yelled up to him in the nicest way possible to please turn on the heat it’s freezing — so he hit that switch again — and still no heat. So my five hour bus trip was sitting in all my ski gear — with the window shade down to prevent any drafts — really?
A lot of the other guys on the bus were saying they were disappointed we didn’t get bagels in the morning and beer in the evening and video — personally i took my own snacks — did this enough times to know to bring. The beer meh — then you just have to go to the bathroom and plus the coldness of the beer would only add to the chill of the bus. Movies? hate them they are always terrible and this is one plus i give Urban Sherpa — no movie was shown we rode in peace.
The ride back was again smooth except for the cold and the guy upfront snoring — open mouth germs spreading SNORING. Not Urban Sherpa’s fault but annoying none the less — made me glad there was no heat for all his germs to spread. We again made a pit stop for people to use the rest room and get food — well right when our time was up who wanted a cigarette — yup the fog horn — well the bus driver told him no problem man have your smoke and joined him — so now we all have to wait for them to finish their smoke. We made it back to the city with no problem and me rushing to get to the heat of the MTA.
good points
— cheap
— times square is easy to get to
— no movies
bad points
— no heat
— no heat
— group leader was not a leader at all — i think if there was an emergency of some sort we would be on our own

I would give it ZERO star if I could. The WORST bus ever.
My bf and I with two other friends took the bus to windham the past weekend with the worst bizzard in a decade hitting the east coast. Ok. It was stupid of us not cancelling the trip in advance. We didn’t realize how bad the storm would be until Friday. I called them to cancel the trip but was told that b/​c it passed their «noon the day before» headline, we will not get any refund even with the blizzard. We didn’t want to waste the $ 95/​person we paid so we got on the bus.
So we got on the bus at union square. The bus was so old and bad with one TV monitor hanging around in the air about to fall down. The snow wasn’t that bad and we left the city after picking up more people at time square. I took a nap on the bus and after I woke up I realized that we were driving like 30miles/​hour on a highway with 65 speed limits. I talked to my bf and he noticed there is probably something wrong with the engine. However, the leader didn’t say anything to us. After driving in 30 miles/​hour for an hour, the driver pulled over at a stop place by the highway and went down to check the bus. We got back to the highway after a 2 mins stop but again the leader did NOT say a thing to us. Then some of the people on the bus can’t take it any more and went over to ask the leader. The leader explained some thing to them but still no word to the whole bus.
After driving 20 mins at 10 miles/​hour on the local road to windham, the leader finally mentioned to us that the bus is broken and we will have another bus come over to drive us back. It took us 5 hours to drive to windham from time square with google maps showing a 3 hours travelling time.
After a day of snowboarding, we got back to the parking lot and only saw the old broken bus came without the new bus. There is no way that we can ride the old broken bus back as there was huge smokes coming from the engine. The leader wasn’t even around and didn’t show up until 4:50. 5 mins passed the meeting time. Then we were told that we had to take the old broken bus back b/​c he had no idea if/​when the new bus will come b/​c the travel ban in the city. Even though the travel ban took place after 2:30PM and if they really want to send any new bus to pick us up, the bus should have been on the way waaaaay before 2:30.
After another 10 mins of waiting, another bus came over. They sent their hunter bus over to pick people up. However, b/​c the bus was 60% full. They can only pick up 27 of us when we had at least 50 people on our old us. There was a huge group of 11 people, the leader told them that b/​c their group is huge so probably not all of them can get on the bus. The leader at the other bus name Tom came with a strong attitude. We got very lucky that got spots at the new bus and was told that other people decided to stay and not going back with the broken bus. I am not sure if they pay those people anything for not being able to go back.
We hit the road back in the new bus. I fell asleep on the bus after such a long day. The bus stopped and my bf woke me up as we smell a huge smoke at the back of the bus. It appeared to be that the driver left the break on by accident and we were driving with it for 30 mins. Again, the leader did not say anything to the public and we were all scared to death at the back of the bus.
Finally we are back to the city and the bus had to dropped us off by 181^st street due to the travel ban. We took the subway back home and was so glad that we were back home alive.
This is literally my worst buy experience. I will never ever take this company for anything again. Stay away with this irresponsible company and there is so many good companies out there.

I stopped taking this service for five reasons:
1. The buses would unlikely pass NY State bus inspection (the windshield on one bus was cracked and windshield wipers and defrosters on every bus I took were ineffective — not safe when the driver is barreling up the NY State Thruway in blinding snow and rain and has to keep ducking to find a clear spot to see the highway.) The buses are licensed to the owner with an address in Jackson, New Jersey so maybe he feels he is exempt from NYS safety laws.
2. None of the bus drivers for any of the trips I took obeyed the posted speed limits on the NY Thruway (they were constantly passing other cars, even when weather was bad.)
3. Some drivers were not aware of alternate routes to Hunter when there would have been a better way due to heavy snow conditions on Route 23. On one trip the bus was unprepared for snow on the road (no snow tires/​chains) which resulted in getting stuck and delayed the arrival by at least one hour.
4. On a trip to Windham, the bus driver could not find the resort, resulting in an arrival delay of at least 20 minutes and despite the owners claim, there was no detour. (A tour of downtown Windham Village was not on the itinerary nor part of the «package».)
5. Another time when I called to cancel (due to a medical emergency) minutes before the cancellation deadline the day before, I was stonewalled by a customer rep at their published number who «did not have the authority to issue the cancellation», thereby forcing me leave a message for the authorized person to return my call (who would not issue a credit because we did not connect until 20 minutes past the deadline). After much bickering, a credit was finally issued and I was told I would no longer be welcome as a customer.
Feelings mutual.

A friend and I took an Urban Sherpa bus up to Windham and we will not be using them again.
We left from Union Square at 6:15 AM. We then went to Times Square to pick up more passengers. Some people got on, but after everybody outside was on we still sat there for a solid 10 minutes. Finally, we were on our way.
The DVD player was broken. Fine, whatever. They probably would’ve played something dumb anyway. Also, don’t expect them to include bagels or water like some of the other services we’ve used. It’s a couple bucks cheaper than them, so whatever.
Anyway, at some point it became clear that some people were going to Hunter and others to Windham, so those of us going to Windham had to sit through a detour while they dropped off the Hunter passengers. The Hunter passengers got off the bus, the kid handed them their lift tickets, and they grabbed their gear.
At this point, the lifts at Windham had been open for about an hour and a half already. All the passengers around me were getting kind of annoyed because the Hunter people were allowed to gear up and leave their bags on the bus, and they were doing it SLOWLY. Finally, all the people are geared up, and we on the bus breathe a sigh of relief since we will finally be going now. We then realized the kid who was handing out the tickets was nowhere to be seen. We waited another 10 – 15 minutes for him to get back from who knows where. No explanation was given.
We finally arrived at Windham more than 2 hours after the lifts opened. The kid who was checking off names disappears for another 10 – 15 minutes, I assume to grab our lift tickets.
When he got back, the kid basically whispered something that I’m sure half the bus missed, but he repeated it to everyone as we were getting our lift tickets: «Meet back here at 3:45.» So not only were we arriving 2+ hours after the lifts opened, but we were going to have to quit well before the lifts closed just to get back in time. As if explaining, the driver said, «We have to leave here so we can pick up the other group at 4:30.» That is not an explanation when my receipt said «Departure Windham: 4:30.» There’s also no mention of any stop at Hunter, so obviously they combined the trips at the last minute or something.
If we have to be on the bus so early, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect to be at the mountain early as well, or at least to leave when you say you’re going to leave so people can enjoy the mountain until the lifts close.
It should also be noted that none of the timing problems were because of weather or traffic, but simply because the company decided to combine trips to Hunter and Windham without telling us.
There are plenty of other services in NYC that do the same thing much better for around the same price. Take one of them instead.

SIMPLY THE WORST SKI TRIP EVER YOU CAN IMAGINE PERIOD!!!
Let me just begin by saying I’ve never wrote any review on Unilocal,but I had to break my own tradition because of THE MOST TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE EVER. And hopefully this will help people like you to keep away from Urban Sherpa Travel.
I’ve recently went on a ski trip to Mountain Creek on Saturday 2÷28÷2015, even the very start — the bus pick up in Times Square was such a chaos. There was no employee or person who was in charge of directing people to the right buses so about 50 – 60 people had to roam around btwn 4 – 5 buses figuring which goes where. Thank god, I found the right bus around 6:40 am and got on it. But this was just the beginning of the most horrendous ski trip ever.
The bus driver went to 86^th st UWS and waited for 10 mins saying he had to pick up 20 people or so who never showed up. Since then people started to complaint this pick up site was not listed on the website and convinced the driver to depart the city. He agreed after the 10 mins of wait and drove up to 175^th st when he got an angry call that he had failed to pick up the group in UWS. So he went back to pick up those people around 7:30 am which was a large group of mixed parents and children. Clearly, there was a miscommunication between the driver, Urban Sherpa Employee who gave the driver the instruction, and the group. No one has ever apologized about the delay of an hour and a half. We finally got out of the city after 8 am which should be the time when we’re supposed to be really close to our destination.
So this guy whose name is John, the head person of the parent-​children group said out loud suggesting to push the departure time to 5 pm from 4:30 pm just so that everyone can have some time back. People agreed with leaving at 5 pm. But when we’re getting off, the bus driver told us that he’s leaving at 4:45 pm. So here was another miscommunication which confused everyone.
Mountain Creek itself was good, except the fact that it was super crowded with bunch of people on Saturday. We had fun skiing and chilling which made me forget the morning’s misfortune. I was thinking since I had a good time, let me just forget about the morning.
However, it only got worse later on. I returned with my party at 4:25 pm because the regular departure time on the website is 4:30 pm and I didn’t want to miss the bus in any case. We waited till 4:40 pm which was very close to the time that the driver told us to leave 4:45 pm, still no sign of bus nor anyone. At 4:45 pm, I called Urban Sherpa, the employee has informed me the bus is coming. So we waited more. The bus finally showed up around 4:55 pm and people started to get on. And guess what? The group didn’t show up till 5:10 pm, two people out of the group didn’t show up till 5:30 pm, and the last two till 5:40 pm which then we finally left the place. Isn’t it a common sense and etiquette to show up 10 mins in advance especially when you’re traveling with such a large group of people including many young children? The group was very inconsiderate, rude, unapologetic that even some couples started to have fights in the bus in front of everyone which was beyond the ridiculousness. Neither the group nor the Urban Sherpa employee has apologized to the rest of the people who were all just waiting patiently.
On the way back, John instructed the driver to make THREE LOCAL UWS STOPS at 105^th, 86^th, and 66^th st as if it was his own personal limo. He even started an argument with a passenger who was telling him how everyone else was very unhappy and upset about this whole situation that he shouldn’t request any personal stops which would delay everyone’s traveling time. The bus ride was just full of fights, arguments, silly demands and complaints — just as horrible as it can be. We finally arrived to Times Square at 8:10 pm when it’s supposed to be 6 pm according to the schedule. I could finally got myself home around 9:30 pm because I had another extra travel to home via subway. Oh man, I just felt so terrible for people who got off at Union Square who might live in all the way Downtown and Brooklyn.
NEVER TRAVEL WITH URBAN SHERPA, IT WILL JUST RUIN YOUR TRIP AND DAY. This was the only lesson I learned out of the trip. You’re welcome everyone.
***UPDATE*** Below is what I’ve received from Urban Sherpa as a response.
Hey Sojung,
We do not work with media terrorists who have their own agenda. And the
6,000 people who have been patient with our operation do not agree with
you.
Please read our Confirmation page so you understand the terms of
agreement; you have every right to contest your purchase.
We generally grant a free trip on miscued trips but we have decided your
inaccurate and angry response has recreated enmity which you may carry
with you to other operators.
David
Senior Leader
NYCSki&Board
I am even more UPSET now after this reply, WHAT A TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE! I’ve submitted a claim to AMEX, they will handle this from now on.

Took the 4am to Killington yesterday. It was a good experience. Typical bus no frills but does the job. Good driver and host. My girlfriend did a lesson package and the lesson she said was great. Killington is a hike away but at $ 99 this was the way to go.

I didn’t give it the worst rating because on average it is OK. I have been using Urban Sherpa for a couple of times. But the most recent one was a disaster. The organization didnt do a head count before hand. Ten of us (go to Windham) simple didnt have a seat, and ended up waiting in Time Square for 40 – 50 mins. Finally some half full coach turned around and picked us up. But we needed to go to Hunter first. After 2 hours ride, we were here in Hunter, and waited for another 40 min because someone from the Department of Transportation needs to check the coach.
I’m not complaining about the routine check. But Urban Sherpa at least needs to do its homework!

No complaints on the way up to the mountain. The DVD player was broken, so no movies, which is fine by me because I rather sleep on the bus. Luckily the DVD player was still broken on the way back, sparring us from watching the movie our guide wanted to play — Biodome. On the way back the engine overheated not once but a few times, causing us to pull off the road. Clearly the bus had a water leak because I’ve never heard of a bus overheating in 20 degree weather. Took over 4 hours to get home from Windham! Will try another company the next time.

I took a bus trip to Hunter this past weekend. Overall the service was great. However, the organizers did something that made everyone on the bus extremely angry. The bus departs Hunter for NYC at 4:30 sharp. The urban sherpa group leader told everyone this multiple times. So, as expected, we departed on time at 4:30 pm. After driving for 15 minutes, we turned around and came BACK to Hunter. Everyone was wondering what the hell was going on. Apparently, one idiot missed the bus, and he called Urban Sherpa and convinced them to send the bus back to pick him up. So because of one guy, the whole bus of 50+ passengers were forced to waste 30 minutes of time. It was inexcusable to do this. You miss the bus, you find your own way. Planes and trains don’t wait for tardy passengers — neither should this bus. It made an otherwise pleasant experience quite horrible.

Used them to take a bus and snowboard package to Hunter Mountain on a weekend. Employee was rude to me first thing in the morning. Don’t treat customers like it’s a cattle call or nightclub. Will probably use another company in the future such as OvRride or Paragon Sports. I wrote to the company about it.

I use this service a lot and I’m really happy with it. The staff is always really friendly and organized, the buses are on time, drop you off right in front of the lodge at Hunter and Windham, it’s not a bad deal.
I’ve never gotten bagels on this bus and from what I understand, they’ve never had beer.
My only complaint about this service would be the movies. They’re often very loud and it’s the WORST if they play them in the morning. I’d prefer to get to the mountain after catching some ZzzZz’s in the morning instead of with a headache. I can tolerate it on the way back, but the past two times I’ve used them I lucked out and there were no movies either way so now I’m spoiled. =)
The first time I used them, they played skiing/​snowboarding videos on mute in the morning and then comedies at an acceptable volume on the way back. So if they feel the need to absolutely play movies, I’d say that should be the structure.

Urban Sherpa is a phenomenal deal for NYC skiers and boarders — you just can’t beat $ 85 for a bus ride and lift ticket. The variety of pickup locations (only ski bus company with Midtown pickups!) is super helpful, and we’ve had nothing but good experiences with the crew. It’s also great to see that they’re offering more destinations — Plattekill is an awesome family-​run ski area that could really benefit from more publicity and interest in the metro’s skier population. Would be awesome if those trips could be on weekends, though — tough for those of us with fixed-​schedule jobs to justify taking the day off sometimes!
The only suggestion I’d make is that it’d be great to do some overnight trips if possible. Killington is really far away and it’s tough to justify spending more time on the bus than on the slopes. With all of the affordable lodging in Rutland, it can’t be too tough to lock up a nice Friday departure — Sunday return trip, can it?

Worst travel experience ever! Their bus driver is driving aweful, super fast and very dangerious. I got cold air through the windows and when I complained, got yelled by the tour guides. Also they played the worst movie, super loud (like tons of police sirens throughout the movie) no option to turn of the volume and although I complained two times and asked for turning down the volume, they didn’t turn it down at all. This is a very frustrating situation for a three hour long trip!

I went on the Sunday bus trip to Windham from NYC with a group of friends and we had a miserable time due to this company. One the way there, the bus driver got lost and we lost more than 30 minutes on the mountain.
On the way back, the bus driver ignored a check engine alarm/​light for a good 10 minutes until the bus’s drive train lost power. When he pulled over the cabin of the bus filled with smoke as the engine had caught fire. As we were evacuating the bus, the trip leader yelled «EVERYONE GET OFF THE BUS, ITS GOING TO EXPLODE». Not exactly what you want to say during an emergency.
We then had to wait on the side of the road for about an hour before the firemen that put out the fire drove us to a nearby rest stop. We waited for a new bus for about three hours.
A guy came with a pickup truck with all of our gear from the bus that caught on fire. One of the patrons was missing a bag and asked the guy if he could go check the bus again for it since it contained the keys to his apartment. The guy flipped out and charged the patron yelling «I already did my job you mother ******!!» The original bus driver had to tackle the guy and put him into a full nelson hold in order to stop the patron from being beaten.
We finally get back to NYC (5 hours after our expected ETA) and were then lectured on how lucky we were by the trip leader. She proceeded to try to sell us future trips with the company without offering any apology for what happened. Most people on the bus just started bursting out in laughter at this point.
The next day my friend wrote an email asking for a refund for his trip. Urban Sherpa offered to give him 25 dollars off his next trip instead. I found this to be insulting, so I wrote a scathing to the CEO of the company. He finally apologized and offered me $ 37.50 off my next trip. I’ll post the emails if anyone is interested.
tl;dr Bus catches on fire, bus employee assaults a patron, bus driver got lost on the way up, didn’t get a refund for trip and had to beg for an apology
Edit: Just read how the CEO (David L.) comments on all the bad reviews on Unilocal and you will get the idea of what type of company he runs. What a joke

You get a lift ticket and a bus ride to Hunter or Windham for $ 85. What’s not to like, it’s a no brainer!
I picked up the bus in Times Square the morning of the February 2013 «blizzard». I had previously purchased my ticket online the afternoon before. All the other tour companies I looked at were booked up! It was a little chaotic but I got on. Once on the bus the leaders were very organized. What I liked most about Urban Sherpa vs. the other ski bus companies was the variety of pickup locations. There was one in Union Square, one in Times Square, and some of the buses even stop at the Upper West Side EMS store.
It would definitely cost you more in gas to buy a lift ticket and drive yourself. Much easier to take the bus and sleep on the way up and the way back.

We went to Killington, VT using Urban Sherpa. It seemed to offer the best deal price-​wise. Signing up online was easy, and they just asked for your name at the bus stop. The staff and driver were cool and informative. The bus was a regular charter bus with several mini-​TVs, a spartan bathroom, and seats that leaned back at a decent angle.
We left from Times Square at 4:30am… my boyfriend and I got there at 4:20am and were the very last people on the bus. I think it might be worth leaving from the Union Square stop and trying to get front seats because unloading took a whiiiile… and I couldn’t wait to hit the slopes!
We got to Killington around 9:30am and had less than 6 hours to enjoy the beautiful powdery snow. I wish the bus didn’t leave until after 4pm. but I understood why we had to leave earlier when the weather slowed down the bus… and it took a whopping 7 hours to get back. We got home around midnight, yikes.
I’d use Urban Sherpa again. They were as efficient as a trip from NYC to Killington with 40 people could have been. I’d probably go to a closer mountain though, just because trip to/​from Killington was so exhausting.

This is the start of my 3^rd snowboarding season that Ihave been using Urban Sherpa. I’ve been on their Killington, Hunter and Camelback trips. They are usually on time, and their bus leaders are typically friendly (one of their leaders may be too chipper and friendly at 4 AM. I wish I had that energy) My first trip this season was a bigt chaotic, but I attribute it to the beginning of a new season (i —, driver wasn’t sure where to unload us, the bus door kept unlocking and driver had to continue to pull over to close door)
Don’t expect any extras like bagels or drinks (but you are allowed to bring and leave anything on the bus); it’s pretty no frills in that sense — they provide travel, lift tickets, skil and snowboard packages but nothing extra.
Overall, a very decent experience. and I’m sure it’ll be much smoother further into the season.

We booked the tickets to the NJ Ballooning festival from Urban Sherpa, $ 60 including round trip bus rides and tickets to the festival. The bus was supposed to be at Union Square at 12:15pm (it tells us to be there 15 mins early so we did) but we waited and waited, called a million times but only got to voice mail… by 12:50PM, I decided to call the Ballooning festival people, they got back to us and said the bus company canceled the bus last minute…
We didn’t get any notice AT ALL!!! I came back home and checked the company website, there was no information about canceling the bus on July 28^th what so ever, NONE. The website is still advertising the tickets on July 29^th even though it was all sold out and advertising the rafting trip on the 29^th…
I don’t know what’s up with this company. but they cant just take our money and cancel the trip without telling us!!!
It’s bananas! DO NOT USE THEIR SERVICES! It may be a spam!!! Now the festival people cant get in touch with them, nor can we…

Its kinda late in the season to ski, March, but thankfully Urban Sherpa still takes you to nearby mountains.
I was supposed to go with a few friends but they all bailed out– BOO. I really wanted to go though, so I just booked my travel with Urban Sherpa. For $ 110, I got a round trip bus ticket, beginner lesson, ski rental and lower lift ticket. I didn’t really need the lesson but I figured I needed a refresher.
6am, I wait at Times Square for the bus to come. Met some weirdos like beggars asking for money and cigarettes while waiting. At least there were other skiers standing around so I didn’t get mugged.
The bus pulls up, it had already picked up people from Union Square but I still had 2 seats to myself which was good for sleeping. This bus was going to both Hunter and Windham mountain, so there were 2 guys, each to take you to the diff mountains. They even served us nice toasty warm raisin bagels on the bus, which was a great way to make such an early bus ride less miserable.
We got to the mountains and the guys handed out the kiss passes and stuff. Then you were off to ski! Note that you are not supposed to leave your stuff on the bus, but the ski resorts have lockers that you can rent.
After a fun day of skiing, I head back to the bus. It was nice that everybody was on time, or rather early. The guys in charge of urban sherpa told us to check out early, so everything went smoothly. On the way back, we watched The Hot Tub Machine on the bus, which made the journey more enjoyable. First stop was Times Square, then Union Square. I shared a seat on the way back but was sleeping most of the way anyways.
I am pretty happy with my experience with Urban Sherpa, its a good way to get out of NYC and enjoy yourself, especially if you don’t have a car. I am thinking to go back next week to ski and check out the other trips they offer during summer like whitewater rafting.

Urban Sherpa Travel is your one stop shop for getting up to Hunter or Windham Mountain. They also offer trip to Killington and Stratton. The busses are always on time and the trip leaders have a real passion for what they do. They encourage the riders to get out skiing and riding as much as possible. If you buy a day trip of skiing through Urban Sherpa, you save about 20−30% on lift tix and rentals. They offer two convenient locations for pick-​up and drop off.
Minus ½ star for not providing the yummy warm bagels you used to. And, minus another ½ star for leaving the mountain so early you can’t enjoy the post-​ski-​wind-​down beer imbibing.
Check out their website: They offer many other activities such as rock climbing and rafting.