Amtrak Packing For Coach And Sleeper Car

hey guys welcome back to the channel today i'm going to give you a packing strategy for your next amtrak trip [Music] all right guys so we're looking at a three bag plan here and this is for a kind of cross-country journey for the most part if you're doing a short trip or not even doing it overnight you might want to use something a little bit different but for the most part this is going to be your best bet here so you're going to need three bags and those three bags are you're going to want one bag like this we'll talk more about this in just a minute where this is going to be kind of your bag that whatever's in here you don't care if you lose it if you lose it somebody takes it it's gone you won't your life won't be changed at all if whatever is in here is gone okay so that's that bag we'll talk about what's in it in a minute second bag is going to be a backpack or a bag that is easy for you to carry and what's going to be in here is all of your valuables and i'll let you take a peek in there in just a minute as well so you're gonna have this bag with you at all times you're not gonna let this thing out of your sight i literally sleep with this thing on me if i need to if i'm in coach um so you protect this thing because it's got all your good stuff in it and then the third bag that you want is your checked bag or you can store this bag um in either your room or on the luggage rack and we'll talk a little bit more about that as well in just a minute so with that let's go ahead and jump into this bag that you can lose or somebody can take or whatever and you won't be upset so i'm i'm going to go ahead and unpack it and i'll show you what happens with this bag we absolutely love it because as many of you know we do travel full-time and so we've got lots of different things more things with us usually than the average person on a trip so one of the first things that we need is we do need an antibacterial spray we do like it i like to have something that has a pretty scent to it rob maybe not so much but i try to pick something fruity and then he'll kind of go with the flow with me on it but something to just kind of spray things down with i also uh lots of times have carried antibacterial wipes as well kind of the travel packs just open those up wipe things down or use a spray like this right now i'm down to the spray because i have been able to find the little travel packets um in the stores so stop buying those so that i can find them all right so we've got antibacterial spray the next thing is your toiletries are going to be in here okay so we've got our toiletry bag and rob and i um will share this one bag and put all our stuff in it and um it's one of those hanging ones you unzip it it has the hook and you hang it and it's got tons of space on it you can see and lots of pockets on the inside uh oh also before i get too deep into this guys i've got all links to all of the items that we travel with on the website groundedlifetravel.com and there is a blog that tells you the top things that we travel with in our bags and it will give you links to all of these items so if you're trying to track those down before you ask me in the comments head over to groundedlifetravel.com and just click on the links it'll take you right over to amazon where you can buy these items so toiletry bag and anti-bacterial spray the next big thing is if you actually even at night whether you're in coach or you are in a sleeper car this all applies to either of those um accommodations when you're traveling on a train so um the next thing is slippers and this i like because i don't want to go anywhere without shoes on on the train and they actually do also tell you that you can't walk around in your socks or barefoot on the train so you do need to either have shoes or slippers on to move about the train plus i cannot imagine walking around the train with no shoes on that's just me so slippers is great we put that in this bag as well now the next thing we have is snacks especially if you're in coach you're gonna want to have some extra things because cafe food gets old real quick even if you are in the in um the sleeper cars you're gonna want uh some snacks as well so i put the bars in a little bag and we like to have kind of these little protein bars um different types just so we've got lots of different things your luna bars that's rob's favorite if you're trying to entice him we also like that's it bars and i'm also a big fan of larabars as well and then um you know it's kind of hard sometimes to stay hydrated on the train so i've got little hydration packs and we can pour those into our water and have a little bit extra uh electrolyte replacement as well so you can stay hydrated on the train and don't get kind of dried out so i got a little zippy bag of those because the things can get lost in this bag if you don't kind of separate those out you've got that and then we do like to sometimes we have a sweet tooth um so we've got some m ms and right now this is our candy of choice we like nerds gummy clusters you can say whatever you want in the comments it's not going to change our minds we're still going to bring candy with us so just make your piece with it okay um and then the next thing that we have in here is change of clothes and that all depends on how many nights you're going to be on the train this one in particular will be just for one night on the train so we'll each have a shirt in here to change into when we go get cleaned up in the morning in the bathroom and then we have some emergency things as well if we are traveling in cold weather um rob because he has a little bit less hair than i do needs to keep his head warm so we keep this cap in here with us as well if we are traveling during cold weather time then the other thing i always have with me i'm sure you've noticed this in all my videos is that i'm usually wearing this little cardigan as well i like it because i can use it as you know kind of a blanket in the seat i could even use it as a scarf as well and of course just put it on as a cardigan again i do have links to almost all of these things um on our website as well and then the other thing and this is great and um no i don't have the pants part usually in here because rob is usually wearing these especially if you know we're traveling during times where the weather changes back and forth but i usually have his pant legs in here because these legs zip onto these shorts and they become pants so if the weather should change and he gets a little bit cool then we just take those pant legs and we put them right onto the you know zip them right onto the the shorts and then we're all set so that's what's in that bag now what i absolutely love about this bag is what happens next so uh also before i forget you want to make sure and have your name tag on here and this one is from amtrak because the one i had on here kind of fell off but it worked out anyways because of what's going to happen next so this bag actually turns in on itself and i'm going to show you how that happens this little pocket inside this entire bag zip zip zip zip zip goes right up here shove it all in there and it becomes this tiny little pouch so when we're not traveling on amtrak and we don't need this overnight bag it turns into this fantastic little tiny bag and we just throw it right in that check bag if we don't need it or whatever easy peasy we love traveling with this because it's just so easy and if you ever need an extra bag for emergencies or whatever this is always with you so that is that bag that you keep with you and you don't have to worry about and you don't have to be concerned if somebody takes it or whatever you can say goodbye to it even though you'll be sad if you maybe lose your slippers or your snacks or whatever all right so the next thing you're going to we're going to go over is our backpack okay so the backpack and i recently just switched my backpack it's a little bit different than i normally have but what i like about the backpacks that we carry is that they do have these air vents in the back here and padding so it's really nice and cushy it's got like little foam in there so it's not going to feel so harsh up against your back this one also attaches to the handle of the checked bag so this strap goes right here and then if i don't want to carry it on my back or i want to break and i have this bag with me i just take it off put it right on there and then i don't have to worry about it i could take a little break from it okay so this bag has a couple of pockets it has one on this side and it has one on this side so let's start in the very back here and right back here i've got my computer and it's just kind of snaps in there and then i also my my hands always get really cold you guys um so i always carry these light they're actually running gloves is what i normally use them for but i keep them in my backpack because um if my hands do get really cold these little guys come to the rescue i love these and then i i'm a visor gal so i like to have a visor with me in case it's really bright or whatever the case may be and then i know you're gonna be super surprised about this but i like sometimes to play games and i don't want to play them on my phone or something different so i do carry a switch with me and so i have that in this cute little case i'm a big mario fan so that's why i have a case that looks like this uh all right so that's what's in this back part now this is the big juicy part before i move on i want to show you this guy here this is actually my scarf you will always see this thing hanging from my bag if i'm not wearing it it is on me around my neck i always have it tied to the top handle of this backpack now we're going to move into the meaty part of my bag and that is in the middle here okay guys so you're always asking us about our gopros or how we record so this is how we do that we use our gopros and we do use um for the views out the windows on the train trips we use this suction cup suction it to the window and then the gopro is looking straight out the window and then this turns and it suctions on and you can turn it and it suctions right off and just pull it off of the window so that's awesome and again we have links to these to both this gopro and to the suction um right on our website groundlifetravel.com so make sure you guys check that out so that's that i always have an extra bag that i can use for either a purse or a shopping bag little canvas bag always carry with that with me as well and then i do love to read so i always have my kindle with me and i love the kindle oasis is probably my absolute favorite when they came out with this um i just kind of went crazy i love it i love all the features about it it's absolutely worth it to me so um again i have links to these on the website so check that out and then i also have an ipad mini i know you're thinking that's just a notebook it's not it's an ipad mini so that's that um and then i have my camera with me for taking pictures and for making videos i love this sony it is my absolute favorite and then microphone i like to have noise canceling headphones in there as well and then rob and i like to play games and so um one of the things that we do is we we like to play spot it i put in this little bag instead of the tin that it comes in because it's easier to store and then we play this dice uno game we switch them up every once in a while depending on where we are and get something different right now these are the games that we're traveling with now one of the things that we always talk about is um the adapter that i use in order for us to be able to charge more than one thing at a time in the room and this has four usb spots so you can charge four usb items on this one and it's actually a universal because it changes to all of the different countries that you would need and you use it right in that country it's really easy to use guys so this is an awesome awesome item i love it it's probably one of my favorite things actually in this backpack i know that's a little bit crazy and then you guys we seriously do travel with a tape measure because rob really likes to measure stuff so i always have this tape measure in my backpack he literally all the time is like do we have that tape measure i was like of course we do it's in my bag so there it is um so that's what's in this part of my backpack and then i also have a few extra things guys if you have any medication that you need you got to have that on that bag that you cannot lose so if you have prescription medication or like over-the-counter allergy medication like this you wanna have that on the backpack that you keep with you all the time if you put it in the other bag and it gets lost or somebody takes it then you're not going to have your medication with you so you want to make sure that that's with the bag that stays with you all the time and you don't want to put it in your check back because that's just a really bad idea never a good idea to do that i always have something to wipe my nose in the event i need it and now i am uh you wouldn't think this but i'm a bit of a picky sleeper and one of the things that i love is these bose sleep buds now guys these aren't ads for any of these items these are just the things that we actually use that's why we created that blog post for you guys you guys are constantly asking us what do you use for this what do you use for that that's why we're telling you so these guys they charge up they're teeny tiny they fit right into your ear and then they play literally just white noise so you can't play anything but the white noise and use the app on your phone with it i love these guys bows sleep pet sleep buds i sleep with these guys and they are awesome makes every train journey amazing and then in here i've got some lip balm i've got some hand sanitizer and uh i also have i like um i really like for things to smell good all the time so i do also have some essential oil in here as well because it does feel nice and kind of soothing to have something that smells nice in your room as you're trying to go to bed or relaxing or whatever and i keep those in this is a reusable um zip bag that i keep in here and it makes it really simple to pack up all my things right in there and then zip it right back up and you're good to go so this bag uh is absolutely amazing i'm able to put everything that i need right in there the other thing is um i also do carry a neck pillow with me i don't have it here right now i thought i did but just one of those neck pillows i'm sure that you've seen those on our backpack usually that is the other thing that is snapped to um this bag right here is that neck pillow and we use those as extra pillow support as well i know a lot of you have mentioned you don't really like the pillows on amtrak or you like something a little bit thicker or a little bit higher up so we use those pillows as kind of an extra support should we not like the pillow that we've got we use them in hotel rooms as well or airbnbs wherever we are we use those neck pillows so that's the other thing that you'll find attached to this bag as well as our refillable water bottles that we always carry with us as well guys remember all the links to the stuff is in that blog post on groundlifetravel.com when you're packing your checked bag so you do get two bags with amtrak that you can check for free up to 50 pounds and they're very strict on the 50 pounds because of course it doesn't matter for the train but it does matter for the person that has to pick up this bag sometimes it is a challenge if your bag is too heavy so try to keep those under that 50 pounds you do get two bags um to go ahead and check so do that we like these bags they're 23 inches and they're actually perfect they are expandable but we don't generally find that we need that because we do carry a few things with us as far as clothing and shoes and things like that but these 23 inch bags are perfect because they do fit very easily in the racks especially if there's room on the lower part you can very easily just slide those right in and this bag also fits perfectly if you're in a view liner round there is that storage space up above these fit perfectly up in that spot anything bigger than this is going to be a really tight squeeze to get in there but the 23 inch is perfect and again you can find these links to these types of things all on our website i hope this video was helpful to you a lot of you have asked me for this over and over so here it is for you hopefully it's helpful to you and let me know in the comments if there's anything else you wanted to know that i didn't mention um and uh guys don't forget to subscribe to the channel share this video and give me a little like on this video too i'll see you guys on the rails

Channel: Grounded Life Travel

Views: 59,182

Keywords: amtrak, amtrak packing for coach and sleeper car, amtrak train trip, amtrak packing tips, amtrak sleeper car, packing for amtrak trip, how to pack for an amtrak train trip, overnight in coach on amtrak, what to put in your bags on amtrak, how to pack for an overnight train trip, amtrak california zephyr, amtrak coast starlight, amtrak sunset limited, amtrak empire builder, amtrak crescent, amtrak southwest chief, amtrak how to pack, how to pack for amtrak, amtrak packing

Id: L0zclHZoH2s

Length: 18min 37sec (1117 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 14 2022