For those of you who have ridden on Amtrak?

Question

I've never ever ridden an Amtrak train. If you have, I would very much like to know what your thoughts and opinions are on your experience.

Answer 1

I've been traveling by Amtrak for about 10 years now. I'm tall and can never get comfortable on airplanes! The train is a wonderful way to travel. The seats are very comfortable with lots of leg room. However, they are not adequate to sleep in. I bought a coach seat for my first train trip. I was unable to sleep at all, due to the lack of space. I was trying to curl up like a ball and there were people on either side of me. For my return trip, I upgraded to a sleeper car. The experience was wonderful! I had a good nights sleep, privacy during the day and didn't have to worry about being in a crowded compartment with rude or otherwise unpleasant individuals. There are many things to do on the train- movies, board games, site-seeing lectures, wine & cheese tasting, etc. It just depends on your route. I'd highly recommend Amtrak, but would always get a sleeper car for overnight travel. Also, keep in mind that all food served on board is precooked and simply reheated, so it not great. It's Ok, but you may want to consider bringing some snacks of your own to supplement the meals on board. Also, be prepared for delays as Amtrak shares the tracks with freight trains and often has to stop and wait. It is not unusual to be a few hours late on a day-long train trip. On longer trips, they are sometimes able to make up lost time. Good luck and enjoy your trip!

Answer 2

I've gone cross-country several times on Amtrak, and found it extremely comfortable--seats tilt back almost like recliners, the air-conditioning or heating seems good, the ride is smooth and silent...and the lounge car [observation car, whatever] has huge picture-windows so you can go and watch scenery from chairs that swivel to face the windows... There are snack & coffee bars and an [expensive] dining car with decent enuf food. On some trains they show movies in the lounge-car at night, sometimes lectures on geography and other features of the passing scene. The only down-side is if you're uncomfortable sleeping in chairs..[i.e., don't get a sleeping room for overnight traveling] and if you wind up with a bunch of screaming kids or drunks in the same car. The porters or conducter can help move you to another car if there's seating available in cases like that. Note: if you're a very tall person, you're not going to be all that comfortable when you try to stretch out...familiar to all giraffes, right? For a one-day [no overnite] trip, Amtrak is super...for the long hauls, try for a sleeping compartment--the meals are included in your ticket price.

Answer 3

Well, at 6' 3" I could wish for a little more room in the sleeping quarters, but overall it's rather like a cruise ship on land. The only real complaint I had was my camera, not the train, the flash kept insisting it had to come on, giving me just the reflexion off the windows. I finally discovered how to over ride that setting though. And being digital, I just deleted and tried again, but I did miss some great shots.

Answer 4

I do AMTRAK every April. My top 5 best to worst are: 1. Empire Builder (Chicago to Seattle) 2. Coast Starlight (Seattle to Los Angeles) 3. Southwest Chief (Chicago to Los Angeles 4. Texas Eagle (Chicago to San Antonio 5. California Zephyr (Chicago to Emeryville, California) I had a bad experience with the Sunset Limited from Los Angeles to New Orleans. One sleeper became unusable so they put them all in coach which was already crowded. The diner ran out of food in New Mexico. We went to El Paso before we could eat. The Border Patrol stopped the train in west Texas and came aboard and arrested 4 illegals.

Answer 5

I've always wanted to travel by train, I think that would be so cool! My late husband was afraid of trains. Understandable, he got ran over by one when he was 12 or 13! I still plan to go on one someday, just don't know when!
Not an answer, I guess. Just a comment!