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Oregon (never heard of it; anything particularly fun to do there?)

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(says the girl from Kansas)

FG
 

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Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
 
by the way -- your friend should go with you on your cross-country trek! You know -- just to fill you in on the details of our nation as you go....

FG
 

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Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
 
It sounds like you will be spending an awful lot of time sitting on trains. Prepare for days and weeks of leisure hours. Perhaps you can take up knitting.
 

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Posted by xnera (Member # 187) on :
 
I took Amtrak from Chicago to Detroit earlier this year. I really enjoyed it. But yeah, it's SLOW. Still well worth it, though, because it was $50 round trip, which is MUCH cheaper than a flight would have been. It took about six hours. Chicago is 300 miles from Detroit.

The USA is really big, so be prepared to spend a lot of time traveling. But it'd be a great way to see a lot of the country.
 

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Posted by cheiros do ender (Member # 8849) on :
 
I'd see more of the country than most of America, now that I think about it. It's going to be a long holiday, but there'll be heaps to do in Utah, Nevada, Washington and SC. (Spartanburg specifically - another friend lives there.) And yes, Farmgirl, I am going with my friend.

I think the main factor left in the decision is the time this trip would take. By the way, are most of these tracks still the same ones they laid down in Lincoln's/Washington's? (the one in the Movie Wild Wild West if that helps lol) time.
 

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Posted by ricree101 (Member # 7749) on :
 
Be careful if you have any places where you have to switch routes. Every single time I've ever used amtrak, the train has been at least an hour late. So if you have to switch, make sure you build a lot of time in between the routes.
 

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Posted by Samarkand (Member # 8379) on :
 
Well, l went to college in Oregon, and I think many parts of it are exceptionally lovely.

Portland is well worth a stop, and Oregon has no sales tax, so this is the place to buy gifts or clothes (you can find exactly the same brand and style you saw in NYC - but no sales tax!) The wineries are really lovely, but I don't know if you're 21 yet. Also, the Oregon Coast is basically one great big state park; they didn't let people build it up like in California.

Taking a train from Seattle to Sacramento will take a looooong time. If you do the trains, I suggest shooting to get a sleeper car every night. More than four hours staring out of a window will get really boring. Oh, and stop in San Francisco. Much prettier than Sacramento (although Sac is worth a stop too).

Investigate Southwest Airlines, Song Airlines, JetBlue, Ted, and Frontier Airlines, etc.. Trains in America are not the same as trains in Europe, trust me.
 

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Posted by Kettricken (Member # 8436) on :
 
I’ve done a couple of trips on Amtrak, but it was about 8 years ago.

Firstly, ignore what the locals say about prices, there were special tickets for foreigners when I went. I got a pass that covered the western half of the county (Chicago west) for 118 pounds for unlimited travel for 2 weeks (1 pound less than the equivalent Greyhound ticket). Obviously it will be more than that now, but well worth seeing what passes are available for foreigners.

Secondly, don’t expect to keep to time. None of my trains were within an hour of their scheduled arrival and one of them caught fire and carried on for ages before a couple of pick trucks arrived to have a look.

Thirdly, if you decide to stop off, check the arrival time. There were places I decided not to stop because the train arrives in the middle of the night.

Finally, the seats are huge, so sleep is possible, but take a blanket as the turn the heating down at night.

I enjoyed it, I saved money on hotel accommodation and got to go to more places than I would otherwise have managed. I intend to do it again sometime. I went from Chicago to San Francisco, stopping on at Winter Park (Colorado) for a couple of days skiing, then on to Seattle.
 

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Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
 
Kettricken, since the page I linked him to was the special price for international travelers, no, he should not ignore what the locals say about prices.
 

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Posted by Kettricken (Member # 8436) on :
 
Sorry, ElJay, I missed your comment on international passes and saw several posts saying it was more expensive / not much cheaper than flying. We have cheaper travel for visitors as well and such complicated fares that most people don’t have a clue about the real cost.
 

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Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
 
I took AMtrack from Springfield MA (2 hours west from most of Boston) alll the way to San Antinio TX for my AIT school in th Army. Wile it was cool for me, and a lot cheaper at the time, I also needed time to get use to going back to the Army after almost a month off for Christmas exodous.

It took 3 days.
 

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Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
 
Amtrack doesn't go nearly everywhere I want to go (although the Coast Starlight is very nice.) You can't, for instance, take it from Dallas to Atlanta without going through Houston and Baton Rouge, making it a two-day trip.
 

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Posted by Hamson (Member # 7808) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by xnera:
I took Amtrak from Chicago to Detroit earlier this year. I really enjoyed it. But yeah, it's SLOW. Still well worth it, though, because it was $50 round trip, which is MUCH cheaper than a flight would have been. It took about six hours. Chicago is 300 miles from Detroit.

The USA is really big, so be prepared to spend a lot of time traveling. But it'd be a great way to see a lot of the country.

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SIX hours?!? The drive can be made in about 5, even if you stop once or twice. I myself have never rode with Amtrak, but I did take trains from Windsor to Toronto, and from Toronto to Montreal. It was great, the trains were on schedule, it was relaxing, and it was also inexpensive compared to flying or driving.
 

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Posted by Stan the man (Member # 6249) on :
 
I love taking the train. The day after I graduated High School I was on a train from Dearborn, MI to Raton, NM. About a three day trip. Worth it though. Made some friends on the way that were going the same place I was.
 

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Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
 
I hate long drives, I'd rather take the train to Chicago from Detroit. There's a train station within walking distance of my house.

The train whistle soothes me at nights
 

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Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :
 
A few years ago it took my brother 3 days to get from Indianapolis to Portland Oregon by train, he loved it, but agreed it may have been better to fly. When going to his former girlfriend's house in Wisconsin (I think, I was 8 when they broke up), he always took amtrak. I've never ridden amtrak, just the south shore from South Bend to Chicago (that was marvelous, I could do my make up and eat breakfast on the way, much easier than a car).
 

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Posted by xnera (Member # 187) on :
 

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SIX hours?!? The drive can be made in about 5, even if you stop once or twice

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Some of us don't have cars. Also, the trains have to go slower in populated areas where there are lots of crossings. We also experienced a delay or two during the trip--the website said it'd be a five and a half hour ride, so we got in a bit late.

Still a good time, though. I really enjoyed the train. Much more comfortable than a plane, and I had a row of seats to myself!
 

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Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
 
Trains stop fairly often...but they have better routes for the most part.

It evens out for a lot of commutes, of closes enough.
 

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Posted by plaid (Member # 2393) on :
 
I got a month's rail pass for travel this spring and had a great time -- visited lots of folks all over the US, and traveled ~10,000 miles. I started using the rail pass in Ohio, and from there went to Wisconsin, Chicago (met up with Hatrackers there for BobnDana Con), Iowa, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington state, British Columbia, and finally Niagara Falls, NY.

If you want any advice, feel free to email me, cheiros; here's a few useful bits of info:

-- Sleeper cars are very expensive, something like $100-200 a night. Ow. I never used one -- since I was getting on and off the train frequently, I didn't sleep too many nights on the train. But when I did, it was OK -- the seats on Amtrak have a LOT of leg room (more than buses or planes do) and they have big padded footrests so sleeping on them's like sleeping in a big lounge chair, and if you travel in the offseason like I did (in April) then the trains aren't so crowded and you probably won't have anyone in the seat next to you and you can sprawl onto the next chair and get relatively decent sleep.

-- Like Farmgirl said, food can be expensive (though actually not too bad), so definitely bring along a lot of snacks, and then you can supplement that with the occasional hot meal on board.

-- On most trains in the Midwest and West, Amtrak has an observation car you can hang out in -- a car that's all windows, great for watching the scenery. You'll get to see some great country from the train (much more beautiful I think than from most highways). The Colorado Rockies were neat, though my favorite was desert states like Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. (If you travel during the spring, the deserts are greener and even more amazing.)

-- And as some folks have said, Amtrak can be late... I never had any problems on my own trip (an hour late was the worst I ever experienced), but allowing at least an hour between switching routes is a good idea.

-- If you can, try to get a hold of a paper copy of Amtrak's schedule (~125 pages) -- the easiest way to plan a trip is to sit down with a paper schedule and figure out all the different possibilities. (Note that a few routes don't run every day, like the one that goes from Los Angeles, California to Texas.) (And, as Kettricken noted, some cities only have stops in the middle of the night. Salt Lake City in Utah, for example, only has trains getting in ~11 PM and 3 AM.)

-- One more great thing about going on the train = getting to stretch you legs! You can get up and walk around all you want -- you can't do that on a bus, and can't do that on a plane if you don't want to make everyone nervous...
 

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Posted by cheiros do ender (Member # 8849) on :
 
Getting a plane back froma capital city seemed like a good idea. But I have recently checked the US FlightCenter’s website and it seems in the US anyone all the way up to 18 needs an adult (19+) to fly with. I will be 17 at the time and the oldest person on the trip will be 18 but that still won’t be good enough, it seems.

Now I’m not to sure which way I want to go anymore. But I know I don’t want to pay to sleep on a train for that price so I suppose I should focus going places where my American friends have relatives happy to have us over night. The one whose house I’m staying at, you should know, is literally on her way to Australia as I write this, due to arrive today. But I won’t be able to talk to her until Sunday, Australia time, so I’ll just leave this until I’ve talked to her.

In the meanwhile, I’m sure this thread will fall back to page 3 or 4 with the rate at which this forum moves, so you’ll have to excuse me for brining it up again. Thanks for your help everybody!
 

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Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :
 
cheiros, I believe my 16-year-old friend flew alone to New Orleans about a year ago, so I wouldn't think there'd be an age restriction. Unless one exists for international travel? That would be news to me.

-pH
 

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Posted by cheiros do ender (Member # 8849) on :
 
All I know is, looking at plane bookings between Los Angeles and Washington, the minimum for adults was 1, not 0. The minimum for children, on the other hand, was 0. So that's just the impression I got.

http://www.flightcentre.us/
 

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Posted by Valentine014 (Member # 5981) on :
 
WOW! A sleeper car is SO expensive! From Omaha to L.A. (in August) for two people is over $1300! I've never been on a train and it looks like I never will.
 

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Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by cheiros do ender:
All I know is, looking at plane bookings between Los Angeles and Washington, the minimum for adults was 1, not 0. The minimum for children, on the other hand, was 0. So that's just the impression I got.

http://www.flightcentre.us/

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