Yes - it would be interesting to know whether it's a "five-stop ticket", or that you have just six individual sectors.
And what stops are they - if you wish to share?
I just picked 5 stops randomly to work out if it was going to cost a lot more or not. It seems that if you book over 2 weeks in advance you can get saver ticket prices.
A few interesting suggestions, thank you ! Will be able to research a few more thoroughly now.
Don't mind renting a car if I get somewhere I like or going on a tour/guide.
Have just read that going west to east is better route for scenic reasons. Think you see more of the mountains during the day and sleep through the plains at night ?
The most scenic sections are going to be Portland to Dalles. Sandpoint to Browning Montana. The Seattle route seems to go via tunnel so dunno how much of the Cascades you miss.
Coming east to west you get into west glacier at 830 with sunset about 930 in July.
West to east you leave Sandpoint at 230am get to whitefish at 730am. Sunrise is at 6am so really you see about the same thing.
Either way you are going to see plains for a good portion. East to west leaves Minneapolis as 10pm gets to Rugby ND about 7am. Gets to browning about 630pm. Other direction you leave browning at 10am and get to Minot ND about 930pm
Have just read that going west to east is better route for scenic reasons. Think you see more of the mountains during the day and sleep through the plains at night ?
Glacier National Park is the true highlight of this train trip, (followed by the Columbia River and Gorge) so I would be determining which way to travel, how long to get off for, and whether to rent a vehicle, based on best use of the park.
So there's a choice between arriving into West Glacier early morning or late evening. There might be the option of getting off on one side of the park and getting back on on the other side, and so on. Personally I think the park and environs warrant three nights ... just need to think through the logistics.
Note that I had an editorial comment about TripAdvisor. OTOH, TripAdvisor often is very useful for highly specific questions and gieven what OP had received, he needed something different than what was being offered here.
As for train questions--just look at the responses before mine and look at the responses for the Australian guy a few weeks ago who was clearly committed to the train and undeterred by the usual critiques.
Being determined to take a train is fine - as a journey. But it does get more problematic if you're envisaging a hop on hop off style of trip. And I thought I provided some positive and practical detail regarding negotiating Glacier NP via the train.
I like trains a lot - but it isn't all romantic when you're pedestrianised with your luggage as soon as you alight.
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