Amtrak Tips And Tricks | Beginners Guide

Written information on essential Amtrak travel items and extra tips are available on our blog: www.groundedlifetravel.com/9-essential-items-you-n…

I appreciate videos like this SO MUCH ❤️ I have social anxiety and I need to know every detail before traveling or doing new things in general. I love informative videos like this that allow me to feel prepared and at ease.

Light jacket, small pillow, water bottle, snacks, and laptop. Got it!

My recommendations include: 1. The staircases on the train are VERY STEEP & NARROW. From the upper to the lower level, I highly recommend BACKING down the staircase, if you have any kind of mobility issues. 2. Locate the handicapped accessible bathrooms at the beginning of your trip. They are MUCH larger.

Ty so much. Never traveled alone and NEVER by train. I wanna go to GA to see my son, whom I haven't seen in 4yrs..wish me luck

Thank you a bunch for this! I'm in Florida for school and using Amtrak to go back to PA for the holiday. Ive never been on long term transport before, let alone doing it alone, and, as someone with anxiety, this makes things so much less nerve wracking for my first trip.

I've never traveled by train and I really want to try it. Thank you for your videos.

The wife and I used to bring wipes with us for the bathrooms. Even in our sleeping compartment the wipes helped keep things clean and smelling nice. Just remember each train is different and has different amenities and styles of cars with different seating. Food on the trains is pricy, but pre-Covid food was good and worth splurging for it. I strongly advise getting a room for long trips, expensive yes, but being bottled up in a car for days on end with people can wear you out, literally. I've taken Amtrak three time to Florida, not Autotrain, out of NYC and Philly, it's a wonderful ride, just remember it's like flying, you have delays and holdups.

My family took the train California Zephyr to Chicago and back at Christmas about 4 years ago. We didn't have sleeper berths--just the regular seats. Here are a few suggestions I have. 1) Meals aren't included if you don't have a sleeper berth so you have a choice of going to the dining car, picking up some simple food options in the snack bar or eating food you brought with you. We did some of each. 2) We met super nice people sitting near us one direction and had happy hour with them. I wished we brought more wine noshing food to share. 3) Because the foot rests are so far from your seat, you may be more comfortable have a bag or a cooler to put under your feet when you are sleeping. 4) The bags you "check," i.e. don't have with you at your seat, are stored in a place accessible to all passengers so make sure anything valuable is in the bags you are keeping with you at your seat. 4) Seats are in pairs so if you have an odd number of travelers most likely one of you will be sleeping next to a complete stranger. It is really nice to have a blanket you can kind of hide under at night. 5)Think about having clothes that will be comfortable to sleep in but be in public. Sweats? Flannel pants?

My tip. Once the train is moving, you can ask the conductor if there are any empty seats in the business class and can you move. I did this on my daily commute from MD to PA.

My tip is that Don't worry and be happy. I love trains!

This video should be titled "Amtrak Coach Tips and Tricks". Here's some tips and tricks for sleepers. I've taken several long distance western routes on Amtrak and found that the roomette (small sleeper for 2) is a much better value than many people realize. It's easy to get turned off by sticker shock, but there's ways around that and you also have to understand that your experience in a sleeper is far more relaxing and restorative than traveling in coach. In fact, it's hardly like traveling at all. First, you only pay for the roomette once, but two people can stay. (As long as your companion has a coach ticket, that is) All formal dining car meals are included in the cost of the roomette, for both you AND your companion at no extra charge! (Also, tipping is not expected.) So while people in coach are eating potato chips for breakfast, the sleeper car passengers are eating three proper hot meals a day, cooked in the train galley by Amtrak chefs. (Note that as of writing, routes east of Chicago have converted to a sad airplane food type microwave meal model and are no longer providing freshly prepared meals). Coach passengers can purchase hot meals in the dining car, but the cost is extremely expensive for what you get. Consider that when you're pricing tickets. Hot showers are provided only for sleeper car passengers, and Amtrak provides towels, washcloths and soap. If you walk through the coach cabin after several days of long-distance travel, you'll come to experience the Funk of Coach. It's not pretty. The roomette itself locks from the inside, has a privacy curtain, and is remarkably soundproof. The cabin attendant knows who belongs in the car and keeps an eye on your things for you while you're away. Lastly, always buy Amtrak tickets far in advance. They use a "bucket pricing" system where they sell the bucket of cheapest tickets first. Once they're gone, they go to the next highest tickets, and so on. If somebody cancels a cheap ticket the day before departure, that cheap ticket becomes available for sale. So it's possible to get lucky, but the most reliable way is to book far in advance. Two cheap bucket coach tickets plus a roomette might not cost that much more than two expensive bucket coach tickets. Play around with it and see. All of this means that if you travel with someone and average out the cost of tickets (including hot meals for two people, accommodations on a flatbed, hot showers and a car attendant) your experience on Amtrak might not cost as much as you think, and you'll have a far better overall quality experience. Always tip your car attendant- no less than $5 per day of travel (but more if you can afford it). All attendants I've encountered are competent, but some are more proactive than others and that can really make you the experience that much better. We had one attendant who would convert our roomette to beds while we were at dinner, without having to ask. Also, you can have your attendant bring your meals for you to eat in your room, so if you use their services more you should factor this into the tip you give them.

I had horrible bathroom experiences on the Crescent line while traveling from Birmingham to NOLA and Atlanta to New York via coach. Definitely pack a restroom kit with cleaning supplies, wipes, and soap. Even gloves. People are not considerate especially men when using a public restroom on a train

I’m on the train right now and I was trying to figure out how to work the leg rest lol this helped

Another useful tip: If your Amtrak train is going to travel for a lengthy time through mountain ranges, the cafe car's card reader might be out of commission until the train is out of the mountains. I found out this the hard way while on The Adirondack last summer. But, there was no novel coronavirus spreading last summer, so I had cash to use in the alternative. I'll never forget the cafe car attendant saying, "Remember, cash is king." Yeah, except for this year and next (and hopefully not 2022), cash no longer is king on Amtrak. As you mentioned, Amtrak trains are cashless -- during the Covid-19 pandemic -- so, yes, bring snacks and beverages. I also bring meals that won't give me food poisoning, such as pop-top cans of Chef Boyardee ravioli, spaghetti. I bring dried fruit -- OK, yeah, that's under the "snacks" category. I've read over the years (about bringing food on airplanes, trains and buses) not to bring "stinky" snacks, so please be mindful that what you think doesn't stink, other passenger think does. Basically, don't bring highly "fragrant" foods, if that's the best adjective. I learned the hard way: I love empanadas; just about any type of empanada. For example, one time I rode The Adirondack, I thought it wise to tear into my beef patty, which was sandwiched in coco bread. Oh my goodness! No one ELSE said anything, but it was too fragrant and didn't taste so good either. I opened my patty from the aluminum foil wrapper (which was in a Ziploc bag) around 2 p.m., so this was six hours after the train had departed from New York City's Penn Station. It just was a horrible snacking experience, but I was so hungry and didn't want to spend $15 on a full lumch in the cafe car. I've changed my ways in bringing only snacks and beverages. What I've also been doing, although I don't know if I'd do it while Covid-19 is rampant, is: An hour prior to joining the queue at the boarding gate, I go to one of the nice cafes in NYC Penn to buy a breakfast sandwich, which I slowly devour. It's usually a grilled cheese or grilled cheese w/bacon or just bacon on a buttered roll -- because eating eggs before getting on a train can be a tricky situation (nuff said). After I enjoy my breakfast sandwich, I usually have a bit of orange juice or half a cup of hot coffee or hot tea. But I'm good for a number of hours. No need for expensive food fare on the train -- unless I get hungry six to eight hours in. Anyhoo, I always buy at least one snack and at least two cups of hot coffee and/or tea in the cafe car (on long rail journeys) to support Amtrak or the Amtrak cafe car attendants. During this Covid-19 pandemic, so for me it's my upcoming trip in December (an almost 10-hour rail journey), I plan to bring: my usual number of bottled water and thermoses containing bottled water or distilled water; an empty insulated travel mug into which I will pour hot coffee purchased before joining the boarding line at the Amtrak gate. (After cleaning out my insulated travel mug, I will reuse that mug after purchasing hot coffee in the cafe car. That way, I will not worry about contagions traveling from the air into my sealed travel mug.) I don't mean to come across as paranoid; I simply would feel comfortable as well as safe bringing more of my own apparatuses during a pandemic of such major proportions as what this world is experiencing now. Be safe on your travels, everyone!

I am a travel agent. This is very helpful to give clients to watch your videos in the future. Thank you.

I love Amtrak. My grandpa was a conductor x 39 years on the Croton-Harmon to NYC line.

You are a fantastic presenter. The presentation was concise and your are a great articulator.

I've only traveled by amtrak. I was impressed. I traveled from Salt Lake City to Reno NV. It is no comparison to bus travel. Grayhound treats you like cattle. The car attendant was nice and so we're the people in the dining car. I'd recommend it so put it on your bucket list.

I am a nurse, and I haven’t traveled in so long I am now preparing to travel for the first time in a long time. I need some relaxation and some downtime for myself so I am prepared to take two weeks off just to travel and see different things on the Amtrak road trip ..thank you so much for your tips and I appreciate this video and all your other videos very much peace and blessings to you and Rob ❤