Glad you are considering your trip by train! Much of anyone's train travel is based on how each individual experiences any event in life. That being said each family member will have a varied opinion as will each individual who responds to you here. Go with an open mind and be flexible and coach is doable, did it with my kids, they did it with their kids. Of course most that will respond here are rail fans, we tend to have predetermined expectations on how we hope our trips go so at times you may hear things that may not be totally encouraging and some things that are great. I believe most responding though will agree, most any day on the train is better than being in the station watching it go by! Don't hesitate to ask more questions or more details there's not much that can't be discovered here, especially about train travel. It IS possible, but not easy for a 1st timer, to book a small portion of your trip in sleeper say 6 or 8 hours and remainder in coach. It's just not convenient, getting off coach on to sleeper and vice versa if you go back to coach later in the trip
How terrible is it to ride Coach with kids on long distance trains?
- Thread starter tiffany07
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Based on a couple coach trips with my daughter (plus reports from a trip in a bedroom with her grandparents) when she was 13 to 15, she slept, read, listened to music with ear phones, ate junk food, went to the sightseer lounge for a total of 10 minutes, and said maybe 20 words to her parents. At the end of each trip she said she had fun, the trips were great, and she loved the train. For her, coach and sleeper did not seem to make a difference. She did her thing in both and is still taking the train 20 years later.
Our eight year old granddaughter reported to her parents, on return, that she loved the train journey cross country, though while her grandparents were living through it with her, she often complained that she was bored and wanted to know how much longer it would be. Not sure which of these opinions is her true one--though I suspect the answer is, both of them!
