Fabulous Train Journeys

I pulled one once.

I'm house-sitting right now for my boss, who went with his wife on a train trip that goes through the Sierras to Reno (from Sacramento).

It's about a 5 hour trip and he had heard it was supposed to be pretty cool. He texted me yesterday after they got to Reno and told me the ride was beautiful, very scenic.

It's pretty cheap, too - about $55 each way. I'm not a gambler, but I think I will give this is a go for a 3 day weekend trip/getaway, depending on his final review of the trip.

Is the Orient Express worth it? Anyone been on it? What was your experience?

Two friends and I took the Northern Rail Experience package tour from AmtrakVacations three years ago.

It was great.

Empire Builder + Coast Starlight + California Zephyr

All meals on board plus hotels in Seattle and San Francisco included.

Trans-Siberian is marvelous; I’ve done it eight times. First class is a must and, if you’re traveling alone, buy both berths in the compartment. I recommend doing it during the winter, or late fall or early spring, due to the heat in summer. Air conditioning is unreliable. The restaurant car is good, but you run out of new things to try after a couple days, but that’s what the stops are for: foraging for food and drink.

r5, that was always a dream of mine, don't think I'd want to travel to Russia these days.

I’m thinking of doing this London to Venice or the opposite way with my husband. I wish it were more than 1 night.

Al Andaluz through southern Spain. 7 nights on a beautifully restored train. Excellent food and service.

Royal Scotsman also great all through Scotland.

Orient Express is very short.

Bergen to Oslo - short but spectacular

Basically any train ride throughout the UK, Ireland, Switzerland (!!!), Austria, Southern Germany, France…

Also: The train from Da Nang to Hanoi… beautiful vistas of the ocean, jungle, mountains..

London to Edinburgh is wonderful. Whenever I have to go to Edinburgh I take the train, even though it's often cheaper to fly.

Any train trip in Switzerland.

I've done the NYC - Seattle - LA Amtrak route and Denver - San Francisco trips. The scenery is beautiful, especially the California Zephyr from Denver to SF. However, Amtrak leaves much to be desired, mainly the employees are often nasty, miserable fuckers, and you can be stuck with them for three days. I couldn't wait to get off the Chicago - Seattle train because the staff was atrocious, and not just to me. I wish I had had a pair Ray Ban Metas to show what goes on.

Has anyone done the Ghan in central Australia?

Ghaaaaaan.

Yes, R14. I'm an Aussie. I did one 26-hour stint (Adelaide to Alice Springs), and was glad I hadn't been able to book the second. The scenery, at least for the first 24 hours, is very unchanging, and it's just kinda scrubby, not imposing red deserts. The train is nice as trains go, with huge windows, and the food was ordered by menu and very good. The heating was up too high even though it was winter, and the beds are the seats folded down, so they're pretty narrow. You can get a premier class ticket with a real double bed, but there are only a tiny number of those cabins so they're booked years ahead.

An important tip if you are going to go on the Ghan: you get your own little cabin, with a shower and toilet even, but in every second one you are forced to sit "backwards" to the direction of the train. The seats are only on one side in each cabin, so you can't switch. This is because it's a million carriages long so it just reverses for the return journey, rather than turning. So if you hate sitting facing the wrong way, be very sure when you're booking that you're getting the right cabin. There is a dining carriage and a lounge/bar carriage, so you can escape if the worst happens.

Theoretically you can get off at Alice, spend a few days there and rejoin the train when next it passes through to Darwin, but it is quite difficult to book that because the train is so popular. Also be warned, the train doesn't pass Uluru, which is over 2 hours' drive from Alice Springs.

[quote] Also be warned, the train doesn't pass Uluru

That’s too bad. I loved her on Star Trek.

What is the approximate cost of that London to Venice Belmond train trip, r7?

R18. The website says from £3885 per person.

Jesus. $5000 for a one day train trip???

Glacier express from Zermatt to St. Moritz (or vice-versa). First class. There's a super premium excellence class, but it was way too much food on too short of a time. Also good mix of ages, where many other specialty trains skew older.

^^ Now that's what I'm talking about (at r21)

If you are used to train travel in Europe or Japan, Amtrak will feel like riding a cattle car to Dachau.

This one - Starlight / Amtrak, Seattle WA to Los Angeles CA is supposed to be nice.

I've only ridden Amtrak once (northern to central CA), not for pleasure. There was a lot of side-to-side movement. The bullet train or Shinkansen in Japan is definitely smoother.

Amtrak is noisy and like riding on a kiddie roller coaster constantly. I was exhausted after going cross country. You sleep like shit, walking around takes some effort, and between the predatory staff and constant noise, you get very stressed. I got jet lag on Amtrak.

The Auto Train from Sanford Florida to Lorton Virginia.

Meh.

My luxury train.

r30, r29 and r28 are oh, so helpful.

Has anyone taken amtrak from Minneapolis or Chicago to Montana? How close does it stop to Glacier National Park?

[quote]How close does it stop to Glacier National Park?

No stop. They push you off the train about 10 miles away in the middle of nowhere.

My partner and I want to do this train trip in India.

There are two stops in Glacier National Park - East and West.

This one is very impressive and takes 1 day.

R36, are you also R21?

Yeah, this looks like a wonderful trip to me r21 and r36

A great train ride is on Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver, which travels along the sound and is absolutely beatiful.

R37 No I'm not but I am a lazy person who didn't read the whole thread before I posted.

Also nice is Zurich to Milan or Venice. And Geneva to Milan or Venice. They each go through different tunnels. There is one train a day with no changes - Zurich to Venice.

The 7-day JR (Japan Rail) tourist pass is only $326. You can use the Shinkansen and the regular trains, as well.

I love this thread. Thank you, OP for creating it. I have a few trips I'm now interested in as a fat, aging whore.

^^^One of the greatest tourist bargains there ever was!! The people at the Japanese Rail office were so polite, classy and sophisticated. Little did I know, that was what I would experience every minute in Japan. It is truly one of the most incredible places on earth and the rail pass lets you see a lot in a very short time. Just imagine visiting New York City and taking day trips to Boston, Philly, DC and Pittsburgh in trains that look like first class airplane seating and so smooth you forget you're going 175 -200 mph.

The Japan Rail office was in Manhattan. You have to buy the pass outside of Japan.

- R44

Pretty sure you can buy in Japan too, R45. I've bought passes in Osaka and Tokyo at stations.

But this summer the Simplon rail tunnel is closed.

It's a great route because you get the long coast of Lake Geneva (Lac Leman) then the spectacular rise through the alps, and when you come out of the tunnel the Italian Alps seem different, the climate is for sure, and you descend from high with views of Lake Maggiore.

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin?

R46, I watched the video provided at the link. I could be wrong but it seems you have to buy the pass outside of Japan then activate it when you arrive. It is only for tourists. You can now purchase it online. When I went in 2018, I don't think it was possible to buy it online.

I'm watching The Bear for the first time, and it just now announces Lake Geneva

I’ll second Bergen to Oslo, R9 - stunning.

r9 is that called Norway in a Nutshell?

I took a train from Stockholm to Narvik (via Kiruna). The total travel time was about 20 hours from what I recall. It was the furtherest north of any European rail line and over 200 km inside the Arctic Circle.

R53, I’m planning to take that route next year but in reverse. How were the accommodations and scenery (I know much of it is at night)?

Another delightful feature of traveling Amtrak on the west coast is that you get an up close look at many homeless camps. Heck, I thought I was in a Steinbeck novel.

More like an amuse-bouche, R52.

As you said, much of it was at night, but being summer, it was never dark. We did have a conductor alert us when we were passing the Arctic Circle and got a (blurry) picture of a plaque indicating the border. We were awake from Kiruna to Narvik. There were uncountable small lakes and ponds. Beautiful, but a long trip.

Thanks, R57. How were the accommodations?

[quote] Heck, I thought I was in a Steinbeck novel.

In your case The Gapes of Wrath.

R58 The sleeper car was nice, but I was looking at it from the eyes of a young man barely in his 20s. This particular trip was nearly 40 years ago!

Thank you, R60.

Choo! Choo!

Belmond = new name for the Orient express company

They own the trains in Peru as well and we took them when we were there. It was all very luxurious and deluxe even despite breaking down for several hours outside of Cuzco. Luxury can be a double edged sword at altitude though and all that delicious food and champagne really ought to be avoided if you want to not get sick.

Oddly worst train was the night train from East Berlin to Krakow. We had a private sleeping compartment and thought it would be romantic. Instead it was squalid and occasionally terrifying.

Did you have to show anyone your papers, R63?

Yes! We thought because it was between EU countries we would not and we had our door securely barred because the train was full of drunken British football fans following their team who were very excited at the prospect of two women on the train. Some of them had tried been to enter the room when we first boarded. We were sound asleep when we got to the border and thought all the banging was them again and refused to open the door for a while. Anyway those Polish border guards were in a foul mood when we finally did open the door and locate our passports.

I'd recommend taking a cross-country Amtrak trip. It's not as glamorous as a European journey but you'll get to see some vastly different landscapes and places you wouldn't normally visit. I took the Southwest Chief a few years ago and it was very interesting.

How was the service, R66? Were there major delays?

There were no major delays, r67. I arrived in LA roughly on time, maybe an hour of two late.

I paid for a $120 coach seat and didn't eat in the dining car so I can't say much about the service. I will say that the snacks that I bought from the cafe car were absolutely appalling. Definitely hit up trader Joe's before you take a long Amtrak trip.

The other piece of advice that I wanted to give is that it's extremely cold at night. Bring a jacket, blanket, noise, canceling headphones and an eye mask if you want to sleep.

Thank you, R68. I’ve often wanted to take long-distance Amtrak rides but have heard there are often long delays. There is also no wi-fi on the long-distance Amtrak trains either.

Another option is going through the Canadian Rockies. There is a higher end company tat offers 2 to7 day trips from Vancouver. I did it through Via Rail, which is not a luxury service.

You can come explore Canada before you annex as your 51st state.

When I took my trip 2017 the cell service was pretty spotty for most of the journey. Sometimes it's nice to be cut off from the world, though.

One reason I love DL is because of threads like this. Everyone seems so well traveled and knowledgeable about traveling. I've only been on Amtrak from Charleston WV to Chicago, and it was awful. There was pee all over the bathroom floor and it was rolling side to side as the train traveled. I did meet an older woman who was going to see her son who was sick and needed help with his kids. She was really nice but a nervous wreck so I gave her a few Xanax. She appreciated that. However a woman behind us heard me offer them to the lady and she wouldn't leave me alone until I gave her 2 also. Then when the train stopped and picked up other people one guy sneezed all over a man in front of him before he say down. Omg, it was gross. It almost 24 hours to get to Chicago. By the time i got there and my brother picked me up i was worn out. Lol, so my other brother drove me back home himself. It was a mess..

I don't know if I should really be admitting this because it makes me sound a little tawdry, but I got a blow job in a European train while it was traveling through the Simplon tunnel. As far as I'm concerned, that made it a fabulous train journey.

Come to think of it, I also got a blow job on a passenger train traveling overnight in Washington State. These events both took place in the 1980s. Maybe the age of fabulous train travel is over.....(for me).

Good for you, R73.

Mighty Trains.

[Quote] One reason I love DL is because of threads like this. Everyone seems so well traveled and knowledgeable about traveling.

Meanwhile the only extended train ride I’ve taken lately is the F to Gravesend.

Boston to Haverhill.

Francis Bourgeois.

One of the first rides home to CT after enrolling at school in NY, the train broke down, we were stuck for hours (going to Waterbury, we ran out of fuel in between the second to last and last stops). At one point all the mom's and kids started migrating forward through the cars as the passengers who boarded at Bridgeport headed to Waterbury started smoking crack (I think) the smell was quite distinct. At one point an older guy, higher than a kite pantomimed being an 'outlaw' holding out finger guns yelling that it was a hold up. My mother was horrified, I found it more entertaining than she, but I switched to the New Haven line after that.

I fucked a wannabe chorus boy in the bathroom of a late-night Amtrak train en route to New York from Boston. It was a night of magic.

I’ve taken the”Jungle Train” a few times but not recently. This train runs from Johor Bahru to Wakaf Bharu, up the middle of Malaysia and I usually took it at night so I’d book a Pullman berth. These trains were not as modern as the ones that run up the west coast but they were good enough. I like sleeping on trains, being rocked back and forth. I imagine you don’t get that feeling on super smooth Shinkansen.

Trainspotter Francis Bourgeois explores the Jungle Train. It was his first time in Asia.

I definitely should’ve taken the day train again. The first couple times I rode it, there was no highway up through the center of the country. One amazing thing, the train carriage had a large bathroom that was completely made of stainless steel, walls, floor, facilities, everything. The toilet was a squat toilet but raised up like a western toilet with foot pads on either side. Maybe it was meant to be dual function, lol. Anyway, perched on those footpads while the train swayed back and forth meant bracing oneself against the wall. There was even a shower if you were so inclined. It wasn’t air conditioned and the humidity was extreme so drying off was pretty impossible. The set up was quite ingenious as the whole room could be hosed down to clean it.

Let us continue our fabulous train journeys.

Taking VIA Rail to and from Alberta through the Rockies in the Eighties was wonderful, but tickets are so expensive now only ridiculously wealthy foreigners travel that route.