The Short
- Great experience.
- Cheaper than driving.
- Being able to walk around and spend time in different settings is really enjoyable
- There are plenty of charging options for coach (economy)
- Plenty of Luggage https://www.amtrak.com/baggage-policy (Amtrak policy)
- 1 carry in and 2 carry ons
- Storage shelves when getting on train (view pic)
- Overhead space like airplanes (view pic)
- You can check your bags on some lines. Darrel, was working snack stand on Amtrak, said the app or 1-USA-RAIL is the best way to find out.
- Observation car is super chill (view pic)
- Food options are decent
- You can place bids like eBay on cabins and upgrades after purchasing basic coach. They also offer ‘buy now’ at a discount
- Roomette is a lot more worth it with a friend or doing a multi-day trip.
- You’ll typically need to ride a bus to get to final destinations. Check out my tips and tricks for riding public bus lines.
My Trip
While I was spending my time in Salt Lake City I took a trip to Xgames for my first time. I was happy to see the Amtrack lines were a valid option as it would have been 7 hours of driving or about 9 hours of public transit. At the time of writing this, round trip coach was $88 from Salt Lake City to Glenwood Springs plus $3.75 for a bus to Aspen. Fortunately the ski house we have is only a 4 min walk then!
My starting time was 3:30am but there was an hour long delay which was a little unfortunate but not the end of the world. I was able to check my snowboard bag easy and free.
Overall it was a great experience and I’d do it again.
My Coach Experience
That first thing I noticed riding Amtrack is how far back the large seats recline. Having a camp pillow, eye mask, and loop earplugs I was able to drift asleep with ease. If you don’t have an eye mask the coach cars have blackout curtains that work pretty good. My experience the train was about halfway full and everyone was pretty quiet.
After two deep naps, it was time to get some food! Amtrack has two options, the formal dining car, and the snack stand. I opted to save a few bucks and get a pretty healthy turkey sub on wheat bread as I have been on a pretty good health regime lately. See what workout equipment I used while living in AirBnB.
The coach experience was really good and if you are a single traveler for a trip less than 8 hours it would be my recommendation.
My Roomette Experience
I won my bid for a roommette for the way back. The roomette experience was nice at the comparatively low bid price I set though I would say the extra $100 was a splurge but well worth it for the 8hr trip I had. My favorite part was being able to recline one half of the room and prop my feet on the other half fully down while writing this blog.
IMage Gallery 📸
