I wrote an article for the local weekly all about bike trips mixed with train travel here.
For one, you can take more than 3oz of liquid with you! You can take a bike on board for a nominal cost ($10), compared to an airplane ($150+). You actually SEE the countryside. Depending on where the train goes, some rides are more scenic than others.
I can only speak for the Amtrak Surfliner and Coast Starlight trains, but those two lines are really great deals. If you have the time.
My favorite thing to do is to just sit in the lounge car, listen to music, read a book and watch the landscape unfold before you like a never-ending picture book. It's surreal really to SEE what you're traveling through like that and not just fly above it from 30,000 feet.
To make our trip tomorrow a bit more epicurean we're going to bring aboard some nice hard cheese, a sausage, some prosciutto and a loaf of bread or two.
And what does it cost? For Laura and I and our bikes to get from LA to Albany, Oregon is a princely $360! Round-trip. 'Nuff said.
3 comments:
That is the exact description I give to people! I would say I spent about 1/100th of my train ride in my assigned seat...lovely photos that really capture this experience!
Have you had trouble taking bikes? A buddy was looking at taking a train to do an out-of-state bike tour and was told that there was no way to know in advance if there would be a way to take his bike with him. Do you have to pack the bikes?
As we speak, two touring friends of mine are just boarding a train from Portland, Oregon to Washington DC, with their bikes.
This is after they road there from Maine, of course.
For most amtrak trains you need to pack the bike into a box and check it at the station. That limits you to the stations listed with 'checked baggage' available, generally large cities.
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