Trip Report: Amtrak California Zephyr (Part 1)

One thing that’s been on our bucket list for a while is a cross-country train trip, so when the long Memorial Day weekend approached and we had no plans, we knew we had to go for it. After researching Amtrak’s various long distance routes, we decided on the California Zephyr, taking us from Chicago to San Francisco (technically Emeryville, CA). Why this route? We liked this one because it would go through some beautiful areas around the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, plus it would give us a chance to explore the Bay Area together at the end of the trip. The journey was scheduled to take 53 hours and 10 minutes. When we started telling people that we’d be on a train for over 50 hours, we were met with a lot of quizzical, “why would you want to do that?!” looks. It’s okay – we know long distance train travel isn’t for everyone. But for those who are intrigued, read on!

Booking Our Tickets

Now that you know why we picked the California Zephyr, let’s talk about all of the ticket options. Amtrak offers several different seating options on the California Zephyr, covering a range of prices and comfort levels. At the very lowest cost, the basic option is an economy seat on the upper or lower deck. These are the typical no-frills seats you’d find on a train, though these seem to have a little more legroom. The next tier of pricing covers the premium seating options, including the Superliner Roomette (a small private compartment ideal for one or two passengers, featuring two reclining seats that convert to two adult beds at night), the Family Bedroom (a larger private compartment with a sofa and two seats, featuring two adult beds and two child beds), and the Superliner Bedroom (a larger private compartment with a sofa and two seats, featuring two adult beds, and a private bathroom with sink, toilet and shower).

When we started seriously looking at the ticket options, we pretty quickly decided to book one of the private sleeping compartments. The price difference between an economy seat and a private compartment is pretty big but totally worth it to us – we’re terrible sleepers on airplanes (i.e. sleep on planes? what’s that?) so the ability to lay flat and possibly get a few hours of rest at night was appealing. If we’re being honest, the daily shower and the meals also held a lot of allure. Since the overall price included a unique mode of transportation across the country, lodging and meals, we thought it was worth it.

Here’s an example of the  different price options ranging from reserved coach seat (the lowest price overall) to Superliner Roomette (the lowest price sleeping car option):

Boarding in Chicago

Chicago has been our end destination on several shorter train trips and this time it would serve as our departure point, a nice change of pace. Our plan was to arrive at Union Station around 1:00pm for a scheduled 2:00pm train departure. One additional perk of the sleeping car reservation was having access to the Metropolitan Lounge at Chicago’s Union Station. This is an area where passengers can relax and enjoy comfortable lounge seating while waiting for the train. We showed our tickets to the attendant at the front desk (these tickets were emailed to us as a PDF right after we initially booked the reservation – they could be printed off or shown electronically). She asked if we had any luggage we wanted to check. Checking luggage was an option offered to passengers, though similar to checking bags on an airplane, once the bag is checked, there’s no access to it until arriving at the final destination. For this trip we opted for carry on bags only due to space limitations in the room.

Anyway, back to the Metropolitan Lounge. As we walked past the front desk area, we were welcomed into a clean, bright and modern lounge, with plenty of chairs and couches to use while we waited.

The lounge had free Wi-Fi as well as complimentary snacks and non-alcoholic beverages. There was a decent spread.

Before we knew it the passengers waiting in the lounge were invited to board the train. At this point things got a little frantic because several different trains were being called to pre-board at the same time. We lost the main caravan of people heading toward the California Zephyr but managed to find the correct platform with the right train. The economy/coach cars were located at the very end of the train with the sleeping cars up toward the front. There wasn’t much (okay, any) signage so it was a little confusing to figure out which car we were supposed to board. After asking one of the Amtrak employees on the platform who just pointed down the platform to the right, we realized that each car had a number near the front door and that helped us locate the correct car. We were in the very first car after the baggage car and both engines.

By this point we were quite giddy. Yes, we’re really dorky like that. We boarded the sleeping car and stored our carry on bags in an open area on the lower level. Note that this was not a secured and/or locked area, it was more of a “use at your own risk” type area. We kept all of our valuables with us, so anyone stealing our bags would have been pretty disappointed. Luckily we had no issues. Here’s an example of a luggage storage area:

Getting Ready to Leave

At this point we also met our sleeping car attendant, Terrence. He was friendly and approachable and when we mentioned this was our first experience in an Amtrak sleeping car, he seemed genuinely excited for us. He ran through his whole spiel regarding what to expect including how the meals worked and how to get in touch with him throughout the trip.

Soon enough we heard the train whistle and we pulled out of the station on time which was a minor marvel. There’s a bit of a backstory here. Two days before we were scheduled to leave on the Zephyr, there was a multi-car freight train derailment in Aurora, IL, on the very same tracks that Amtrak uses. Everyone was okay but the train tracks sustained some pretty bad damage. The derailment ripped up a bunch of tracks and caused several westward outbound trains to be rerouted after sitting idle, waiting in limbo for hours. There wasn’t much information available to us via Amtrak and we really weren’t sure if our train would leave on time (or at all). The train scheduled to leave the day before us seemed to leave late and then also showed significant delays. Needless to say, we were a bit uncertain as to whether or not we’d actually be heading out on our scheduled day/time, but we did, hence the minor marvel.

Once we started moving, we heard the very first train-wide announcement welcoming us, talking about the route and the stops, and explaining how dinner reservations would be taken that night. Throughout the journey there were regular announcements regarding all kinds of things and we would poke our heads out into the hallway to hear them. After all of the excitement and anticipation, we were finally onboard watching the western Chicago suburbs fly by. We dug out the California Zephyr time schedule PDF we printed off listing the upcoming train stations and started checking them off.

The Superliner Roomette

As we headed up the narrow staircase, we located our room, 024. First impression? It was small. Like really small. But our excitement carried us through. We investigated all of the little nooks and crannies, pressing buttons, adjusting air vents, opening and closing curtains, and deciding where to put our stuff. We packed very light in order to keep the basic necessities inside of the sleeping compartment and ended up hanging both of our bags from the hooks behind each seat.

We didn’t know it at the time but this turned out to be an excellent location. The room was located adjacent to a toilet/shower that almost seemed like our private bathroom since other passengers used it very little. Across from us was another Superliner Roomette that went unused the whole trip, allowing us to pop in for some pictures when the scenic views were on that side of the train.

The room is basically a small rectangle with two reclining seats facing each other. With two people, one person will always be riding backwards. From a motion sickness perspective, this didn’t bother us as much as we thought it might.  This is the view looking down and into the room. To give a bit of perspective, the yellow line is where the hallway starts.

Standing in the hallway and looking to the left.

Standing in the hallway and looking to the right.

The seats slide down at night to fold into one bed. There are small levers to press on to slide the seats down and together.

There’s a thin mattress with sheets hidden up on the top bunk. When the beds are being made for the evening, this is taken down from the top bunk and laid on top of the blue upholstery on the seats.

The other bed folds down from the ceiling area. The upper bunk area was pretty tight; some people refer to this as a coffin to describe how confining it feels. It also has a seat-belt type restraint that locks into the ceiling, almost like a safety net, to provide an extra layer of protection against falling out of the bed. The beds weren’t too bad actually but we didn’t sleep very well the first night. All of the movement does take some getting used to. We also discovered that we both slept better with our feet pointing toward the front of the train. Not sure if that’s a thing or not but it seems worth mentioning. We slept a lot better on the second night… maybe we were just exhausted? Who knows.

One of the seats has a carpeted area that serves as the main step to get up into the upper bunk. During the day we stored things there like snacks and water. It’s good to keep this area free of clutter at night in case the person on the top bunk needs to get down.

Underneath this area is a small trash can. There were new bags available at the bottom of the bin so we ended up emptying this ourselves during the trip.

Between the two seats is a center console that can fold out to create a small table.

There are two sides/flaps that can be locked into place for extra table space.

Here are the instructions for the various room configurations.

Above each seat is a reading light but only one seat has an electrical outlet (bring a small power strip), handy for charging electronic devices. There was a dial to control the temperature however we didn’t notice a difference no matter which way it was turned, so maybe it was more for looks than anything. Overall we thought the temperature in the room was very comfortable.

Next to one seat was a hook with two hangers. We traveled during the summer and didn’t have really have any clothes or coats requiring hangers but this would be handy in the winter to store coats.

The roomette included pillows, blankets and sheets, towels, hand towels and washcloths for two. There were also two bottles of water provided initially.  If we needed anything extra, including more bottle of water, we were able to contact our room attendant.

The door has dark blue curtains with long velcro strips opening where the door locks. At times during the trip we kept the main door open for air circulation but closed the velcro curtains for a little extra privacy. We also closed these at night to block out the hallway lights. Note that the room door locks from the inside but does not lock from the outside, so it might be a good idea to keep valuables on your person if you’re concerned about that sort of thing.

The Communal Bathroom

Here are some photos of the bathroom closest to our room. If you’ve ever used the bathroom on a plane, you’ve basically seen the bathroom on a train. The area is compact and designed with maximum efficiency in mind.

Hand soap and toilet tissue was available. It seemed like someone brought Dial hand soap from home and left it in this bathroom for the trip but we thought the Amtrak stuff worked and smelled fine.

This particular bathroom did have a shower stall to the right. Speaking of, the shower was definitely nice to freshen up, but man, is it hard to shower on a moving train! You never know when you might lose your balance and bump into the wall which is all part of the adventure really. On the second day one of us wisened up and took a shower while the train was stopped at a station which helped immensely… file that tip away if you so choose.

The lower level of our car had a number of extra restrooms. These had toilets and sinks only, no showers. We didn’t need to use these a lot since the upstairs bathroom was usually open.

Observation Car

This area of the train was one that we most looked forward to seeing. It’s an entire car with huge windows giving passengers extended views of all those beautiful scenic areas. Part of the car was filled with booths, like a restaurant, where we saw people using laptops, playing cards, and spreading out board games. The other part of the car had seats and benches, which were able to pivot a bit. If you’re hoping to spend some time in here during the day, plan to arrive early to stake out a good spot. This car was generally very busy during the morning and afternoon but it quieted down and was darn near deserted by dinnertime.

Lots of opportunities to take photos along the way

Meals/Dining

For passengers on the California Zephyr, there are a couple different food options including sit-down meals in the dining car and purchasing food items a la carte in the cafe car. Let’s talk about each of these options.

Option #1: Fancy Dining Car Meals

For passengers in the sleeping cars (including Superliner Roomettes, Superliner Bedrooms and Family Bedrooms), tickets include three meals a day in the dining car: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Beverages such as water, juice and soda are included; alcoholic beverages are extra.

We’ll say this – the formal meals really segment the day in a good way. It can be daunting to think of being on a moving train all day nonstop, but each meal provides a bit of structure and something to look forward to while traveling, breaking up the day into small, manageable segments. We find this to be true of meal services on long haul flights as well.

Our train had one dining car. The dining car had tables down both sides of the train and each table could accommodate four people.

There was no chance of getting a table for two – each table was filled with four people. This minimized the wait time for other passengers but it also meant dining with strangers for the duration of the trip. To be very clear: unless you are traveling as a group of four people, you will be eating with people you do not know for at least 45 minutes. The concept can be a little intimidating but once the conversation starts flowing it can be pretty fun.

We had a good experience meeting and dining with fellow train passengers. During our first dinner on the trip, we ended up being in the dining room for almost 2 hours! We ate with a young couple from Berlin, Germany, and it was interesting to hear about their travel plans within the States and also hear their take on the current state of the US and the world. Later in the trip we also met some friendly folks from Colorado and Texas. If all else fails and there’s a lull in the conversation, you can always look out the huge windows and admire the beautiful countryside! The windows in the dining car are almost as good as the ones in the observation car (more on this later).

On the first day of our trip shortly after we left Chicago, the lead dining car attendant, James, came by our room and asked what time we wanted to eat dinner. Sleeping car passengers were offered first dibs on dining reservations and then if there were seats open, economy/coach passengers were able to reserve a dining time and pay out of pocket for the meal. We had our pick of options: 5:15pm, 6:00pm, 7:15pm or 7:45pm. We opted for 7:15pm thinking it would be a safe bet right in the middle, not too early and not too late. James gave us a little slip of paper with a “2 @ 7:15pm” indicating our confirmed reservation time.

The dining staff made train-wide announcements keeping all passengers informed about when to head to the dining car. Once we heard the announcement for the 7:15pm seating, we walked down and waited at the entrance for one of the dining car attendants to seat us. Given the tight quarters, the dining staff members asked passengers to avoid standing and waiting in the middle of the aisle. These folks have quite an efficient operation going. It was very impressive to see three Amtrak employees seating passengers, taking food orders, getting beverages, and doing so many different things all at once.

These were our dinner options:

We ordered the Land and Sea, a flat iron steak paired with a premium crab, shrimp and scallop cake, with mashed potatoes and green beans. This was surprisingly good. We don’t eat steak a lot, so it was definitely a treat.

The Griddle Seared Norwegian Salmon with wild rice pilaf and green beans, also good

With each lunch and dinner meal, passengers can order one dessert item. Terrance told us that Amtrak used to serve Haagen-Dazs ice cream cups. To our great dismay, these were not available during our trip. Oh the injustice!

These were our dessert options:

The Amtrak Signature Dessert, a southern pecan tart with whipped cream

The Chocolate Raspberry Tart with whipped cream

Note that the menu does not change over the course of the trip so if you’re not crazy about the options, you’re pretty limited. We thought the dinner menu had a lot of variety but less so with the lunch menu.

Here are the breakfast options:

We ordered the Three Egg Omelet with green pepper and onion (one or both of these could be left out when ordering) with cheese, served with roasted potatoes and a flaky croissant.

We also tried the Cheese Quesadillas, Eggs and Tomatillo Sauce with a flaky croissant.

A couple of lunch options:

Lunches and dinners come with an optional side salad. We got these with every meal to add a small dose of greenery. They weren’t overly fancy but they fit the bill as far as house salads go.

The Natural Angus Burger on a brioche roll with lettuce, tomato, red onion, dill pickle, and kettle chips

The Black Bean and Corn Veggie Burger, also served on a brioche roll with lettuce, tomato, red onion, dill pickle, and kettle chips. This was really good if you’re into vegetarian options. Chips were tasty as well.

Overall the dining car food was good – much better than airplane food for sure. The downside? The prices were expensive. Since meals are included in the ticket price for sleeping car passengers, this wasn’t an issue for us, but it’s unlikely we would have paid $39.00 out of pocket for the “Land and Sea” dinner if it wasn’t already included.

Option #2: Snack Car Lounge Car Option

Conveniently, the lower level of the observation car housed the café car where various snacks were available for purchase. There were hot options like soft pretzels, hot dogs, and noodles as well as cold options like chips and candy bars. The car also serves a variety of beverages including soft drinks, coffee, and beer. We visited this area a few times – once to scope out the snack options, and then another time simply to use the tables as overflow seating when the top observation car was full.

Some of the options available for purchase

Seating area in the cafe car. Passengers can eat snacks here or take them back to their seats/rooms.

Looking at the seating area from the cafe car counter. It’s not huge but we generally found open seats when we were in this area.

It’s a rare trip where we don’t pack any snacks to have just in case. This trip was no exception. We’re pretty glad we did because it turns out having an endless amount of time on your hands translates to grazing a little more than usual. The snack car is an option though prices are certainly inflated versus what you would pay for the same snacks if you weren’t on the train. Also, the Amtrak employees staffing the dining room and snack car don’t work 24 hours per day, so there are times on the train where there are no food options unless you’ve brought your own. Packing some small, portable snacks helped us save money and were pretty convenient to have at arms length when hunger hit. There were two stops in Colorado, Denver and Grand Junction, with stores very close by to pick up snacks and beverages as well.

Overall

The train ride was a travel experience that really surprised both of us, in a good way. We brought a number of things to work on and do in our down time (because what were we going to do for over 50 hours?!) including books, magazines, and laptops, and we laugh about that now because we never once opened any of them on the train – we were glued to the windows, watching all of the beautiful scenery for most of the 50+ hour journey. We were able to see so much of the country traveling this way. We hope sharing about our experience encourages more people to consider a long distance train trip within the US. If you’re on the fence, just go for it! And if you need some photos for extra inspiration, go ahead and check out the second part of our trip report to see some of the breathtaking scenery along the way.