Beginners Guide To Amtrak | What You Need To Know

hey guys welcome back to the channel today we are sharing with you our beginner's guide to amtrak [Music] all right so a couple of the first things that you need to know is how and when to buy your tickets yeah that's one of the most important things is getting those tickets and we know you want to get it for a great price we're going to go over that right off the top and the first thing you need to do is buy your tickets early plan this trip out well in advance so that you buy your tickets well ahead of time the way amtrak pricing works is that as the train fills the tickets go up so even on their website they'll show you as you're buying the tickets what percentage of the train is right it'll have a little train icon a little green bar it'll say temperatures it says percentage 20 30 as that goes up the price uh also goes up so don't think that you're going to be waiting for a last-minute deal open up a deal at the last second you won't be no there's no last-minute deals on amtrak there are first-minute deals that's right as soon as you can buy that ticket go ahead and buy it uh so you really it's gonna pay to plan this out now with that said if you've missed out on a cheap price they do sometimes run sales or buy one get one free for the uh sleeper cars even done uh 50 off of coach tickets from time to time yes so you can watch for that but you are kind of playing with fire a little bit there because we've noticed that even if you get the buy one get one free sale by the time they do that the price has gone up to the point where you probably still would have got the same price if you just had purchased your roumet or coach seat right when the tickets were available right if you wait till the sale is too close to your trip then the price will have gone up and it'll basically cancel out the sale also on our website we do have blog on um getting discounts on amtrak and it tells you lots of different ways that you can get discounts so make sure you guys head over groundlifetravel.com and we've got that on there for you yeah there's also on the blog a little section on historically when the buy one government free sales uh come up and kind of gauge it but nobody really knows when the next one is going to be is a short answer a couple of things you need to know about tickets and and buying tickets is you cannot hop on and hop off an amtrak train so it's not like a hop-on hop-off bus you need a ticket for everywhere you go you can't get off one day and get on the next and do the rest of your route exactly it's one continuous uh journey so if you get off for more than you know that 15-minute break then you're you need another ticket to get back on uh so that's something a question that a lot of beginners have now with that said you need to know where you're going and plan that out because each route on amtrak each you know planned route has a name and when you start getting on and off of different name trains the price will really go up so yes uh the thing you need to do is plan your route out so that you're taking as few trains and as few connections as possible because that's going to keep the price down keep the time lower and make everything much better for you right and again we did create a map uh of all of the routes on amtrak and we've color-coded them and everything and again that is on our website groundlifetravel.com and you can see that map on there you're able to plan out your trip because what happens oftentimes when people are trying to plan a trip is they're planning a trip to some place that isn't exactly where amtrak is going to drop them off and so then or there isn't a direct route there and so then they think oh well amtrak says they don't go there so i guess i can't go there no it just means that you can't go there direct but let's say you may have to take two trains to do that or take you know a particular route in order to do that so the map is going to help you see where what direction they go in what cities what states they go through and it will help you plan out your trip a little bit better exactly next thing we need to get into when planning an amtrak trip is train types because there's a lot of different train types and it's easy to get confused than these so we're gonna go over what the different trains are which one you'll be on and what to look for in that there's basically four types of trains the first is a view liner the second is a super liner then there's just a train with just coach's cars and then there's the esela so the viewliner and the super liner are the sleeper car trains and that's what's referred to as the longer distance cross-country trains uh there's a view line or super liner the coach trains are just for day trips and the asala is just in the northeast corridor correct so what's the difference between the the coach trains and the acela okay so the difference between the coach trains and the acela is that the asella does have first class so they have first class and business class and the other trains in that area are mostly just are just the coaches and those coaches are coaches and some of them may have business class some of them are just uh coach travel yeah and the seller is the is the high speed train so that is basically the train that runs from boston to washington dc goes through new york and all the cities in between that's the only place you can get on the asla right everywhere else you can get the coaches trains and then the sleeper car trains viewliner super liner are all over the country but the difference is the viewliners are essentially any train that goes through new york city and the super liners are essentially any train that doesn't there are limitations with what trains can go into new york city because of different restrictions that are upon them so that is the only place you'll see the the viewliner trains uh the difference between those is that the viewliners are single level trains only one level to the train and the super liners are double deckers so super liners are actually a little bit taller but the view liners you actually get a little more room in them because there's only a way to get a little bit more give them a bedroom and then because of that the observation cars which are double decker cars are only on the super liner trains they are not on the viewliner trains so you can't like when you're a lot of people ask can i pick a viewliner or a super liner no you can't pick one or the other the train is just going to be a super liner or a viewliner correct and that never changes correct yeah and then the other thing uh also is people want to know oh i want to be on one of the newer trains i want to be on a view line or two or a super line or two that's cool we all want to be on the newer train however we don't get to choose because even if your train has um a super liner your your whole train is going to be one thing or the other the cars individually are going to be either your super liner one or your super liner two so if you want a super liner two room at you're not necessarily going to get that because they swap those out even if let's say um you know they've got the super liner one and a super liner two on the same train uh going one way they may switch those and switch the train number the car numbers when they get to the next stop and then mix it all up on youtube so it just it's a little confusing but you don't get to choose the bottom line yeah exactly uh so let's go over the ticket types that you could get when you're getting on amtrak because uh on basically any train except the acela you can buy a coach class ticket that is going to be the cheapest ticket you can buy uh and it's a really good value on most of the coach trains you can buy a business class ticket and then on the asella you can buy a first class ticket so that's the only train that you can buy that on and after that you can buy sleeper cars so sleeper cars will consist of a room at a bedroom and then on the super liners you can get a family bedroom and then on all trains you can also get an accessible bedroom so correct if you want to see the differences between each type of uh car like the the room at versus bedroom we have a video on the channel that goes over every single room in depth and shows you every single one so uh that's something you can check out but basically the super liner room at cars and bedroom cars and supercars but the difference between the super liner one and the super liner ii is almost negligible yeah you can't even tell negligible i really can't tell you you can't we've been on them and sometimes it takes us a minute to figure out which one we're in now the viewliners you can tell a huge difference huge difference yeah well first of all the color's different yeah you go from blue to like a burgundy-ish type color the second big clue as to whether you're on a viewliner one or viewliner two is if you have a toilet in your room at or not yeah exactly if you have a commode in your roumet then you're in a viewliner one if you do not have a commode a toilet in your room at then you are in a view liner too now most people think the viewliner two is the better way to go so if you if you really want a toilet you're gonna hope for a viewliner one but the viewliner two is a lot uh newer of a car and you'll know you're in a viewliner too right when you walk out if you see wood paneling in the hallway the viewer are paneled in wood and the viewliner ones are not so there are some some other differences between them uh and something to note if you're in a super liner you may think they're all the same the big difference between the super liner sleeper cars is that the bathrooms are bigger than the super liner one than the super liner yeah so if you are in a train that has both the super liner one and super liner two and you're in the two and you're going to the bathroom you're like this thing is so small uh just walk down to the other one if it's a one and the bathroom is on the lower level are definitely going to be way better a little more spacious the one the ones in in the super in the two the super liner two are are a lot more like um airplane bathrooms like yeah practically the same size as like an airplane bathroom so they're gonna be a little bit tight you'd have a hard time moving around too much especially if you're trying to get ready or something in the morning in there it's a really tight as far as space and where to put things so so that brings me to which ticket should you buy so if if you're trying to save money and that's your main objective coach is a great way to go because you're going to get to the same place you have a lot on the same train you have a lot of the same amenities and it's it's really economical most of the time just to go coach a lot of people ask should you upgrade to business class and if the price is not that big of a difference we like to upgrade to business class but if sometimes the price for business class upgrade can be over a hundred dollars then we definitely uh would not do it because basically what you're getting is a little more privacy and you get some free drinks and you know depending on the train you get different perks but there's not a lot yeah maybe you might get the quiet car on on one train but maybe not on another there's just very few and it's not worth more than you know it's probably not worth more than about 25 dollars if it's more than a 25 to 50 difference it's not worth that yeah and then the same applies to the asella for first class if you if you upgraded first class you're going to get a little bit bigger seat a little bit more room and you're going to get a meal included right but you know you can buy a meal for ten dollars or just bring something with you yeah so if you're i wouldn't pay a hundred dollars extra for first class a seller and then as far as the sleeper cars go the all of the sleeper cars only sleep two passengers except for the family bedroom which is only on a super liner so that's a question we get a lot i have three people or i'm going by myself or i have five people which one should we get uh if you have three people try to get the family bedroom right or you know if you'll be on a route with a with a suit yeah or if you have four people try to get the family bedroom for sure but if you have if they're kids if it's four adults yeah four adults that's not going to work um but if you're looking at roommates you cannot put three people in a room at all no uh it's it's way you need to get two two it's very tight yeah so uh the bedroom is also a good option but a lot of people think you can put more people in there you can't you can only put two people in the bedroom maybe just a small child you could sleep in the bottom bed possibly but yeah it's it's not designed for more than two people we've we've actually heard you know some some little babies in there uh so that is another tip if you're looking to avoid uh small kids you know babies they generally do travel in the bedrooms i've never seen one in a room at there's just not enough room in there no for someone to have a child so if you're traveling on a a cross-country route let's talk about some of the other amenities you might get and one of the best ones is observation car yeah the observation car is great because it everyone has access to it a lot of times i think coach passengers don't think that they can use it but it's open to everyone on the train so not just your coaches but also sleeper car passengers that's kind of where everybody can congregate in the middle and it's great because what i love about it is not just can you just sit there and enjoy the view but there's also tables in there where you can come and eat meals if you like or you can sit there and work if you want or you can just use it as your as your seat if it's not like a really full um train where they're trying to rotate people through the observation car the other thing you'll find in the observation car is also there is usually the cafe is in the observation cart and this is where you can find the secret bathroom we call it most people don't use this bathroom and we've been on various trains where you go to the observation car and you go down there and clearly no one has used the bathroom in there yet yeah you're like the first person in there and you're like how did this happen no a lot of people don't know that it's down there so um note that that is in the observation car you don't have to go back to either your sleeper car or back to coach to go to the bathroom you can always go right downstairs in the observation car to go to the restroom a couple other things about that car that it is open 24 hours so i go in there a lot at night i'll take my computer down there either do some work play a game do whatever down there it's usually pretty quiet there's always a conductor walking through checking in and seeing how you're doing yep you can bring a snack bring your computer bring your tablet down there if one of you stays up late that's something good that you can do so yeah that's that's uh that's something that i like to do i love the observation car now the thing is they're only on cross-country routes and they're only on super laners so they're going to be basically routes that start or end in chicago and are heading west or south is is the routes are going to be on the ones from new york they do not have observation cars so they are great though probably one of my favorite features of of the train absolutely it is one of our favorite places to kind of hang out like if you get tired of being in your you know coach seat or if you're in a sleeper and you get tired of being in a sleeper you can always go there and just kind of hang out stretch your legs and it's also a good place to just kind of walk around um if people are just sitting or if you're going there in the late evening or the early morning it's a great place to just kind of get some steps into i found all right so next up let's talk about what the food options are on the train yeah you got several food options depending on what train type it is and what kind of ticket type you have so if you are in coach you are only going to have one option well two if you count bring your own food which is definitely an option you can bring your own food the other option for coach passengers is the cafe and almost all trains will have a cafe car only the really really short ones will not as we found out when we tried to ride the hiawatha and uh it did not have one we were planning on it and it didn't but it's only like uh you know less than a couple hours training yeah it's a short ride and they do have food at the station anything longer than that will have a cafe car so you go down there and you can buy hot food you can buy cold food drinks snacks all that it is only open certain hours of the day correct breakfast lunch dinner closes depending on the train it'll close in the evening before you go to bed so and it also closes the attendant also does take breaks throughout your train ride so depending on when you hop on hop off um the you know the attendant could be on on a break but they will always let you know through the announcements when the attendant is going to go on break they usually let you know ahead of time so if you need to get something you can always run over there and grab it a couple other things to note is that they only take cards they don't take cash and if you're in a sleeper car or another class you can also go use the cafe car as well right so you can buy food there if you need extra food we don't generally need to do that because generally in the supercar the food is plenty but but if you want to you can definitely go do that so the next option is if you are in a sleeper car there's two different things that may happen you will have either flexible dining or traditional dining and the east coast routes for the most part shorter routes all have the flexible dining and the west coast routes have the traditional dining so flexible dining is kind of what popped up a few years ago when they took their traditional dining away from everyone and it is kind of basically somewhere between the cafe and the traditional dining it is maybe one step above airplane food i would say maybe a couple steps maybe a couple steps a little taste but the food is going to be basically microwaved and pre-pre-prepped food that they heat but it is good so it that food is included with your sleeper car accommodations if you're on the one of the east coast trains now you can tell when you're booking your ticket there's a little box that tells you about your your ride if you're gonna have flexible or more traditional so check that out but generally speaking east coast trains uh flexible anything leaving from chicago and going uh west or going to chicago from the west is going to have uh traditional so the traditional though is a whole other league that is the kind of more like your white tablecloth travel service um and they bring you your meal uh you know in different increments so you get your appetizer you get your entree and you get your dessert and it is actually cooked on the train so you can definitely tell a taste difference uh food quality difference it is really really quite good food yeah really love the traditional dining so if you're going to be if you're trying to decide which train you want to go on and you want to have that experience definitely pick one with traditional dining it's going to it's a whole different menu uh the food is just it's just way better it is yeah it's absolutely amazing and you just get really good options for all of for all of your your entrees and uh there is no cost to that one either it is included with your sleeper car uh ticket a question we get a lot is can you pay for this if you're in coach or or something like that and uh the answer is no they they're not allowing people right now to pay for a dining car beyond they used to a long time ago and now that's not possible anymore you know so maybe that'll come back one day but that's for now yes if you're not in a supercar you only have the cafe available to you or as always you can bring your own meals the other thing also is your beverages if you're in the sleeper car your beverages are also included so that's your juices and soft drinks and all the water bottled water you would like you can get that from your attendant or at the dining car you also get one alcoholic beverage per person per ride so it's not per meal and they only provide that for you at dinner time so you can't have it with your lunch and then as far as coach they do have water available so if you have your own refillable water bottle you can bring that and fill that up um on your own at those water stations usually they're right they're usually near the stairs on um on the super liners but on the united viewliners they're usually near like one of the entrance ways so just just look around for it or just ask somebody and they'll point you in the right direction all right let's talk best routes because if this is a vacation you need to know where you want to go and not all the routes are the same some are really pretty some are not that pretty some are a ride that's it so if you're doing this for a vacation mentality like this is a bucket list item or just something you want to go see something pretty you want to see the country here are the top routes you should consider and the first one is the california zephyr top of the list this ride is uh the terminus stations are you leave from chicago and it brings you into emeryville which you can uh hop on the bus then and head right into san francisco yeah and so the best part of this route is going to be after denver between denver and california so don't get on this in chicago and get off in denver no you're going to you're going to see the free park the best part it takes you through all the gorges and the canyons of colorado absolutely and that's really what you're there to see that's the best route in america uh the second best route we would probably recommend is the empire builder and that's going to take you from chicago all the way to seattle or portland or the other way and it's it's the northern route the northernmost route in the country and we saw some beautiful stuff on there absolutely gorgeous uh it's you're going to see a lot of beautiful scenery that normally we don't see because a lot of people don't take that route when they're driving cross-country they usually go across the middle somewhere but that northernmost route takes you through some of the most beautiful mountain areas and through the tip of glacier national park uh just absolutely stunning the scenery up there i was actually very surprised and i think the bonus there is if you're going to seattle coming in or leaving especially if you're leaving from seattle that view of puget sound is spectacular beautiful uh probably the third one that people would say do for a vacation would be the coast starlight out on the west coast and that's going to take you from l.a to seattle or the other way around and it's called the co-star light because it skirts the coast like i didn't realize how close literally to the coast and like if you were you know you're five feet from the water from the ocean you're just right there like almost it feels like you're hanging over it and and it's just beautiful so yeah that is definitely one that you can do now the pretty part of that one is really from san francisco emeryville oakland area down to l.a the going north from from the bay area up to seattle isn't as pretty but you do get to see mount saint helens and then yep and mount rainier so uh if it's a clear day of course yes but those are those are probably the top three if you want trying to do this for a bucket list trip pick one of those absolutely and we do have videos of our rides we've done each of those several times and we do have videos of all of those train rides on those if you want to see kind of a preview of what that's like if you're trying to decide between the three okay another thing you're gonna need to know is what to bring uh for this if so your first trip you don't know what to bring so what are some tips for what they should bring well what to bring is is usually the hardest part we learned this lesson the very first train ride that we had because we didn't have the right things with us on the train so what i what i always tell people is you got your checked bag check that don't worry about it don't think about it or if you want to keep it with you you can always store in a luggage rack either in coach or in the sleeper car now you'll have a carry-on bag likely with you where you store you know a few things like your for ladies purses computers things like that and then if you're in a sleeper car or even actually in coach you want an overnight bag of where you're going to keep some things like a change of clothes toiletries if you want to brush your teeth get yourself freshened up some deodorant things like that um you're going to want a little bit smaller bag right to have with you on the train so we have a little bag and that we keep all of these things in and it makes it easier for us quick to access and we don't have to think about it or try to go dig through our our checked bag our big bag that we've stored in the luggage rack or something to try to dig through it on the train with people walking by and stuff everything you can pull out real easily just make sure you have that bag with you yeah and then i like to have one backpack with me that is going to have everything valuable in it because you will be getting up and if you're with someone even you're going to want to go eat together or maybe you want to go to the observation car together you don't want to leave your computer your phone at the seat have one backpack that you can put all your valuables in and just pick it up and walk away and when you're gone we just leave the food back there if someone wants to get a snack they can have it but you don't want to hurt yourself you don't want to leave your phone and stuff sitting there so we we take a backpack and we get the question a lot which backpack do you use which bags do you use we have a list of everything that we travel with on the website groundlifetravel.com and there's a link to every single thing we've bought making super easy so if you want to just do go look on there you can find that on the website and uh there is a bunch of stuff on there that we personally use right now down to which cameras we use and how do we attach them to the windows that's all on there everything is in that blog and like we said all the links to those items exactly uh so this has been our complete guide to a beginner's guide to amtrak uh we hope this has been helpful for you if you're just getting started on your amtrak journey planning out your trip we have so many more videos on the channel uh almost every route and every type of sleeper car uh check those out because seeing it is gonna be better than you know right about it and check out and see what you're getting into as well as we do have articles about every single one of those if you have a question it's more than likely answered on our website so head on over groundedlifetravel.com and just click that little search bar and type in whatever it is you're looking for and it will pop right up for you um and answer your questions so your questions should be answered between our videos and the articles on the website so this should clear the rest of those things up for you and we're going to be traveling this year quite a bit on amtrak so we hope to see you on there if you see us be sure to say hi uh we like to meet people while we're traveling so we hope to see you and i hope you have an awesome trip

Channel: Grounded Life Travel

Views: 170,420

Keywords: amtrak tips and tricks, amtrak train travel, first trip on amtrak, amtrak travel guide, dining options on amtrak, amtrak overnight, amtrak train, amtrak cross country, amtrak comfort, amtrak cross country train travel, amtrak crescent line, amtrak sunset limited, amtrak texas eagle, amtrak coast starlight, amtrak empire builder, amtrak california zephyr, amtrak observation car, amtrak guide, amtrak 2022, beginner guide to amtrak, amtrak, train travel, amtrak beginners guide

Id: 6WfEEL_m-Uo

Length: 29min 56sec (1796 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 07 2022