Santiago Travel Forum

I appreciate the advice I was given that the most secure luggage on an inter-city bus is that which is in the luggage compartment at the base of the bus rather than anything you may bring with you to the passenger compartment. I therefore ask what the normal practice is for giving up custody of your luggage so that it gets into the luggage compartment. Do people stand beside the parked bus with their luggage until the driver loads it into the luggage compartment. Presumably your luggage has been tagged somewhere and you have something that matches your tags.

All buses have a driver (or two) and an assistant. the assistant will open the luggage compartment on the side of the bus when they are ready to load and you wheel or drag your case to there. He puts a numbered tag on your case (s) and gives you half the tag with the same number on it. When you arrive at your destination, you give the assistant your numbered tag and he pulls your case out for you.

Hi,

Would you be able to tell me how many "cases" I can take on the Santiago to Mendoza bus ?
I would have two large cases with me: one would contain my bicycle (although a full size bike, it can be split into two and therefore into a normal size case), the other would be a large rucksack containing my clothes etc.
Would they allow this much for one person ?

Thanks
Chris

I would not bet the ranch on my answer being right, but based on what I observed getting on a TurBus going Santiago to Mendoza, I would be surprised if you could not achieve your goal. Even if contrary to regulations it is such a throng of activity loading the baggage, with spouses loading things for multiple ticket holders, that I think you'd be okay. But if you are flying under the wire of a prohibiting regulation, you'd be less conspicuous with non-huge bags. Clearing customs entering Argentina involves random searches and the number of bags is not apt to be an issue from what I observed.