TRAVEL INSIDER : Consumers Are Finding Some Bargains in Leaving the Driving to Others : Transportation: Bus operators are offering new options and holding prices down, despite mild recovery.

The life of the bus-travel professional has never been glamorous, and over the last two years, the recession has made it downright torturous for many. Only now, say some in the bus-travel trade, is business recovering.

That’s their good news. The good news for the traveling public is that in this modest recovery, plenty of intercity carriers, charter lines and tour operators are holding steady on prices or reducing them, while others are offering new options.

For those travelers willing to bypass planes and trains, there may be bargains. For instance:

* In 1990, Gardena-based Mark IV Charter Lines’ off-the-rack rate for a 47-seat bus (with driver, air conditioning, restroom, stereo and reclining seats) was about $700 a day. In April of this year, says sales manager Abraham Karim, it was down to about $550.

* A year ago, Mayflower Tours of Downers Grove, Ill., was offering a 12-day “Alaska Spectacular,” with 11 nights’ lodging, 10 meals and bus transport for $2,759, double occupancy, air fare to and from Alaska excluded. In Mayflower’s 1992 catalogue, a tour with the same features is priced at $2,106.

* At Green Tortoise Adventure Travel in San Francisco, which bills itself as the last hippie bus line in America, a one-way San Francisco-to-Boston ticket on a bus with no-frills sleepers is $279, just as it was two years ago. The San Francisco-Seattle fare has held steady at $59, though general manager Eric Gerrick warns that a $10 hike is likely this year.

Meanwhile, some companies are upgrading their offerings.

The National Motorcoach Network Inc., a Virginia-based consortium of 34 bus-tour companies, on June 1 will start showing first-run movies on video to viewers on subscribing tour buses nationwide. The program, apparently the only one of its kind, will be advertiser-supported (that is, commercials precede the movies), with no added cost to passengers.

Other tour operators, encouraged by the loosening of government restrictions on foreign buses in Mexico in 1990, are setting their sights south of the border. One such firm is Tour Masters of Los Angeles, which this spring is sending four sold-out busloads from Los Angeles to El Fuerte, 40 miles east of Las Mochis on the route of the Copper Canyon railroad. The nine-day Tour Masters package will include seven meals, accommodations and a train ride for $949. Tour Masters co-owner George Demas says a similar tour will be offered in the fall.

Even before the recession and travails of the last two years, buses amounted to only a small part of the American travel-spending picture. The United States Travel Data Center estimates that in 1989 and 1990, just 2% of all 100-mile-or-more trips were taken on buses.

Now, however, leaders of the Kentucky-based National Tour Assn., which includes some 575 companies that run escorted bus trips, are merrily pointing to results of a new survey. In a February membership poll, 70% of those responding reported their business running ahead of 1991. Some 46% said they were ahead of 1990, a much better year. Some 67% predicted that 1992 would be an “above average” or better year.

At Keeshin Charters of Chicago, an 85-bus charter company that caters mostly to Japanese groups, charter sales specialist Marisa Cerrillos reports big gains in 1991, a “pretty slow” stretch beginning in December and increasing bookings for spring and summer of 1992.

At Maitland Travel, a tour company based in Kalispell, Mont., proprietor Dottie Maitland says her business held strong last year and looks stronger still this year.

And then there’s Greyhound, the nation’s largest intercity carrier, which has endured two of its worst years ever. First there was the strike that began in March, 1990; then, bankruptcy and reorganization.

But since 1989, the company has cut overheads by reducing its fleet, “compacting” its schedule and boosting occupancy rates from 23 to almost 26 seats per 47-seat bus. The company formally scrambled out from under bankruptcy last October.

Part of the new Greyhound strategy is more competitive pricing, which means that one-way fares are up sharply, following the airlines’ pricing structure, while round-trip fares are up only slightly. The advance-purchase price for a Los Angeles-New York ticket was $68 one way and $118 round trip in March, 1990. Two years later, the figures were $93.10 and $125.85. Walk-up tickets were twice that.

“The key, like in the airlines, is to purchase your ticket ahead of time,” said a Greyhound spokesman. Bus travel in the ‘90s, he added, “will be a bargain travel opportunity.”

To be sure, not every bus business is aflutter with optimism.

“We’ve been hit,” says sales manager Abraham Karim at Mark IV Charter Lines of Gardena.

Karim estimates a 10%-15% dip in charter business at his firm, which usually has about 150 buses available for charter, mostly by senior and employee groups.

“With so many people out of work,” says Karim, “you find these things disintegrating.”

Those who are considering bus trips should remember that price isn’t everything, and that there are more variables involved than there are with most plane trips. Would-be riders can make their trips easier by questioning their potential carriers closely:

* Ask if your prospective carrier carries the required insurance, and whether it is licensed for city and interstate routes.

* Ask if your driver will have a commercial driver’s license and state-required medical certificate. (Under federal law, no driver should drive more than 10 hours in any 24-hour period.)

* Ask how old the buses are (not surprisingly, new ones usually run more smoothly) and how often the vehicles are cleaned. (A responsible carrier is likely to clean them daily, or even twice daily in snow.)

* Ask how often the bus stops. Whether you prefer to drive straight through or stop every hour, you’ll rest more easily knowing which to expect. (Depending on the type of route, Greyhound buses might stop as rarely as 12 times between St. Louis and Los Angeles, or as often as 43 times.)

* Ask where the best seats are. Many industry veterans favor the middle rows. From window seats there, the view is usually fuller than from seats in front. In the rear, you may sense more engine noise or vibration, and you’ll be closer to the restroom traffic.

* If you’re on a trip to Mexico, ask if the driver will be bilingual.

* Ask if smoking is allowed. Since June, 1990, Greyhound has banned smoking on all of its buses, but many charter lines leave the decision up to their customers.