RAILforum: when taking the train IS the vacatiom

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Posted by graynt (Member # 17) on :

I'm sure there are a few of us out there.I plan my annual vacation by using Amtrak and traveling as far as I can while trying to save money.

Few things in life are as satisfying as getting a sleeper and traveling across the country watching the world go by. Its the closest thing to a cruise...a cruise on land,I suppose.

Planning for my annual train trip this year I went on Amtraks web site and went through every Western route and priced the first class accomodations. I wasn't sure what routes I would take yet,but I planned to purchase the Explore America fare and add on the accomodation. The lowest price for the maximum travel was my goal. The Texas Eagle from Chicago to Palm Springs was my choice. Under $200...if I got the sleeper two hours down the line to LA,the price would have gone up an extra $130.

LA to Seattle was my next leg. I wil be in coach. I would love to get a sleeper with the parlor car on the Starlight,but the price was a bit too high. I ll be traveling coach to whitefish after that. After Whitefish I wanted to book a sleeper to Chicago,but at almost $400 for a day and a half trip I decided against it.

My next leg is on The City of New Orleans to NewOrleans.$96 for a sleeper.I quickly grabbed that.From New Orleans its on to Jacksonville by coach, then jacksonville to Fortlauderdale coach and back to my origination point Philadelphia by coach.those Viewliners are just too expensive.

The first part of my journey will be from Phily to Chicago on a NE direct and then coach on the Cardinal.

Unfortunatly cost is a major factor in my amtrak planning,but with a little investigating and price comparison,for $650 or so I planned a very nice two week vacation on Amtrak with no more than one night traveling in coach,and a journey of almost 9,000 miles.

Once again, does anybody else do this...planning a lenghty train trip,just to ride the rails? I ve been doing this annualy for eleven years and is always the highlight of my year.

Rick

Posted by gadaniels (Member # 334) on :

Yep. I do that too. The first one was Chicago to Reno. Most of my friends thought I was crazy to spend 4 days on the train to spend 3 days in Reno. They just don't get it!

Last year it was a Chicago-Toronto-New York-Montreal-Albany-Chicago trip and also a Oakland-Seattle trip (I had to go to a conference for work in San Francisco; no way was I flying that far without a train segment somewhere); the year before it was a northeast segment: Baltimore to DC to Philadelphia to Providence (shorter distances but everything is so close together there)

This year (actually in about 2 weeks) its Chicago-Oakland-Los Angeles-San Diego-Chicago trip. I have to go to San Diego for a conference. I convinced my boss to let me travel by train instead of flying (i hate flying). Rather than doing a round trip to San Diego, I scheduled meetings in San Francisco to allow me to vary the routes a bit. I have sleepers on all segments; cost wasn't such an issue since my office paid about 70% of the ticket and I only had to come up with $400.

My next one will probably cover the southeast region

gwen

Posted by RichardReed (Member # 601) on :

At this time of year you can get a coach seat for full price for one seat and half price on another. That's a little more money, but it gives you two seats to stretch out in, and is a lot cheaper than a sleeper.

Posted by lakeshorelimited (Member # 576) on :

What a great idea!

Posted by Pete (Member # 591) on :

I just went back and re-entered my web quote on the Amtrak site for my proposed trip from Shelby Montana to Chicago return, with Detroit added on. In May it's about $395 return,, tack on the sleeper and it's $1035 for one night each way..whew.

Posted by reggierail (Member # 26) on :

The Texas Eagle from Chicago to Palm Springs was my choice. Under $200...if I got the sleeper two hours down the line to LA,the price would have gone up an extra $130.............

Chances are that you won't be put out of your sleeper at Palm Springs except in the unlikely case of someone booking the sleeper from Palm Springs to LA. I do that quite often when I book trips for clients. It used to be $280 from Oakland to Chicago on the Zephyr for a standard bedroom. If you could ride coach till Salt Lake City the cost to Chicago was only $125. Almost always when you board the train & speak with the sleeper attendant about your getting the sleeper in Salt Lake, rather than moving you in the middle of the night they will either put you in the room then or maybe at Reno as long as the room isn't booked for that segment. It can be a real good deal. Reggie

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[This message has been edited by reggierail (edited 03-11-2001).]

Posted by Geoff Mayo (Member # 153) on :

Isn't that actually 3 nights in coach, not 1? (Coast Starlight, New Orleans - Jacksonville, Fort L - Philly)

I have travelled around by train several times now. I live in the UK so it's a bit more difficult for me to get there!

My first year, after working at a summer camp in Connecticut, was New York - Washington DC - Chicago (Cardinal) - New Orleans - Orlando - New York (Meteor).

The second was again after camp the following year - New York - New Orleans (Crescent) - LA - Chicago (Chief) - Washington DC (Capitol Ltd) - New York.

Last year I went just for a holiday. I flew to Denver (from London it was cheaper to fly via Houston to Denver than it was to get off at Houston - weird!) and went up to Chicago. Sleeper (my first - what luxury!) to Seattle, coach down to San Francisco, then coach to Denver (great, although my brother got a bit bored!).

Next month all I'll be doing is the Cardinal in two sections (weekend in Cincinnati), but I intend to go again and do the few long distance routes I haven't done yet (Eagle, southern section of Coast Starlight, New York - Chicago trains, Boston section of Lake Shore, down to Miami, etc).

Posted by graynt (Member # 17) on :

What a great forum! I posted yesterday afternoon and 24 hours later six responses.To answer the last poster, I mentioned only one night in coach..yes,one night at a time. The Cardinal from DC to Chicago, The Coast Starlight from LA to Seattle, then one overnight from Seattle to Whitefish.Another addition..I m taking the Starlight to Portland,then detraining and taking a morning train to Seattle to catch the Empire Builder that afternoon. No extra cost,and a few hours to explore Seattle,plus I love the route along Puget Sound the Seattle leg of the Builder affords.

Moving along, after a couple of days in Whitefish, another overnight to Chicago, then an overnight from New Orleans to Jacksonville with an eight hour layover to visit a friend(The only routes the website gave to Fort Lauderdale from New Orleans was up to DC and down to Fla on one of the silver routes) I wanted to ride the Sunset Limited anyway to Jacksonville. Being it is a connection South, It still fell under the three stop Explore America fare. Then overnight in coach back to Philly.

Reggierail or one of the other experienced people who do book trips and may have insight into Amtraks pricing system....why the great flucuation in price on sleepers? example: Chicago to LA on the SW Chief almost $400, and Chicago to Palm Springs under $200 and that is a third night on the train. To me, the more train travel the better,so that was a no brainer. Why the almost $400 fare from whitefish to Chicago,and then less than $100 to New Orleans?

The Amtrak pricing system always fascinated me. Do they go Midnight to Midnight? Any observations?

Anyway, I m glad there are other rail buffs who just take the train as the vacation. Anybody else doing any similar trips in th near future?

Posted by Pete (Member # 591) on :

I think most people in the US and Canada probably equate going on a train to their daily commute in the subway or commuter train and like h*** if they're going to spend a full day or few in one of those things when they can fly and be there in a few hours. Too bad they don't know what they're missing, a chance to sit back, relax and walk around all the while seeing some of the most diverse scenery on the planet. I think that's probably my most keen interest is seeing how the land changes as you move from one coast to the next and all inbetween

Posted by reggierail (Member # 26) on :

I believe it is several factors used to determine prices in the sleeper. They seem to be in a state of constant change. They will probably evolve into a system like the airlines have. Supply & demand, yield management & direction of travel are all factors. I'm a travel agent specializing in rail travel & don't have the complete answer. The reservation system agents don't know either. I even ran into 2 different prices for a standard bedroom from LA to Seattle on the same day & train. I ran both the rooms through my reservation system at work (Apollo) just to play a hunch. I was thinking the lower level bedroom would be priced less than the upper level room. I was wrong it just happened to be the other way around. I called the travel agent desk at Amtrak & they couldn't explain that either. I've put together several rail tours & checking sleeper charges from Buffalo to Chicago I found they were almost twice as much eastbound as westbound. I just go with the flow & have stopped trying to figure it out. Yours Reggie

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Posted by TBlack (Member # 181) on :

Graynt,
I. too, like to take the train as the vacation. Haven't done anything yet this year, but last year managed to go to San Francisco from Boston to visit my son; also took a trip from Boston - New York - Jacksonville - Los Angeles - Chicago - New York - Boston - takes a week. This year I've been trying to find the 5 days necessary to do Halifax to Vancouver. Now that requires some airplane travel, so it's cheating slightly, but it should be a different experience. Also, there's the loop: Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, New York, Boston.