(CNN) — Together the West Coast of the United States, 1,377 miles of railroad tracks run from Seattle to Los Angeles — a route normally named as a single of the most attractive coach journeys in The usa.
The route, called the Coastline Starlight, usually takes 35 several hours in whole to wind by way of Washington condition, cross Oregon and snake down the California coastline. It truly is billed on Amtrak’s website as “a grand west coast educate experience,” and a swift Google search turns up a variety of journey blogs and YouTube video clips boasting picturesque scenery alongside the way.
Just after acquiring been trapped in Hong Kong — quarantine cash of the earth — for extra than 20 months, I resolved to give it a go in November.
Some travelers make it a multi-day trip, receiving off to kayak in the mountain lakes of Oregon’s Klamath Falls or going wine tasting in California’s Paso Robles, in advance of leaping back on. But I had a program to stick to and a Thanksgiving meal waiting around for me, so I determined to make it a straight ride: 24 several hours on the practice from Seattle to San Francisco.

The Coast Starlight train at the Salem Rail Station on Oct 15, 2020.
Brian Hayes/Statesman Journal/Imagn
The Pacific Northwest
I chose the most cost-effective alternative of a coach seat (starting from about $100), which had extra leg area than I expected — not that I used considerably time in it.
For significantly of the vacation, I sat in the sightseer lounge, the key attraction of the Coast Starlight — an ethereal observation automobile with home windows that extend up to the ceiling, enabling expansive sights.
As the practice pulled away from Seattle, I noticed the looming silhouette of Mount Rainier and its unique flat volcanic top rated in the distance. We passed by lush Pacific Northwest forests with evergreen Douglas firs and hemlock trees some remnants of tumble still dotted the landscape with yellow and orange.

The sightseer lounge on the Coastline Starlight teach, pictured on November 24, 2021.
Jessie Yeung/CNN
A person of the pleasures of educate travel — possibly specially for worldwide guests like myself — is acquiring a peek at unique slices of life along the route.
There had been moist fields covered by hundreds of pumpkins a residence buried deep in the woods, a person mowing the lawn outdoors horses sporting winter season jackets, ducks wading in ponds and cows grazing on stubbly grass. A single lady on her porch waved to the passing practice delighted, I waved again.
We rode via small towns and industrial facilities, far too — lumber mills, a recycling plant, and warehouses made up of stacks of hay and timber.

A see from the window of the Coast Starlight.
James Orndorf/Shutterstock
It was cloudy that working day, which supplied its personal surprises as we moved by way of Washington. At one particular issue, Mount St. Helen’s snow-protected peak rose out of nowhere, ahead of it was swallowed up once more just as immediately.
November intended the sky commenced darkening by 4 p.m., quickly immediately after we crossed the point out line into Oregon. As night fell, I turned my focus to a far more urgent challenge: what to take in and how to snooze.
The facilities
If you have a flexible price range for a extended practice excursion, it may be wise to expend a minor much more on a sleeper motor vehicle.
Typically, coach passengers are permitted to buy foods from the dining car or truck and take part in “group seating,” where you eat and chat with other passengers. But that program has been suspended owing to the pandemic, which signifies coach passengers are constrained to acquiring meals from a small cafe exactly where most items are frozen or prepackaged.
The cafe is effective good for a several foods — I experienced microwaved mac and cheese for lunch and cup noodles for dinner — but by the conclude of the 1st day I was thinking longingly of the menu available to travellers with non-public rooms, which incorporates refreshing salads, pasta dishes, grilled salmon, omelets — the works.

The eating auto of the Coast Starlight, the place passengers ended up allowed to take in and chat together pre-pandemic, photographed on December 16, 2017.
Nicole Evatt/AP
As it received late, I settled in my coach seat for the night time. The seat can recline really much back, but I even now observed my back again aching and woke up periodically. Even so, I managed to snooze seven hours as the coach slash as a result of Oregon.
Throughout the summertime when times stretch lengthier, passengers may possibly capture a glimpse of the waterfalls close to Portland, or forest views as the train climbs up the Cascades and by way of the steep Sacramento River Valley.
As it was, these sights had been obscured by darkness — and by the time I woke, the sunshine was starting to creep around the horizon as the practice approached Sacramento, California.
California, listed here we arrive
As we designed our way by means of the northern portion of the state, waterlogged fields and marshes gave way to palm trees and fishermen encompassing the San Pablo Bay.
At 1 stage, the teach tracks were so close to the shore that it seemed like we have been gliding directly on the water — very little but blue waves outside the window.
Right before I knew it, we ended up pulling into Oakland just exterior San Francisco, and my 24 hrs experienced come to an stop.
If I had continued on to the conclusion of the line, I might have seen the low rolling Santa Cruz mountains the strawberry fields and apple orchards in the Santa Clara Valley and the spectacular blue ocean of the southern California coastline, with the educate pursuing the Pacific coastline for additional than 100 miles.
The teach probably isn’t the most successful way to vacation (just before the trip, many pals checked that I did, in truth, know a plane could do the trick in two hours as an alternative of 24) — or the most at ease except if you e book a sleeper vehicle. Some of the scenery is wasted in the wintertime, when substantially of the trip is used in darkness.
But if you have a working day or two to spare, podcast episodes to binge, and tolerance to soak in the sights as they arrive — sit back again and love the ride.
Leading impression credit score: Alexander Cimbal/Alamy