Amtrak Mistakes To Avoid

hey guys welcome back to the channel today we are sharing with you the top amtrak [Music] mistakes all right guys riding those rails lots of times um we've made the mistakes we've seen people make the mistakes and we've put this list together for you guys to help you have a more comfortable journey and a more fun journey as you go along one of the biggest mistakes and we made this on our very first train ride is not making a food and drink plan so we went got on board the uh the crescent uh of in atlanta on our way to new orleans and we thought we got on in the morning in atlanta and we our idea our plan was oh we'll just grab some food on the train from the cafe and uh you know we'll eat our breakfast right there on the train no big deal we had a few little snacks with us which is fine but got on the train thinking oh we'll just grab something from the cafe well we got on the train and about five minutes into the train ride and we're already moving um they let us know that the credit card machine was not working and so we were not going to be able to purchase anything from the cafe because they were also not accepting cash so we were kind of stuck for a little bit there with not being able to eat something we were saved by the tiny little snacks that we had and then about two hours into the journey they were able to get the problem fixed and we were able to get something to eat but we were pretty hungry there for a little bit because they didn't have they we weren't able to get anything from the cafe they had the food we just couldn't get it because we couldn't use our cash and their credit card machine was broken so just know that that's about a possibility and just uh plan on bringing your own food and drinks on board you're going to save money anyways and you can use the cafe the snack bar as kind of a backup if you need to depending on how long your journey is going to be the next mistake that people make is bringing way too much stuff on board so a couple of things if you are in a sleeper car and you bring too much stuff there's just not enough room in your room um in your room at or in your bedroom to have so many things inside there and you're going to end up having to store them downstairs on the luggage racks which is fine you just can't really keep an eye on your things but if you are in coach you're going to for security purposes not just want to leave your things there if you need to go to the bathroom or if you want to stretch your legs and walk around or if you want to go sit in the observation car you don't want to drag a bunch of things with you you know because you want to keep an eye on them so i mean some people kind of use a locks and lock them to the bars um above in in coach but you don't want to have to have a lot of things to keep track of so don't bring too many things on board with you there's plenty of stations where you can check your big bag with you and not have to worry about having having it with you you can just pick it up at your station when you're going to be stopping the next mistake people make is they don't use the observation car if you're on one of the routes that has an observation car it's probably one of the most fun most exciting cars on the train there's windows not just along the sides but also along the top as well so you can see almost all the way around great views here you've got tables available there so if you're in coach and you want to eat that's a great place to go you have a whole table there or if you want to sit and work and you don't want to do it at your seat you can go do that in the observation car and great get great views um and just really be able to kind of spread out a little bit in the observation car so don't underestimate it and don't forget that it's there if you're on a route that has an observation car head that way because you're going to enjoy your journey for sure you will not regret that another mistake people make is not bringing enough entertainment with them for their train ride you're going to get bored um there are segments on some of the lines where there's nothing to look at unless you really really enjoy corn fields which is great for a little bit but not for hours at a time and then the other thing is also at night at night there's nothing to look at and there's nothing to do so it's not like on an airplane where you have a little tv on the seat back in front of you where you can play games or anything like that so you can bring you know your phone a tablet computer anything like that with you so you can have something um as well and then in line with that is to bring noise canceling headphones with you too because at night people are up and moving around and sometimes they're getting off the train in the middle of the night and there's you know a little bit of noise involved with that or people getting on and conversations have to occur in order for them to get on so there's gonna be a little bit of noise especially at night so if you've got some noise canceling earbuds or you know plugs or headphones bring that with you because you are going to want that the other thing is you can't if you're in coach you can't always regulate the temperature actually even in the sleeper cars in the room at um and rooms you're not sometimes you're not able to to regulate the temperature there either so bring an extra blanket with you or a light jacket depending on the time of the year that you're traveling and then you can also bring we usually travel with neck pillows so we can use it as an extra pillow or anything like that that we need you do get pillows and blankets in the sleeper car in the bedrooms and the roomettes you will not get pillows and blankets in coach so keep that in mind depending on kind of you know what you want your temperature to be like um next thing is not knowing where to be on the train to be able to enjoy the sights uh not knowing when to go to the observation car i was talking about earlier like on the co starlight uh you basically have to go straight to the observation car when you get on the train because it's not very long after you get on before you start seeing those gorgeous water views so make sure you do a little bit of research check out our videos on each one of those routes those lines because we do share that for all those different for all of the different uh train routes check out our videos uh we'll share with you um in those where you should which side to be on and all that kind of good stuff but make sure you do your research because you definitely do not want to miss the sights on uh like the california zephyr or the coast starlight and even the empire builder has some great views especially like when it first leaves um the sea if you're leaving from seattle you can see puget sound as you're leaving so that's kind of um a good little tip to know um uh also like on the california zephyr if you don't get there early enough you may not get a seat because um this train ride train route is known for its gorgeous views so make sure again when you know they say hey tomorrow we're going to be heading into denver and then from denver you're basically heading into the mountains so you want to make sure that you get a seat in the observation car and then last is that trains are often late um not necessarily their faults sometimes things happen with the freight trains and the freight trains do get priority on the rails so don't make concrete plans um like we did one time we were coming in on the on the empire builder into chicago and we had a car reservation but we had reserved a car um walking distance from union station unfortunately um the car the rental car office closed at five and our train was supposed to arrive at four so we thought well we have a whole hour to go from the union station to the car well unfortunately our train ran behind because there was an issue with some freight trains on the tracks and we got stopped and we ended up getting there at 6 30 so we were well after the time that we had uh that we had so we ended up having to switch our car rental and things like that so just keep that in mind not to have very concrete plans like i wouldn't plan a flight right after a train ride because again they can be late and it's not always their fault um usually it's because they've had to give priority to one of the freak trains hopefully these tips will help you it will help you to avoid making these mistakes um and help you to really enjoy your next amtrak train ride hope you guys enjoyed the video make sure to give me a like on this video subscribe to the channel and we'll catch you guys on the rails

Channel: Grounded Life Travel

Views: 460,809

Keywords: amtrak mistakes to avoid, amtrak mistakes, amtrak tips and tricks, train travel, usa train travel, coast starlight, california zephyr, empire builder, amtrak crescent, amtrak, sunset limited, cross country train travel, amtrak travel tips, amtrak beginners guide, amtrak vacation, amtrak vacations, how to ride amtrak, amtrak for beginners, amtrak guide, amtrak beginner guide, amtrak tips, guide to amtrak, amtrak faq

Id: EQSq8lirLKU

Length: 9min 9sec (549 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 13 2021