Green Tortoise

Last updated
Green Tortoise Adventure Travel
Green Tortoise 1993.jpg
Green Tortoise tour on a break, 1993
Founded1973;51 years ago (1973)
Headquarters San Francisco, California
Service area United States, Canada, and Mexico
Service typeAdventure travel
FleetApprox. 10 buses and motor coaches
Website www.greentortoise.com

Green Tortoise Adventure Travel is an American long-distance tour bus company founded by Gardner Kent in mid-1973 [1] [2] and based in San Francisco, California. It provides tours in North America, mostly within the United States. It operates a bus line and hostels in Seattle and San Francisco. The company caters particularly to backpackers, both from the U.S. and abroad.

Contents

Early years

Green Tortoise was one of several low-cost, no-frills alternative bus companies established in the 1970s and based in California and the Pacific Northwest, providing long-distance bus service, but by 1982 it was one of only two still in operation. Also commonly referred to as "hippie bus" companies during the 1970s, for their counterculture vibe and casual atmosphere, the first such company was Grey Rabbit, which started in 1971 and was based in San Francisco. Gardner Kent founded Green Tortoise in 1973 and based its name on that of Grey Rabbit. [1] [3] Although the two companies were very similar, Grey Rabbit put more emphasis on making the journey time short –e.g. San Francisco to New York in less than four days –whereas Kent planned a service that would be a little slower [3] but more relaxed, with more stops (for swimming, picnics, etc.) and where the experience of the trip itself was more important. [2] [4] [5]

Green Tortoise bus loading in Seattle's University District, 1984 Green Tortoise bus and Metro Transit MAN articulated bus in Seattle 1984.jpg
Green Tortoise bus loading in Seattle's University District, 1984

Green Tortoise's buses for its first two decades or more were secondhand transit buses built in the 1950s and modified by the removal of nearly all seats –replaced by a long foam bed in the rear two-thirds of the bus –and the installation of overhead luggage racks that could be converted into bunk beds. [5] In a 1982 article in The Sunday Oregonian , a reporter for the Field News Service wrote that, "The hippie bus companies may have been known for speed but never comfort. Buses were old, overcrowded and prone to breakdowns – frequently stranding their generally hirsute passengers in the often highly unsympathetic hinterlands." [2] Although the use of old buses continued, Kent made changes targeting the other problems. In 1979, Green Tortoise lengthened its cross-country journey time to seven days and began focusing more on tour bus service than on transportation. [2] It also added trips to Mexico and Alaska. [2]

Green Tortoise, Grey Rabbit and the smaller alternative bus companies all operated informally and without licenses for interstate operation during the 1970s. [2] [6] In 1981, the Tortoise and Rabbit, the only two still operating, both were granted temporary operating permits by the Interstate Commerce Commission. [2] The subsequent passage of the federal Bus Regulatory Reform Act of 1982 eased restrictions on their operation. However, ridership on the alternative buses had been declining ever since the implementation of U.S. airline deregulation in the late 1970s, which had spawned much lower airfares. [3] [6] Grey Rabbit went under in 1983 and was acquired by Green Tortoise. [1] [4] In the early 1980s, the Tortoise's fleet still consisted of buses built in the 1950s. [2] [5] In 1983, the company was still operating a regular weekly service from San Francisco to Portland and San Francisco to Los Angeles, along with occasional cross-country trips, in addition to its slower-paced excursions. [7] The company had 14 buses and 50 employees at its peak, in the late 1980s. [8]

Description and destinations

A newer Green Tortoise coach in 2007 Green Tortoise MCI bus 308 in 2007.jpg
A newer Green Tortoise coach in 2007

The company's buses are fitted with bunk beds so that passengers can lounge or sleep while the bus is moving. This is done at night so that a destination can be reached in the morning. [9] The company aims to foster a social environment among its passengers, who work together to cook most meals, which are often vegetarian. [10] There are usually opportunities for camping during a trip. Itineraries typically try to avoid heavily touristed locations, and prioritize places of natural and cultural interest such as national parks, monuments, forests, hot springs, or archaeological ruins.

Green Tortoise has historically made trips to destinations in the United States including Alaska and regular summer coast-to-coast routes from San Francisco to Boston and back. Special trips are also arranged to festivals every year, including a Mardi Gras trip to New Orleans, the Oregon Country Fair and Burning Man, where they also operate a shuttle bus from the event into nearby Gerlach and Empire, Nevada. Trips outside the U.S. have included Mexico (including the Yucatán Peninsula and the Baja California Peninsula), Guatemala, Belize, and Canada. The company discontinued its regularly scheduled service between San Francisco and Seattle via Eugene and Portland in 2001, in favor of focusing on "adventure camping trips". [11]

In 1992, the company's annual revenue was around $1.4 million. [12] It had 50 employees and a fleet of 10 buses at that time, with a bus-renovation garage in Lowell, Oregon. [12] In 2004, the fleet was still mostly made up of 1950s ex-Greyhound buses and 1960s ex-transit buses, but at least one or two new 1990s highway coaches had been added. [8]

Hostels

The Seattle Green Tortoise Hostel, at its post-2006 location Seattle Green Tortoise Hostel 2007.jpg
The Seattle Green Tortoise Hostel, at its post-2006 location

Since the mid-1990s, Green Tortoise has also operated two hostels. The first one opened in Seattle in 1993 and the second in San Francisco in 1994. The Seattle hostel was originally located in the Queen Anne neighborhood, but moved in 1997 to a location on Second Avenue in downtown Seattle, [13] taking over the former Forest Hotel after a year of remodeling. [14] That building was demolished in 2006, and the hostel moved to a different location in downtown Seattle, on Pike Street, across from the Pike Place Market. [15] [16]

According to The Seattle Times , Hostelworld.com named Green Tortoise's Seattle hostel one of the top ten hostels in North America in its 2009 annual awards. [17]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transportation in Portland, Oregon</span> Overview of movement of goods and passengers in Portland

Like transportation in the rest of the United States, the primary mode of local transportation in Portland, Oregon is the automobile. Metro, the metropolitan area's regional government, has a regional master plan in which transit-oriented development plays a major role. This approach, part of the new urbanism, promotes mixed-use and high-density development around light rail stops and transit centers, and the investment of the metropolitan area's share of federal tax dollars into multiple modes of transportation. In the United States, this focus is atypical in an era when automobile use led many areas to neglect their core cities in favor of development along interstate highways, in suburbs, and satellite cities.

Portland is "an international pioneer in transit orientated developments."

<i>Bailey Gatzert</i> (sternwheeler)

The Bailey Gatzert was a sternwheel steamboat that ran on the Columbia River and Puget Sound from the 1890s to the 1920s. This vessel was considered one of the finest of its time. It was named after Bailey Gatzert, an early businessman and mayor of Seattle, who was one of the closest friends and business associates of John Leary – the person who financed the ship.

<i>Olympian</i> (sidewheeler)

Olympian was a large side-wheel inland steamship that operated in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Olympian operated from early 1884 to late 1891 on the Columbia River, Puget Sound, and the Inside Passage of British Columbia and Alaska.

<i>Sarah Dixon</i> (sternwheeler)

Sarah Dixon was a wooden sternwheel-driven steamboat operated by the Shaver Transportation Company on the Columbia and lower Willamette rivers from 1892 to 1926. Originally Sarah Dixon was built as a mixed use passenger and freight vessel, and was considered a prestige vessel for the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tourist sternwheelers of Oregon</span> List of sternwheelers of Oregon used in tourism

Since the early 1980s, several non-steam-powered sternwheel riverboats have been built and operated on major waterways in the U.S. state of Oregon, primarily the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, as river cruise ships used for tourism. Although configured as sternwheelers, they are not paddle steamers, but rather are motor vessels that are only replicas of paddle steamers. They are powered instead by diesel engines. The Lurdine was, when launched in 1983, "the first passenger-carrying sternwheeler in decades to [operate] on the Columbia River". In the case of the 1983-built M.V. Columbia Gorge, the construction and operation of a tourist sternwheeler was led by local government officials who viewed the idea as potentially being a major tourist attraction, giving an economic boost to their area, Cascade Locks, Oregon.

<i>Ocean Wave</i> (sidewheeler)

Ocean Wave was a steamboat that was operated from 1891 to 1897 on the Columbia River, from 1897 to 1899 on Puget Sound and from 1899 to 1911 as a ferry on San Francisco Bay. Ocean Wave is perhaps best known for transporting summer vacationers from Portland, Oregon to seaside resorts near Ilwaco, Washington during its service on the Columbia River. This vessel is also known for being the first ferry placed in service by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.

<i>Bayocean</i> (motor yacht) Patrol vessel of the United States Navy

Bayocean was a yacht that was built in 1911 to serve the now-vanished resort of Bayocean on the coast of Oregon at the entrance to Tillamook Bay. Considered an attractive vessel with a clipper bow and twin raked smokestacks, Bayocean was expensive to operate, was "somewhat cranky" at sea, and spent much of the time tied to a dock. In 1913, Bayocean then transferred to San Francisco Bay where it served briefly as an excursion vessel. In 1918, Bayocean was purchased by the U.S. Navy and converted to a patrol vessel. Following a brief active career, Bayocean was laid up again for about two years, as the Navy demobilized and sought to find buyers for its surplus ships. In 1921, the Navy sold Bayocean at auction to the San Francisco concern of Crowley Launch and Tug, now Crowley Maritime.

<i>C.H. Wheeler</i>

C.H. Wheeler was a schooner-rigged unpowered lumber barge that operated during the year 1901, making only a few voyages before it was wrecked near Yaquina Bay with the loss of one life. C.H. Wheeler was the largest vessel up to that time to reach Tillamook City and the first vessel to transport a load of lumber from Tillamook to San Francisco. The circumstances of the loss of the C.H. Wheeler were controversial and resulted in the arrest of the captain of the tug that had been towing the barge before it was wrecked.

<i>Emma Hayward</i> Steamboat

Emma Hayward commonly called the Hayward, was a steamboat that served in the Pacific Northwest. This vessel was once one of the finest and fastest steamboats on the Columbia River and Puget Sound. As newer vessels came into service, Emma Hayward was relegated to secondary roles, and, by 1891, was converted into a Columbia river tow boat.

<i>Grahamona</i>

Grahamona was a sternwheel steamboat built in 1912 for the Oregon City Transportation Company, commonly known as the Yellow Stack Line. Grahamona was specially designed to serve on the shallow waters of the upper Willamette River. It was one of the largest steamboats ever to operate on the upper Willamette. In 1920, Grahamona was sold and the name was changed to Northwestern. In 1939, the vessel was sold again, and transferred to Alaska for service on the Kuskokwim River.

<i>Wenat</i> (sternwheeler)

Wenat was a stern-wheel steamboat that, under the name Swan, was built and operated, briefly, on the Tualatin River, in the state of Oregon. In 1858, Swan was sold, moved to the lower Willamette River, renamed Cowlitz, and placed on a route between Portland, Oregon the Cowlitz River.

<i>Robert Young</i> (sternwheeler) American stern-wheel driven steamboat

Robert Young was a stern-wheel driven steamboat that operated on the Columbia and Willamette rivers from 1918 to 1935. This vessel was originally named Nespelem, and operated under that name until 1920. From 1920 to 1935, this vessel was owned by the Western Transportation Company or one of its subsidiaries, and was employed primarily in service to paper mills.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grey Rabbit</span>

Grey Rabbit, also known as Grey Rabbit Camper Tours, was an American company based in the San Francisco Bay Area that operated long-distance bus service from 1971 to 1983. It was one of a few small, long-distance bus companies established in the U.S. in the 1970s that specialized in inexpensive, no-frills, cross-country bus service using old secondhand buses and attracting counterculture passengers. It was the first, and was also the biggest, best-known, and "most successful" of them in its first several years. A Washington Post columnist in 1978 referred to Grey Rabbit as "the granddaddy" of the five such "alternative" bus companies existing at that time, also known as "underground" bus companies and "hippie bus" companies. It operated mainly in two areas: between California and the Pacific Northwest and on a cross-country route between San Francisco and New York. Green Tortoise, which was established in 1973 and named after Grey Rabbit, became Grey Rabbit's main competition in the small field, and eventually bought it out.

<i>Telephone</i> (sternwheeler)

Telephone was a sternwheel-driven steamboat built in 1884 by Captain Uriah Bonsor "U.B." Scott for service on the Columbia River. Reputedly the fastest steamboat in the world in its time, Telephone served on the Columbia River and San Francisco Bay. Telephone was rebuilt at least twice. The first time was after a fire in 1887 which nearly destroyed the vessel. The reconstructed and much larger second vessel was sometimes referred to as Telephone No. 2. The third vessel, Telephone No. 3, built in 1903 and using components from the second steamer was larger but little used during its time on the Columbia river.

<i>La Center</i> (sternwheeler)

La Center was a small stern-wheel steamboat that operated from 1912 to 1931, mostly on the Lewis and Lake rivers in southwest Washington, on a route to and from Portland, Oregon along the lower Columbia and lower Willamette rivers.

<i>Jessie Harkins</i>

Jessie Harkins was a propeller-driven steamboat that operated on the Columbia River in the USA starting in 1903. It was rebuilt at least twice. Originally, Jessie Harkins was one of the larger gasoline-engined vessels to operate on the Columbia River. Jessie Harkins was built for the Harkins Transportation Company.

<i>Joseph Kellogg</i> (sternwheeler)

Joseph Kellogg was a stern-wheel driven steamboat that operated on the Willamette, Columbia, and Cowlitz rivers for the Kellogg Transportation Company. It was named after the company's founder, Joseph Kellogg (1812-1903). The sternwheeler Joseph Kellogg was built in 1881 at Portland, Oregon.

<i>Undine</i> (Columbia River sternwheeler) American passenger steamboat

Undine was a sternwheel-driven steamboat that operated from 1887 to 1935 on the Columbia and lower Willamette rivers. From 1935 to 1940 the same vessel was operated under the name The Dalles.

<i>Ilwaco</i> (steamship)

Ilwaco was a small riverine and coastal steamship built in 1890 which was operated as a passenger vessel for the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company, and later served in other roles, including tow and freight boat, cannery tender and fish packing vessel. Ilwaco was originally named Suomi.

<i>Telegraph</i> (sternwheeler 1903)

Telegraph was a sternwheel-driven steamboat built in 1903 in Everett, Washington. Except for the summer of 1905, from 1903 to 1912, Telegraph served in Puget Sound, running mainly on the route from Seattle to Everett, and also from Seattle to Tacoma and Olympia, Washington.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Brown, Karen D. (June 18, 1995). "The pleasures of riding the Green Tortoise". The San Francisco Examiner . Retrieved 2016-12-26.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Davis, William A. (January 3, 1982). "Green Tortoise races to respectability on tour bus circuit". The Sunday Oregonian . Portland, Oregon. Field News Service. SunDAY section, p. 12.
  3. 1 2 3 Bower, Leah (April 6, 1999). "Bound to cover a little more ground – Hippie bus company offers adventures while traveling from place to place". Spartan Daily. San Jose State University. pp. 1, 6, 7. Archived from the original on October 29, 2023. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  4. 1 2 Magagnini, Stephen (April 23, 1989). "Man behind Tortoise inspired by Rabbit". The Sacramento Bee . p. E4.
  5. 1 2 3 Erickson, Steve (August 29, 1984). "Traveling on the Tortoise not for creeps; it's for fun". The Oregonian . p. C6.
  6. 1 2 Davis, William A. (September 8, 1991). "Green Tortoise Is The Victor". Chicago Tribune . Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
  7. ↑ Quarnstrom, Lee (July 17, 1983). "Green Tortoise Buses: Shades of the '60s". The Philadelphia Inquirer . Knight-Ridder News Service. p. I5.
  8. 1 2 Hilton, Spud (August 22, 2004). "Tortoise keeps on truckin' / 'Hippie bus' at 30 is still more about people than places". San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved 2016-12-27.
  9. ↑ Steve Wilson (July 20, 2004) [May 1998]. "Slow, But Steady". E–The Environmental Magazine . Vol. 9, no. 3.
  10. ↑ Official Green Tortoise FAQ
  11. ↑ "About Us: Frequently Asked Questions". Green Tortoise. Retrieved 2016-12-31.
  12. 1 2 Weise, Elizabeth (February 14, 1993). "Green Tortoise: The trip counts, not the destination – 'Road show on wheels' travels from Seattle to L.A. twice weekly". The Seattle Times . Associated Press. p. B7.
  13. ↑ Eng, Lily (September 9, 1997). "It's not the Ritz, but for $15, who cares? – Funky hostel is cheap, clean". The Seattle Times . p. B1.
  14. ↑ Lacitis, Erik (June 18, 2003). "Hostel caters to budget travelers – Travelers, backpackers on the cheap don't mind bit of gritty street life at Green Tortoise's front door". The Seattle Times . p. B1. Retrieved 2016-12-29.
  15. ↑ "Green Tortoise extends its shell life". The Columbian . Vancouver, Washington. Associated Press. January 20, 2006. p. C3.
  16. ↑ Brodeur, Nicole (February 20, 2007). "Hostel has to hit the road [headline refers to a different hostel]". The Seattle Times . p. B1.
  17. ↑ "Tourism slump to hit U.S., Europe". The Seattle Times . February 1, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-17. Hostelworld.com has named two Seattle hostels and one in Portland among its Top 10 hostels in North America. The online reservations booker of budget hostels and hotels named Hostel Seattle in Ballard ... as the top-rated North American hostel. Also in the Top 10 were HI hostel in Portland, Ore., ... and the Green Tortoise ... in downtown Seattle across from the Pike Place Market.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.