Originally Posted by
jphripjah
My wife and I will be taking the California Zephyr next week from Denver to Emeryville.
I have never been on a long distance Amtrak train before. Does anyone have any tips? We will be in a roommette.
One question I have is about the duration of stops. I found this timetable online:
https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/p...ule-072017.pdf
It shows the arrival and departure times of the 25 minute late night stop in Salt Lake City.
But it doesn't seem to show how long the stops are in Reno, Sacramento, etc. Does that mean every other stop aside from Salt Lake is one minute or less? The timetable doesn't show separate arrival and departure times for these other stops.
I did this trip in 2016. There's a California Zephyr page on Facebook. Lots of good info there.
1. Leave reading materials at home. You won't need them as your eyes will be glued out the window.
2. Spend lots of time in the Observation car. Good place to hang out and talk to interesting people.
3. Bring an extension cord so you can charge multiple devices. There's only 1 plug in the roomette.
4. You can forget about wi-fi and the internet.
5. Bring a sleeping mask. Bring slippers for the shower. Amtrak supplies soap and towels. They don't have hairdryers.
6. Meals are included. The food is much better than you're expecting.
7. Read the Tipping thread in this forum.
Most stops are whistle stops. Passengers exit and enter the train. The Engineer blows the whistle, and then leaves. He's not waiting around for you to re-board in Grand Junction. Visit the store there if you have a few extra minutes. SLC is the only long stop. It's 25 minutes.
Don't bother eating breakfast in Denver. If the train arrives on time, your first meal is breakfast. While I miss the french toast, I was pleasantly surprised how good the pancakes tasted. My last trip was in September. I rode Denver / Glenwood Springs and back the next day. It's a very pretty 6 hours.
dh