Hello Reader, it's Kev!

As promised, this week we are looking at breaking up an Amtrak trip! I do not know what next week's topic is. Maybe it will be one of your suggestions.

Can You Break Up an Amtrak Trip?

The quick answer is yes — but you have to plan and book it in advance, and it could cost you more.

Suppose you’re traveling from Chicago to Los Angeles and want to stop in Galesburg, IL, for lunch along the way. You can do that, as long as you plan and book the trip that way.

You can do that, and that one could come out to be a wash, as far as cost is concerned.

Sometimes, Amtrak can break up your trip with a scheduled layover. Years ago, when my sister lived in Charleston, SC, I would take the Capitol Limited to Washington, DC, then transfer to the Silver Meteor. I often had several hours in Washington, which gave me time to visit a museum or do a little sightseeing before continuing south or east, depending on the trip.

But you can also intentionally create these stops when multiple trains serve the same route.

Back to the earlier example, instead of boarding the Southwest Chief in Chicago, you could take the morning Carl Sandburg to Galesburg, spend a few hours exploring and grabbing lunch, then board the Southwest Chief later that afternoon to continue westbound.

It’s a great way to start the trip earlier and add an experience along the way without necessarily increasing the cost much.

That’s one of the fun things about planning an Amtrak trip. Regional trains, long-distance trains, and sometimes even commuter services such as Metra can offer opportunities to explore places along the way rather than simply traveling from Point A to Point B.

But there is an important catch:

You need to book each part of the trip.

Your itinerary needs to include Chicago–Galesburg and Galesburg–Los Angeles as separate segments. You can do this with multiple one-way tickets or use Amtrak’s multi-city booking option if you want the trip together on one reservation.

You Can Do the Same on a Single Route

Let’s use the California Zephyr.

Maybe my ultimate goal is to travel from Chicago to San Francisco, but I also want a couple of days in Denver and some time in Grand Junction.

Instead of booking a Chicago-to-Emeryville train trip with the Amtrak connecting bus service to San Francisco, I could build a trip like this:

Chicago → Denver: Roomette. Spend a few days in Denver.

Denver → Grand Junction: Coach. Spend some time exploring Grand Junction, including breakfast or lunch at Pufferbelly Station.

Grand Junction → Emeryville: Roomette. Then take the connecting Amtrak bus into San Francisco.

Now the train becomes a distinct part of the vacation, rather than simply serving as transportation, making the trip more than “just a train trip.”

If you plan on making several stops, it may also be worth comparing the cost of a USA Rail Pass. It gives you up to 10 Coach segments over 30 days on most Amtrak routes, providing more flexibility for this kind of trip.

However, you still need to reserve each segment, and you cannot upgrade the pass to Business Class or to sleeping accommodations.

But It May Cost More

This is where some people get surprised.

Breaking a trip into several segments can cost more than traveling straight through, especially when you’re using sleeping accommodations. And I don’t just mean the cost of hotels along the way.

Amtrak fares vary by train, date, accommodation, and remaining room inventory. A roomette from Chicago to Emeryville may be priced differently from separate roomettes from Chicago to Denver and from Grand Junction to Emeryville.

So don’t assume that half the distance = half the sleeper price.

It doesn’t necessarily work that way. Sometimes it can be quite the opposite.

I would price the complete trip first, then the individual segments, so you can see what your stopovers are actually costing you.

As I’ve mentioned before, one way to save money is to book sleeping accommodations only for the overnight portions of your trip and use Coach during the daytime. Whether that makes sense depends on your needs, preferences, and budget.

A Hotel Doesn’t Necessarily Replace the Overnight Train Ride

Years ago, I read a Facebook post that has stayed with me ever since.

The person believed they had found a secret code.

They wanted to ride a long-distance train without paying for a sleeper or spending the night in Coach. Their solution was to get off the train, sleep in a hotel, and then board the train again the next day, well rested.

There is just one problem.

If you’re riding a once-daily train that arrives in that city around 9 pm, tomorrow’s train will pick you up at the same time, 9 pm!

So you spent the night at a hotel…

…and then boarded the next train at 9 pm, spending the following night on the train anyway.

You didn’t eliminate sleeping on the train. You just moved it back one day — and added a hotel bill and higher rail fare.

There are situations where overlapping routes make daytime travel possible. But that is not the case for most long-distance routes. Simply getting off a once-daily long-distance train overnight generally doesn’t solve the problem.

Why Break Up the Trip Then?

Because you actually want to see the places you’re passing through. There have been several times, as I roll through the country, when I see places I would love to come back to visit.

That’s where this kind of planning gets interesting.

Instead of viewing the California Zephyr as a roughly 2½-day ride from Chicago to the Bay Area, you can turn it into a weeklong trip through Denver, the Colorado Rockies, Grand Junction, Salt Lake City, Reno, and Northern California — assuming you fly home rather than spend another few days on the train back.

It requires more planning. It may cost more. You need to pay close attention to schedules and reservations.

But sometimes the cost and time are worth it if you get an awesome adventure from it!

Just don’t decide to create your own stopover mid-trip without booking it. Amtrak is not going to wait while you explore. The train will leave without you. Your stuff may keep moving down the tracks, and you could be left to figure out—and pay for—how to catch up. And your ticket will not be valid for the next day’s train.

What Is Kev Up To?

This week, I somehow ended up rebuilding an entire website.

That was not on my to-do list.

The site was on an older platform, and unfortunately, there wasn’t a clean way to migrate everything over as I normally would. That meant doing it the old-fashioned way: copying, pasting, rebuilding pages, and making sure everything worked.

Thankfully, it wasn’t a huge website. I managed to rebuild the whole thing within a week, and it is now up and running! There are still a few small things to work on, but the hard part is done.

Now I can start turning my attention to my next trip.

One of my current great travel dilemmas is deciding which luggage to bring.

Should I take my travel backpack or my roller carry-on?

Normally, if I know I’ll be doing a lot of walking or taking public transportation, I prefer the backpack. If I’m getting picked up or don’t have to move my luggage very far, I tend to go with the roller bag.

This upcoming trip has a little of both, so I haven’t decided yet. Apparently, these are the difficult decisions I face.

I also went out for a little adventure with my sister and the twins. We spent a few hours at the Racine Zoo.

It wasn’t exactly the perfect zoo day. A few pop-up storms rolled through, and some of the animals apparently decided they weren’t interested in entertaining us.

But the kids did great, and we made the best of it.

I think they were mostly just happy to get out of the house for a while — and sometimes that’s enough to make an outing worthwhile.

Thank You!

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Until Next Week!

Safe Travels & Happy Planning,
Kev Monteith