Seems to me this would be a given. If you are doing a train trip and heading through the Salt Lake area, think about visiting the Golden Spike Historical Site. It is out in the middle of nowhere, not really any facilities but I was surprised how interesting I found it to be. If Antelope Island can entertain you so can this. It is near the north end of the Great Salt Lake.
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We just did the California Zephyr, Emeryville all the way to Chicago, a trip postponed from last year…
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You must add your thoughts… good, bad, and ugly. Curious minds want to know!
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Um. So, the journey in terms of what you see out the train window was great, and we are glad we did it. We had mixed experiences with Amtrak itself, unfortunately mostly negative. This started even before the trip where they chopped and changed our booking (both dates and rooms) about 5 times and finally ended up putting us in 2 roomettes rather than the family room we had initially booked, a few days before we left so too late to change dates, which did put a dampener on the trip by splitting the family. On the upside, we think we got better views from the top level than we would have from the lower-level family room. Our car attendant was fabulous (if you get Janelle - you’re in luck). The dining options were limited to begin with and they ran out of about half of them by lunch on day 2, and they had even run out of the side salads (just lettuce, really) and bread rolls by day 3. Bad planning - the dining car was for sleepers only so they should have known how many people to cater for. I believe amtrak food used to be good but in these days of pre-made and heated, it’s basically just bigger servings of airline food. So…maybe we were expecting more from the accommodation and food than we got, and those with Amtrak sleeper experience probably already have expectations set at the correct level. Oh, and we were 1.5 hours late by morning of day 2 and 3.5 hours late at destination, but we had been warned long delays were likely so that wasn’t unexpected.
Lest it sound like this is all complaining, it’s not. We loved both the scenery, and the many and varied slices of Americana we saw along the way. A lot of what we saw was a side to the US we personally seldom see and it was insightful (in both saddening and heartening ways). Colorado was probably the most fun scenic wise as the train hugs the river most of the way - you go through canyons and mountains and some places no-one else can go - some parts there is barely enough space for the tracks! - and when you go through more accessible areas you discover it is a thing apparently to moon the train from the river!! I also loved the stark beauty of Utah (sadly much of it overnight) and Nevada, but even the supposedly “boring” Nebraska and iowa had their charm (one of my favorite photos from the trip is actually in Iowa). To others, I would probably recommend breaking the trip halfway to just shake off the train beds and food and get a decent shower for a night - though the schedule makes it a tricky choice as to where makes sense in terms of both timing and scenery/things to do.
Would we do it again? No, once is enough. Are we glad we did it? Yes. (And did we totally love Chicago when we finally got there? Absolutely!)
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Thanks! For our wandering-loving selves, this sounds fabulous. We’re only in a roomette, so that won’t change. Food is rarely a big deal for us - we’ll roll with the punches there. Scenery is king - all of it, from plains to mountains to free “moonings” if that’s part of the local culture. It sounds perfect.
This will be our first train trip in the states, but there are already others we are eyeing if the first lives up to our expectations. We’re also contemplating bringing 93 year old FIL along on a follow up trip if it seems worthy enough for him to enjoy.
We will be going the other direction on the same line, though starting in Harrisburg. When we return we’re taking the northern route back.
We’ve been to all 48 continental states via road trips, so we’re hoping to see things we can’t see by car.
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I did this trip in May and my reaction was quite similar to yours. I didn’t have issues with the bookings being changed or the food running out, and thankfully we weren’t as late on arrival as you because I had four hours between trains in Chicago before heading to Washington, DC.
My gripes were that by the third day the bathrooms were disgusting. There is obviously no real cleaning that happens during the trip. I felt the same about the food as you, and after four days of it, it was that much worse. I was glad I had packed my own breakfast food and snacks.
But that scenery - wow. And yes, “Moon River” was hilarious! Did you see the mother bald eagle and her chicks in the nest atop the dead tree? That was marvelous.
I wouldn’t do that trip again, but I am heading north next month on the Coast Starlight, this time with my husband. I’m trying to imagine us sharing that roomette…fortunately it’s just one night each way.
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Re bathrooms - that must be dependent on the car attendant. I thought ours did a really good job of keeping the bathrooms clean in our car - actually no complaints on that front.
For those who were going to miss connections Amtrak was actually pretty proactive - there were announcements depending on which connection - some people got off earlier to catch a train earlier or get bussed to another station they could, others got new tickets to be collected in Chicago. I honestly can’t imagine doing a trip that long just to get on another train…!
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Some of the older people we saw had a lot of difficulty navigating the stairs - you may want to see what you think of that before booking him.
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We’re going to see what we think about the whole trip before booking anything else. He still hunts and fishes (and lives) independently, so can handle a lot. What he needs is a bathroom close by though.
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You may want to consider a full bedroom for him which has its own bathroom facilities, or the roomettes downstairs where there are more bathrooms. There is only one bathroom on the top level.
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I didn’t mind so much the extra day to get to DC. What was harder for me was getting on a train again in Boston 9 days later for the trip home. I seriously considered flying back instead but toughed it out (and I’m glad I did).
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It looks like we might be in luck going in August. Amtrak is updating their cars and service. Time will tell if they get to “our” train with the updates. Regardless, I’m really looking forward to the trip.
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This is great news. I probably won’t see a new sleeper car on my July trip on the Coast Starlight, but I’m hopeful about the new meals.
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S1 just did the bedroom with bath from CA to Chicago. He brought food, but found the limited menu ok, so had lots of snacks in a bag when he got to us. Said the food service folks delivered to his room. Train arrived in Chicago four hours late, but still at a reasonable time to see one of his colleagues from UChicago.
He was in Chicago for 1.5 days, then continued by train to Buffalo. H met S1 up there at the end of S’s visit and drive him home to us for two days.
His calculation was that the train bedroom was less exposure than a plane. He flies back to CA (non-stop from BOS) on Saturday. He has also done SLC to Oakland and enjoyed it. We are big train fans and it’s our preferred mode in Eastern Europe.
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We haven’t ridden the train much and never since covid. When we did ride, the zephyr along the west coast from San Diego to Seattle is gorgeous. If you can get a room with a bed and private bath, it’s even better!
Have ridden from Grand Central Station in NYC to Buffalo and enjoyed the lovely wooded areas we passed.
Have heard masking is not consistently worn nor enforced on trains or at stations.
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That’s the old 20th Century Limited route like in North by Northwest with Cary Grant. Current Amtrak rolling stock doesn’t quite meet the New York Central in its heyday.
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My father lives in Poughkeepsie, NY. I really enjoy the Metro North train ride from Grand Central (or you could do Amtrak from Penn station) along the Hudson River. Ideally we do it in daylight, with seats on the river side of the train.
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If this used to be the Zephyr, it’s the Coast Starlight now - the train we just got off of in Emeryville to spend some time exploring this area.
It definitely has some pretty parts to it, spending a little time alone the coast and a lot going through the mountains/valleys. CA’s mountains in this are really remind H and I of our visit to Jordan.
The major sad thing is seeing all of the homeless encampments along the route as well as seeing how much trash is allowed to accumulate along the tracks (not always with the homeless). The trash actually reminds us of Jordan too TBH. Not the homeless though.
We had planned on taking this train on our way home further north (Plan A), but the forest fires had us rerouting to stay on Amtrak instead of a bus. We’re now on Plan D actually, but thoroughly enjoying ourselves as I’ve posted on the travel thread (started commenting there due to Covid concerns and Amtrak - then just kept updating there).
Amtrak isn’t for everyone (motion, noise, limited areas it travels to, schedule delays), but having seen all 48 contiguous US states by car, it’s really nice meandering by train to see some different areas and not worry at all about the other drivers out there. It fits our wandering lifestyle well.
Plan D would have us returning home via the California Zephyr, but the mudslides in CO may force us to go to an as yet undetermined Plan E to stay on the train and off a bus.
Otherwise, as I wrote in the Travel thread, masking is definitely not consistently enforced on the trains or stations. Our experience is the Coast Starlight, LA and Chicago’s stations did enforce it (even seeing one passenger removed from the train), and Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Southwest Chief, and Pennsylvanian did not. BUT, we were on one train with one crew. I can’t speak for all crews with how they handle things. The stations are probably more uniform.
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Pretty simple. How could one go wrong following Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot?
https://www.belmond.com/trains/europe/venice-simplon-orient-express/
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I’d be up for going on that once we get covid under control. We are still having a very bad wave here in HI. 
Another day of record >600 new cases!