I Took A 52-Hour Sleeper Train From San Francisco To Chicago

HELLO FRIENDS!! and welcome to the train side of youtube, where i have been residing for the past few months🚂✨we came, we saw, we slept, we got mooned 🌝what did you guys think of the california zephyr? and what train should we take next?? xoxo, saf

Safiya saying "Let's make some Illinoise!" and then apologizing for the bad joke only for Tyler to say he was about to make the same joke is honestly couple goals

Train expert here. I recommend taking The Canadian from Toronto to Vancouver. Over 4 nights and 3 days, it offers more of the 1950s travel experience with even more impressive scenery than what you saw on the Cal Zephyr. Regardless of what you choose, I hope you enjoy your next train trip!

For folks interested in the Zephyr- I’ve done it 3 times, and it’s considered one of the most scenic trains in the US. But the majority of epic landscape takes place on the 2nd day. You can save some money by getting off in Denver and still get the full impact of the experience. 🙂

Trains! Public transportation! Love ‘em both. America needs to bring them back in full force even better than they were before.

Watch them do a whole train travel in the US series and single-handedly revive the passenger rail industry in America, 😂😂

I love how Safiyas videos are so unapologetically about stuff she likes. Weird hotels, celebrity chefs restaurants and now trains. Makes you wonder what comes next x3

Looks like a decent trip if you want to see the sights and don't care about time. I really wish at the very least Amtrak would get more funds to update their older cars and sleeper rooms. I think something like the Zephyr which is so popular could use a very modern update.

The reason why Amtrak trains are almost always delayed is because of the 21,000 miles of track on their network, Amtrak only owns about 500 miles of it, meaning the rest is owned by the freight companies. Because of this, Amtrak trains frequently have to come to a complete stop to allow freight trains to pass, as they have priority over passenger services.

5 seconds after meeting Curtis, I need an entire reality series that follows him. I know that man has some life lessons and stories to tell me.

this is unintentionally great for the image of public rail transit and I hope more YouTubers/ influencers start promoting this

honestly the comradery you get with the other passengers and the employees on these long train trips make the whole experience 10x better. when i went from chicago to arizona (flagstaff i think?) almost everyone on the staff spoke spanish and helped me pass my biliteracy exam, and then we just spoke spanish for the rest of the trip. i also got off at every possible stop, and i also had several guardian angels yelling at me to return when i strayed too far lol. truly a magical experience.

You guys are adorable 🙂 I grew up in Chicago, but I've been in Los Angeles for half of my life (I'm turning 50 next month). I've been wanting to take this trip for the past decade, but I keep chickening out! You've inspired me!

You guys should DEFINITELY do the train ride that goes across almost all of Canada. It's expensive, but supposed to be incredibly scenic. There will be lots of rocks!!!

This is probably the most marketing Amtrak has had in a decade, and Carl definitely deserves a raise for keeping track (aha) of you two throughout the trip. Great video!

Hi, Safiya and Tyler! My wife showed me this video. Thank you for making it. I think you and Tyler did it justice. I did this kind of trip twice. My first cross-country Amtrak trip was in 2008. I flew to Chicago and took the California Zephyr from Chicago Union Station to Emeryville. I don't know if this is still the case, but back then, they had a shuttle that took you from Emeryville to San Francisco. I remember this because I was using an early iPhone and a passenger asked me rudely, but firmly, to turn off the keyboard sounds! I did layovers in Omaha, Denver, SLC and SF. It was really cool to see these cities before they blew up. Downtown Denver looked SO different back then! I rode straight through on my way back and took the Lakeshore Limited to New York Penn, then walked (with my 70L Gregory backpack!) to Oh Taisho! in St. Mark's Place then to Clark Street Station over the Brooklyn Bridge. I did it again in 2010. This time, I rode along the coasts. I took the Carolinean from NYP to Charlotte, then the Sunset Limited to New Orleans (stayed the night at a way fancier hotel than I should have!), Houston (where we eventually moved to 13 years later!), and Los Angeles. Booking a cab in Charlotte back then was awful if you stayed out past 10pm. Uber wasn't around back then, so you had to dial a number (which you could find with Google Maps, thankfully!) and hope that the dispatcher picked up. I think it took me 30+ minutes to get a ride. I don't think I was in a super remote part of Charlotte either. I ate at Dinah's in LA and did some other stuff I don't remember. From there I took the Surfliner/Cascades up to Seattle (had to transfer to a bus at SF because the tracks were under construction; sucked, but it was still pretty!), then the Empire Builder to Chicago and the Lakeshore Limited back to NYP. I enjoyed Voodoo Doughnuts and Stumptown Coffee in Portland, OR, at their original locations, before they expanded like crazy. Both were just as amazing back then, maybe even more so. IIRC, both were within walking distance from Portland's train station. I booked USA Rail passes for both trips and sat in Coach. You could upgrade to a sleeper car back then, but Amtrak seems to have discontinued this. I was too broke back then to do it anyway! The sleeper cars seemed like a pretty bad deal relative to what you paid. It seemed way more economical to just book a nice hotel nearby and enjoy the city instead. You can sleep pretty decent in Coach if no-one's sitting next to you (likely). You can also "shower" in their (much bigger) bathrooms, though it won't be as "fresh" as the communal showers in the sleepers. The food is really good! I had Bison burger for the first time on an Amtrak train! Those desserts are, indeed, insane. Thanks again for making this. Rail travel is an incredible way to see the US in a way that's impossible to savor from a window seat (or an aisle seat when the person sitting there keeps the window seat open, which they usually don't!). I hope this experience convinces more people to try out Amtrak. They've been bleeding for a long time and could definitely use the ridership!

I loved this so much! I've been riding AMTRAK all my life so I was delighted by this. Two other long-distance trains to consider are The Empire Builder and The Southwest Chief! The Empire Builder, going through the bluffs of Wisconsin, the Great Plains, Glacier National Park, The Cascade Mountains, and runs along the Columbia River Gorge and splits with part going to Seatle and part to Portland. There are some great rocks and sometimes mountain goats! The prairie is less flat and colourless in the spring, as a recommendation plus there might be dancing sandhill cranes in Wisconsin. I always make sure to get the crab cakes and the famous AMTRAK French toast when I ride it! Although something to be aware of is this train has a LOT of waiting for freight trains because of the high freight traffic from the Bakken Oil Fields and the freight has right-of-way because they own the track! The Southwest Chief goes from Chicago to Los Angeles and goes through Kansas City, Albuquerque, Flagstaff - and just has some of the most amazing views. One of my favourite train memories was when we stopped in La Junta, CO and basically the train got off with the conductor with us and we all trooped over to a grocery store together! Only happened once. And there always used to be Native Indigenous people selling the most amazing jewelry at the Albuquerque station. And I've seen so much wildlife from that train - so many pronghorn antelope and once a bear was running alongside the train! It also has a great tunnel as well! But anyway going to try to show this to everyone I know and I hope you get to ride some more trains!

My grandparents rode this back in the 80s or 90s going the opposite way so their final destination was San Francisco. They did get off in Salt Lake City and almost missed getting back on the train. My grandpa passed away last year and my grandma has been reminiscing about it and wants to take it again. Gonna have to show her this video to get her excited about taking the train again.

Traveling vicariously through Saf and Tyler is my favorite way to travel.

22:44 The Moffat Tunnel shaved 23 miles off the journey over the Continental Divide. Before it opened, trains had to take a longer route up to the summit of Rollins Pass, which could be a challenge to operate in the snowy winters. This route had 4% grades, numerous zigzags, and even a loop called Riflesight Notch on the west side of the pass. It was closed when the tunnel opened, and torn up in the mid-1930s.