?Need American train info, please
 

Would love to take the NW Nat'l Parks tour on the American Orient Express. But WOW, the prices on their site.

Anyone know of a discounter? Went to affordabletours, but no have.

Thanks

How about AMTRAK? Prices not as high as Orient Express.
amtrak.com

...not the luxury of The Orient Express, but comfortable.

Julie - I'm not aware of any discounters for AOE. It's a unique product and the only "discounts" I've seen is the occasional price break if you book far in advance. The price used to be pretty much all inclusive, but I haven't checked that lately. We took an AOE trip years ago and thought it was fantastic. But there was a thread on this subject farily recently with a couple of opinions that the service etc had slipped.

Amtrak is worth looking into, but the service, comfort and amenities don't compare with AOE.

Jilie, maybe a tour can be an alternative? Check out Cosmos http://www.globusandcosmos.com/

Globus is more expensive then Cosmos, and AffordableTours gave 10% discount on land tours, not sure if they are still doing it.

Also Caravan tours - they do have tours in the US, see if their itinerary is OK for you.

If you want to do a train trip only, keep checking Amtrak's website for sales - I think they bought Orient Express and call it something else now, like "grandluxe"

http://www.amtrakvacations.com/index.php?id=586

Just a clarification on Faina's comments - AOE was bought in 2006, but not by Amtrak. It's a private company that is now known as Grand Luxe Rail Journeys. It has no connection with Amtrak, except that it occasionally leases their engines. It also has no connection with the Venice Simplon Orient Express group (now THAT's a trip!!!).

http://www.americanorientexpress.com...tern08GLR.html

From their website it seems all inclusive, starting at just under $5,000 pp/double for 9 days with a 5% discount for early booking. This includes all kinds of extra transport, some stays in hotels, all meals with wine, and other special features for only 120 passengers. Sounds like it not just a train ride and simple place to sleep, more like a high-end cruise.

ellenem, that's what we thought - a cruise on wheels! But we can get a heck of a luxury cabin on a cruise for $10,000+!

Thanks everyone for your advice & info. I checked Amtrak online & gave them a call. Was told that "soon" (employee training to begin this week) a new pass for Americans will begin (one exists only for Int'l visitors). It's like the old hop-on/hop-off ticket that no longer exists, except the new pass will be "better with more benefits". So, I am eager to see what it will bring.

It appears the Amtrak trip thru Glacier Nat'l Park is better from West to East because East to West goes thru during sleeping hours. That route's train is the Empire Builder. It is about 48 hrs. from Seattle to Chicago. End of May = about $1300 for a bedroom (has toilet & shower, 2 seat couch + single seat).

However, after really studying the timetable & stops, we decided that hop-on/hop-off would be more to our liking. There were 3 or 4 places where we would like to spend more time. Doing it that way = about $400 for the train rides because the sleeping times would be spent on land (not wheels!), therefore not requiring a bedroom. However, we would need a rental car & hotels in several places.

Realize such a trip can be made by car and air, but we liked the idea of watching the exquisite scenery go by!

So, we will look further into the Amtrak trip - not going to pay $10,000 for train/land tour in the US, when we don't do that in foreign countries!

Thanks again, Julie