15

Incidentally, you do not have to catch that early morning train in Sacramento, unless you particularly want to take the route down the coast for the scenery. That train, the Coast Starlight, is also notoriously late.

If you just want to get toLA, there are several other departures that will start later and get into LA sooner. They are various combinations of trains and AMTRAK buses that go down the Central Valley. In November, it will mainly be fallow farm fields and leafless orchards. It may be very foggy so there won't be much to see. The coastal route is much more scenic, but also takes much more time.

One of those trains leaves at 6:40 AM, five minutes later than the Coast Starlight, and gets you to LA at 2:30. If you really want to sleep in, you can leave at 10:30 and arrive in LA at 4:20 PM.

16

Thank you all for the new replies.

To gawkabout:
Actually I don't like the boarding time from NYC either. Cuz it's in the afternoon, making me hard to make good use of the my time. I would rather it starts in the morning. There is one starts in the morning, but takes 2 segments to get to chicago and I don't really have interest to spend time in east coast for this trip.

To nutraxfornerves:
One reason for taking coastline from Sacramento to LA is for the coastline scenery. It's said to be very beautiful and I have never had a chance to travel along the coastline on the ground. But I will save your suggestion in case I miss my train then.

17

For the most part, the Coast Starlight train goes inland on the way from Sacramento to LA . It misses the spectacular scenery of Big Sur. Go to this page and click on the "enlarge" icon at the bottom right of the map. A larger map will pop up and you can see exactly where the train goes. You won't see the ocean until you are south of San Luis Obispo, although you may get glimpses of San Francisco Bay.

It's still more scenic than the Central Valley, however.

18

To nutraxfornerves:

Thanks for pointing to the map. I will print this one out as well. It looks like it's already the best part for coastline according to the map.

I've finally booked the Amtrak tickets this morning. Except the part for NYC->Chicago and Chicago-> Denver that I have to pay an extra $82 fee due to the pass ticket sold out. Everything else goes well.

I will start booking hotel and backtrip flight tonight.

BTW, I happened to find the thread of a discussion of where to stay in LA. This website is really so much helpful.