Frequent Amtrak riders probably know about Amtrak’s free-stopover policy, but for the benefit of occasional Amtrak riders who might stumble upon this forum, I thought that it would be useful to provide information on how to book free stopovers on Amtrak.


• Amtrak allows up to three stopovers on a one-way ticket.


• A stopover may not exceed 23˝ hours in length, counting from the scheduled arrival time of the arriving train to the scheduled departure time of the departing train. Because of this time limit, you normally cannot get a free stopover at a station that has just one Amtrak train a day in the same direction, unless that train has different scheduled departure times on certain days of the week.


• In order for the stopover to be “free,” the same fare bucket must be available on all segments of the journey.


• In order to book an itinerary with stopovers, select “multi-city” on the Amtrak booking engine (either on the Amtrak app, or on amtrak.com).


• It is also possible to book a multi-city itinerary over the phone with an Amtrak agent. Some agents might not know that Amtrak allows free stopovers, but that doesn’t matter: as long as the agent books it as a multi-city ticket, rather than a series of one-ways, the itinerary should price correctly.


• The passenger is responsible for all lodging and meal expenses at the stopover cities.


As this blogger pointed out, if you want to spend more than 23˝ hours in a particular metropolitan area, you might book a pair of stopovers at nearby stations, such as Newark and New York City:

https://jeffkess.com/2018/10/amtrak-multi-city/

Here’s an example of an Amtrak itinerary in October from Washington, DC, to Boston, with overnight stops in Philadelphia, New York, and New Haven (which might be useful for touring colleges):




(Although you cannot see it in the screenshot, this three-stopover itinerary prices at $36.00, the same as a WAS-BOS direct Regional train.)

Mods: Feel free to make this a Sticky, if you think it appropriate to do so.