Amtrak across America - has anyone done it ?

davelewis

We went in January. We sailed over to NYC from Southampton on the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship. It was a ridiculous bargain - around £400 each for 8 nights onboard with all food and we docked in Manhattan. We had 2 nights in Manhattan, then Amtrack to Chicago. 2 nights in Chicago then Amtrak (South West Chief) to LA. We boarded the train in Chicago on a freezing Friday afternoon and arrived in LA on a sunny warm Sunday morning. It was absolutely fantastic. 

Murphy_The_Cat

I'm not making quite as grand entrance as you !

Flying into JFK, then staying overnight.

Early start, brief stopover in Chicago, then onto California

Overnight in San Fran, then fly home the middle of the next day.

Jumblebumble

Murphy_The_Cat said:

For Jan 2024, I've booked an Amtrak trip from New York to Chicago on the "Cardinal" and then Chicago to San Francisco (last leg from Emeryville to San Fran in a coach) on the "Californian Zephyr", in a "roomette", just for myself.

Total travel time will be circa 85 hours if the train is on time (which I have very low expectations of !) & yes, I'm aware of no wifi.

Has anyone done anything similar and if so, do you have any pearls of wisdom to share ?

 

You could have a read of https://www.amtraktrains.com/forums/amtrak-rail-discussion.3/
There were quite a lot of incidences of Amtrak cancelling sleeper accommodation not very long ago owing to rolling stock shortages so I would check with their help line to see if this is still the case
We did the SouthWest Chief many years ago and part of the Coast Starlight in 2019
The roomettes are very small for sure

Murphy_The_Cat

I'm back from my trip and it was one of the best things that I've ever done.  By a country mile, the California Zephyr from Chicago to Emeryville was the best train trip that I've ever taken, with the section from Denver CO to Colfax CA being absolutely outstanding.

If you're doing the trip on your own, a roomette is a comfortable (& more economical) wat to to the trip.  If you're doing it as a couple, I'd strongly recommend a bedroom, unless you're either a) both very small or b) travelling with a young child.

jackieblack

Happy to hear you enjoyed it 🙂

michele-p

So glad you had a fantastic time, have you done a trip report anywhere at all? Would be great to see your experience with it. Where's your next adventure?

Murphy_The_Cat

michele-p said:

So glad you had a fantastic time, have you done a trip report anywhere at all? Would be great to see your experience with it. Where's your next adventure?

I'd been planning my "big trip" since March 2023. Here's a summary of what happened, on my first LD Amtrak trip.

I had a short wait at New York Immigration, chatted with Immigration Officer who had no concept at all about travvelling across the country on Amtrak then going straight home.

JFK to New York. Airtrain to Jamaica station and then LIRR to New York Penn Station. I popped out of Penn Station about 400 yards from my room for the night, The New Yorker. It didn't cost a great deal and was perfectly situated for my arrival & departure to/from NY. The hotel must be of a decent enough standard, as Virgin Atlantic used it as a hotel for the flight crew that I'd come over with.
Not going into details about NY, as most people will know what they need to know.

Got up at 05.45 in the morning and walked the 400 yards to Moynahan train hall.

Moynahan train hall. Used the longue and enjoyed the complimentary food, drinks and facilities. Very impressive place and a lovely place to spend a bit of time ahead of the 06.45 departure on the Amtrak 51 Cardinal. Met by the Sleeping Car Attendant  (very helpful, friendly and professional) and taken to my roomette. Roomettes have 2 seats in them, that convert to 2 beds at night. For 2 adults a roomette would be tight, for an adut and a child it would be fine and for a 6ft 3" 250lb man, I was very comfy. Enjoyed the 45min stop at Washington DC for a few tourist pics. I ate all my meals in my roomette as a) it was convienient and b) the cafe car was set up like an Amtrak staff members club, with others tolerated, but not really welcomed. The SCA was excellant and did a really good job. A quick mention for flexible dining which was as poor as I'd read previously. The chicken parmignon was a crime against food. After 26 and a bit hours rocked into Chicago a few minutes early. There are lots of travel blogs about the Cardinal and this is quite a good one

Again used the complimentary longue for drinks and nibbles, left my luggage and left Chicago Union station for a mooch around, came back and took pictures of both the staircases (still not sure which one featured in the Untouchables !), then went back down to the longue to while away the time until it was time to load.  Found a quiet corner and thanked my luck stars that the California Zephyr was still running. It looked like it was going to be the last Westbound train going the entire way for the next few days. Parts of America were absolutely battered by a Winter storm, with the temps in Nebraska and Iowa dropping to -40deg c

 The passengers were led Led through Chicago Union in a conger to Amtrak 5 California Zephyr. Again I was in a roomette, but on this occassion, I was upstairs on the double decked train.You will have seen lots of travel reports about the Westbound CZ, so I won't go into details. Travelling in the cold of January, the scenary was spectacular, and this time I was on Traditional Dining and the food was excellant (Buttercakes alone made the trip) and the service from all the Amtrak staff was spot on. One of my dreads ahead of the trip was the forced seating arrangements at mealtimes - I really wasn't looking forward to sharing my table with a numpty whilst I ate my food. This never happened and all of my meal time table companions were good company. Over the course of lots of conversations, except for 1 person, all of us were Amtrak LD newbies, all were having a very enjoyable time**** and all would do it again. Some people had been keeping an eye out for a fare reductions and some had taken advantage of a buy 1 get 1 free roomette promotion. Across the trip, the train was nearly always full in sleeping and coach (I wouldn't recommend coach, at whatever price it was offered for). About 51 hours after setting off, we arrived at Emeryville/San Fransisco an hour ahead of schedule, which given the weather conditions that we'd been through, was very impressive. Booked 10 months ahead, my ticket cost $1478, which I thought was very good value for money for over 3500 miles of travel spread over 4 days and 3 nights in my own private room with 3 meals a day incl all soft drinks and an acoholic drink with tea. .

This is an excellant youtube video of the Californian Zephyr.  I think that he went at a similar time of year as I did (but not as snowy)and enjoyed himself just as much.

I had a small walk to my downtown hotel in San Fran for the night.The King George Hotel was absolutely fine and well located downtown. However, downtown San Fran isn't a nice place to be, unless you're a drunk, druggie, vagrant, mentally challenged or living an alternative lifestyle, in which case you'll fit right in.

The next day was coming home.  I flew out on the Tuesday and was back home on Monday.

To summarise, it was one of the best things that I've ever done and the best rail trip that I've ever taken. The Amtrak folk (except for one), were very, very good and really added to the trip - especially the CZ SCA. I would have happily made the return journey the following day, the trip was than enjoyable. The only downer of the trip was my overnight in San Fran/Zombieland, but I can erase that from my memory.

I've come home and I'm now in the planning stage of doing another LD Amtrak trip - next time it will be with my adult son, who is an even bigger version of me, so it'll be a bedroom, rather than roomette.  Currently, the favourite looks like Miami to New York on the 98 Silver Meteor, New York to Chicago on 49 Lakeshore Limited then 3 Empire Builder, which would be over 4500 miles, spread over 5 days 4 nights. Costwise it'll be much more expensive, but 2 big units in a roomette just wouldn't work.

As the Fonz would say "Happy Days"

**** from further up. The most frequent request that I heard, was for couples asking to upgrade from roomette to bedroom, but sadly nothing was available. They all (had to) made do and managed, but all would have enjoyed some additional space.

hugheskevi

Have you traveled on the El Chepe train in northern Mexico?

It is a very scenic journey, although rather than being an overnight train tourists usually stay in a hotel at one or more of the stops en route and then join a later train.

Murphy_The_Cat

hugheskevi said:

Have you traveled on the El Chepe train in northern Mexico?

It is a very scenic journey, although rather than being an overnight train tourists usually stay in a hotel at one or more of the stops en route and then join a later train.

I've never heard of that train.  Clicking on the link, it looks like a nice, shorter journey

HillStreetBlues

@Murphy_The_Cat
Do they still do the the Amtrack pass for overseas visitors?
This what I ended up doing over  a few trips

I found the people on Amtrak great and very friendly.
When I did it, most were either doing it for the sights or were afraid of flying as it wasn't cheap for Americans.
it's certainly a lot better then NYC to San Diego on Greyhound which I've also done.