What has been your longest trip on amtrak? With and without Breaks

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Longest without breaks: ORL-NYP-CHI-LAX-SEA: 5 nights in a bedroom (2011 going to Gathering)

Longest with breaks: ORL-NYP-TWO-VAC-SEA-MTZ-CHI-WAS-ORL: 10 nights on a train; 3 nights in a hotel (hotels in NYP, TWO, SEA) (2011)
 
In 1986 made my first trip on Amtrak. Me and my mom started out in Newton KS and travel to Riverside on the SWC. Spent a few days in LA and then rode the CS in sleeper to San Fransico. It was my ten birthday. After a few days in the area boarded at Modesto and traveled to Chicago on the CZ. What a great ride. A few days in Chicago and a quick trip to Milwaukee to visit a uncle. Back to Chicago and evening departure on the SWC back to Newton. This was a three week trip.
 
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Longest LD trip without a Break: The old AGR Western "Loophole" Trip from AUS-STL-KWD-KCY-LAX-PDX-CBS-CHI-NOL-- 7 Nights/8 Days

Longest with Breaks: The Old Much Missed North American Rail Pass Trip: AUS-CHI-NYP-(3 nights)BOS-NYP-Montreal-Toronto(Overnight Constellation Express)-Ottawa(3 nights)-Niagara Falls(2 nights)-Montreal-Halifax(2 nights)-Montreal-Toronto-Windsor-(night)-Detroit-CHI-SMC-- 20 days/19 nights

2) the just completed 10 Day "Short" Trip to PHL for NTD: AUS-CHI-WAS-BWI(night)-PHL-DFB(night)-WAS-BOS-POR-(night)-BOS-CHI-AUS-- 11 Days/10Nights

"Crazy, I'm Crazy for thinking about it..."(Willie Nelson)
 
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Ours was coming home from LAX after a cruise. Thanks to a blizzard in the midwest, AGR rerouted us in the last sleeper space on Texas Eagle and sent us to Chicago, then DC, then home to ATL on the Crescent. This August, we'll be going ATL via NOL on the SSL, then CS and EB to Glacier Park. Coming back, it's PDX, SAC, CHI, WAS, and then to ATL. 5 nights is the longest we've yet found. And you know what? It's not nearly long enough!
 
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My longest trip? Huntington WV to Chicago (1 night), about 4 hours layover in Chicago, Chicago to LAX (via SWC -- 2 nights), LAX to Seattle (CS -- 1 night). There was no layover in LAX as we had to hop off the SWC and directly onto the held CS! Basically 4 days and 4 nights.

We had a two night stay in a hotel in Seattle due to the fact we had to catch a three day a week train at the end of our journey.

Going back we took the Coast Starlight to Sacramento, then the California Zephyr to Chicago. The Zephyr being 8 hours late we got even more train time. We had basically 78 hours on board. We missed our train and asked if we could get a hotel for two nights instead of being bussed, and take the Cardinal home the next time she ran. Our request was granted. We lucked out as the Indy bridge had been out the last few weeks, so the Cardinal's roomettes were not sold out and we were able to bring the sleeper home. The entire rest of the trip was done in Bedrooms. So that accounted for three nights on the train, two nights in Chicago on Amtrak's dime, and then one night on the Cardinal home again to Huntington. :rolleyes:
 
Any trip without brakes would most likely be a very short one!!!

Oh, you meant breaks...as in rest stops! I get it! Bwahahaha!

But seriously...My longest AND shortest and only trip was the EB from St. Paul-Chicago, then the CONO round trip, then back to St. Paul. One overnight each way. Can't wait to do more though! My next trip most likely will be the CZ from Omaha to Reno next March.
 
Longest and strangest trip was in June 2002 when Amtrak was under threat of a total shutdown. I set out to ride as many of the routes I had not ridden as I could. It turned out to be a real planes, trains, and automobiles kind of trip. Here's the itinerary as I remember it -

Day 1 - drive to Nashville, TN and fly Southwest Airlines to Spokane, WA. I landed in Spokane at about 10:00pm local time and caught a cab downtown.

Day 2 - board the Portland section of the Empire Builder in the wee hours. Connect to the Coast Starlight.

Day 3 - arrive Los Angeles, spend night in a nearby motel.

Day 4 - roundtrip LAX - San Diego. Board Southwest Chief.

Day 5 - arrive Albuquerque and catch city bus to airport. Fly SWA BACK to Los Angeles. Catch shuttle downtown to Union Station walking in exactly 24 hours after leaving. Board Sunset Limited.

Day 6 - arrive in El Paso. Had been going to Oklahoma City BUT train is annulled due to UP freight derailment. Rather than wait to be picked up for an overnight bustitution to San Antonio, I shared a cab to the airport with a couple of other passengers and then caught the last SWA flight of the day to Dallas. In Dallas I rented a car and drove to a nearby Econo-Lodge for the night.

Day 7 - had a leisurely morning around Dallas, turned in the rental car, took the TRE commuter train to Ft. Worth, and was standing on the platform when the northbound Texas Eagle arrived carrying many of the folks I had been on the Sunset with. The bustitution to San Antonio had not been pleasant. I made my originally scheduled connection to the Heartland Flyer and rode to Oklahoma City where I checked into the hotel.

Day 8 - caught shuttle to the airport and flew to Nashville then drove home.
 
Longest without breaks, East Lansing to Chicago and Chicago to Seattle on the Pioneer. Longest with breaks, East Lansing to Chicago, Chicago to Seattle (EB), Seattle to Vancouver, BC, and return to East Lansing. Can throw the Yukon and White Pass during that trip too.
 
dabrilloman said:
Any trip without brakes would most likely be a very short one!!!

Oh, you meant breaks...as in rest stops! I get it! Bwahahaha!

But seriously...My longest AND shortest and only trip was the EB from St. Paul-Chicago, then the CONO round trip, then back to St. Paul. One overnight each way. Can't wait to do more though! My next trip most likely will be the CZ from Omaha to Reno next March.
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Noting your location: why Omaha and not Osceola? From the Twin Cities area Osceola is a bit closer, and usually only a few bucks more expensive.

To the OP, only ride so far is from St. Cloud to St. Paul. That'll change at the end of the month, though (Omaha to Salt Lake City, return Elko to Omaha.)
 
Longest is booked for July: JXN-SAS-LAX-PDX (4 nights), an overnight with the sister-in-law, and then PDX-SEA-JXN (2 nights), a measly 6700 miles, but I'm planning a photo project to match the adventure. I'll be on the train for approx. 150 hours and plan to take a picture sometime within every hour. Plans are coming together for a Fall exhibit in the JXN depot.
 
Our longest trip on Amtrak was actually our first one, SED-STL-CHI, about 10 hours, two nights in CHI, then returning the same way. Since that trip, we've traveled many more times on that same corridor, to various intermediate stops. When we get enough AGR points together (and we're nearly there now), we'd like to take the Southwest Chief to New Mexico, an overnight trip.
 
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jebr said:
dabrilloman said:
Any trip without brakes would most likely be a very short one!!!

Oh, you meant breaks...as in rest stops! I get it! Bwahahaha!

But seriously...My longest AND shortest and only trip was the EB from St. Paul-Chicago, then the CONO round trip, then back to St. Paul. One overnight each way. Can't wait to do more though! My next trip most likely will be the CZ from Omaha to Reno next March.
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Noting your location: why Omaha and not Osceola? From the Twin Cities area Osceola is a bit closer, and usually only a few bucks more expensive.

To the OP, only ride so far is from St. Cloud to St. Paul. That'll change at the end of the month, though (Omaha to Salt Lake City, return Elko to Omaha.)
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I have friends in Omaha...I am going to visit for a day or two.
 
Our longest Amtrak trip, without overnight stopovers, was in 2010- with roomettes from Boston to LA.

We took the Lake Shore Limited and then the Southwest Chief to LA. However, the train change at NYP and in

Chicago and a long break in Albuquerque make a difference for us and make the long trip quite enjoyable.

On our other cross-country Amtrak trips, we have always had 2 night stopovers (Santa Fe, Denver,

Salt Lake City, San Francisco.) We prefer this type of cross-country train trip.
 
Our longest trip was too many nights to remember, but it went like this mineola tx to lax via TE, lax to portland via cs, portland to chi via eb, chi to charlottesville via cardinal then a two hour bus ride to rvr to catch the sm to miami. The great thing about this trip was we used points for the whole thing. Would I do it again? Heck yea I am saving points now to do it again!
 
Newbie no more said:
Our longest trip was too many nights to remember, but it went like this mineola tx to lax via TE, lax to portland via cs, portland to chi via eb, chi to charlottesville via cardinal then a two hour bus ride to rvr to catch the sm to miami. The great thing about this trip was we used points for the whole thing. Would I do it again? Heck yea I am saving points now to do it again!
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:eek: WOW! Nice Trip! :hi: Hope your family and friends didnt report you to the people in the White Suits with the Butterfly Nets! :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Most of my trips have been in the Pacific NW, although i've taken one trip on the California Zephyr from Denver to Salt Lake City (that was 15 hours, if memory serves correctly)

so that one was my longest trip.

Taken the Empire Builder from Seattle to Whitefish - takes a little over 12 hours - done that trip 4 times....

Pretty much all my train trips have been on-time, or minimal delays - but, like all forms of travel, there's always that ONE trip that's just terrible,

and a return trip from Whitefish from Seattle was such a trip.....the Empire Builder was 14 (yes, fourteen) hours late leaving Whitefish.

A couple hours east of Whitefish, the train was stuck behind a broken-down freight train, with no way to get around it :(

Once the EB did arrive in Whitefish, they told us that they would only take us as far as Spokane, and then Bus us the rest of the way to Seattle.
 
My longest was:

SEA - LAX Coast Starlight

LAX - NOL Sunset Limited

NOL - NYP Crescent

This was before the CS - SL connection was broken in LAX.

The other direction before that was

NYP - CHI Broadway Limited

CHI - SEA Pioneer via SLC, when 5, 25 and 35 split at SLC.
 
I think my longest without an overnight was:

NYP-JAX Silver Meteor

JAX-NOL Sunset Limited

NOL-CHI City of New Orleans

CHI-MKE Hiawatha

MKE-CHI Hiawatha

CHI-WAS Capitol Limited

I then spent a couple of days in DC, before returning home on an Acela.
 
My longest trip was 42 days. I didn't come home for 6 weeks with all my travel by train and hit all but 2 of the LD routes. And on that trip, my longest stretch without sleeping in a real bed was 6 days and 5 nights. I went from;

Crescent NOL-WAS

Capitol Limited WAS-CHI

Southwest Chief CHI-LAX

Coast Starlight LAX-SEAN

The following year, I did a pretty long trip as well, that lasted about 3 weeks.
 
What's the longest trip you can book point to point without using multi city, no overnights in a hotel (unable on Amtrak.com anyway) and no busses? Miami to Emeryville is 106 hours. Anyone have anything longer?

As for me, the longest trip I have taken has been DAL - CHI - WAS - SAV.
 
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The longest trip I've done was last winter:

ARB -CHI (Wolverine), CHI-LAX (SWC), LAX-SAN (Surfliner)

(spent 4 nights in SAN)

SAN-LAX (Surfliner), LAX-NOL (SL)

(overnight in NOL for Sugar Bowl)

NOL-CHI (CONO), CHI-ARB (Wolverine)

I guess the initial ARB-SAN would be the longest part without any overnights, though the trip home via NOL was longer. All of this was in coach, BTW (sleepers were all high-bucket and I didn't have very many AGR points at the time).
 
In April took the Empire Builder to Seattle, rented a car to drive the Oregon coast, took the California Zephyr back to Chicago a week later. Now I am soooo hooked on overnight trains, have reserved round trip on the EB in September already. Next Spring plan a Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco "triangle." I wish I could say my April trip will be paid for before the September one, but "time's awasting"....that's what credit cards are for! (And of course, I've jointed the guest rewards program along with their credit card....to help pay for all the future travel!!)
 
Longest trip was Syracuse, NY - Chicago - Denver - Sacramento - LA (and reverse). We were meeting people in Denver and continuing to an event in LA, and that's the quickest way to do it. Only three nights (and three full days) on the train each way; layover hotel in Sacramento, overnight one way but we took a day out to see the city the other way.

I don't do deliberately longer-than-necessary trips. This was a pretty nice and efficient way to travel with three partly-disabled people all of whom needed to avoid planes and carry a bunch of equipment.
 
I'm just a beginner in this crowd, but my longest trip to date has been San Francisco- Los Angeles- Chicago - NYC (LSL). I did overnight in LA. Hoping to have a longer trip this fall. A little longer, anyway.
 
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