i'm debating on booking ca. zephyr train from Ca. to Chicago over the Christmas holiday.
I'd be traveling with 1 teenager and 1 child. we can only get reserved seats, no sleeping accommodations. Pls. share your experience of traveling 52 hours via train..It's a loooonnnngggg ride!

Tough question. Just posting in part to track your responses. Forty years ago did overnight, long train runs in coach and it was more than fine. Haven't been on a US train since about 1970. Good luck.

gardenbaja, there have been a couple posts about that exact train ride in just the past few days. I'm not sure if you can bring it up on search or not.

I personally could not do a 52 hour trip with NO shower! Period! There were a few on our segment of the Zephyr just from Truckee to Emeryville who did that. I couldn't get within yards of them, and actually had to move our seats.

Even our little 6 hour segment is VERY, VERY slow. While we did some of the most scenic portion of the trip, there is a lot of crawling time, and a lot of stop and sit and weight. I was glad we did our trip that way, having driven it many times, but I did learn there is NO way I could ever do the full SF to Chicago trip!

This is a great ride, but in my opinion you'd be completely insane to do this trip, with a teenager and a child, without sleeping accommodations.

My fiancee and I did the trip (Chicago to SF) in August; we booked the roomette and it was the best decision we ever made.

It's a really great ride, but save it for when you can get the sleeping accommodations.

Ah, I was having a hard time finding those other threads I mentioned. But gardenbaja, if you click on TwoFatFeet's name, it will bring up her post called "Amtrak success story" that has a lot of specific discussion on it.

Are your kids the queit type that can sit for hours and play electronic games or read?

If not, don't even think about this long and boring trip. You can do part of the trip on plane, part on train, perhaps?

and here are some of the prior discussions:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=35154714

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=35153754

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=35144553

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=35134320

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...1&tid=35140565

I'm doing the Chicago to Sacramento run next month, just me, and I would never dream of 52 hours on the train without a sleeping compartment, Much as I like train travel, that's just way beyond what I can do.
On the other hand, my 78 year old mother-in-law did the Chicago to LA run a couple of years ago, alone, in coach.

I'm someone who usually enjoys train travel once in a while. But on that long journey (which I've done at least three times, and also the Southwest Chief) I would not want anything but a sleeping compartment!