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Hi All,

I am looking to travel cross country next year sometime (probably September) and would love to know if anyone can help with anything at all !

We are looking to fly to New York and then stay for 4-5 days then catch the Amtrak to Chicago & then onto Oakland and then down to LA for 3-4 days. The maximum break I can get (work commitments) is 2 weeks.

I am planning to bypass San Francisco as we went last year so I was thinking of staying in Berkeley overnight and then getting the Amtrak down to LA.

This is of course is The CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR route but would I be better off getting The SOUTHWEST CHIEF straight to LA?...I guess thats all down to personal opinions about which route is best ! Can anyone sway me either way on which route is best !!!

Anyway the confusing thing is getting the "open jaw" flight tickets...from LON-NY...and then LA-LON...2 weeks later and booking the hotels in advance...hoping the trains are ok !

Does anyone know of any websites I may be able to book flights & Amtrak tickets & hotels all in one.....or would I be better off buying individually.

Where would I start with planning a journey like this...the flights & work around that...or the AMTRAK dates and work outwards....is slowly beginning to fill my head !

I think thats about it...!

Anyway...any help from anyone out there would be gratefully appreciated.

I thank you all for reading this long query & I hope it all makes sense.

Rob
 
Rob,

we welcome you to the forum and glad you are coming to do an Amtrak trip.

It really depends on the scenery you are looking for. The California Zephyr has some pretty spectacular mountain scenery you will see. However, due to running on UP Lines for more than half of the trip, you may not be ontime. But if you put scenery ahead of timliness, take the California Zephyr. When you go to Los Angeles, you'd board the Coast Starlight. This train is not too punctual as well, but it has good scenery on its southern portion.

If you'd rather be ontime take the Southwest Chief straight to LA from Chicago. This has pretty good scernery as well yet its more desert like going through New Mexico and Arizona. Others may chime in here as I have not done this entire route yet. This route does run on BNSF tracks, so you will probably have better ontime performance if you'd rather have that.
 
Hi Rob,

I too am a Brit abroad, and rode the Lake Shore Limited (NYC - Chicago) and California Zephyr in April.

Start by searching for flights. They will be your biggest expense, and shifting your departure by a few days can save you £££. If you can, ask for time off starting mid-week, because flights are of course cheaper during the week, and you get the added holiday bonus of two half weeks at work before and after your trip. For the best fares, go direct to ba.com, Virgin Atlantic and the try Expedia UK and Opodo. Travel Jungle can also be useful for comparing different airlines between two cities. For a left field option, try Air Canada who sometimes have good deals via Toronto or Montréal.

I would recommend the California Zephyr over the Southwest Chief. The scenery is spectacular, and over the course of the trip you'll get the classic cross section of America: the pencil flat prairies on day one, a rapid ascent into the Rockies after Denver, and then the awe inspiring beauty of the Utah and Nevada deserts on days 2 and 3.

The Lake Shore Limited and the Zephyr run every day, which will help your trip planning. If you're planning on taking a sleeper, make a few test bookings around the dates your looking for and guage where the cheaper roomettes and bedrooms are: just like Ryanair, it's supply-and-demand... if the train is booking up, you'll pay more.

Hope that helps. My trip is in detail with photos here: jamesbrownontherails.blogspot.com

Happy travelling,

*j* :blink:
 
Your trip from Oakland on the Starlight would likely be mostly after dark, due to the problems with lateness, so you wouldn't get much scenery there; however, you could catch the San Joaquins (no scenery to speak of) which would get you from Oakland to L.A. (via a bus connection at Bakersfield) within a few hours. The entire trip on the Chief is only 44 hours, rarely late, boring on the first (half) day, but pretty interesting on the second day, as you go from western Kansas plains, through some canyons and mountain areas, then across the classic Southwest of the line west of Albuquerque. You sleep across Kansas and the California desert (eastern part of the state), so you don't miss much there.
 
Check out www.amtrakvacations.com. They have hotel packages available in several cities served by Amtrak and can arrange rental cars, too.
 
Check out www.amtrakvacations.com. They have hotel packages available in several cities served by Amtrak and can arrange rental cars, too.
I had thought of that, but I'm not sure if the toll free number works from England. Although perhaps the right travel agent can take advantage of the offerings from Amtrak Vacations.
 
Welcome Robbie! I'm a "rookie" to all of this but have ridden the Zephyr twice this year, will be riding it again in 3 weeks and again in 8 weeks. All from Lincoln NE (LNK) to Glenwood Springs CO (GSC) or Winter Park (WIP) all of those stops are in the Rocky Mountains, and to SF this March . I think you would really like the Zephyr. We always talk about the Rockies but it also passes through the Sierra Nevadas as well near Lake Tahoe. I know I'm gonna take some crud, but with the lateness of the CZ, we took a flight on Southwest for $59.00 one way to LA from San Francisco. If you do this, DO NOT FLY INTO LAX, but fly into Orange County or Burbank. We had looked at the trains mentioned and noticed how much more time that was going to add so we booked a cheap flight so we had a little more time to see things in the daylight. We arrived to Emeryville 6 hours late. So we were glad we made the decision that we made.
 
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And book your hotel through US sites in $... you'll save compared to booking in £ on British sites because domestic rates are usually better than those offered to foreigners.

*j*
 
And book your hotel through US sites in $... you'll save compared to booking in £ on British sites because domestic rates are usually better than those offered to foreigners.
*j*

It's off-topic, that's a good idea to check the price between the US based websites and overseas websites to see if it is cheaper. I am wondering on how do they charge on credit card, such as foreign currency fee?
 
If I am not mistaken, Rail Europe can book Amtrak tickets for you in the UK.
 
Thanks Guys....

I'm so surprised (but so happy !) that I got so many replies and so quickly as well.

All the replies have been a tremendous help.

I'ts all so confusing to work out this trip from here in the UK...but your answers have helped a great deal !!

Keep them coming !

Thanks Again.

Rob
 
Rob:

You plan sound good to me. The Lake Shore to California Zephyr connection is pretty secure even with a late arrival from New York. My one area of concern is the Coast Starlight from the San Francisco Bay Area to LA. This train originates in Seattle and has been having serious schedule keeping problems getting into the Oakland area. Six, eight, or ten hours late is not unusual. Be sure to leave a one day cushion between your arrival in LA and you flight back to the UK to account for a really tardy Coast Starlight. Hopefully you are planning to stay there for a night or two before heading back across the pond.

As you probably have found out, Amtrak internet sales direct to consumers is only available at the Amtrak web site. They are not listed on any of the consumer booking sites like Expedia or Travelocity. So if you are a do-it-yourselfer (and I am one), you can book your reservation on Amtrak’s site and your air elsewhere.

Your open jaw air is probably not a big deal either. Most carriers will price the trip as one half the return fare to the arrival destination (LHR-NYC) plus one half the return fare to the departure destination (LAX-LHR). Both BA and VS are good bets (I don’t want to get in the middle of one of those heated BA is best; no, VS is best fights: I have recently had great flights on both), but do not overlook UA either if the price is right. All three fly non-stop to from LHR to NYC (JFK or EWR) and back non-stop from LAX.

Bill
 
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Living overseas, I can answer a couple of questions.

Don't know about England, but we can dial a US "800" number from Taiwan. It is just charged the same as any other international call to the US. As to credit card charges: You generally get a better currency conversion rate on those than if you did a conversion of cash.

Also don't know about converting pounds or other European currencies to dollars, but from Taiwan, I have found I always do better doing my conversions on this end. Generally the buy-sell gap in the conversion rates are higher in the US than a lot of other places I have been. It can also be diificult to find places where you can convert currnecy in the US. My US bank is now one of the mega banks, but if I want to convert currency there is usually only ONE of their banks in any major city that does it.

George
 
Also don't know about converting pounds or other European currencies to dollars, but from Taiwan, I have found I always do better doing my conversions on this end.
Make your bookings direct using amtrak.com and a British credit card. The US dollar is in pretty bad shape right now, which is to our (foreigners) advantage. As of right now, $1 = about £0.52.

*j* :blink:
 
Thank you everyone who answered my queries !

I think I have decided to go via THE SOUTHWEST CHIEF-Straight to LA...but maybe not !

This will cut out the awkward connection waiting time and staying a night in Emeryville and just seems to me to be a bit easier to arrange !

I realise that I will not get to go on the CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR...which seems to be the best route...so that's a bit sad.

So can anyway let me know if I am making a BIG mistake by missing the scenery of the CZ as opposed to the SWC ???

Also when would be the best time to go..I'm looking at Sept/Oct next year.....is there any difference in fares between those 2 months ?

Thanks again.

Rob
 
So can anyway let me know if I am making a BIG mistake by missing the scenery of the CZ as opposed to the SWC ???
Well, there's always next time :D

Either route will give you a spectacular trip across the states, and the important thing is that you will really see the variety in the landscapes and scenery of the USA. As a first timer, you'll enjoy either of them... there is nothing like a trip on Amtrak in the UK or Europe.

Also when would be the best time to go..I'm looking at Sept/Oct next year.....is there any difference in fares between those 2 months ?
In coach, probably not, and certainly not if you book ahead. Passenger numbers start to tail off at the end of summer, so if try lots of different dates you'll see that sleeper fares are likely to vary. There is a much discussed system of 'buckets' which calculate the sleeper fares: in the low season you will find it easier to find roomettes and bedrooms priced in the cheaper buckets, so compare fares as far into October as you can. You just have try lots of test bookings on amtrak.com... search CHI - LAS and then on the second page click to the accomodation prices.

Unfortunately you need to do a lot of clicking backwards and forwards (it's not possible to compare prices over a week like on some airline prices) but it's a useful way to find cheaper fares.

*j* :blink:
 
Some of the sites I use for air and hotel combinations are: hotels.com, travelocity.com, orbitz.

I recently booked a hotel in LasVegas and found hotels.com to be a little less expensive than some of the other sites. I didn't check Travelocity or Orbitz, but Hotels.com does service England.

However, for Amtrak, it looks like the only site you can book train travel is through Amtrak.com.
 
So can anyway let me know if I am making a BIG mistake by missing the scenery of the CZ as opposed to the SWC ???
I can't say that the Chief would be a let down compared to the Zephyr, since I've not yet been on the Zephyr. However, I thought that the Chief had some pretty nice scenery when I rode it back in June. You can read about my trip, as well as see some pictures from it in this topic here on the site.

Also when would be the best time to go..I'm looking at Sept/Oct next year.....is there any difference in fares between those 2 months ?
It's anyone's guess as to when the prices might be best, however I would urge you to consider going earlier in September if at all possible. Since part of the idea is to enjoy the scenery, you must consider that with each passing day the daylight hours will get shorter. That means that picking October over September will cut out some sights for you.
 
I would recommend to take CZ in the fall to see the golden leaves. CZ has more trees than SWC. On CZ, you will pass through 2 different mountains- Rockies and Sierra Nevadas.

If you really want to ride along the coast and Coast Starlight is not an option, you might want to bus to San Luis Obispo and board on Pacific Surfliner.
 
So can anyway let me know if I am making a BIG mistake by missing the scenery of the CZ as opposed to the SWC ???

Thanks again.

Rob
If you'd like to see pictures of the CZ trip I took earlier this year see these links:

Enjoy your trip!
Aloha

The Pictures from MrFSS are great, thought you might also be interested in mine, of these two routes.

California Zephyr

South West Chief

And to sort of repeat Relax and Enjoy your trip.
 
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