I really enjoyed driving across the country three times. Anyone do both, and can compare?
There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway
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Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway
#12For anyone interested in more train-travel stories I've written (partially) about my trip across Russia, starting with:
https://www.gregkogan.com/journal/russia-trans-siberian-rail...
Still have half the trip left to write about, which I'll do bit by bit.
Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway
#13Well, this is timely. I'm hopping on Amtrak tomorrow for a 30 hour trip with three young kids.
Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway
#14Note that the author took a sleeper car. In terms of price, this is a bit of a luxury. As someone who has taken the Lateshore Limited service all the way from Chicago to Boston in just a regular seat, I would strongly advise you NOT to do that. It is just miserable.
Agreed. Did Portland, OR to St. Paul, MN. Beautiful views. Fun to walk around. Wished there a was a smoking lounge.
But by 24 hours in it started to stink and I hadn't slept well. By the end of the trip I was cranky and exhausted. And it really smelled in the train (and this was with it just 25% full)!
Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway
#15Note that the author took a sleeper car. In terms of price, this is a bit of a luxury. As someone who has taken the Lateshore Limited service all the way from Chicago to Boston in just a regular seat, I would strongly advise you NOT to do that. It is just miserable.
Yeah that's a big difference. The regular seats are a much different story.
I've never done it but I read about how it's basically 3 days of sitting shoulder to shoulder with someone and there's no showers. Can't imagine what that would be like in a car filled with 50+ people.
I did take the Amtrak from CT To Boston once and it wasn't too bad, but that was a few hour trip. Much different than a few days.
Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway
#16I really enjoyed driving across the country three times. Anyone do both, and can compare?
By sleeper car, train is luxurious and much more relaxed. By vehicle you can sleep each night in a hotel and take a shower each day. Both have + and -'s. But my ranking would be Sleeper Car train > Driving > non-sleeper car train.
Trains can be much more social.
Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway
#17> Amtrak food is on a par with the fourth-best airplane meal you could ever imagine. Well that's charitable...
Meals on flagship airlines in business/first can be very good. 'Fourth best' in my mind is better than domestic (US) coach (on the rare occasions it exists) and not quite as good as Emirates coach. Acela 1st meals fall in that bucket easily.
Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway
#18My wife and I did this several years back, New York to Chicago to San Francisco, and it really was a wonderful experience.
But get a sleeper compartment, don't sit with the cattle. It's worth it, really.
And that's even though we spent little time in our compartment almost the whole trip we were up in the observation car watching the American landscape roll by.
One highlight of the trip was when storms over Helper, UT, washed out some of the ballast from the tracks. We had to wait three hours for someone from the railroad to come inspect to see if it was safe to pass. While waiting, there was a guy with a guitar in the observation car, and we had a nice sing-along.
It's just a great way to see samples of everything America has to offer.
Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway
#19This article shows how culturally different Sweden and U.S. are. In Sweden it has become taboo to use the plane for any travel destination where you can go by train, to the level where we see the complete opposite headlines here ("There is no reason to fly when you can take the train"). You need to have a very good reason to fly at all or the pitchforks will get you.
I've personally completely stopped flying.
Re: There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway
#20> Amtrak food is on a par with the fourth-best airplane meal you could ever imagine. Well that's charitable...
I did Seattle->Chicago on Amtrak a couple of years back in a sleeper car, and the food was just fine. Certainly much better than the foil-wrapped disappointment you get in economy class on transatlantic flights.