Here We Go Again

After a week back home, we decided to finish out our rail pass with a trip to the northeast states. Our first plan was to go all the way to Maine by rail. While traveling back home from Colorado, we had learned a lot about what to take and what not to take on a rail trip. We knew that we wanted to travel by rail during the day and stay in hotels at night. It is absolutely thrilling to ride along the rails during the day and see the sights without any care of traffic or worry of having to stop for food, bathroom breaks, or rest stops. The beauty of train travel is if you get tired you knap, if you get hungry you eat, if you need to use the restroom you go without stopping. Full disclosure, the bathrooms are great to have but not always in tip top condition. Although, we did discover that it depends on the line.

For this trip, as I mentioned, we knew things to take and not to take. Our goal was to each travel with a backpack with our clothes and necessities. We planned to be gone for a week, so this was a challenge. Traveling light would be a necessity because we would be hopping on and off trains and either walking or taking Uber to our hotels. I did take an extra bag used as a purse/wallet so that we could easily access our necessities while on the train. In addition, we had a small snack bag that we carried snacks and water bottles for the longer rail trips. Our trips to and from New York were overnight trips solely because that is when the train travels from the southeast to New York, so it was necessary for two nights to be spent on the train. The upside of that is that it saved us two hotel stays. We traveled in February and the weather was cold but bearable.

Items necessary for train travel:

In my backpack

• 3 changes of clothing all of which were stretchy, comfortable, and warm but not bulky. Each set included cotton tanks to provide a little layering. (We really took on set too many since we were wearing one at the onset of the trip. We were able to wash clothes during the trip at the Marriott Courtyard)
• Squishy down thigh length jacket that fit into a very small back that tied to my backpack. BONUS: this also served as my pillow on the two overnight segments.
• Makeup bag (very basic)
• Toothbrush/toothpaste
• Brush/styling gel
• Face cream
• Laundry detergent sheets (very convenient)

Things to remember when traveling light are hotels provide shampoo, conditioner, hair dryer, and lotion, so there is no need to include them in packing when traveling light.

In my husband’s backpack

• 3 changes of clothing (Also stretchy and comfortable)
• Squishy down filled vest (also made a great neck pillow)
• Toothbrush/toothpaste
• Shaving essentials (travel sizes)

My small bag/wallet bag: Make sure that everything you need to get your hands on quickly is in this little bag.

• Wallets
• Cash
• Phone
• Travel size Lysol spray
• Travel size poo pourri spray (I found a flat container at the checkout line in Walmart that fit perfect in my pocket)
• Travel Clorox wipes
• Travel personal wipes
• Travel scented hand lotion
• Travel documents that weren’t on our phones.
• Ear buds

Snack Bag:

• Salty snacks
• Sweet snacks
• 2 water bottles (this gave both of us a water bottle and we each had an extra in the side pocket of our backpack)

Things to remember about snacks are to not go overboard. We started out with a large tote bag and realized before we left that we had gotten a little crazy with the snacks, so we narrowed down our selections and got a smaller bag. Two water each was plenty and if you need more most trains have snack cars.

Traveling light sounds scary to a lot of people but honestly it was great. As I mentioned before, we both realized that we probably could have lived without one of our sets of clothing. Two in the bag and wearing one would have been fine. Again, remember some of your toiletries are complementary at hotels so they can be eliminated from your packing. The lighter you pack, the easier it is getting on and off of the train. For us, we chose Uber to transport us to our hotels if we arrived later in the evening and we walked to our hotel if we arrived in a good time of the day. I can’t say enough about Uber because they do not disappoint. The drivers are very courteous and hospitable and every Uber we used had a very clean vehicle. The Uber ap allows you to pay and tip so not only is there no guessing how much it will cost, but it is also super convenient. I will add that when I did have cash and asked if the driver would prefer cash his response was “cash is king”. So, it’s not a bad idea to have a little cash on hand, although I’m sure different drivers may have different preferences.

On a final note, I have to say that you haven’t lived until you’ve hopped on a train with a backpack and make trip arrangements as you go. The freedom to arrive at your destination and then decide where you’re going next is thrilling. Of course, we had an idea of the cities we wanted to visit, but it wasn’t in stone, and we did change it up a little as we traveled. The trip was a lot of fun as I will share in later posts.

No pros and cons for this post but I do have tips.

• Travel light
• Put thought into what is absolutely necessary for travel
• When traveling by rail always have what you need to make sharing public facilities comfortable, but remember it should be travel size.
• Ear plugs or ear buds are necessary. We learned that not all train attendants enforce the rule of using ear buds when playing music or videos and not all passengers are considerate. Ear plugs in this case would be great so that you don’t have to hear everyone’s movies or music.