Trip suggestions please (Texas, California, Grand Canyon?)

I did this over two weeks and it wasn't bad. I only needed two rideshare trips: one for a wedding in OKC, and the other was to get to and from the National Museum of Transportation in STL. Everything else was public transport or on my own two feet. If I were to do that again I'd skip OKC if I didn't have a reason to go there, and perhaps take the California Zephyr instead of the Southwest Chief and then head down the California Coast by way of the Starlight.

I've also been on the train from San Diego to Vancouver, BC over three weeks by train. The only car ride was a generous friend who drove me to Emeryville instead of having to take BART and walk a bit. Stops were Santa Barbara, Oakland/Emeryville/San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and Vancover.

Some major cities have much better public transportation than others. In my experience: the Northeast Corridor, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, and Portland (Oregon) are all really good by US standards. Denver, Los Angeles, and San Diego are in the next tier down but you may have to be more deliberate in planning if you're going outside of the main transit areas. St. Louis, Orange County (California), and any major city in Texas have pretty bad transit, though you can probably scrape by depending on what you want to see and how you feel about rideshare. Sacramento doesn't have great transit, but I don't think you really need it. OKC and a lot of cities in the Midwest I haven't mentioned here have non-existent transit. Google Maps covers transit in the US pretty well, so you can run a few checks before booking a stop in a city.

Since the OP asked: the next big Amtrak trip for me is likely from Boston to Sacramento over two-ish weeks via Acela, the Cardinal, and the Zephyr. That would cover pretty much every line on Amtrak that is on my bucket list. Philadelphia, southwest Illinois (for the Quad Cities), and Omaha would be my top three stops on that trip outside of Boston.

DEFINITELY skip Salt Lake City. Not much to see there. The Mormons have a fancy temple but they won't let you in, and the trains go through in the wee hours stopping at a completely inadequate station which is closed all day.

anilou said:

DEFINITELY skip Salt Lake City. Not much to see there. The Mormons have a fancy temple but they won't let you in, and the trains go through in the wee hours stopping at a completely inadequate station which is closed all day.

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There is an interesting Visitor's Center in Temple Square that has recreations of some of the important rooms in the interior of the temple (I got the distinct impression the interior is broken up into a bunch of rooms, it doesn't seem to be one big interior space like a cathedral). The Tabernacle, which is more akin to a church in form, is open to the public and is interesting architecturally.

Salt Lake is a pretty city in a magnificent setting, as a skier I've spent a reasonable amount of time there. Since the '86 Olympics the liquor laws are no longer completely insane and you can buy liquor by the drink now (though I am pretty sure you must order some kind of food with it).

There is really no reason to avoid SLC, it is a mid-size city with an interesting history in a dramatic setting. It's a nice town with very friendly people. I wouldn't want to live there, but I enjoy visiting the place.

The Salt Lake Union Trailers station does suck, though.

allanorn said:

Some major cities have much better public transportation than others. In my experience: the Northeast Corridor, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, and Portland (Oregon) are all really good by US standards. Denver, Los Angeles, and San Diego are in the next tier down but you may have to be more deliberate in planning if you're going outside of the main transit areas. St. Louis, Orange County (California), and any major city in Texas have pretty bad transit, though you can probably scrape by depending on what you want to see and how you feel about rideshare. Sacramento doesn't have great transit, but I don't think you really need it. OKC and a lot of cities in the Midwest I haven't mentioned here have non-existent transit. Google Maps covers transit in the US pretty well, so you can run a few checks before booking a stop in a city.

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A note about Denver -- re-check in Google or in the RTD Trip Planner before planning a stop, because the pandemic caught RTD just as it was beginning a route restructuring. It's now, timetable by timetable, catching up with that. At the rate they're going, combined with the operator shortage, this situation will continue into '25.

Bob Dylan said:

Wouldn't want to live there, but they've done a great job with their Rail transit including DART,TRE and Texrail Express.

Traffic is horrible, so buses aren't the way to roll, but rail will take you all over the Metroplex.( except for Arlington thanks to Jerry Jones and the Texas Rangers raking in Parking Revenye!)

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I've got around Dallas and area by both rail and buses and it does work. You need to plan in some extra time in some cases but the service is actually quite OK in my opinion. I wouldn't want to commute on it every day but its good as vacation travel. A good railfan friend of mine lived in Plano for many years and he knew all the tricks and interesting places and I got to do a bit of travelling with him.

Dallas has several noteworthy museums, there is a vibrant arts district and the M-Line trolley is well worth a ride.

BlackDiamond said:

Portland Maine is a smaller walkable city and worth visiting. There is bus service available between the Transportation Center where Amtrak stops and the downtown area. There are probably other smaller cities that fit into this category.

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Add me to people who like Portland, Maine. If you make it to this part of the east coast, have a lobster roll. I'm visiting out here now and have been comparing lobster rolls for the past week, one daily.