The pass costs $500 for 10 trips of any lengths on most routes (some very few exceptions such as Acela, the Boston-to-DC high speed line). It goes on sale sometimes for $300. You have 30 days from your first trip to use all 10. You have a few months (maybe 6) to use it once you buy it.
There are tons of blogs and YouTube videos with strategies. I had family, friends, and specific cities I wanted to visit, so that guided my itinerary. This was also a bit of a working trip in that I did my side hustle and made money the whole trip. I prefer working when traveling vs. just being a tourist, as it gives me a sense of purpose.
I booked hotels when needed on the fly via hotels.com on my phone. The integrated Apple Pay was pretty cool for booking — first time I used that. I also used Apple Pay on the train to buy food after I lost my Amtrak credit card and had to cancel it. I also booked hotels by finding one near the Amtrak station and calling directly as soon as I arrived.
I wouldn’t change a thing!!! It exceeded my expectations. Some places I’d like to have stayed longer at, so next time I will! Obviously, I probably wouldn’t follow the exact same itinerary but do some different things. I really didn’t feel the month go by, to my surprise. It’s the longest trip I’ve ever taken in my life.
I had no trouble sleeping in coach. I bought a neck pillow at Ross that has an attached hoodie that covered my eyes like a sleep mask. I brought a blanket (most people do) but could have gone without it. I mailed a box home of stuff about halfway through my trip because I was tired of carrying it. One thing I did was travel no more than 24-27 hours per trip (some trips were only 6-9 hours, which felt quite short by comparison). Note that you don’t have to travel as far as I did, but if you are going coast to coast, it will take 3-4 days to cross the country no matter what route you use.
Another important tip is to maximize your use of the thruway connection buses. They are mostly excellent quality buses, however, some are Greyhound and I didn’t ride these (plus, if you see it’s a 24 hour bus trip, you obviously may decide to forgo that). I used bus connections lasting anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours.
The other important tip is to cancel your trip if you know you won’t make it on time. So long as you cancel before the train/bus leaves, your ticket will be refunded.
Also, pretty much all Amtrak routes sell out. So you do need to be proactive in giving yourself at least 1-3 days to make a decision to book a route. But because you can cancel if you change your mind, that’s an easy strategy to manage. Some people talk about flying some segments. While I never felt the need to do that, I did rent a car for two days to take one small jaunt that was only reachable via Amtrak’s late night Greyhound connection.
