With air travel costs increasing dramatically and flights being cancelled left and right while gas prices are skyrocketing we decided to try another mode of travel – the good old railroad.
There is something romantic about a train ride, even the title of the route, “Coast Starlight”, has a hint of old world glamour – so we decided to take a chance.
Even though this is Amtrak Coast Starlight review specifically, the majority of the tips below apply to most of Amtrak train routes across the U.S. So grab your bags, the conductor is already calling: “All aboard!”
What is Coast Starlight?
Coast Starlight is a famous train route that goes from Seattle to Los Angeles with several stops along the way including a couple of ones in San Francisco Bay Area. We took a ride on Coast Starlight from San Jose to Paso Robles.
What are Amtrak train car types?
In terms of passenger cars, there is economy class (sitting), business class (sitting), roomettes (sleeper) and the sleeper proper. We chose business class because the price difference with economy was not that big but the quality of the experience is much better in my view. If we were taking an overnight ride I would definitely choose roomettes (each sleeps 2 passengers).
What we liked about the Amtrak train
Amtrak website
Amtrak website is easy to navigate and it has lots of information. Buying tickets was a breeze.
Pricing
We paid $55 for and adult and $45 for a child ticket one way and the train not only took us where we needed to go but also showed us some unique scenery. So it was like transportation and excursion in one for the money – definitely worth it.
Seating
The seats are huge, made out of leather (or imitation leather, I am not sure), their backs recline well and there is a footrest too. There is so much leg room that you could possibly dance between the seats! You can definitely easily sleep in these seats. And even if a person in front of you reclines to sleep, his seat is not falling on your lap as it does in an airplane.
There are seats on upper and lower level – ask for the upper when the conductor is assigning seats, there is less noise and better views.
Baggage space
There is also a ton of baggage space: overhead, between the seats and also a separate storage compartment for big suitcases on the lower level of your car.
Water
Free water bottles in business class, 1 for each passenger, is a nice touch
Overall comfort
The business class car is not crowded. There is very little train noise on the upper level of the business class. The windows are tinted so that you don’t get glaring sunlight and there are also curtains. There are foldable tables, the same way as on the airplane. In addition to that business class car is located right next to the panoramic car.
Panoramic car
My absolute favorite feature of the Amtrak train is a panoramic car, a lounge of sorts with huge side windows and windows on the ceiling too. Perfect for watching the scenery. The seating here is organized in the following way: 4 seats are grouped together around a table. We saw families here playing board games for hours.
The Route
Coast Starlight is a wonderful scenic ride. Some parts of it are better than others though. I cannot speak for Oregon and Washington states where I am not an expert but as for California part, on which we are definitely experts, the absolute best portion is between San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara where the train rides right along the ocean – magnificent!
On our San Jose – Paso Roble portion of the route there were 3 super cool parts:
1.A quarry located right after Gilroy. You are literally riding in the middle of it and it is fun to see how the huge industrial machinery operates (you cannot see this quarry from HW 101)
2. Agricultural fields in Salinas Valley – at some point we were riding among dozens of huge warehouses, again something that you don’t experience on HW 101
3. Elkhorn Slough Nature Reserve. The train is riding where there are no roads so there are no people there and the wildlife is undisturbed. The seals literally were relaxing next to the train tracks and were watching us in surprise (how did we get right in the middle of their habitat?) We also saw a ton of birds – it was AMAZING! For this part of the journey definitely go to the panoramic car.
Staff at San Jose Train Station
I think staff at the San Jose train station is great. An attendant comes out an hour before your train arrival and explains all the boarding procedures – perfect for the newbees like us. When it is time to board you are all “escorted” to the platform so you cannot get lost. To me it felt like the level of service that is long gone, reminiscent of good old days of travel you can only see in the movies.
What we didn’t like
Delays
Delays are absolute the worst part of an Amtrak journey. Amtrak trains are notoriously late, Coast Starlight in particular. Our train was 1 hour and 20 min late which is a bummer. And the delay continuously builds up. So if you check your train status online and decide, well, my train is 40 min later so I will get to the train station 40 min later, by the time you arrive the delay may build up to over an hour, easily. So whichever way you play it, you will have to wait at the train station for significant amount of time if you don’t want to take any risks.
The smell on the train
Don’t get me wrong, the bathrooms were clean and not smelly, I checked it myself. So where is this awful smell coming from? You would sit there enjoying the ride and then suddenly you would get a whiff of a bad bathroom smell. I blamed it on the bathroom at first but that was not it, so I can’t figure it out…
It is not a consistent smell but it was annoying to me. May be it was just our car… I don’t remember feeling it in the panoramic car. That said, there were other odors in the panoramic car where there were lots of people. I do understand that some passengers are on the train for over a day but man, how hard is it to use a deodorant once in a while?
The verdict is still out
I am still not sure about my feelings regarding San Jose train station. On the one hand it is small and you cannot get lost. There are also a couple of curious historic exhibits in it. But if you are stuck in it due to the train being delayed, there is absolutely NOTHING to do there. There is a small snack place, a restroom and that’s it. For that matter I like airports more because at least you can just wonder about window shopping if your flight is late.
What we were not able to review
Food
If you purchase a roomette or a sleeper your meals 3 times a day are included with your ticket. Since we didn’t book either I cannot tell you anything about the quality of food on the train.
However, what I can tell you is that the restaurant has a booking schedule and you can book a certain sitting, like on a cruise. When your time comes, you will be called. I really liked that fact that it was all organized.
Conclusion
Would I recommend this train ride? Yes, 100%. I am not sure if the entire 36+ hours of it is worthwhile but the portion between San Jose and Santa Barbara is definitely great.
Be prepared for the delay. My understanding is that this train is almost always late so just make peace with it now. To track your train LIVE or any other Amtrak train for that matter see the map HERE.
For a detailed video review of this train journey, please, check out our YouTube video on our YouTube channel
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