Showers in or around Sacramento Amtrak Station?

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gmushial

OBS Chief
Joined
Jun 21, 2013
Messages
852
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RDD
I road the California Zephyr from Sacramento to Lincoln NE in May - a most pleasant ride - and am planning on doing the reverse in August. I only had a coach seat - which was more than adequate for my needs, plus I enjoyed the socializing it engendered... but by the time I got to Lincoln, even though it was 4am, the first thing I did when I got to my motel room, was to take a shower... I'm one of these people that likes his daily shower - I like feeling more presentable than when I've been wearing the same cloths for 48 hrs and haven't had a shower in that time. My question is: this time I'll be going Omaha to Redding, but with a 5 hr (+/-) layover in Sacramento - where does one find a shower in or near the Amtrak station?
 
Alternately, when I rode in Coach, I kept a washcloth in a Ziploc bag with some liquid travel soap and used the bathroom to take a sponge bath. Even though it was a sponge bath and not a shower, I always felt a million times better. There are also several dry shampoo recipes on the internet, but I haven't tested those. I only wash my hair every other day and have never been in Coach longer than 30 hours.
 
Apparently nothing for blocks except for maybe some charities that have shower facilities for the homeless.

If it's that important to you, maybe try booking a cheap motel room in the area. They can go for as little as $40 on Priceline.

There might be other options. If you're a member of 24 Hour Fitness, there's a location right there in downtown, although it's a "Super Sport" location.

http://www.24hourfitness.com/FindClubDetail.mvc?clubid=598&edit=null&semiPromoCode=null&cm_mmc=Yelp-_-ClubPage-_-BusinessListing-_-Link

If you're not a member it might be possible to sign up for a free pass for a week, although the terms say "local residents only". I think it might be possible to sign up close to home then use the free pass elsewhere.

http://www.24hourfitness.com/PromoOfferHome.action?promoCode=CLUBPASS&clubId=598&cm_sp=CDP_Desktop-_-NonMember-_-Free%20Pass

This one is a bit far away, but if you've got time to kill it's walkable. It's a city park with a swimming pool and clubhouse. I'm thinking it would be possible to pay for day use, although I'm not sure what their open pool hours would be. It might also be possible to just ask to use their showers, although it'll probably cost you.

http://www.cityofsacramento.org/parksandrecreation/parks/sites/southside_plan.htm
 
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I'm not sure if Sacramento has taxis waiting at the station, but I'm sure one of our Californians will chime in soon. :)
 
I'm not sure if Sacramento has taxis waiting at the station, but I'm sure one of our Californians will chime in soon. :)
I can plug a couple taxi company numbers into my cell so that when I get there if one isn't available, getting one will only be a finger tap away :)
 
Alternately, when I rode in Coach, I kept a washcloth in a Ziploc bag with some liquid travel soap and used the bathroom to take a sponge bath. Even though it was a sponge bath and not a shower, I always felt a million times better. There are also several dry shampoo recipes on the internet, but I haven't tested those. I only wash my hair every other day and have never been in Coach longer than 30 hours.
That's another possible ... and the million times better I appreciate... when I got to Lincoln, even though it was 4am, the before shower and after shower feelings were almost unrelated - before I felt tired and grungy, afterwards a bit tired but ready to hop back onto the train and go see some more of the country - a huge difference in how I felt. But I like the Ziploc and washcloth idea... given this last experience on the Zephyr I suspect there are going to be many more train rides in the future... got to learn how live comfortably that way: live, learn... and travel.

again, many thanks - greg
 
I travel only by coach and use these disposable wash clothes. http://www.amazon.com/Comfort-Cleansing-Ultra-Thick-Disposable-Washcloths/dp/B0000532VC/ref=sr_1_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1371843633&sr=1-1&keywords=disposable+bath+towels or these http://www.amazon.com/ShowerPill-Athletic-Body-Wipes-Pack/dp/B0061QL8EE/ref=sr_1_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1371843997&sr=1-1&keywords=ShowerPill+disposable

They are very inexpensive and get me as clean as I would with a washcloth and do not have to worry about rinsing out the soap.The instructions say warm in a microwave, but I just use them out of the package at room temperature, they actually clean well and make me feel clean and refreshed.
 
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Taxis are generally available at the Sacramento station. They are generally lined up in front of the main station building though there are renovations in the area so the location can change sometimes. It is clearly marked though if there are any changes. Pretty easy to navigate :)
 
There is quite a bit of padding in #5's schedule coming into Sacramento and you may actually arrive ahead of schedule. In February I was about an hour early coming in from Chicago.

That said, you might want to look into booking a hotel room at the Vagabond Inn Old Town Sacramento location. It's right across the street from the Amtrak station (the Amtrak crews lay over there) and very reasonably priced for the location. It's an older property but well-maintained and was very clean when I stayed there on my February trip.

Assuming on-time (or fairly close to OT trains) you'd actually be able to occupy the room for 7-8 hours, enough time for a shower or two and a nap...... might be enough to justify the expense for a room that you'll be leaving around 11:00pm. I'm assuming from Sacramento you are connecting to the northbound Coast Starlight for Redding.

If you need any more rationalization, consider the cost of lodging at the Vagabond Inn as opposed to the cost of one night in an Amtrak roomette.

Have a great trip.
 
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One more thing to add... while the California Zephyr often arrives early... the Coast Starlight is chronically late departing Sacramento.

So far in June it has NEVER departed on-time.

It's departed 20-59 minutes late about 4 times this month.

The rest of the time... it's been over an hour late leaving Sacramento.

It might be worth it to get a cheap hotel room to have a place to shower, take a nap and have a place to relax and watch TV while waiting for the CS to make it's way into SAC.
 
I would highly recommend the Vagabond Hotel option mentioned by another poster. It's right across the street from the station (though you have to walk a slightly longer route because of the traffic pattern and signal layout) and clean. Given that you will have in high likelihood eight hours, you could nap, shower, even work out in the nice hotel gym on the ground floor. You could even take in a bit of Old Sacramento, less than a five-minute walk west from the Vagabond/station, and see the California State Railroad Museum, one of the best in the US with great displays on the construction of the transcontinental line and especially on the Donner Pass portion, as well as a half-dozen restored Southern Pacific steam engines, Santa Fe dining car, Canadian Pacific sleeper and Union Pacific Refrigerated Fruit Express car inside the museum, itself one of the buildings formerly used by Southern Pacific when it had a humungous repair and maintenance facility on the site.
 
There is also a La Quinta Inn just across the river about a half-mile away. They will pick you up in their van (I've done this a couple times) and if I remember correctly it was about $50 a night (plus taxes)
 
Alternately, when I rode in Coach, I kept a washcloth in a Ziploc bag with some liquid travel soap and used the bathroom to take a sponge bath. Even though it was a sponge bath and not a shower, I always felt a million times better. There are also several dry shampoo recipes on the internet, but I haven't tested those. I only wash my hair every other day and have never been in Coach longer than 30 hours.

I asked around and the Sacramento 49er sounded like a good option. HOWEVER, I'm not a trucker, so having god an Uber to the 49er, I discovered that I couldn't pay to use the facilities .

The Super 8 over the road from the 49er rented me a room for the night for $92. The most expensive shower I've ever had!

But compared to $144 for the Vagabond Inn over the road from the station, even with taxi fares, it was a good deal!
 
It's curious how you can pay as little as $5 for a shower in a wealthy and sophisticated metropolis like Tokyo, or pay ten times that much for a shower in much smaller and poorer city like Sacramento.
 
Two thoughts...

Anytime Fitness is a national gym chain, with about 2,000 locations. They have four in the Sacramento area. They offer great deals without a long commitment, including a 7-day free trial. And they have showers!

Some on this site know in addition to being a railfan, I'm a long distance backpacker. We get off trails (like the Appalachian) to go into towns near trails every 4-7 days to resupply food, replace gear, pig out on real food, get a shower, etc. If you arrive at a motel around 10am, sometimes you can get permission to use the shower in a room that was just vacated but not cleaned yet. Ask at the desk, and offer to pay a few bucks for a clean towel and a half hour taking a shower. It works more often than not.
 
Anytime Fitness is a national gym chain, with about 2,000 locations. They have four in the Sacramento area. They offer great deals without a long commitment, including a 7-day free trial. And they have showers!

Many other fitness chains have a similar deal -- 24 Hour Fitness, the first one I checked, also has a 7-day free trial (although I have a feeling you'd better make sure you cancel, because otherwise they'll charge you for a full month's membership at midnight on Day 8).

Some on this site know in addition to being a railfan, I'm a long distance backpacker. We get off trails (like the Appalachian) to go into towns near trails every 4-7 days to resupply food, replace gear, pig out on real food, get a shower, etc. If you arrive at a motel around 10am, sometimes you can get permission to use the shower in a room that was just vacated but not cleaned yet. Ask at the desk, and offer to pay a few bucks for a clean towel and a half hour taking a shower. It works more often than not.

Some motels/hotels may have a specific "day use" rate to use a room for a few hours in the middle of the day. Fancier hotels with health club/gym/spa facilities may sell a day pass to those facilities, which would include shower privileges.
 
The suggestions to scout for nearby gyms and spas with day pass options are on point. That is an excellent recommendation that makes a lot of sense in an era when room rates are outpacing inflation with discounts becoming rarer and more restrictive than ever. Even when I find a good deal on a room it generally comes with a full forfeiture provision that prevents any changes or recovery regardless of the reason or circumstance. I'm less enthusiastic about asking to visit a recently vacated room that has not yet been cleaned. That seems like a rather sketchy solution to me. I'm not sure what sort of hotel would allow such a request but I probably wouldn't want anything to do with them if I knew it was possible.
 
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