Chicago to Los Angeles by train! ❄️🚂Amtrak California Zephyr

62 hours on this train and i'm taking you guys along with me [Music] this journey actually started here on my couch i was browsing youtube and this video popped up across the us via train it went viral millions of views this is the first time i heard of the california zephyr amtrak's most scenic train that runs from chicago to san francisco a 52-hour route through the rockies and the sierra nevadas it was winter time and i imagine this cozy hogwarts express-esque ride with lots of time to read unplug and take in the scenery and so i booked it [Music] it's very tiny got a little mirror side table trash can down there this is the seat a light table that pulls out we've got the other seat here these two seats actually fold down into a bed and then the ceiling drops down if you see it's hanging right there but it'll drop down entirely it also conforms into a bed so this roommate sleeps two people currently have our luggages up there because we brought way too many things but yeah this is gonna be our space for the next two days [Music] this first day we were just getting the lay of the land we explored the dining cart and the observation cart which quickly became our favorite and where we spent almost all of our time it had cozy booths and the biggest windows of all the cars train departed chicago at 2pm and on our first day it would make its way through illinois and all of iowa it was really cool seeing some of the small towns of america pass by i noticed that each one had at least two or three visible auto part or auto repair shops there would be some towns where i wouldn't see any restaurants but an auto parts shop would be present and i thought that was very interesting [Music] with our romance we also got complimentary dining on the train we had breakfast lunch and dinner service the food was similar to airplane food it wasn't anything to write home about but i love the aesthetic of the dining cart and it was nice to not have to worry about bringing food for three days on board by 11 40 pm we arrived in omaha nebraska we stepped out for some fresh air for about two minutes before re-boarding and going to sleep while we slept we traveled across all of nebraska and woke up an hour outside of denver [Music] so [Music] do [Music] [Music] get some views [Music] a lot of new passengers boarded in denver and the observation card seating started getting really competitive but we managed to snag a table and after departing denver we started climbing in elevation beginning our journey through the rocky mountains this is when things are supposed to get really scenic [Music] [Music] 50 miles outside of denver we went through the third largest and the highest altitude tunnel in the united states the henderson tunnel it travels beneath the continental divide and it's a 10 mile long tunnel it takes the train 10 minutes to cross it before we cross the continental divide all the rivers were flowing in the opposite direction of the train but after passing the divide all the rivers flow in the same direction as a train [Music] [Music] [Music] most of our journey in colorado followed the colorado river and had the most gorgeous views of snow-capped mountains and the bright red colorado canyons i have to say the videos look amazing but it really doesn't do it justice i'm really lucky to have experienced all of this in real life and if you're planning to do this journey in the future i'll give a bunch of tips and tricks that i learned at the end of this video [Music] [Music] [Music] may be [Music] looks like such a beautiful town but we're only staying for five minutes he's gonna make the snowman in the five minutes we have here i'm so scared of being left behind the zephyr only runs once every 24 hours [Music] [Music] [Music] on our second day on the train we traveled through the rest of colorado and made our way into utah we went to bed right as we entered utah and woke up in nevada this was our last day on the california supper today we're going to make our way through the sierra nevadas into northern california just a few miles north of lake tahoe heading straight to san francisco [Music] is [Music] we passed by donner lake and through donner pass in northern california this was one of the most beautiful sites of the trip if you can even begin to rank them the way the trees and the clouds reflected off of the surface of the lake was just stunning that was donner lake this is known as donner pass two miles long four minutes to get through [Music] another bridge [Music] california where do i start heavy breathing in heavy heart i long to see you when the day is [Music] california in my mind we're like 10 minutes away from arriving in martinez and this like 50-hour journey so excited i'm sorry to bring some fresh air and this is [Music] before everything's gone is [Music] [Music] is um [Music] would i recommend this trip to people and yes i definitely recommend this trip i had the best time you guys will see so many gorgeous sites that america has to offer and you get to see it all within two days two days you've got the plains the canyons the snowy mountains the small towns the big cities you see all of the stuff such a short period of time it's just so beautiful like i was in awe the whole time so i'd highly highly recommend i do however have a few things that i would do differently so i'm gonna go into some of those now first off i didn't film the journey from martinez to la and that's because it was a whole mess we were supposed to get to lay at 2 am but we actually ended up getting here at 6 30 a.m so we were just so tired i was so over this whole train thing and that's why i'm a little triggered by the word amtrak now i wish i booked a plane ticket from sf2la that actually just leads me to my next point is that really the best portion of this whole ride is from denver to san francisco so you could even just hop on in denver if you wanted to skip the first day of the trip i definitely like that we did the whole chicago to san francisco experience but just know that the views get more interesting as you venture out west next up let's talk about germs so the train is a little dirty a little dusty i'd say and honestly the biggest reason we didn't hang out in our room is because it was so dusty and there was really hard to breathe bring a thing of clorox wipes that'll do you good but as honestly we had some and we would wipe things and it would be so black so it's kind of even grosser to know how dirty they were and like how's this like armrest ever been wiped down has this table ever been wiped out i mean obviously it's a train so like what can you do but just be mentally prepared that it's a little gross for the food the food they had on board was just not great but i mean it was food and it was convenient that they had it on board you didn't have to pack a meal for three days but don't expect like a gourmet meal i wish i had brought some snacks and some fruit specifically by the end of the two days i just wanted like an apple and some raspberries to just to eat something fresh thing i'll mention in terms of cost there are three different types of tickets for the california staff started from most expensive to least expensive there's a room then there's a roommate then there's coach he had a roommate the difference between a roommate and a room is a room has an attached bathroom your met is nice if you're like me and you can't sleep unless you're laying down that's me but if you can sleep in like an airplane seat or something like that it might be you might even be fine just with the coach seating we honestly hung out in the observation cart most of the time so and the observation card was open to everyone with the coach seats you don't get the dining and they don't let you pay for it on board you have to have a sleeper room or to get the dining cart experience with the lunch and dinner speaking of cost i'd highly recommend checking out the amtrak credit card so the total cost of the trip for two people from chicago to la was gonna be a little bit over twelve hundred dollars which was kind of mind-boggling to me i didn't know it was that expensive right before we booked it i was like wait let me check if there's like an amtrak credit card and i could get some points and get this for free maybe and there was i applied for the amtrak credit card and they had a 50k bonus offer and then i met the requirements for the welcome offer i got the 50 000 amtrak points and i was able to use those points to book this trip i think in points this trip was like 37 000 points so yeah it was totally free i mean i did pay the 79 for the annual fee on the card so i guess you could say this whole trip in terms of ticketing cost me 79 bucks i definitely recommend checking out the amtrak card i know right now the offer is a little bit lower but just be on the lookout credit card offers change all the time but yeah that's all the advice i have for you thank you so much for watching and i will see you in the next video [Music] you

Channel: marsela

Views: 150,731

Keywords: amtrak california zephyr, chicago to san francisco amtrak, amtrak train, california zephyr, amtrak superliner roomette, california zephyr chicago to san francisco, train travel in usa, amtrak california zephyr tour, amtrak california zephyr emeryville to chicago, amtrak california zephyr from san francisco to chicago, amtrak california zephyr winter, amtrak california zephyr first class, amtrak roomette california zephyr, marsela, marselaaa, marsela sulku

Id: 2HGkZjq4Z0c

Length: 16min 14sec (974 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 07 2022