The following is an excerpt from my book “Can Travel Restore My Faith in My Country.” (link)

I have organized this section into four parts to make this information as useful as possible, including my early planning thoughts, ticketing options, and what to bring. Lastly, I will walk through my itinerary. The goal of mapping out my itinerary was to suggest itineraries for various regions of the country. One option to mapping out a trip is to fly to the start point or fly home from the end of the trip if the round trip by train is not feasible.

My Initial Planning Thoughts

I planned this train trip to which I committed to sticking with at least two months, having never ridden an Amtrak train for any time or distance. I knew nothing about how the system worked. I was making my commitment based on train travel, which I had experienced over thirty years ago on another continent. While that prior train experience was in Europe, I wanted to experience my country the same way, from the ground up. I wanted to carry what I needed on my back, meet a lot of people along the way, and walk a lot.

I cannot explain it, but I get an odd sense of satisfaction when I can travel without using a method of transportation specifically accommodating me as an individual traveler. Examples of this would be ride-share, taxis, or car rentals. I want to get from point A to point B using the underlying transit system in place for the masses. I do not know why I think this way. Something is unifying among the people on a bus or train. We are all on a common mission together. None of us has any control over the outcome. We are are at the mercy of the driver of the bus and the traffic. Public transportation is an equalizer of sorts for that time while on the route.

As I said, I do not know where this comes from, but I discuss it because it is an underlying reason this trip had to be by train. It is inherently from growing up in a large city with lots of traffic. Drivers are sitting in a car by themselves in one of the largest cities in a parking lot of traffic, looking in all directions and seeing all the other cars with one person in each car while everyone around them is wondering why there is so much traffic. Ironically, there is a certain feeling of independence when traveling with these methods of mass transportation. I went on this train trip thinking I would figure it out whatever the case.

When I first started planning my trip, I started on the Amtrak website. I quickly learned that the Amtrak App makes planning and booking trips much easier. If the trip is booked on the App, you can board the train and present the ticket on the App, thus not needing a separate paper ticket. You can get printouts of tickets at the stations along the way for those who are more comfortable with paper tickets or have a situation of a technology challenge As you book segments of your trip, the App conveniently lists the booked routes sequentially. As you complete the segments of the trip, the App stores the history of trips taken. I found that particularly helpful in writing this, and I often referenced that history.

The App has a link to the schedules. When I was planning a segment, I would search under “Train Route.”  You can also search by “Train Station,” but I found the route approach more helpful. Once you select a route, either eastbound or westbound, you can see all the stops along the way and the arrival and departure times for each stop. I found this immensely useful in finding which stops I would take based on arrival and departure times. Note that when you make a stop at a station, it will need to be an overnight stop, given that the train will arrive at a particular stop and then leave shortly after that, leaving no time to explore on that stop. The exception to this will be in the Northeast in some cases.

After my first website experience, in the first stages of planning this trip, I almost gave up on an extensive train trip. After discussing this with many passengers along the way, I was not alone on this. I found the website to be cumbersome and inflexible. Then I discovered the App. It is a game changer in terms of planning a trip, booking tickets, presenting tickets to the conductor when boarding the train, and making changes to your bookings along the way. I would rate the ease of use and performance as very good.

Ticketing Options – Traveling Coach, in a Room or Roomette

The first decision you must make when booking a trip is whether to travel by coach or in a room or roomette. Note that there are some shorter routes with business and sometimes first class in the Northeast Corridor. These categories are like what you find on air travel so this discussion with focus on coach and rooms for longer trips.

There are detailed descriptions throughout the book on these two options. In the “Rockies and Midwest” section there is a detailed discussion on roomettes in “Roomettes with a View.” After this trip, my rules of thumb for myself for future travel are as follows. For trips of any length that do not include overnight travel, I will typically travel by coach. A coach seat has ample legroom, even more legroom than business class on a plane. With a coach seat ticket, you can access the observation car, the dining car for sit-down meals (an extra charge) and the café car, a snack bar. There is plenty of room to move around during a trip of even seven or eight hours, which does not include overnight travel. It is important to note that not every route has all three cars, which you will be able to find out when you book the ticket. For a given route and ticket, the App will tell you the availability of these cars for that route and time. For trips that involve overnight travel, I would buy a ticket for a roomette, which has room for up to two people, but no more. The exception to this convention would be those routes in which roomettes are at a premium price, during the high traffic season in which I would make coach work. In summary, coach is a good possibility, reasonably priced but it becomes challenging for overnight travel. When traveling with others, a roomette or room may present the best possibility considering the cost of all travelers in the group.

Amtrak’s Bid-up Process

Amtrak has a bid-up process which is managed through the App. Through the bid-up process, Amtrak provides coach-ticketed passengers access to available roomettes or rooms for upgrades from coach when available based on the status of demand as the departure date approaches. From my experience, these availability notifications usually arrived about two days before departure. For example, a ticketed coach passenger might get an option to bid up to a roomette, or a roomette ticketed passenger might get an option to bid-up from a roomette to a room. In the bid-up process, you select the bid amount and would typically find out some time before departure if your bid were successful. I used the bid-up process several times to upgrade from coach to a roomette, and I was successful sometimes, and others, I did not make a successful bid. From my experience, I did not find the bid-up process to result in a bargain on a roomette or room upgrade, but it was typically less expensive than if I had booked the roomette instead of coach at the time of the original purchase. For an extended trip like mine, if you are interested in bidding up, it is a learning process to get a successful bid and feel like it is a good deal at the same time.

What To Bring

What to bring is driven by personal preferences when traveling. Given the length of my trip, the boarding and disembarking of many trains and the intensive walking, I chose to travel by backpack for ease of mobility. It is a sentimental backpack, as it was the same backpack I used in 1988 to travel across Europe after graduating from college, which I had previously written about. Knowing that I would be walking with it a lot, I tried to pack light, but I should have packed even lighter in the end. Some of these “what to bring” items are things I brought, while others are things I wish I had brought. Also, I created the list in the context of a multi-leg train trip.

Reusable water bottle. This is an essential item. I did not drink the water from the tap of the train, and I would not recommend it. I do not like to use single-use plastic water bottles, so I filled up my water container where I could, i.e., filtered water at a hotel, and carried it with me. I did not find it possible to avoid plastic water bottles completely, but I managed around it where I could. A reusable water container is in the essential item category.

Set of basis utensils. This is one for the longer trips, but a simple set of basic utensils would have been surprisingly helpful for any length of trip. This is one on the list I did not actually bring but one I wish I had. This recommendation may seem odd, but I did not always want to eat at a restaurant and sometimes found myself sourcing a meal from a grocery store. Many of these purchases require basic utensils. Even a ready-made salad needs a fork. Just like my attempt to avoid single use plastic water bottles, so goes it with plastic utensils and try slicing a block of cheese with a stretched-out paper clip.

Cash for tipping. Below, I discuss the tipping in more detail. I went to a bank in Chicago to get cash for tipping. I ask for ones, fives, tens, and twenties, and I initially received a look of confusion from the teller. I then clarified that I was on a cross-country Amtrak trip and needed various bills for tipping. The teller laughed and told me he was soon to go on one and said it was useful to know about tipping. In addition to tipping, I prefer carrying some cash, so I have some cash for “just in case” situations.

Snacks. Snacks are mostly for the longer trips and are not essential as every train has a snack bar and I found the prices to be reasonable. However, as I was traveling long distances and as a personal preference, I carried a small supply of basic snacks as the snack bar on the train opens and closes at unpredictable times, so that is a factor.

Something to pass the time. If your trip is of a lengthy duration, this may be the most important thing after the reusable water bottle. This will be driven by personal preference, and my bias goes to bringing books and doing lots of reading. Maybe your preference on reading is an e-reader or audiobooks. Go for it. A long train ride provides an ideal opportunity for all of these. My love of reading contributes to how much I love this journey as I work through a pile of books. Beyond books, there are many other options including crosswords, cards, and games because you can usual find someone in the observation car for a game of cards. The list would not be complete without mentioning a journal. Even if journaling is not part of your daily routine, I highly recommend keeping some type of journal when traveling by train or otherwise. It provides some record of where you went and what you saw, and it brings focus, attention, and deliberate thought to where you go and what you see. Give serious thought to a journal in future travels.

Cash for Tipping. Tipping applies primarily to travelers in a room, roomette, or coach travelers using the dining car. From what I saw, tipping in the dining car is like what would be done in a restaurant. If you are traveling in a room or roomette, your meals are included so you will not be receiving a bill at the end of the meal. Hence, cash helps tipping in this situation. On an overnight trip, you will have several meals, and the same Amtrak employees will serve you for all meals of the trip. Also, if you are traveling by room or roomette, there will be one Amtrak employee who will provide customer service for that car throughout the trip. They will assist with making your meal reservations, preparing the overhead bunk bed, and answering the questions of the passengers on the trip. It is customary to offer a tip upon off boarding the train at your station of arrival. Keep in mind that for any route on the Amtrak system, those employees on the train will work from one end of the route and then work as well on the return to the starting destination. For example, the California Zephyr runs east and west between Sacramento and Chicago. The employees will work both from Sacramento to Chicago and then return to Sacramento heading west.

The suggestions on what to bring to this point have been of a practical nature. We will now move on to the more abstract suggestions.

Life on the train. This one is more about what to expect more than what to bring. But you do need to bring an open mind if you have not traveled by train before or have not traveled distances by train. As I have written before, if your number one goal in transport is efficiency and saving time, you might want to consider another method of transportation. If the transportation part of the trip is a significant part of the travel experience, you have the time and you want to experience the country at ground level in a perspective you will not get in a car, you will enjoy it a lot. You will be able to move about the train to the observation car and snack bar. None of these would be possible with those other methods of transportation. Bring an open mind, an eagerness to see the countryside like you have never seen it before, and a willingness for conversation.

Meeting people and conversations. For my two-month, 12,000-mile trip, this was the best part.  I am often asked what my favorite thing was I saw on the trip, and I say it was the people I met more than what I saw. I met some amazing people all along the way. There were conversations on the platform waiting for the train’s departure, conversations in the observation car and especially in the dining car when, as an individual traveler, met three new people at every meal. I have never experienced these conservations in any other methods of travel.

A purpose. As I mentioned this earlier in the book in the “Rockies and Midwest” chapter in the section titled “Early Lessons Learned with Extended Travel,” I recommend a purpose. It can be anything. It can be visiting a particular type of museum everywhere you go, whether it is fine art, history or other. It can be around books and literature associated with a destination. Architecture, anything. I believe it is best to travel, especially for extended periods of time, with a purpose. If I did not have a purpose on this trip, that is to write about it, I believe it would have been one tourist stop after another, a litany of pictures, most of which I would never look at again, and few sustaining memories.

One final thought. Keep a journal.

My Itinerary

The system consists of approximately a dozen major “long-haul” routes. The major routes I traveled on are discussed below. Certain routes connected together trace the circumference of the country while other routes run through the middle, some horizontal some vertical. The walk-through of my itinerary below illustrates how multiple routes can be combined for a given trip. When planning a trip, I found it the most useful to think in terms of the distinct routes rather than crossing multiple routes. For example, a trip from California to NYC can be broken into two routes: the California Zephyr from Sacramento to Chicago and the Lakeshore Limited from Chicago to NYC. This is opposed to trying to book the entire trip as one trip. The frequency of the trains varies. The “long-haul” routes crossing multiple states generally have one arrival and one departure each day. As discussed below, certain regions have multiple departures and arrival each day, but this is primarily on the shorter routes.

The Sunset Limited

In my research, I learned that the Sunset Limited at one time, started in Orlando, Florida, prior to hurricane damaged sustained in the early 2,000’s. If you look at the US Amtrak map, you can see a gap in the routes from along the Gulf Coast from Florida to New Orleans. The Sunset Limited now runs between New Orleans and Los Angeles, with a stop in Houston where I began my trip. The Sunset Limited runs three days a week; from my experience, it is the only one I encountered that did not run daily. As I write this, the Sunset Limited runs Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday when eastbound and Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday when westbound. Traveling west on the Sunset Limited, it passes through southwest Texas and then along the border through New Mexico and Arizona, arriving in Los Angeles where the Sunset Limited ends.

The California Segment

Regarding train travel in California, there are the main Amtrak routes that go from San Diego all the way through California heading north and beyond, but there are also other routes which cover portions of the state. For California, booking your segments using the App is particularly important. The App will offer all the options you can choose from, and there are multiple options per day in this region. Also, when traveling through California, sometimes you will be in view of the coast and the Pacific Ocean; other times, you will be inland, for example, the Paso Robles and Salinas Valley areas.

Coast Starlight

The Coast Starlight runs between Seattle and Los Angeles in both directions. It would be the route to take for a West Coast trip all the way to Seattle. It is approximately 1,400 miles in length with many stops along the way, including San Jose, Sacramento, Portland, Tacoma ending in Seattle. There are many more stops to choose from. I took this route from Santa Barbara to San Jose. It is important to note this route is sometimes in view of the coast and other times inland. The inland routes include beautiful views, including valleys and mountains.

Capital Corridor

I continued my journey on the Capitol Corridor from San Jose to Sacramento to catch the California Zephyr. The Capitol Corridor runs from San Jose to Auburn, CA and has numerous trains per day. In addition to the major long-haul routes, California as well as several other regions have smaller routes that supplement the longer routes. I found this to be primarily in California, the Northeast, and the Chicago area.

One example for the Chicago area is the Hiawatha service from Chicago to Milwaukee. It runs multiple times a day each way. I found these smaller routes to be especially useful as they increase the options available on any given day. In some cases, such as the Hiawatha Service, enough times were available each day to make a day trip possible.

The California Zephyr

The California Zephyr runs from Emeryville (near San Francisco) to Denver. There are several other stops in California that can begin this route to Denver. I boarded the California Zephyr in Sacramento. I have written about my experience on this route from an eastbound perspective. That is an important distinction because the direction determines where you are on the route at night. Note that visibility at night is minimal on the train, so it is important to understand where you will be at key times for the more scenic sights. The timing of the eastbound route is such that the highlights of the route are in daylight. For example, passing through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Rockies, and crossing the Continental Divide are in daylight. The night-time part is primarily in Utah, where the stop at Salt Lake City is at approximately 2:00 a.m. This makes it challenging to stop over in Salt Lake City for a night or more. Additionally, when you get ready to leave Salt Lake City to continue your route, the departure time will be shortly after 2:00 a.m. You will be addressing this hour on both the arrival and departure. Just one example of how to select destinations for layovers in the context of arrival and departure times. I tell people that if you were only going to do one route in the Amtrak system, the California Zephyr might be a desirable choice. The pass through the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Rockies is something special. The word majestic comes to mind.

Another possibility for the California Zephyr if you did not want to ride the entire route or were having any extended stay in the Denver area is to take the route segment between Denver and Glenwood Springs. A Denver departure west, combined with a night or more Stay in Glenwood Springs, and then an east bound trip back to Denver would offer the highlight views of the California Zephyr. Note that there is only one arrival and departure each way in both Denver and Glenwood Springs, so an overnight stay is required.

The Lakeshore Limited

The trip across the country continues with the Lakeshore Limited, which runs between Chicago and Boston. I went east, continuing the full route stopping at Boston. The trip from Chicago starts after dark, so a substantial part of this route is in the night with limited visibility. In the morning, there are scenic views near Albany, including a Hudson River crossing. This route does offer a connection option at Albany to go to New York City on the Adirondack route.

The Northeast Corridor

This route runs between Washington, D.C. (“DC”) and Boston. This is a great route if you want to see the cities of Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, and DC.  Each segment of that route is short, a matter of a few hours. If you have a week to spend, a flight to Boston and a return flight home from Washington, DC with the Northeast Corridor between is a great possibility. Segments along this route use the Acela train, which is the high-speed train which can travel up to 150mph. From my experience, this segment has the most frequent trains on the Amtrak system. For example, running out of Penn Station in NYC, there will be very frequent trains within one day. If you have ridden trains in Europe, this route will remind you of those experiences.

Many of the shorter distance trains, primarily the ones on the Northeast Corridor have quiet cars. They are designated cars where no phones are to be used without headphones, and phone conversations are discouraged. They are serious about this. “Use your library voice” they say. This is nirvana for me. Simply ask which car is the quiet car as you board the train on the platform, and the conductor will point you in the direction.

The Empire Builder

The Empire Builder is a long-haul route running between Seattle and Chicago. It was not in my original itinerary as beginning in Seattle did not align with the east coast bound itinerary. However, early in my trip on the Sunset Limited, I knew I would have to work this route in given all the chatter in the observation car from those who had taken the route. I flew from Washington, DC to Seattle to take the Empire Builder from Seattle back to Chicago. In hindsight, I am glad to have made the leap to Seattle to ride this route.

Heading east on the Empire Builder, leaving in the afternoon from Seattle, you have the opportunity to see views of Puget Sound around Edmonds and Everett. The train goes through the Cascades before going through the long Cascade Tunnel. The route provides views of the Columbia River before nightfall. I stopped off in Whitefish, Montana, for a few days before boarding the Empire Builder, which continued east. The second day’s morning offers spectacular views of Glacier National Park and the Rockies as you cross the Continental Divide. The rest of the trip is through North Dakota, and into the night it passes through Minnesota on the way to Chicago.

City of New Orleans

The City of New Orleans runs from Chicago to New Orleans. This train leaves once a day in the evening in Chicago, and the first light on the next is around Memphis, where it continues onto the final stop in New Orleans, close to the French Quarter. 

Other Routes

I have included a list of some of the other routes which I did not complete.

Adirondack – This route runs between NYC and Montreal.

Cardinal – Chicago to NYC 

Carolinian – Charlotte, North Carolina to NYC 

Crescent – NO to NYC 

Downeaster – Boston to Freeport, Maine 

Texas Eagle – San Antonio to Chicago