What it’s Actually Like to Travel 3,400 Miles Across the Country on Amtrak

From NYC to San Francisco for $227—I did all the research so you don’t have to. Travel tips at the end.

For the first time ever, my job decided to close its office for the week between Christmas and New Years. So since I now had a free week of vacation, I chose to do something I’ve wanted to do for a few years: travel cross-country on Amtrak.

I had a total of 10 days off, and figured the best way to take advantage of it without adding on any additional vacation time was to leave Christmas morning. So at 6:45am, my brother and I boarded the Cardinal train from Penn Station. When picking your route to San Francisco, there’s a stopover in Chicago for a few hours. That’s where everyone changes trains for the California Zephyr. So in order to get to Chicago, you can choose to take either one of 2 routes from NYC: north through upstate NY and Buffalo, or south through DC, Virginia and around through Cincinnati.

Since I’d be traveling in the middle of winter in the northeast, I figured traveling through Buffalo wasn’t the best idea. So south on the Cardinal route it was.

One fun discovery was finding that the entire route from NYC to Chicago was incredibly boring. It was about a 27 hour train ride and a majority of the trip was spent going through backroads of towns, through open and empty farmlands, the woods, seeing flatness in every direction and witnessing some of the most uninteresting landscapes. The only cool part was riding the train up and over the Appalachian Mountains, although we hit that part just after dark. The above photo was taken in Virginia and was my window view for a couple of hours.

During those 27 hours we got to get off the train in a few locations. Time varied between a couple hours to a few minutes for smoke breaks. Our first hour long break was in DC while they changed the engine of the train to diesel and allowed everyone to check out Union Station. Then it was back on to continue through cold, tiny towns.

While in Chicago we had a 4.5 hour break between trains, which was lovely. After we got into the station there, my brother and I opted to store our bags in luggage lockers inside instead of lug them around the city. That turned out to be the best idea because it began raining while we explored, and it was also fairly cold. I’ve been to Chicago a couple of times before so I knew where to take my brother who had never been. We scoped out Millennium Park, The Art Institute, Willis Tower and various neighborhoods.

Then, it was back on the train for a 3.5 day trip across the rest of the country. But this train was the California Zephyr and it was a monstrous beast that was 10x better than the Cardinal train. First, it’s a double-decker train with big seats, an observer car with swivel chairs, and lots of power to travel quickly. Second, it’s famous for the views, climates and stops along the route.

Between Chicago and Denver things were pretty flat, foggy and snowy. But that just made the anticipation of reaching the Colorado Rockies that much more nail-biting. We arrived at the Denver station early in the morning and that’s when everyone rushed to grab a seat in the Observer car.

After about an hour, we left the station and headed across open land to the foothills of the Rockies. There were teaser moments between buildings as our train left Denver where we could see the peaks poking through and it made everyone so excited. We passed by houses being built and finally emerged into rolling orange hills with spots of trees and up into the mountains themselves. The views kept building and building to be epic landscapes, steep cliffs, snow-covered trees and beautiful twists and turns along the river. We climbed to about 9,000 feet and saw clear across acres and acres of land in every direction. Observer car floor to ceiling windows FTW.

After Colorado the landscape continued to be gorgeous, but just a bit less epic. The open plains of Utah and Nevada were beautiful and alive with so much color. Once we hit California we went through mountains again and then along the San Francisco coastline to Emeryville for the bus to the Bay Area.

In total our trip took 110 hours, 3,400 miles, 2 trains, 1 bus and countless hours in cell service dead zones. It was an amazing journey that I’m completely okay with only doing once in my life.

So, now some tips:

1. Skip the NYC to Chicago leg of the trip if you can. Fly to either city to start / end your Amtrak time. That area between both cities just isn’t worth the time spent on the train.
2. A straight through ticket costs $227 if bought a few months in advance (I bought mine in September for an end of December trip). If I wanted to be in the sleeper cars, I’d have to pay ~$1000 one way. A bed also comes with a shower and all your meals as part of the ticket. The coach seat price is just for the seat and the use of tiny, shared bathrooms. That means no showering until you reach your final destination.
3. Bring ear plugs, a blanket, eye mask and a neck pillow if you’re sleeping in coach like I did. It gets cold at night with the AC blasting, lights aren’t dimmed very much, and people snore. I bought this blanket and this travel kit for the trip on Amazon. Also, bring some baby wipes with you for quick “showers”.
4. Bring snacks. Lots of snacks. Go to a supermarket and buy non-refrigerated / microwavable food right before the ride. Especially find fruits and veggies that you can snack on and even bring a gallon or two of water. It’ll be a big money saver and when you’re in high altitudes, you’ll tend to feel pretty dehydrated. Also, bring more than you think you might need. Odds are you’ll end up snacking out of boredom for a few days.
5. Or, if you’re so inclined, buy a box of Soylent and drink that on your ride. I had a combo of this and fruits / snacks for my 10 day trip and it worked out wonderfully. I used the powder version so I could mix it with free cold water from the train, which made it more refreshing.
6. Bring lots of offline movies. And digital books. And lots of music saved offline from Spotify. There are many hours of boring / cell phone dead zone parts of the trip and there are only so many hours you’ll feel like speaking to other people to pass the time.
7. Wifi on the train is highly unreliable and even non-existent in parts, so don’t rely on using Netflix. You’ll end up bored out of your mind like the girl in front of me for most of the trip.
8. Wear clothing that is super comfortable along with warm socks. The train cars get cold, especially if you’re seated by the doors connecting two cars together. Also, most people just walk around in half-pajamas 98% of the time since they know they’re in for the long haul. Don’t worry about what you look like; you’re not there to impress anybody.
9. The best views on the train are on the right side of the car if you’re going west; the left side of the train is the best if you’re traveling east.
10. Lunch is first come, first served until the cafe car is full. Then it’s reservation only. This especially applies to coach car riders. Also, it’s communal seating. So if you’re a group less than 4 people, you’ll have some randos seated at your table to fill up the space.
11. There’s also a bar on the train!?
12. If you opt to sleep in coach the whole route like I did, and if you’re over 5'6", you’ll probably be uncomfortable. I’m that height and it was slightly cramped for me. The seats recline fairly far back, they’re wide and similar to a recliner with tons of leg room. But it doesn’t even compare to sleeping in a bed.
13. Wake up early, go to sleep kind of early. It’ll maximize daylight scenery viewing time and keep you refreshed. Despite doing minimal activity, train travel is surprisingly exhausting.

Have a blast!