"Not many people have this view as an office," said an assistant conductor named Lori as she did paperwork across the table from me when we passed Jalama Beach near Lompoc, Calif. Elsewhere in the observation car, volunteers from the National Park Service's Trails & Rails program handed out brochures about the Juan Bautista De Anza National Historical Trail as they narrated our travels. We watched dogs lapping in the shallows and surfers clad in wet suits paddling out to catch a wave. (If a tsunami strikes, it seems unlikely this stretch of track would survive such a hit.) Looking down from the second floor of a bi-level Amtrak Superliner sleeping car, you can see the tide just 50 feet west of the tracks. The Coast Starlight doesn't travel merely close to the Pacific at some points it travels right along the ocean's edge. After leaving Los Angeles and heading north, the train travels through Simi Valley before cutting over to the sea. So this summer it was only logical to take the Coast Starlight along the coast between Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo (about 200 miles). At certain points, the trip reveals a pristine wilderness that makes you feel as if you're traveling where no man has previously trod. It was a fun ride with fantastic scenery as the train chugged through the Cascades not far from Crater Lake, venturing around mountain bends without a road in sight. We boarded at 3:30 on a Thursday afternoon and breezed into Oakland at 8:15 the next morning. Sure, the trip took 17 hours, but we were asleep for a good bit of it. At the time, the cheapest airfare cost $153 we managed to get a roomette for two on the Coast Starlight - which includes all meals, unlimited coffee and juice and access to a shower - for $178 per person with an AAA discount.
My first inkling that train travel might be worth considering came in the summer of 2011 when we took the Coast Starlight from Oregon to Oakland, Calif., for a friend's wedding. "You can see people picking the lettuce, and you're right there with them," Gayle Paull added. "When you fly, you take off and look down at the world, but when you're on a train you come out and see the world the way it is," Preston Paull said. Gayle and Preston Paull of Sebastopol, Calif., see train travel as an essential element of classic Americana. "You don't have to take your shoes off and half your clothes, too." "It's so much nicer, so much more relaxed," said Minnie Heinerich, 78, who traveled from San Diego to Seattle to celebrate her daughter's birthday.
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Time-pressed travelers might choose to avoid Amtrak's Coast Starlight because it doesn't always arrive on time.īut there are advantages to train travel, including a low-stress atmosphere: Amtrak stations remain gloriously free from the clutter of metal detectors train travelers avoid Transportation Security Administration agents and their ever-present pat-downs. ABOARD AMTRAK'S COAST STARLIGHT - Done right, traveling via Amtrak in a private room can be like taking an ocean cruise - complete with meals and pleasant scenery - but at a price scarcely more than flying coach.īut you can't approach train travel with a hurry-up mindset: It has to be about the journey.
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