Sleeper Car to New Mexico

 

Ever on the lookout for new adventures, I was thrilled to read about the 1898 Fred Harvey hotel, La Castañeda, that reopened in Las Vegas, NM, last year. I immediately contacted our friends Suzanne and Mike, who I knew were attending a conference in Albuquerque in February, to see if they'd like to meet us in Las Vegas. I then reserved a room for Tim and me at the hotel.

Now we love traveling by rail, but had never taken an overnight sleeper car. Some of our friends love sleeping on the train, while others swear "never again!" As it turns out the train from Los Angeles to Chicago stops in Las Vegas, NM—thus, the perfect opportunity for us to experience an overnight train ride ourselves. I booked a "bedroom:" bunk beds with our own combination toilet/shower bathroom. "Should be fun!" I told Tim.

The train was leaving at 6PM, so we arrived at Union Station more than an hour early. One of our train-buff friends told us our sleeper car tickets entitled us to wait in Amtrak's "exclusive" Metropolitan Lounge, which is hidden away on the second floor of the station. There we found free snacks and clean bathrooms—already worth the price of the tickets! At around 5:30PM, a "red cap" took us and our luggage to the train on a small open-air shuttle. Not luxurious, but much better than lugging our bags ourselves. We then boarded the train.

 

Our special pre-train lounge at Union Station—not at all

exclusive, but at least it was quiet and clean

 On the red-cap "shuttle" with our luggage

 

City Hall and the L.A. skyline as we left

Our "sofa" pulled out to become the bottom bunk, while the top bunk was tucked away until bedtime. As soon as the train started moving, a hostess came by to make our dinner reservations. All meals were included in our ticket, though seating was communal in the shared dining car. Dinner, breakfast and lunch were all fresh-cooked, plus we got to meet and chat with different tablemates each time. Highly enjoyable.

 

Our tiny "bedroom." The sofa folds out to

become the bottom bunk. The top bunk is

tucked away above until bedtime.

 

 Our private combo toilet/shower bathroom

 

Sleeper car hallway—rooms on the left

 Shared dining car

Not so enjoyable was the bunk beds, which were not exactly uncomfortable, but the train's constant movement made it very difficult to sleep. I honestly don't know why people love traveling like this. We were both exhausted by the time we arrived in Las Vegas, NM, at 2:50PM the next day. Still, we were happy for the experience—one more thing to check-off our bucket list, even if we never take a sleeper car again!

Mirror-selfie: resting on the final leg of our 21-hour ride

 

Short leg-stretching stop in Albuquerque, 2 hours from 

Las Vegas, NM