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My only western Amtrak experience is the Southwest Chief going from Chicago to LA. Going through Kansas at night was nice...nothing to see. You see mountains and desert out west in Colorado and New Mexico...very colorful. Having a sleeper is the way to go on long distance trips. Going west from Albuquerque it will get dark again near the Arizona border until you get to Southern California approaching LA. I have been cold in a sleeper. You might need ear plugs if the sleeper is close to the locomotive as they blow the horn at road crossings at night. I enjoy train travel partly because of the people you meet so don't stay in your sleeper the whole trip. The train is a community on wheels.
Hi all. We are contemplating traveling/sight-seeing by train, traveling through the Northern Rockies and down the Pacific coast. We have only experienced 8 hours or less train trips between major cities. We would love to hear about others' experiences, recommendations and tips on scenic train trips (especially in the Rockies and NW states.
I've taken the Amtrak Cascades from Seattle north to Bellingham and from Seattle south to Portland. It's an enjoyable trip with decent views. Going north out of Seattle the track is literally running along the coast with waves clearly visible right outside the window. Pretty cool.
I'm going on a cruise in September out of Vancouver, B.C. and will be taking the train up.
Many years ago I went to San Francisco from Minneapolis to visit my brother. It was a beautiful experience. The mountains, at times, were scary to me because we were so close. All in all, glad I did it.
Over the years there were two times, when our young'uns were at a young age, when we took them by Amtrak from Oakland, CA to Reno. There was much beautiful scenery & lots of fun. We sat in the upper observation car. There was a lot of snow in the mountains.It was pretty awesome...
We rented a car so we could go to the snow, make snowmen, have snowball fights & have a great time...
Hi all. We are contemplating traveling/sight-seeing by train, traveling through the Northern Rockies and down the Pacific coast. We have only experienced 8 hours or less train trips between major cities. We would love to hear about others' experiences, recommendations and tips on scenic train trips (especially in the Rockies and NW states.
The N-S train in the western states only runs once per day (although, since the Los Angeles-Seattle leg takes more than a day - 35 hours if there are no delays - there are actually two trains running at a time, one SB and one NB). What the trip is like depends on a lot of things, but mostly how crowded the trains are, how delayed the trains are and which direction you are going (north or south), as they pass certain things at different times depending on direction.
Certain times of the year they have volunteers on board in the lounge car to give travelogs.
For my part, having done the main trip once, I wouldn't do it again, although I have done several legs of it many times. From Seattle to Eugene there are also "commuter" trains (you can't really use them to commute to a job, given the schedules and the trip lengths, but they don't have overnight accommodations). To go south of Eugene, your only choice is the Amtrak Coast Starlight.
I've had trains run on time, had them slightly late (and had a porter once tell me "Honey, this is Amtrak - if it is the same DAY as we were supposed to arrive, we aren't late") had them very late and then horrendously late (as in several days). Even in the short trips sometimes things would happen like the toilets in a couple cars weren't working so everyone had to queue up in the one car they were working in, had the galley run out of food. The porters are generally very friendly and helpful although somewhat fatalistic. The beds/chairs in the sleeper cars aren't as comfortable as the chairs in the lounges -particularly not in the very small 2 person sleepers, although those are nice for solo travelers.
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Someone who rode the Zephyr said she loved the trip but warned me that delays are common. Amtrak is well known for these.
The host railroad usually gives higher priority to its own trains over Amtrak trains. The exception is the Northeast Corridor, which Amtrak owns.
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