cirdan
Engineer
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2011
- Messages
- 3,818
I need to hear your valuable opinions in helping me choose between the California Zephyr and Southwest Chief.
I live in Europe and manage to come to the USA from time to time on vacations or for work and mostly manage to find an excuse to ride Amtrak when I do so.
On my upcoming trip, I've got my partner joining me for the first time.
It hasn't been easy convincing her to come as she doesn't like long flights so coming to the USA is in itself a big one for her. And then she generally thinks I've been exaggerating on all the positive stuff I've told her.
She has worked with some Americans in the past and I know nobody here is to blame but those guys were a real nasty bunch and I think that has reduced her opinion somewhat which is another reason she didn't really want to come.
So to cut a long story short, this is a chance to make or break her opinions. She likes doing long rail trips with me, so I've sort of thinned it down to either the SC or he CZ.
I've done part of the SW myself on a previous trip (Chicago to Albuquerque) and loved that. The risk with the CZ is I haven't done it myself so I'm torn between repeating something I definitely liked and testing something that I don't know.
So what's the landscape like along the CZ? I'm not really that much interested in forests and mountains and things as we have plenty of those in Europe as well and have just finished a major tour, but I loved the SC because it had many bits that were more desert-like, something we don't have, and also crosses the vast plains and agricultural heartlands, something else we don't really have.
Does the CZ have bits like that as well?
I live in Europe and manage to come to the USA from time to time on vacations or for work and mostly manage to find an excuse to ride Amtrak when I do so.
On my upcoming trip, I've got my partner joining me for the first time.
It hasn't been easy convincing her to come as she doesn't like long flights so coming to the USA is in itself a big one for her. And then she generally thinks I've been exaggerating on all the positive stuff I've told her.
She has worked with some Americans in the past and I know nobody here is to blame but those guys were a real nasty bunch and I think that has reduced her opinion somewhat which is another reason she didn't really want to come.
So to cut a long story short, this is a chance to make or break her opinions. She likes doing long rail trips with me, so I've sort of thinned it down to either the SC or he CZ.
I've done part of the SW myself on a previous trip (Chicago to Albuquerque) and loved that. The risk with the CZ is I haven't done it myself so I'm torn between repeating something I definitely liked and testing something that I don't know.
So what's the landscape like along the CZ? I'm not really that much interested in forests and mountains and things as we have plenty of those in Europe as well and have just finished a major tour, but I loved the SC because it had many bits that were more desert-like, something we don't have, and also crosses the vast plains and agricultural heartlands, something else we don't really have.
Does the CZ have bits like that as well?