Amtrak – California Zephyr

We rode the Zephyr from Emeryville to Denver. We had a super liner roomette. The room was somewhat comfortable. The ride was quite smooth. The views, especially in the Rockies, were absolutely gorgeous. And the observation car was very nice. The food (in the dining car) was nothing special whatsoever. They offer the same food for each meal everyday so it gets quite old. Dinner was the «best» meal because more stuff was actually cooked fresh and not pre cooked. Also after a bit the bathrooms got quite gross and started to smell bad. Overall I would recommend this train for the amazing views but if possible would not recommend going for more than one night.

First of all let me say, I love riding the rails and the Zephyr is one of the best rides in the system. That is not to say that there are not some drawbacks. You should always plan on being late. Amtrak does not control the tracks and is at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to scheduling. Don’t be surprised to be sitting on a siding to let a freight train of empty coal cars pass. It is not always delayed, our last trip Denver to San Francisco arrived right on time but as I write this review we are running three hours late into Chicago. If you can, bring your own food. Not that the food in the diner is bad but it is pretty expensive for what you get. The snack bar is a little more reasonable but still a little pricey. We travel in the coach and sleeping upright can be challenging. Temps in the cars can vary so bring both your shorts and a sweater. A pillow and a blanket are also useful. They have «quiet time» after 10pm so bring earbuds or earphones for your electronic devices. If you are traveling alone you may have to share your seat with another traveler because they will have to fill all the seats if the train is booked. From Denver to SF the views are amazing including the «Moon River» section of the Colorado.

I took the California Zephyr in August of 2013 following an internship in San Francisco. Since I only needed to go one way and had the time to spare before returning to college for the fall semester, I decided to take the train in coach by myself all the way back to Lafayette, IN. It worked out in my favor that I didn’t have to sit next to another person the entire length of the trip. With enough planning ahead, I was able to travel back at an affordable rate in which two days of lodging was also included in the cost of my transportation. It’s hard to beat that. For a more detailed review with tips and tricks for making this an enjoyable trip, you can look at my blog post:

On my bucketlist… on in chicago… Off in Jarvis colorado…30 min bus stop to winterp ark Colorado for sking…

Riding the California Zephyr from Emeryville to Chicago or Chicago to Emeryville makes for a fantastic vacation… scenic and beautiful. Staff is nice; food is good (not gourmet — but adequate and tasty). Stayed at the roommette — but treat the train as your waking grounds; your drinking grounds; your restaurant; and your sleeping. The roommette with the comfy bottom bed works well (the bunk customer has the more trouble sleeping.). Check your baggage but take enough stuff to your room for 3 days — I bring alolng some books — which stay unread — but I do read the newspaper delivered to your roommette in the morning. waters and coffee available in roommette.
If you have the time — do it a bit at a time (for night travel roommette — for day travel only just book coach).
The great places to stop from Emeryville to chicago (just reverse it if going in opposite direction) are:
1) Reno — Gambling, Lake Tahoe, Reno festivals such as Hot August Nights (check what is going on). Ride by coach from Emeryville. Harrahs, El Dorado Hotel are close to Amtrak station.
2) Salt Lake City — easy taxi ride to Hotel Monaco (which is walking distance to Mormon temple square; perfect location for free bus to other areas of Salt Lake City; included wine social hour at night; good restaurant at hotel; snacks, and more.
It arrrives in the middle of the night so if money not an issue roommette; if ok with just sleeping in your chair (sort of like an international flight) — get coach.
3) Grand Junction — Arrives late morning the next day if comine from Emeryville. This is an older station — call for a taxi and rent a car from Hertz at Sears (or other rental car in area). Then drive to Moab — Arches National Park, Canyonlands, Dead Horse State Park is nearby. Take a boat ride on the Colorado River. its about a 2 hour drive from Grand Junction. Stay in Moab — many restaurants, lodging, etc.
4) Glenwood Hot Springs — if you love hot springs; stop here. Take your luggage across the street to Hotel Denver, check in; get your swimming gear and enjoy Glenwood Hot Springs for 2 or more hours. Warm, relaxing — nice dinner in town — get on the train the net day and be on your way. There is a good brew pub adjacent to the hotel.
5) Denver — Mile High City; sports; museums; restaurants; if you rent a car easy drive to Pikes Peak area, Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs.
6) Chicago — Big cities with museums, lodging, shows, sports, and more. Given that you would have been in small train stations on the route, you will also be amazed at how huge Union Station in Chicago is. There are rental cars on site if you are driving to some whese other than Chicago; for chicago just take a taxi to your hotel.

I could say I don’t know what possessed me to take the train from Chicago all the way to California but that would be a lie. I know exactly why I wanted to take this train. To go through middle America without paying for hundreds in gas.
Granted I probably wasn’t quite prepared for this trip in that I didn’t consider carrying enough food in my luggage for 2 days but this train is SO convenient. They sell all sorts of food and snacks. I could buy a Cup o Noodles for the super low price of $ 2.25. But I resisted the urge to conveniently purchase all my food needs on the Zephyr with the exception of breakfast and dinner. For train food I had low expectations but the dining car served up some pretty tasty herb chicken. I’m not much of a red meat person but I was told by various people I dined with the steak was nicely done too.
For the most part it was a pretty comfortable ride, all things considered. You could walk about the train at your leisure, sit in the observation car and read a book or have a chat with a fellow commuter in the lounge or dining car. And going through most of the Midwest you aren’t going to get much cell or 3G reception so it helps people make friends.
The train crew was super friendly as well. I wasn’t too sure about the restroom situation at first because you can really smell people’s, um business all throughout coach. But every morning one of the train’s staff restocked and cleaned the bathrooms. There was even Lysol wipes conveniently placed in all of them and in the lounge car. That definitely made the experience a bit more pleasant.
Our train did run a few hours late and if I had better forethought I would have taken public transportation to get into the city center rather than their shuttle service on a weekend when all traffic was being forced through the Golden Gate Bridge on account of the Bay Bridge being closed. But someone from Amtrak even called me 2 weeks ahead of time to let me know they’d be re-​routing my ticket through another town. With great customer service I really can’t complain.
Although I had an awesome time and got to see the sights I probably wouldn’t do it again as flying would have been cheaper and quicker. But I’d be more than happy to recommend this trip to someone who hasn’t taken this journey before and has a good chunk of time on their hands to experience the journey and enjoy the ride.

Our first leg of our journey was on the Coast Starlight, then the Empire Builder to Chicago and then back on the California Zephyr to Emeryville, Ca., and then the last leg home on the Coast Starlight again. First, I have no idea what the costs were. At the time my credit card miles could be converted to Amtrak miles. The actual Amtrak travel cost me nothing. The credit card was linked to Continental Airlines (now defunct) and my wife and I got an amazing deal.
I have read most of the reviews of the various links and have to admit it’s a «hit and miss» proposition as to what kind of room steward you get. We had horrible (we over-​tipped him) to fantastic. It’s the luck of the draw. We had the full bedroom and I would recommend going to YOU TUBE as many people have posted «documentaries» as to what the rooms include. A little inside information. In the sleeping areas there is a room the attendants call «the last resort» rooms. They shave off a whole corner to make the walkway into the car larger. These sleeper rooms (even though they still have the shower, etc.) are markedly more cramped. Amtrak has room layouts on their site.
Meals are good, and if experience is a teacher, Amtrak does a remarkable job of poorly planning the meals needed for a trip. In the Zephyr and the Empire Builder menu selections were down to bread, water and toothpicks by the time the train arrived (actually, there was food, but no one’s first choice).
Another hint. Even if you have as room as nice as ours was, stake out a place in the observation cars for trips along the CA coast in the Coast Starlight and through the Rockies, Cascades, etc. in the Zephyr and EB. We brought along lots of books and games, and never used them. We spent all our time looking out the window.
Someone said «bring shampoo.» Every train we traveled on had plenty of toiletries. Including shampoo. Meal time being sat with strangers was a highlight. We sat with an office mate of Stephen Hawkings (I asked him a question about physics and he told me he hadn’t expected to lecture for free – subject dropped), the head football scout for Ohio State (he said they’d never win a game after the sanctions, and they did quite well). We met a mother and daughter who were headed to So. California for 10 days and were going to spend all of them at Disneyland. They were Germans. I tried telling them about other attractions, like the beautiful beaches. They would have nothing of it. We sat across from a morbidly obese couple who gave us hints on how to sneak alcohol onto the train (a shot of liquor in the lounge car is $ 7 so we’ll follow their advice). All our seat-​mates were interesting. I hope they thought the same of us.
I love train travel, and could almost be considered a «rail fan.» I was stopped a couple of time from taking pictures of my own train engines because of TSA rules. Every person I tell about our rail adventures says, «I’ve always wanted to do that.» My advice: DO IT!

This is a gorgeous route — the Rocky mountains, the Wasatch mountains, and the Sierras. However, the service quality has been dropping for the last couple years. No longer can you expect help with your luggage or anything else with sleeper accommodations. Many of the diner staff are rude and they are frequently out of food items even on the first day of the trip. On our trip last week the second day’s lunch was limited to two items from the kids menu and two from the regular menu and they were completely out of any diet sodas. That is beyond poor planning! The new cars are pretty but have no hooks in the bedrooms anymore and the bathroom is slightly larger, but has no ventilation and no insulation. Be prepared to know your neighbor’s bathroom habits well by the end of the trip! I will continue to use the route because it is my only option, and I love train travel, but the declining service is a real disappointment.

Daughter and I have been on many different AMTRAK trains… we LOVED this one! East bound in mid-​August left plenty of daylight to enjoy the Colorado river. Beware, the claim to fame for many a Coloradian is to «moon» or «flash» the train as it goes by… mostly PG! Crew was okay (train attendants are hit/miss…either TOP NOTCH or ehh). Can’t wait to bring the wifey on this one…

We took the Zephyr from Chicago to Salt Lake City, we didn’t have time to do the whole trip. This was part of a month-​long vacation in the US and definitely one of the highlights.
We had a roomette which, as someone else has said is small so you really need to take in just what you need for the trip and check the other luggage you have. Also if you’re a large build or not flexible you might not be able to shimmy up to the top bunk. The roomette is a nice mix of privacy and comfort, you still have the choice to spend time in the public parts of the train. The bed was comfortable and we both slept well, although the temptation is to poke your head up at the stations during the night to check out the local scenery.
The car attendant (Donna) was friendly and helpful. All the staff were good but don’t expect to be pandered to, you’re not paying for the luxury of Orient Express or anything. I guess that would be my best piece of advice. It’s very clean and comfortable, you don’t rough it, but if you’re looking for luxury you are in the wrong place.
The scenery was great. We checked out the observation car but were quite happy to spend most of the time in our room and only see half the scene, that was still plenty.
There was no WiFi on board which was a surprise after having been on West Coast Amtrak. I didn’t have a map so wished I had downloaded the route map before we started. Nothing like that was available on board so I was in the dark a bit on where we were most of the time.
We would definitely do another Amtrak journey. There’s something about it that you can’t put your finger on — totally relaxing, no driving, no airport hassle, lots to see.

I took the Zephyr in January 2011 on a trip from Chicago to San Francisco. Overall, I’d rate it about a 3.5 out of 5, mostly due to what I hope were one-​off issues.
Let me get the glaring negative out of the way first: we ran late. Scandalously so. I think at one point we were about sixteen hours late. We wound up arriving in Emeryville around 4am, as opposed to 4pm when my plan to take BART into the city would’ve worked. The delays were largely due to weather — the horn on the lead locomotive froze up, requiring that we get another (too many level crossings through that route to not have a horn) which ran slower, etc. Not a great showing in that respect, made all the more frustrating by never exactly having a clear picture of where we were, what kind of time we were making, etc., as well as not stopping long enough to get out and stretch.
Having said all that… what a breathtaking view, almost the entire way. Obviously travelling across plains isn’t as interesting as the stretches through, say, Colorado, but if you’re looking for a picturesque way to travel, this is it. Our delays meant we didn’t get to see the Rockies in daylight, but Utah and some stretches of Nevada aren’t too bad to look at either.
Accommodations in my roomette were tight to say the least — with the seats folded down to make a bed, you’ve got six inches, tops, between the bed and the door. Putting on footwear is a stretch, literally. I highly suggest getting up and visiting the café car — I found the roomette very enclosing at times.
Food was excellent. In my roughly three days there, meals ran the gamut from steak to fish to chicken to pulled pork, hamburgers, omelettes and just about everything in between. Very tasty, and the price of food is included with sleeping accommodations, so it works out to be a very good deal. The fine folks in the dining car also do a good job of seating you with interesting people to talk to at meal time.
Overall, I’d do it again — though probably in warmer weather, to avoid the particular problems on this trip. I really think everyone should take at least one long train trip — there’s something (good!) about it that you just don’t get with other modes of transportation.
I’d also probably fly back again after the train trip out next time — travel by train is fun, but for me, when vacation is over, I just want to be home with as little fuss as possible.

We rode the Zephyr from Chicago to Emeryville in a sleeper cabin. The journey was fun, comfortable and most importantly, scenic! This was a great trip to make– one gets to see the country and spend time with friends/​loved ones.
The accommodations are adequate. Make sure you take your own shampoo– they provide clean linens, towels, and soap but no shampoo.
The meals (3 a day) were average, but filling… better than I had expected. The train attendants were friendly and helpful. Try to get good seats in the «viewing car» for the journey through the rockies (west of Denver) and through the sierras (west of Reno) — you will be happy you did!
I would recommend this to anyone interested in seeing our great country up close and personal.

Absolutely awesome. This was the first time we did the Chicago to Emeryville stretch and we wondered why we’ve waited so long. Good food, hot showers, lots of coffee, amazing landscape (esp through Colorado) and stress free. The sleeper was pretty small but I was glad we had it. People in the sleepers did not look nearly as bedraggled as those slumming it on the coach cars. And the food is included in the ticket. Next time we do it, we’ll defenitely plan some stops along the way (e.g. a night at the spa in Glenwood Springs).

On my recent tour of the US I wanted to try a little of everything, including taking the train. I chose to take the Amtrak California Zephyr for the leg from Denver to Chicago.
The trip was approximately 19 hours in total. I boarded in Denver at 19:30 and arrived in Chicago at approx 15:30 the following day. It cost me about the same as it would have for a flight plus a nights acommodation so there was no additional expense by choosing the train.
As it was an overnight journey I chose to go a roomette. This little room provides a bit of added comfort and privacy. The two reclining seats fold down flat to make a bed and there is a fold down top bunk should you be travelling with some one else.
Dining was pleasant and provided an opportunity to meet fellow travellers. There was ample opportunity to get up and wander around. A sightseeing car and café provided the chance to get out of the room and watch the world go by over a cup of coffee.
For our journey the train ran on time and we pulled in to Chicago at the scheduled time. I’m glad I chose the train. It’s a form of transport that is being used les and less frequently these days. I can recommend making the effort to adding a train leg to any journey. It’s a great way to see the country!

Next time you have to go to Denver. take the train!
I recently moved to Denver. Was planning on flying, but was traveling with a sick infant and thought flying would just be unfair to the rest of the plane. So, I took the California Zephyr and it was fabulous! I got one of those over-​night cars which included a basin, bathroom, towels, and even a shower. The ticket was $ 97 per person and an additional, maybe $ 500 for the over-​night luxury treatment which would have accomodated two. It was such a treat. Chugged over the Mississippi at dusk, had dinner in the dinner car; salmon which wasn’t my favorite but not bad considering. Sandi, the rail attendant put the bed down, I watched a movie, went to sleep, Sandi then brought breakfast the next morning, which included freshly squeezed OJ and then we pulled in to Union Station in Denver mid-​morning the next day.
The train continues on through Salt Lake to the Bay Area, so you could catch it any where along the way for a truly memorable trip. Just make sure you give Sandi a big tip when you board and she’ll take care of you.