We'll be travelling in the US in May - June with 2 kids and have heard this is a good train trip - any thoughts?

Would you recommend any other scenic train trips instead ? ( we are going to Alaska, California, NYC) - Ideally the train trip would be no longer than a couple of days

Unfortunately, you heard wrong.

There is no direct train service between San Francisco and San Diego. Amtrak's website suggests an itinerary that puts you on a bus out of SF to Emeryville (East Bay); you then will take a train down to Bakersfield (one of the least scenic cities in California), bus down to LA, then take the Pacific Surfliner train down to San Diego (only small portions of which are really that scenic).

I would look at train rides up in Alaska (www.alaskarailroad.com)-- you can't go wrong up there! California is a state best traveled by air or by car, to be honest.

There is a train from Emeryville to Los Angeles, I forgot the name, the one starts in Seattle, Cascades?? And then you switch to LA-SD local train. Arrives very late.

Hi lucrefamily, I think that Amtrak has a train that goes from San Diego to LA and than you change trains to go up (or down) the westcoast. Believe the train going in and out of San Diego is called the Surfliner. The tain in and out of LA is called the Coast Starlight.

You would have to get on or off at Emeryville and use the Amtrak bus to San Francisco, but that is just over the Bridge on the east side of the SF Bay, SF is on the west side of the SF Bay.

The problem with Amtrak is that they are so often very late. I thought about doing the train ride from the Bay Area to Santa Barbara a few years ago and gave up the idea when an elderly family member arrived in Santa Barbara something like 18 hours later than he should have. Am afraid our train system is nothing to brag about.

Ah, found it! There IS one direct Emeryville-LA train (the Coast Starlight). Amtrak doesn't easily link this with the Pacific Surfliner for the whole trip.

Some parts of the Coast Starlight trip would be scenic, but the main problem is the slack operation of Amtrak trains outside of the northeastern US. Still, check out the Amtrak website (www.amtrak.com) and see if you can piece it together. I couldn't.

My brother lives in LA and prefers to take the train to San Diego rather than drive...about 1 1/2 hours by train; the drive has taken him 4-5 hours with traffic.

Actually the train is just under 3 hours from LA to San Diego, and it isn't what I'd call a scenic trip.

Now alaska...that would be scenic!