Niklon Loc: Athens, Ga

My wife and I are considering taking this trip. I hoping for comments/suggestions for Amtrak travel.

elee950021 Loc: New York, NY

Niklon!

As a train traveler myself and looking forward to buying a $499 AMTRAK RailPass for $299 on sale that ends on January 20, I would suggest watching a YouTube video or two. Use youTube's search box: "Taking the train from Atlanta to NYC."

Back in the day, on vacation, I traveled to major cities East of the Mississippi that took a day or so to travel: Miami, Atlanta, Chicago and New Orleans!

Be well!

Ed

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Through January 20th Amtrak is selling a rail pass for $299. It’s good for 120 days and for 30 days from first trip and 10 “segments”. A segment is any trip where you don’t change trains. I’m pretty sure you can take the Crescent straight through but with the rail pass you could make stops along the way. You could spend a night in DC, Philly, even Newark on the way.

Mr. SONY Loc: LI, NY

My 65-year-old neighbors go to Disney from NY every year.
The take Amtrak and thoroughly enjoy the trip.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

That deal is so tempting. If I could take 3 weeks off I’d plan a photo trip of a few different cities.

Dannj

I wouldn’t recommend a night in Newark. Not much there to do.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

That one was a joke. Although I did spend a couple of nights in Newark several years back. You can get excellent Portuguese food.

dbjazz Loc: Long Island, NY

Amtrak is a pleasure. The seats are big and comfortable. You can walk around. There is plenty of room for luggage, including opportunities to check your bags. The personnel are helpful, friendly and sometimes quite engaging. You don't see the anger, frustration, or resentment among passengers or staff that you find with air travel. Enjoy the ride.

Niklon Loc: Athens, Ga

Ed, Thank you very much. The YouTube videos were very informative.

Niklon Loc: Athens, Ga

Thanks to all of you for your comments and suggestions. I think we'll take the plunge!

Dannj

Got it and you’re right about the food. True story: ten or so years ago, friends of ours were taking my wife and me to his favorite Portuguese restaurant in Newark…a place where the locals eat. All of a sudden we hear car horns blowing and people shouting, we turn a corner and there’s s crowd of people running and screaming, waving flags, blocking traffic from getting thru. I told my friend he should just try and get us out of there and forget about dinner. Instead, he rolls down his window and asks no one specific, in Portuguese, laughing what’s going on. He gets an answer, rolls up the window and turns to me, laughing, “No problem. Brazil just won” It was a prelim round of the World Cup. Anyway, we get to the restaurant and it’s packed but the owner recognized my friend and made room for us. We were there for a couple of hours and got caught up in the celebration, enjoying the singing, dancing of the other customers. When we asked for the bill the waitress just shook her head saying “No pay! No pay!” and walked away. We tried to get her attention again and the owner came over waving his hands saying “No pay, no pay!!”
and explained to my friend that he was honored to include us in the victory celebration and there was no charge. Turned out there were three winners that day: the Brazilian soccer team who scored a big victory, our little group who enjoyed the victory celebration, and a waitress who received a very large tip.😊

Horseart Loc: Alabama

I took the train from Tn to NY when I went to Canada. Winter and summer, they are cold inside. Take a throw or a jacket of some kind. The seats feel like they are stuffed with golf balls. Take a cushion to sit on. We had a sleeper going up. THAT was nice. Coming back we found out about those seats! The scenery was not as beautiful as we expected, but and we had a ten hour layover in Chicago.

Paul L_S Loc: Lithia Springs GA USA

You may want to check train schedules. Last time I looked the only passenger train in Atlanta is the Southern Crescent. It is North bound out off Atlanta around 8:00 pm. North bound ride is at night. Return on the Crescent you arrive in Atlanta around 8:00am. Again the South bound ride is at night. I believe there are other trains possibly out of Jacksonville and maybe Savannah. You may get a more scenic daytime ride by not traveling in and out of Atlanta.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

My friend and his wife took the train from Newark a couple of years ago. I dropped him off and picked him up. He said he'd never take the train again.
Mark