I don’t know why I didn’t write this warning post before.
Earlier in April, we had to get down to Hoi An quickly after our trip in Thailand. Unfortunately our flight got in at the afternoon and we couldn’t make the last night bus. We stopped at a hotel/ticket booking place where there was a super helpful girl working there. This is why we returned the next day and bought our bus ticket there.
Only AFTER we booked and paid for the ticket did we ask for the bus company name, as we were told we had to go to their office in order to load our motorbike onto the bus. Well, it was Queen Cafe Bus Company and if you type that into Google, you see that the number one result is a TripAdvisor rating of 1.5 stars. Uh Oh, I thought, as I read all the bad reviews, including one about getting motorbike parts stolen. We decided since we already paid, to take our chances.
Like other reviewers mentioned, the drivers smoked on the bus. Not so much of a problem for us as we were further down from the back and couldn’t really smell it or be affected by it. Anyway, YES they stole from us. When we arrived in Hue (we decided to get off early and ride down from there), our bike wouldn’t start, even after we filled it up with petrol. We took it to a garage and they realised there was a part missing from underneath the bike which prevented it from starting. It cost us 100k dong to replace it.
So, if you must catch a Queen bus, make sure not to store anything in the luggage compartment and keep everything with you. Also, take a seat at the back if smoke bothers you. Otherwise, AVOID.