Who we are
let's go on a
real adventure
together
We’re Share Bus – where each road trip is different to every other road trip that came before.
I’m Jade, and my partner Marco and I started Share Bus in 2018 simply because we believed there was a better way to travel. We wanted bring flexibility to group travel, and make it accessible to everyone. No structured itineraries or high prices here!
Plus we just don’t believe in doing things the way they’ve always been done.
flexible
and fun
shared travel
We’re not a tour. We’re a little bit different: we’re a shared rental.
Imagine sharing a road trip with a group of other backpackers, stopping wherever you like. Making your own decisions. You’ve got everything you need for camping, cooking and fun and every night you camp and enjoy a meal together (and a few cheeky drinks) under amazing starry skies. The stars are so good because there’s no light from any cities when you are in the middle of nowhere.
This is us, Share Bus. We help travellers like you go on flexible, affordable, self-guided camping road trips. We rent out our minibus and trailers full of camping, (glamping) and cooking equipment to a group of backpackers to do road trips. The start and end dates are fixed, but the route is totally flexible!
our story
how we got here
Our Values
respect
The environment, each other and each other’s property and respect the people whose land you are on.
team work
We believe everyone has a role to play. Some people are good cooks, some people set up tents like a pro.
flexibility
Be mindful that you are travel with people all over the world, all with different ideas. It can be wonderful to grow and learn from each other, but only if you are not ‘stuck’ in your ideas and ways.
open-mindedness
Willingness to leave your comfort zone and challenge yourself.
Our Story
On the 28th of July 2018; we made our dream a reality when the first Share Bus trip departed.
Share Bus was started by 2 ex-backpackers (Marco and Jade) who thought that there must be a better way to do group travel then expensive, short, and inflexible tours. How can we cut costs from group travel? Would it be too crazy if we cut out the tour guide?
To test the concept with limited funds we purchased a 1999 manual Toyota Hiace Commuter we called “Betty”. She was an old gal but had lived a cruisy life so far. It was time for her to get out of the city and have an adventure! We also found a box trailer that had previously been used for transporting Go-Karts.
We allowed ourselves 6 weeks to get everything ready – insurance, building a website, purchasing equipment, and even building shelves in the trailer. I’m still not sure if that was a good idea or not. It was so hard to get everything ready in time and required a lot of work and help from others. Yet, if we hadn’t set that deadline we might have never left.
The biggest challenge was to find a group of people adventurous enough to jump on board our first trip and test the concept from an unknown company. 2 weeks prior to our planned leaving date we had ZERO customers booked.
We went from hostel to hostel in the rain; trying to recruit people – but found that many hostels were empty for the winter! We also posted in many backpacker Facebook groups and ran free promotional barbecues. Something worked; and within the week prior, we managed to find 9 people to do the trip. Thank you to our first Share Bus group and thank you to @journey24_net for producing so much content on that trip that we still use today.
Since then, we have achieved so much. Betty did a full loop of Australia and then promptly retired (…she was 20 years old). We’ve had more than 2000 customers, from more than 50 countries, who share more stories between them then we can count (imagine shoe eating wombats!).
Things have changed a lot since 2018. We now have 6 new buses, 5 upgraded trailers, and run 9 different routes. We have learnt a lot over the last 6 years and will continue to learn, grow, and improve.
routes
set-ups
who we are
meet the team
Our team understands travellers as most of us are travellers ourselves. We care about you having the trip of a lifetime and will do our best to make it happen!
