Ready … Set … Travel!

Most of you, like me, have been stuck at home for a year waiting out this damn corona virus. However, there are signs that things are starting to get back to normal. 

One is the noticeable spike in the number of emails I’m getting from people finally ready to plan a long-distance train trip and asking for advice and looking for suggestions. There have been a half dozen of those emails in the past two days. 

By the way, I really do welcome questions and requests for advice about train travel and if I don’t know the answer, I have access to people who do. 

One thing to note: it has been my experience that most travel agents don’t know very much about booking Amtrak’s long-distance trains. They may be able to sell tickets for trains running on the Northeast Corridor (Boston-New York-Washington), but be wary if your trip is elsewhere in the country.

I do have a simple test to find out if a travel agent knows anything about long-distance train travel:  Ask him or her to explain the difference between a roomette on the California Zephyr and a roomette on the Silver Meteor.  

ANSWER: There is a toilet and wash basin in each of the Meteor’s roomettes; those facilities are “down hall’ in the Zephyr.