Several years ago there was a viral post about traveling coast to coast on Amtrak for about $213. Since then, we’ve had a pandemic followed my crazy inflation and a travel boom. It’s not even summer yet and we are already seeing more travel now than we saw in 2019 according to TSA records. This summer is expected to be crazy. That’s why I was rather surprised to see a coast-to-coast Amtrak train for just $236 during the summer!
Now before you jump on this Amtrak deal, I think you need to do some homework first. Too many travel blogs only focus on the positives because that’s what sells. I’m more interested in giving you the real information even if it suppresses the popularity of the post. My goal is to build up a loyal following over the long term instead of trying to create popular posts in the short term. So I’m going to share my experience from my 2017 train trip from San Francisco to Denver.
The trip left Emeryville first thing in the morning. The train doesn’t actually go to San Francisco but this station is close by. I stayed in a hotel nearby so I didn’t have far to go in the morning. I got on the train and found my assigned seat. My seatmate was a nice guy a little younger than me. We chatted for a bit and he was on the train for the same reason I was, for the experience instead of the transportation. The majority of the other passengers were going to Reno to go gamble. For the first few hours we mostly saw suburban scenery.
Once we left suburbia we started to get to the Sierra Nevadas. The weather went from sunny to snowy as the train climbed the mountains. It was pretty amazing. At this time I went to the observation car which is where I spent most of my time. Once most of the train cleared out after Reno, there was plenty of room there.
Food was OK as I mostly ate at the cafe downstairs. The food in the dining room was rather expensive and nothing was really that exciting to I didn’t want to bother. Besides, I was too busy watching the scenery.
Once it was time to go to sleep I went back to my seat. This is when being on a train really hit me. While the seats were comfortable and are similar to a domestic first class seat on a plane, it wasn’t that easy to sleep at least for me. I was able to go downstairs where the seats were a little better and where it was really quiet. I was able to get some sleep but one of the conductors woke me up at 4am when we got to Utah to make sure I didn’t have to get off. I was not happy. Turns out there is a card you should put over your seat which alerts train staff to your destination. Since I didn’t bring that with me, they wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing my stop.
When it was time to get up I had a choice to make. Either not shower or use the showers that may not exactly be open to coach passengers. Thankfully, I was able to use the shower but this is probably the biggest issue you need to know when you are considering a coast-to-coast trip on Amtrak: you are not given access to a shower. As your train trip will take several days, you need to be prepared to freshen up some other way.
Once I was done with my breakfast, I went back to the observation car where I spent the rest of my time. The scenery going through Utah and Colorado was amazing. I even got to see some wild horses. I hung out with my seatmate again. He met a woman the night before but she had to get off the train in the middle of the night. I also struck up conversations with several other people which is also part of the fun. This type of travel is not for everyone but it is certainly a very unique experience. We got into Denver late which is par for the course with Amtrak trips so be prepared for that.
Although my trip was only 36 hours, it felt a lot longer but in a good way. It was an incredible experience that I still remember fondly today. Most people should take at least one overnight trip on Amtrak. You could of course spring for a room but those are limited and as a result, very expensive relative to the bargain that is a coach ticket on this route. Thankfully, a number of vloggers have posted videos on Youtube about their Amtrak trip. I highly suggest you watch several of them before you book your train trip so that you can figure out the best route for you, whether you can handle a coach seat and whether train travel is right for you.
This is certainly an interesting way to see the country and I hope some of you can take advantage of these low prices.
