The answer to this question depends heavily on the traveler.
I am willing to take a 21 hour train ride. I have zero problems sleeping on trains (well, that one time we had an emergency stop that flung me out of my seat - that I woke up for!). I don’t like to hurry. I have multiple ways to entertain myself while not sleeping. I easily strike up conversations with total strangers in the dining car. And so on and so forth. I personally find train rides enjoyable.
If, on the other hand, you loathe trains then no, don’t take a 21 hour train ride. If you can’t sleep on a moving vehicle don’t do this.
Despite my love of flying, I actually prefer cross country travel by train over airplane in many circumstances. Between Thanksgiving and, say, April I like trains because they are the last mode of transportation to be stopped by bad weather. If the trains aren’t moving neither is anything else - but it’s a lot more comfortable to be snoozing on a train than in an airport terminal (I’ve done both. More than once)
I’ve never gotten a sleeper, I ride trains on coach, even on long trips. But as I said, I have no problems sleeping (not being a physically big person helps). On the other hand, I can NOT fall asleep on an airplane. I have never been able to do that, even on extended flights. Given one of my hobbies that is probably a good thing, but it can make long trips on airplanes hellish. Anyhow, IF you can afford a sleeper go for it - I’ve always wanted to try one, but could never justify the expense.
I thought of another reason not to fly (and this I realize is highly debatable) - a train is (by my research) a much more ecologically sound decision versus air travel. If that’s important to you, it might be a factor.
I see there are varied opinions, here, and I appreciate all of them. I’m still leaning toward the train, for reasons listed above – I like trains, I enjoy cross-country trips (and would happily drive if it weren’t only me for a 15 hour stretch), I’m a ‘‘journeying’’ kind of person. I don’t consider 21 hours a waste of my time IF I can read, listen to music, munch on snacks, and just generally relax.
I flew to Tampa from Philly over Christmas break just a week ago and I didn’t enjoy it at all. Sure it was only a couple of hours, but it was a shitty couple of hours. My anxiety isn’t terrible, but it’s enough to interfere with truly enjoying reading a book or listening to music. I admit I get some anxiety on trains (I know, I know) but I used to commute daily by train and had no problem reading and stuff. Come to think of it, I could sleep in the mornings most days too, so there’s no reason to assume I wouldn’t be able to sleep on a longer ride.
I guess I would take the train, risk being bored and miserable, and if I am, I would know never to take the train again. But if I like it, it could become a real option for going home (Michigan) and seeing family and friends (Chicago) without the hassle of flight.
A 21-hour train ride is not a dumb idea at all. I’ve done it (and longer) on VIA Rail, not Amtrak, but the idea is the same. I’d advise a sleeper though–nice to stretch out and let the train rock you to sleep, and you wake up a lot more refreshed than if you sleep sitting up. Hit the dining car for a real meal, and have a drink in the lounge as you get to know your fellow passengers. Much nicer than air travel.
With trains, it is as someone noted above–it’s the journey, not the destination.
Not crazy, though flying is so insanely cheap that it’s hard to pass up. I did three days (Oakland > Portland > Boston) once. When you’re awake, trains are way more comfy than anything else around: you can stand up, walk around, go the club car, drink a beer while playing cards with the random person you meet, plug in your laptop, etc. I don’t know if there’s WiFi on Amtrack yet, but cell phones should work everywhere. I found the seats are less comfortable to sleep in than many buses and planes.
Plus, if you’re going to and coming from downtown, 30th street is a lot closer than the airport, and (is it Union Station in Chicago?) is right downtown, wheras O’Hare is an hour away. And you can bring liquids and not have to shuffle and jive and take off your shoes for the TSA.
That’s the thing! This might actually be important for a train ride and sleeping, because quality of sleep is negatively affected by external light (and I imagine a lot of external light in the non-sleeper parts of the train.
Took a sixteen-hour Amtrak ride from DC to Montreal - loved it. Gorgeous scenery, plenty of space, decent food, and reasonably-priced booze. What’s not to like?
It’s a far more civilized way to travel than flying.
I took Amtrak from Chicago to the Bay Area (and back) when I was in college, three days and two nights each way in a chair.
Overall I thought it sucked. It was like being in a big airplane seat for days at a time. Sleep was difficult. There was lots of noise. By the time we pulled into the station 75% of the toilets were blocked and out of order. Frankly if I hadn’t been trying to save $$$ I would have found a way to trade in my return ticket and bought a plane ticket for the trip back.
There were a couple of nice bits (sunrise in the Nevada desert, going through the mountains in the winter) but overall I didn’t care for it.
I assume they’ve gotten rid of the “smoking cars”? Because they had those when I rode the train (1990s) and it took about one day for the smoke to get into multiple cars (I can’t see why they would recirculate air on a train but that seemed to be the case) which was nasty.
I’ve done the DC/Chicago round trip on Amtrak’s Capitol Limited a couple of times, one of their double-deck Superliner routes. The middle of the train has a sightseeing/lounge car in which you can watch the world go by if you’re not interested in the free movie or head downstairs for a snack.
Many years ago I took Amtrak from LA to Chicago. I had a sleeper, and it was very relaxing - up to the point the train got delayed in snow, they ran out of food, some toilets in some sleeper cars froze up (not mine) and they froze my pet hamster who was riding in the mail car. So, check the weather. The food back then was really good.
When I lived on the East Coast I took the train all the time from Trenton to DC and Baltimore. Much, much more convenient than flying, and a lot more comfortable, even before 9/11.
Yeah, no smoking anywhere, except outside at certain stops.
I took Amtrak from Iowa to Seattle last summer, in a “roomette”. If I could afford to do it again, I’d get a regular sleeper, just because I’d like my own bathroom and shower, and because sometimes I drool when I sleep. Nobody needs to see that.
There was a noisy family in my car but the attendant made a point of quieting them down at night, and I expect they’d do the same in coach. They were also good about dealing with obnoxious passengers – one guy was put off the train because he was drunk.
21 hours doesn’t seem that long. I met people on my trip who were doing coach from New Jersey to California.
I took a train trip this July in Europe (from Lure, Franche-Comté, to Copenhagen) that involved five trains and lasted 22 hours, including a longish stopover in Basel. It was pretty gruelling (especially the overnight from Basel to Hamburg, in 2nd class seats) but not unmanageable, and the train ferry from Lubeck to Denmark was pretty cool. I’m a bit of a train geek, though.
The wife and I took Amtrak from Seattle to New Orleans this last October, and had a very good time. We got one of the “roomettes”, which have two seats; at night the room converts to two bunks. The fare included meals in the dining car; the food was not haute cuisine, but was quite good. We enjoyed talking to the (random) people we were seated with at meals.
The trick is to think of the train trip not as a way to get somewhere, but as part of your vacation. It’s fun to sit there, not thinking of much, watching the scenery go by or playing some solitaire on the iPod touch or talking to your wife; every now and then they announce a meal, and you get up and go to the dining car. At night you sleep in a comfortable bed.
And you don’t go through a metal detector, and you don’t have to take your shoes off, and you don’t get the impression that the employees all hate you, like in another form of travel we could name. :rolleyes: Very civilized way to travel.
I did a 36-ish hour train ride to Seattle from Minneapolis and it was so much fun. You can sit and gaze out the window, go to the sightseeing car and gaze out the window, go to the cafe car and gaze out the window…
Bring fun reading and most importantly, a cooler full of snacks and sandwiches. If you don’t bring good food that makes you feel good, you’ll end up spending too much money on cafe car microwave food that makes you feel icky.
