First family LD Trip

[Nickrapak]

Until now, I have mostly taken Amtrak along the NEC for buisiness. Now that it is the summer, I want to take the family on their first LD trip...anywhere! Here are my main concerns...

1) Space. I need enough room to fit 2 adults, 1-15 year old, 1-13 year old, and 1-8 year old.

2) Availability. Because I have not set up a date, I would need to chose a train that has regular availability.

3) Distance/time. I do not think that the 13 year old or the 8 year old could survive a 3-4 day cross-country trip (as a first time). I would be willing to go to a 2-day trip, though.

4) Scenery. There needs to be something to see out the window, it just isn't as fun when you spend all day looking at factories.

4) Destination. Although I said that this is not an issue, I would need to find something to see there. Now, I am not looking for Disney freakin' World, but there needs to be some sort of attraction.

P.S. I would be leaving from PHL.

Any and all suggestions welcome!

 

[RailFanLNK]

Well considering your from Philly, I would take Amtrak to Chicago and either use Chicago as your vacation destination or then take the Southwest Chief and go to Kansas City. KC is a smaller "city" and has "Worlds of Fun" and "Oceans of Fun" for the kids. Its Disney but on a smaller scale both sizewise and finance wise. KC also has alot of good places to eat and shop as well and pro baseball and minor league baseball. (Kansas City T-Bones) Also, the SWC has a good OTP so having a habitual "real late" train is always a little risky, plus you could break the train part up in to "segments" which might be good for a hyper type kid. Thats my two cents worth. Or take the Zephyr out of Chicago and come visit Lincoln NE where I live. We have minor league baseball, rent a car and go to Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha and check out Nebraska type stuff. That last part would probably leave your family going, " mom and dad, why in the **** are we going to Nebraska for our summer vacation?" :lol:

 

[AlanB]

Nick,

First, there are no accomodations, beyond coach seating, that would accomodate your family in a single bedroom. No matter what you do, you'll require at least two rooms, and even then you might find that two people have to share a bed.

Now if you want to go to Chicago, via DC, then you could book a family room and one roomette on the lower level that could handle the entire family without anyone needing to share a bed.

Otherwise, anything else within two days, other than the Auto Train, would either require you to get three rooms or have two family members share one bed in two rooms.

Next, availability during the summer months is always a problem, especially with each passing day. Summer is prime time for Amtrak, so whatever you decide to do, you must book it soon or you won't get a sleeper.

Turning to scenery, there are no Amtrak routes that are 100% of the time showing you wonderful mountains, lakes, and such. No matter what route you take, you will invariably find some factories, and other less desirable views out of the window. Now that said, you best bet is to head to Chicago, IMHO. While not every moment will have spectacular scenery out of the window, those routes would be better IMHO, than heading south to Florida.

The two best choices for you, based upon where you live would be either the Capitol Limited out of DC, or the Pennsylvanian to Pittsburgh where you connect to the Capitol Limited to Chicago. Personally I'd probably recommend taking the Pennsy west to connect with the Cap to Chicago, then returning via the Cap to DC and taking a corridor train back up to PA. You could also consider a return via the Lake Shore Limited if you wanted a totally different train.

 

[gswager]

You can head to the NE states via Vermonter, Adirondak, Ethan Allen Express, or Maple Leaf. If you go to Canada, you'll need passports.

 

[AlanB]

If you go to Canada, you'll need passports.

No you won't. At least for the rest of this year, you don't need a passport to cross the Canadian border by train or when driving. You only need a passport when flying. And should Congress decide to postpone things, then it could be even longer before one would need a passport to enter Canada and return via train.

 

[sechs]

Don't you need a passport to get back?

 

[AlanB]

Don't you need a passport to get back?

Nope. Not if you are traveling by train or by car. If you are traveling by plane or by boat, then yes you do need a passport this year, in order to get back into the US.

Again, assuming that Congress makes no changes to the current laws, then starting in January of 2008 you will need a passport no matter what mode of travel you are using.