Any experience with vacations by railroad?

JennyColada

Posted here because CC is SO much more awesome than HM board.

Anyway, does anyone have experience with a vacation via train? I'm trying to think of various domestic vacation ideas for me and DH that aren't insanely expensive (probably looking to keep it under $3000 for a week-ish if possible, but we're flexible). I've never been on a train, and it sounds like a nice one could be romantic. Am I totally off my rocker? I'm sure that there are some companies that are better (read: less gross and more fun) than others, but I have NO experience with this, so I was curious if anyone here does or has any tips to share?

missdelilah

I haven't personally done it, but I have friends who do the extended train travel a lot, and have done it on a bunch of continents.  They're in their 60s, and they tell me that most of the people they meet on the trains are a similar age.  They come across the occasional younger couple, but maybe if you do a fair amount of research you might find one geared towards a younger crowd.  They really enjoy it, but it's hard to judge their comments on whether things are comfortable or not, as they find camping comfortable, and I absolutely can't stand it.  

What's your timeframe on this?  These friends are just about to head off to Canada for a train trip that comes down through the North Eastern U.S.  I'd be happy to ask them about that when they get back, but that probably won't be until April.

JennyColada

missdelilah said:

They really enjoy it, but it's hard to judge their comments on whether things are comfortable or not, as they find camping comfortable, and I absolutely can't stand it.

Same here!

We aren't in a rush. Probably aren't looking to take any time off until August or so. But I'm just throwing out some ideas and trying to do a bit of research.

FiancB

I thought about it but I wanted a sleeper if we did it and those are pretty spendy. I have taken a train from PDX to San Francisco as a kid, which was pretty uncomfortable, but it wasn't a sleeper and it was a class field trip.  My bff's family always took the train from Oregon to NJ to see relatives. 

I have another friend that does it all the time from LA and she really likes it.  I would like to eventually do it across the country and stop around Yellowstone, but time and cost always scared me away.  I do road trips pretty frequently and it would be nice to not have to do the driving even if it does take a long time, and no hotels needed either. Bit less freedom though. 

JennyColada

In my head, it's this romantic thing where DH and I can snuggle and watch the world fly by, and snuggle in our little bed and eat mediocre (but not horrible) food that is fresh.

I am probably seriously living in fantasy land though.

I looked up a few that are ~6-8 days ~$2000-$4000 (meals included). I can't find much in the way of actual reviews though, to see if the quality of the meals or the accomodations are even any good.

novella1186

My grandma takes a train from Indiana to Colorado and back at least once a year because she LOVES it. However, she just gets a seat. Like no private car, no bed. Just one seat to sit in overnight. She's 89 so the fact that she can do that is kind of badass to me. Not sure how much she spends but she's on a fixed income so I'm sure she's not dropping tons of money on it. But I know that to get a sleeping car is pretty damn expensive.

FiancB

Eh my friend is a picky foodie and she seems pretty happy with the food offered. 

blabla89

My grandma travels from St. Louis to Seattle frequently, and she prefers to take a train whenever she can, because she gets to see the landscape along the way. I'm not sure how the cost compares to plane tickets, but I imagine some companies offer decent upgraded amenities.

Where are you departing from? Any idea where you'd like to or what kind of things you'd like to see/do?

larrygaga

I took the amtrack from Detroit to Chicago and it was surprisingly romantic. Kinda boring though. We did just get engaged so anything could have been romantic to us! Don't take too long of a trip in a train unless you really like trains

SmileDamnit

My Mom & SD did a cross-Canadian train trip a few years ago and absolutely loved it. I'll try to get more deets from her (pros, cons, yada yada yada).

LadyMillil

We took the train home after our wedding. We got on the train in Toronto and got off in Vancouver. We got bunks in the sleeper car instead of a cabin. We left Toronto Tuesday evening and arrived in Vancouver Saturday morning. The scenery was pretty and the food was good, but I hated the trip. I couldn't sleep with the rocking and noise of the train and I was bored out of my mind. I can only sit and stare out the window for so long before I need something to do. There were very few stops where we could actually get off the train to see things. I would be happy never to take the train anywhere again, but DH would do this trip every year if he could. He's taken the Toronto to Vancouver train 4 times now and loved every minute of it. I don't know if it will be the same forthe US, but there were sales about once a month for our train trip so we got the tickets for 50% off.

novella1186

LadyMillil said:

We took the train home after our wedding. We got on the train in Toronto and got off in Vancouver. We got bunks in the sleeper car instead of a cabin. We left Toronto Tuesday evening and arrived in Vancouver Saturday morning. The scenery was pretty and the food was good, but I hated the trip. I couldn't sleep with the rocking and noise of the train and I was bored out of my mind. I can only sit and stare out the window for so long before I need something to do. There were very few stops where we could actually get off the train to see things. I would be happy never to take the train anywhere again, but DH would do this trip every year if he could. He's taken the Toronto to Vancouver train 4 times now and loved every minute of it. I don't know if it will be the same forthe US, but there were sales about once a month for our train trip so we got the tickets for 50% off.

The bolded reminded me of all the over-night trains I took in Europe. So here's my experience with that (but take it with a grain of salt because I don't know how similar European trains are to US trains)

We always had a sleeper car, so it was nice to have our own space to hang out in. And to sleep.

But I'm 5'1" and I felt bad for anyone who might be any bigger than me, cuz I BARELY fit in the bed. There wasn't a whole lot of room to move around. (No idea if American sleeper cars are the same or not). And it would probably be impossible for 2 people to cuddle up together in the layout I had to deal with.

Also had the same experience with trying to sleep; I'm a bad sleeper anyway so with the rocking of the train and the sounds of people going past our door in the middle of the night, I didn't sleep much.

Here's the worst part: The bathrooms. There was 1 public bathroom in each car. I learned to pee RIGHT when I got on the train, and then hold it till we reached our destination the next day. With the rocking of the train it's REALLY hard to pee, and it seemed like a lot of people didn't even try to aim for the toilet. So if you went in there mid-trip or towards the end of the trip, it smelled horrendous and there was just pee everywhere. Awful. I wear contacts and ended up just sleeping in them (even though I'm not supposed to) because I felt like there wasn't a clean place to take them out or put them back in.

However, the food was good on every train. And there was always a bar. It was fun, because it was a mode of travel I wasn't used to so it was kind of exciting. It was fun to walk around the train, to meet other travellers (who were mostly always friendly and fun to chat with), and it was so awesome to see the scenery which we wouldn't have seen if we had flown. There's some huge up-sides to it, and a few downsides, so I think it's really all about personal preference. And as I said, this was Europe, so your experience could be totally different anyway.

JennyColada

Oh @novella1186 thank you so much for your experience! DH is a really light sleeper (and super cranky when he's sleep deprived) so maybe it's best to stick to RR travel but hotels for sleep if we do something like this.

buttercup1958

Please let me know how this goes! I've always been curiouse about these types of trips. V and I love road trips though.

julieanne912

Wasn't there an episode of Sex and the City where Carrie and Samantha took the train from NYC to San Francisco and it was awful?

allispain

I done sleeper cars three times, but all in Europe. Like PPs, I'm not sure how that compares to US ones.

One of the three I really enjoyed - the bed was big enough (for 1 - not 2) and comfy, and there was good soundproofing so it wasn't bad for a light sleeper like me.

The other two, not so much. The bunks were tiny, everything was loud, etc.

I never ate the train food (always packed snacks to bring with me), so no comments on that.

Also, I have traveled by train a lot - unless you really love sitting still all day staring out a window, it gets really old really fast. I always bring books, music, etc. - still end up staring out the window. And then napping. Which makes the sleeping-at-night thing that much harder...

I'm still a total fan of taking a train instead of driving/flying when I'm traveling, but only when going from A to B, spending 2-3 days in B, then going from B to C, spending 3-4 days in C, etc. Otherwise I'd go totally BSC.

JennyColada

julieanne912 said:

Wasn't there an episode of Sex and the City where Carrie and Samantha took the train from NYC to San Francisco and it was awful?

Yes there was! That makes me worried too. Haha.

mrscomposer

The only train I've taken was an overnighter in Egypt.  That was... that was something else, let me tell you.  Ditto what Novella said about the bathrooms.  And pretty much everything else.  I'm 5'8", and I slept in the fetal position.

We're planning on taking the Amtrak from Orlando to Miami.  I think I've set the bar sufficiently low enough with Egypt that the Amtrak is going to be like a moving palace.