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I actually had no idea that the Cascades has, or had, multiride tickets. The Cascades doesn't really promote itself much. And if I, a person who has ridden the Cascades dozens of times and visited many of its main stations, doesn't know this...what are the chances that someone else does?

I made a thread in "Where To Go, What To See" that is about areas reachable by transit from off of the Amtrak Cascades. It is not about the Amtrak Cascades, exactly, but I talk about how the frequency of the Amtrak Cascades...which soon will be increased...makes using it for multimodal journeys...

(I just checked: it is currently possible to start from Seattle early in the morning (7:22 AM) and go to Vancouver on the Cascades, walk downtown, take a C-Tran bus to Fisher's Landing, get a Skamania County bus to North Bonneville, spend four hours there, then repeat the process backwards...

It is often a minor thing, or seems like it, but I believe that even slight variations in fare, and different fare tiers, discourage new riders. Flat fares are a great way to make new riders feel more comfortable and self-confident. Part of this is that Amtrak is doing a lot of things, because...

The Coast Starlight and the Cascades have the same route from Seattle to Eugene, but slightly different stops---the Amtrak Cascades stops in Tukwila, near Seattle, and Oregon City, near Portland. The Amtrak Cascades also continues north of Seattle. A lot of times I will use the Coast Starlight...

The Spruce Goose was in McMinnville---which is another place that is transit accessible off of the Amtrak Cascades! Although, once again, not a place that is easily accessible, right now.

One thing I didn't mention is that the Alaska Ferry Terminal is located in Bellingham, right next to the Amtrak station. So it is not exactly the Queen Mary, but you can take a "cruise" of a sort out of Bellingham.

It is also possible to get "local" service to Port Angeles---I went as far as Port Townsend by taking a ferry, a local bus to Indianola, and then a local bus to Port Townsend. It was a long trip, though! I don't know why I did it that way, at the time I might not have known there was a single...

This is one of those things where I think the answer is different for everyone. In July, I had a disappointing experience visiting Glacier National Park. The scenery was spectacular, but it was crowded and some parts of it were quite stressful. But obviously, a place like Crater Lake is a unique...

All of that area is very interesting! I am biased, but the Pacific Northwest is basically interesting everywhere...but of course, some train stops are closer to the interesting part than others. Another interesting place to consider staying is the Oregon Garden Resort, which is a boutique hotel...

Last December, while riding the Coast Starlight, I met a fellow Train YouTuber, and I was explaining to her about Bend...and she invented the witticism "Bend Your Wallet!". The Pacific Northwest is pretty expensive in general right now, and Bend, as the premier resort city is...out of reach for...

Oh yeah, that is easy, Troutdale is in the Portland metro area, and served by bus, probably where there are 2-4 buses an hour from 6 AM to midnight. I didn't include destinations like that in my post because I thought they would be too easy to be noteworthy. In Portland, you have basically a...

Yep! Some of these are things I've done myself, although often, I used a combination of Flixbus and Greyhound to get to some of them. From where I am (Corvallis), that is often my best way to get places. For example, earlier this month, I went to Hood River---but took Flixbus to and from...

(Continued because I went over the character count): Tacoma, Seattle, Edmonds and Everett: Pierce, King and Snohomish County have so many transit options, including ferries to the other side of the Puget Sound, and buses to the eastern suburbs, that it seems difficult to even start to try to...

Adventures off of the Amtrak Cascades This is a quick guide to what towns and cities of interest can be reached from the train stops on the Amtrak Cascades line (which are also, for the most part, the Pacific NW stops of the Coast Starlight). This guide is intended for “adventure travellers”...

From the Bellingham station, Marine Park is actually a 5 minute walk, at a leisurely pace. But it might not fit some people's idea of a beach, because it is rocky, and is on an inlet of the ocean. Maybe it doesn't quite have the same feeling when you look out at the water and see land a few...

This video has a time stamp showing the beach in Martinez! As I observe, it is not the type of beach for ice cream, beer or bikinis.

Well, this is where the question becomes complicated, and gets to the heart of transit. Because a lot of time people like the freedom and openness of taking a car to a secluded area or small town. Which is fun. And it isn't any problem (mostly) when one car does it. But for places like the San...

Oakland/Jack London Square is another station that has very nice beach access---although it is not an ocean beach, and it is not a sandy beach either. But at least some of the beach experience can be had there, very easily. For that matter, Martinez, California has some nice access to places...

It is both! You can get on it without a reservation and ride it like a "city bus", but you can also get reservations on Amtrak. You can select "Newport, Oregon" as a destination and it will find you a route! It leaves from the Albany Amtrak station. Its Amtrak number is 345X. The local buses go...