Amtrak to San Francisco
Aug 21, 2018, 1:29 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Orcas Island, Washington
Programs: Amtrak Guest Rewards Select, Maika'i Card
Posts: 257
Amtrak to San Francisco
San Francisco is my wife's and my favorite city. I love trains, and she loves ballet, and we put the two together for this trip.
We started our trip by flying from Orcas Island to Seattle Boeing Field on a Kenmore Airlines Cessna Caravan, then took a taxi into Seattle. We stayed at our favorite Edgewater Hotel, which features rooms with balconies over the water of Elliot Bay. We had an excellent dinner in their restaurant, and then sat by the fireplace in our room watching the ferries sail back and forth. The next morning, after a room service breakfast, we were off to King Street Station.
We had an excellent Sleeping Car Attendant on our train ride from Seattle to San Jose. He brought us a whole bag of ice for our travel cooler, and also provided some extra pillows and blankets. My wife is a very sensitive, so I brought along two king-size feather pillows as well as a small neck pillow--they fit in a duffle bag on top of my rolling suitcase, and are really not that much trouble. The food and service in the dining car was good, and our train arrived more or less on time in San Diego. We had lunch with a friend there at a Greek restaurant, then took Caltrain to San Francisco. I like traveling to San Jose instead of Oakland or Emeryville on this train when going to San Francisco because it allows time on the train to have a nice breakfast instead of being rushed, and actually the commuter train trip back up the peninsula to San Francisco is a treat for me.
Our hotel of choice in San Francisco is the Fairmont on Nob Hill. It is a central location with fantastic views from the rooms, and it has great service and good restaurants. We ate most of our meals either in-room or at the hotel restaurants, although there are several nice restaurants nearby. The San Francisco ballet was interesting--I guess we are getting to be old farts, but we find some modern music to be challenging listening. We also rented a car and drove up to Muir Woods and Stinson Beach.
On our final day in the Bay Area, I had booked a room at the Hyatt House in Emeryville, which is adjacent to the Amtrak station. This ended up being a good idea, since my wife had injured her knee and rested in bed with an ice pack. Our train was scheduled to depart at about 10 pm, and was on-time when we headed to the station. But the train was delayed almost an hour in Oakland, and by the time we boarded the Cafe had closed. The service on this train was not very good in our sleeper nor in the dining car, and there were some maintenance deficiencies in our Bedroom.
Our train arrived in Seattle about an hour late. We stayed at the Edgewater again, and flew up to Orcas Island the next morning.
Our room at the Fairmont, with Alcatraz overexposed in the background.
Muir Woods
View of Mount Shasta from our Bedroom on Amtrak's Coast Starlight
We started our trip by flying from Orcas Island to Seattle Boeing Field on a Kenmore Airlines Cessna Caravan, then took a taxi into Seattle. We stayed at our favorite Edgewater Hotel, which features rooms with balconies over the water of Elliot Bay. We had an excellent dinner in their restaurant, and then sat by the fireplace in our room watching the ferries sail back and forth. The next morning, after a room service breakfast, we were off to King Street Station.
We had an excellent Sleeping Car Attendant on our train ride from Seattle to San Jose. He brought us a whole bag of ice for our travel cooler, and also provided some extra pillows and blankets. My wife is a very sensitive, so I brought along two king-size feather pillows as well as a small neck pillow--they fit in a duffle bag on top of my rolling suitcase, and are really not that much trouble. The food and service in the dining car was good, and our train arrived more or less on time in San Diego. We had lunch with a friend there at a Greek restaurant, then took Caltrain to San Francisco. I like traveling to San Jose instead of Oakland or Emeryville on this train when going to San Francisco because it allows time on the train to have a nice breakfast instead of being rushed, and actually the commuter train trip back up the peninsula to San Francisco is a treat for me.
Our hotel of choice in San Francisco is the Fairmont on Nob Hill. It is a central location with fantastic views from the rooms, and it has great service and good restaurants. We ate most of our meals either in-room or at the hotel restaurants, although there are several nice restaurants nearby. The San Francisco ballet was interesting--I guess we are getting to be old farts, but we find some modern music to be challenging listening. We also rented a car and drove up to Muir Woods and Stinson Beach.
On our final day in the Bay Area, I had booked a room at the Hyatt House in Emeryville, which is adjacent to the Amtrak station. This ended up being a good idea, since my wife had injured her knee and rested in bed with an ice pack. Our train was scheduled to depart at about 10 pm, and was on-time when we headed to the station. But the train was delayed almost an hour in Oakland, and by the time we boarded the Cafe had closed. The service on this train was not very good in our sleeper nor in the dining car, and there were some maintenance deficiencies in our Bedroom.
Our train arrived in Seattle about an hour late. We stayed at the Edgewater again, and flew up to Orcas Island the next morning.
Our room at the Fairmont, with Alcatraz overexposed in the background.
Muir Woods
View of Mount Shasta from our Bedroom on Amtrak's Coast Starlight
