Any Sunset Limited Tips for a First-Timer

In August, my son and I will be taking the Sunset Limited (Bedroom accommodations) end-to-end (LAX to NOL). Do any of you fine members have any expert advice for us? Does Amtrak board this train early-ish? The last thing we are definitely doing prior in L.A. is taking in a Dodgers home game (afternoon), then our dinner plans are open.

I'd appreciate any expert advice for either the trip itself or any pre-boarding Union Station convenient places to catch dinner. Oh, I am Select Plus, at least for another year. After that? Probably merely Select.

LAX has a Metropolitan Lounge, check in there on the 2nd floor (sign by elevator), they will pre-board you from the Lounge. usually the beds are already made down, so once in your room, you will be able to relax. By the time you travel the bridge over the Brazos River before Houston will be fixed from the flooding, so no delays there.

I am taking the SL from SAS to LAX this month. Looking forward to the trip since it has been a while going west on the SL.

Have a great trip. Others may advise on dinner, I always eat north or west of the city near where I will be staying.

There is no "early" check-in per-se. I've always boarded from the Metropolitan Lounge in LA and the boarding was about 30 minutes or so prior to scheduled departure. The train itself does not arrive at the platform from the yard much before that.

I departed on the TE/SL several times from LA and its been pretty easy.

If you have time during the layover in San Antonio, you may be able to join some of the other passengers for a walk around San Antonio's "River Walk". I did this on a Sunset Limited westbound trip and it was an unexpected highlight for my travel around America trip (SFC-CHI-ALB-BOS-ALB-NYC-NOL-LAX-SFC) on Amtrak.

I also highly recommend the San Antonio River Walk. One of the most unexpected and beautiful sites in any major city.

Since the layover in San Antonio is in the middle of the night, I strongly suggest being part of a group walking to the River Walk. The River Walk is beautiful, but real feel of the area is not there because most businesses are closed at this time. Those who walk over also stop at Denny's for a middle of the night breakfast.

In mid-August, San Antonio sounds like a "first glow of sunrise" sort of time of day, no? I've done a separate Riverwalk trip before, years ago, and there is much to recommend it, thanks. Is there time and ability to show my son the Alamo? He might appreciate that, if only the exterior in morning's first light. Then again, getting a millennial out of the rack first thing in the morning to see some history might be a heavy lift...

BTW, I am preparing what I call "tourist postal covers" to mail at many of the SL station stops, with old stamps on the envelopes that are site-specific. The cachets on the envelopes are classic SL ads from yesteryear.

The Sunset Limited from Los Angeles to New Orleans is my favorite of the cross country trains. The scenery moves from desert wilderness to Cajun bayous and ends up in New Orleans. From Los Angeles, you depart Union Station at 10 p.m. with the lounge car open. The next morning just after breakfast, you can get off the train for a quick walk through of the Hotel Congress in Tucson, the site of the capture of bank robber John Dillinger in 1934. This is one of the three stops long enough for you to get out of the train for a stretch. San Antonio is a pretty station to walk around, but there's not enough time for you to leave it. Houston's station is embarrassingly small and plain. You enter Louisiana's Cajon country a few hours before sundown. The train arrives in New Orleans at approximately 9:40 p.m. - just about the time that Kermit Ruffins or Trombone Shorty plays their first set. New Orleans is the best city in the world to end a beautiful train ride. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Say hello to the many Amish who get on in El Paso from their return trip after going to Mexico for medical care. I rode outbound with a number of them and we talked about a lot of things. One shock to them was the cattle in west Texas where you measure cattle in acres/cow instead of cows/acre because of the limited water and vegetation. They weren't used to that or the miles of desert. Met some really nice Amish people in the lounge car and at meal time for those in sleepers.

We had dinner at Phillippe's before we left on the SL.... highly recommended. The 2 good things about our nightmare trip on this train was a) the bond we developed on the train and b) the mid-morning arrival in San Antonio... where, with the conductor's blessing, we jumped in a cab who took us to the Alamo, we were wandered around the outside, hopped back in the cab and he stopped on the bridge so my husband could hop out and take a picture of Riverwalk....

Oh! Almost forgot... hope for Merle to be your cafe car attendant... you will be highly amused!