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jfeucht

jfeucht

Joined
Feb 13, 2015
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8
Location
WI
First thanks for all of the interesting information on this board it's great! I'm new here, but I've been reading for a while.

I’m in need of a vacation getaway where I can just watch the world go by (and strangely sitting on a beach somewhere does not appeal to me). I’m considering a train only trip around the west all in a sleeper. I’ve traveled commuter rail previously and this would be my first sleeper trip.

I’m thinking Chicago to Emeryville on the California Zephyr, then to Portland on the Coast Starlight, then back to Chicago on the Empire Builder. I’m thinking of just doing the whole trip aboard the trains, and not overnighting anywhere off the train. Amtrak.com says the routing is possible, and with the benefits of meals being included this seems an ideal way to kick back for a week.

Wondering if anyone has done a trip like this, if so what was your experience like? Any suggestions on an alternate routing? Are there any pitfalls/challenges making all those connections and living on Amtrak for 6 days? Any dos, don’ts, or other advice? All of your thoughts and opinions are appreciated!
 
I've done a few similar trips, days on the train. An odd thing that happened to me is after awhile I began to feel like the train was not moving but rather the world was passing by. :)

BN
 
I did a trip like this last summer, only it covered the southeast. I went for the exact same reasons you are: I needed to get away for a while and see new things, and I didn't want to stay stationary.

I took the City of New Orleans from Chicago to New Orleans, had a quick overnight in New Orleans, left the next morning on the Crescent, had several hours to kill in Washington DC while transferring, and then boarded the Capitol Limited back to Chicago.

I loved every minute of it. It felt like I was living on the train, and as Bill mentioned, it starts to feel like the world is passing you by, not the other way around.
 
We did a similar trip a few years ago. CHI, SEA, EMY,and CHI. It was our first long distance trip. It was a great trip, and we are looking forward to another trip.

Kick back enjoy the trip!
 
Would it be good advice to take a short (one night) sleeping car trip first, before going for the weeklong journey? I've been asking myself this lately...
 
When booking, be sure to allow enough time between arrivals and departures in case the arriving train is late. Sniffing around on these websites... http://www.dixielandsoftware.net/Amtrak/status/StatusMaps/ ...and... http://juckins.net/amtrak_status/archive/html/home.php ... will give you some idea of how late certain trains can be. While I've never done one of these round-robin trips, I've dreamed and planned on doing several. My thinking is if there's a reasonable chance any train might be late enough to cause me to miss the next one, I'll plan on booking a hotel room. Better this than ending up missing the train, all the hotels are booked and I've got almost 24 hours to kill before the next train. Plan for the worst and hope for the best. If the train shows up on time you can sometimes cancel a hotel reservation without penalty. Note the "sometimes"!

Have fun!
 
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On our long distance trip, we stayed two nights In Seattle,one night in Emeryville. We had plenty of time to do a little sightseeing and sleep in a conventional bed.

We were nervous about sleeping on a train for five nights in a row. However, we had little trouble sleeping on the train,

That summer, the California Zephyr was always several hours late arriving at the final destination, so we made it the last train of the trip. All the trains were on time, except the CZ and it was four hours late in to Galesburg.

Enjoy!
 
That sounds like a lot of fun, and I'll join the chorus of those encouraging you! We did that trip in reverse last September. Be careful, however, about the possibility of missed connections in EMY and PDX, so you might want to pad a day at each point. PDX is in a great location to walk around and see the Pearl District of Portland. The Residence Inn in Portland is a fine hotel, and only about a 4 block walk.

The other concern that I have is that the meals tend to become monotonous. Yes, the food is good, very good, but I don't eat fish, so my choices are 1) Steak 2) Chicken 3) Pasta. At least 2 will be repeated. My understanding is that there used to be more variety on the LD trains - with regional flavor - but that's gone now.
 
Your idea sounds interesting and I have done something similar to this.

Last October: New York to New Orleans, 3 days in NO, New Orleans to Los Angeles and connecting the same day with the Southwest Chief to Chicago. I found 4 straight nights on the train tiresome. I would have been better off if I had spent the money for an overnight or two in L.A. But, that is just my opinion.

I would also caution to make sure that you have ample time to make your connections. The Crescent and the Southwest Chief were 2+ hours late while the Sunset Limited was 15 minutes early arriving at their destinations.
 
Did my first trip like your proposal 46 years ago, only it was the North Coast Limited from Chicago to Seattle, Great Northern pool train to Portland, Cascade to Sacramento, and California Zephyr (the original one) to Chicago.

Still consider it my best train sojourn ever, although I've done many more.
 
Thanks for all of the great thoughts on this solo journey. I really like the idea of being able to feel like the world is going by. A great suggestion of the Eastern Circle too. I’m hopeful that this type of travel suites me, as there seem like a lot of great trains to ride and that trip is appealing to me as well. I love to travel, have been to Europe, and many warm places, multiple times but the insanity of air travel is just taxing and you don’t get to see the places underneath you.

The closest connection I’m seeing in this plan is between the Starlight and Empire Builder in Portland (1 hour). Zephyr to Starlight is 5 hours. I really don’t want to stress out (that defeats the purpose) so now thinking about overnighting 1 night between the Starlight & Empire Builder, but now I’m wondering on your thoughts on Portland vs. Seattle? Which leg of the Empire Builder is better? Part of why I was looking at Portland was for the connection, but riding all of these trains from start of the line to end of the line appeals to me also.
 
Unless things have changed, on the Empire Builder, one difference for Sleeping Car guests is the dining available. Spokane to Seattle: a Diner/Lounge is available with hot meals. The usual menu was available when I was aboard. Spokane to Portland, the Sightseer Lounge Car remains with the train, but a cold boxed meal is served to the Sleeping Car guests in their accommodation. That meal proved to be entirely satisfactory, however. More food that I could eat and it was all good.

Just be aware of the difference.
 
If you can tolerate sleeping in coach seats, you could save a lot by buying a 15 day USA Rail Pass. My first Amtrak-Via Rail trip was in October/November 2001 on a North America Rail Pass.

Last February I had my first Roomettes on the SL from Tucson to LAX and the CS from LAX to CMO (Chemult Oregon).

Next month I'm taking 2 2 zone roomette trips on Amtrak Guest Reward Points.
 
Why stress about missing the CS-EB connection? Book it as one trip (buy one ticket EMY-CHI, not two tickets EMY-PDX then PDX-CHI) and then if the CS is late, Amtrak will get you a hotel and put you on the next day's train.

It seems a shame, though, to go all the way to PDX and then never leave the train station. Why not plan on an overnight there? Or two nights, and book a bus tour of the Columbia River Gorge?
 
Had a "ME" trip a couple of years ago.Think schedules have changed and couldn't do it again now.

I took the Cardinal from Cincinnati to Chicago,Walked around a few hours,and then The Southwest Chief to LA with a 8 hour layover, road some kinda public bus on a loop to see a bit of the city cheap and walked around across the street.

Left on the Texas Eagle back to Chicago where the train was running late so had to jump off and directed directly onto the Cardinal,never went inside the station.

It was an all train trip,made all connections.Would I do it again,you bet ya.I felt like I was still moving when I got home:)

I had better balance but was glad to eat different food when I got home.

Go for it!!
 
In April I'll be making an even bigger circle, all-train trip. Chicago to Seattle, overnight in Seattle, Starlight to L.A., and then the long way back to Chicago on the Texas Eagle (after staying 2 nights in L.A.) That's almost 6000 miles, and 6 nights on the train.
 
I'm doing a similar trip, but in reverse since I have to accommodate a tour I could only schedule on a Thursday. I hear the scenery on the CZ is better going westbound, but eh... I'll do that when I do my Chicago - San Francisco - Los Angeles - Chicago loop some day. :)

Anyway, it's:

Empire Builder: Chicago to Seattle

Coast Starlight: Seattle to San Francisco

California Zephyr: San Francisco to Chicago

I have two nights in Seattle and one night in San Francisco. I have roomettes on every train. This will be my first trip with three days and two nights on a train. (I don't really count the Crescent to Cap last year because I had a layover in Washington between those two nights, so the "train time" was broken up.)
 
Nice trip Sarah! You'll still get to see the scenery between EMY and SAC and the Sierra Nevada's in Daylight, and also the Rockies/Colorado River from

Helper Utah to Moffat Tunnel ! If you're on time the descent down the Front Range in Denver as the Sun sets is pretty sweet also!

And on the Empire Builder the trip through the Cascades after Spokane on the way to Seattle and down Puget Sound is outstanding, I prefer it to the Columbia River Gorge into Portland!

The best scenery you'll miss in the dark is West of Glacier Park, and from PDX to SAC since it gets dark around Klammath Falls you miss the trip through the Cascades. This route is best done Northbound in #14 so you see Beautiful Snow capped Mt. Shasta to Portland in Daylight!

Some people get all the good train trips! Smiles!
 
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I just booked my Western Circle trip today. Slightly different than the NOL-CHI-PDX-LAX trip I had talked about in another thread.

I'm going to fly from Houston to Chicago and then go CHI-PDX-LAX-ELP on a 2-zone roomette and continue ELP-HOS in the same roomette paid for with a late-train voucher. So that will be five nights in a row on the train. I think the longest I've done in the past was 4.

I'm sure that I will be getting the mac & cheese and hot dog from the kid's menu a few times after I get tired of the other menu items.

I know the opposite direction would probably better for guaranteed scenery, but I'm going on May 7th and I checked the sunrise and sunset times along the route. If the EB is reasonably on time, I should get to see Glacier National Park before dark and most of the Columbia River Gorge after sunrise. And if the Coast Starlight is running late, I'll have more to worry about than missing the coastal scenery. I suppose if I misconnect I wouldn't be terribly disappointed if Amtrak paid for a hotel in LA for two nights and sent me on the next SL.

Edited for spelling and grammar.
 
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jimhudson said:
Nice trip Sarah! You'll still get to see the scenery between EMY and SAC and the Sierra Nevada's in Daylight, and also the Rockies/Colorado River from

Helper Utah to Moffat Tunnel ! If you're on time the descent down the Front Range in Denver as the Sun sets is pretty sweet also!

And on the Empire Builder the trip through the Cascades after Spokane on the way to Seattle and down Puget Sound is outstanding, I prefer it to the Columbia River Gorge into Portland!

The best scenery you'll miss in the dark is West of Glacier Park, and from PDX to SAC since it gets dark around Klammath Falls you miss the trip through the Cascades. This route is best done Northbound in #14 so you see Beautiful Snow capped Mt. Shasta to Portland in Daylight!

Some people get all the good train trips! Smiles!
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm a little bummed most of the good scenery will be during the dark portions, but I'll do a reverse trip some day (and in the summer when there's more light).

It's worth it to see the night tour at Alcatraz, I'll be knocking eight new states off my list, I'm adding three new trains to my list, AND I've never been to Seattle, so it'll be a good trip regardless. :)
 
SarahZ said:
jimhudson said:
Nice trip Sarah! You'll still get to see the scenery between EMY and SAC and the Sierra Nevada's in Daylight, and also the Rockies/Colorado River from

Helper Utah to Moffat Tunnel ! If you're on time the descent down the Front Range in Denver as the Sun sets is pretty sweet also!

And on the Empire Builder the trip through the Cascades after Spokane on the way to Seattle and down Puget Sound is outstanding, I prefer it to the Columbia River Gorge into Portland!

The best scenery you'll miss in the dark is West of Glacier Park, and from PDX to SAC since it gets dark around Klammath Falls you miss the trip through the Cascades. This route is best done Northbound in #14 so you see Beautiful Snow capped Mt. Shasta to Portland in Daylight!

Some people get all the good train trips! Smiles!
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm a little bummed most of the good scenery will be during the dark portions, but I'll do a reverse trip some day (and in the summer when there's more light).

It's worth it to see the night tour at Alcatraz, I'll be knocking eight new states off my list, I'm adding three new trains to my list, AND I've never been to Seattle, so it'll be a good trip regardless. :)
Click to expand...
Hi Sarah....I live in Kalamazoo also! What day is your trip? I too am taking the EB, spending 2 days in Seattle before boarding the Starlight going to L.A........ My trip starts April 28.
 
Hi,

Just a few thoughts... Although if running late, Amtrak might "put you up in a hotel, and put you on the next day's train"... they might not. Even if they did, they cannot guarantee that the next day train will have a sleeper available... Quite often, Amtrak will take you off the late train at an earlier station, and stick you on a bus to catch up with your connecting train... not too much fun!!

I would suggest Seattle for the round trip, and maybe change trains from the Zephyr to Coast Starlight at Sacramento... Gives you more leaway on the connection times, and Sacramento Old Town is a short walk from the station if you fancy a change of scenery for an hour or two.

Good Luck!

Ed :cool:
 
When you go to Seattle. Take a ferry ride to wherever and back. It's less than $10.00 to walk on and the return trip is free. It's a great way to see the sight's from the water.
 
TrainLoverJoy said:
Hi Sarah....I live in Kalamazoo also! What day is your trip? I too am taking the EB, spending 2 days in Seattle before boarding the Starlight going to L.A........ My trip starts April 28.
Click to expand...
Hi!

I don't put my travel dates online anymore, but I will confirm that I am not traveling on the same dates you are.

I'll write a trip report when I'm back. :)
 
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