Washington-New York

[BMWCA]

Hope someone here can give me some insight. My wife and I are flying to Washington this Christmas. We plan to go up to New York, and I was wondering if the scenery is nice on Amtrak? A bus would be a lot cheaper but if the train takes a nice route, it could be worth the extra $$$. Has anyone out there taken this route?
Thanks!

 

[Bryan330i]

Yes, I have...well worth the $$$$ over a bus i would think. Some scenery is not so good and other is great, I have never been on a bus for this type of trip but I think the train would be the best way to go. Some parts of NJ were real bad but overall a good way to go.

 

[Tom]

Bryan, may I ask how much was the trip and from where to where? Also how long did the trip last?

 

[Bryan330i]

It took us what seemed like the better part of the day. If I remember correctly it was about 2-3PM when we checked into the hotel and we left early in the day. It was slow going through some parts, and it did seem like we would never get through NJ; I remember a number of stops there. It was a last minute decision for us one weekend and we had no idea how the system worked so I am not sure if some trains are faster or more direct that the one we used.

We lived in Alexandria, VA, about a 25 minute ride on Metro to the DC station, then to(I think it may be Penn station) in NY. I cannot even remember what we paid in 1998. Overall I think it is not as fast as driving but there are also no parking concerns and I think the hotel was $60.00/day for limited parking.

We drove one time to the Princeton, NJ station and paid around $12.00 each to get downtown NY, but this also took a good part of the day from the DC area.

 

[Bryan330i]

I just looked up some information and there are some express trains that run in under 3 hours. I can tell you I was never on one of those for sure.

 

[Tom]

Thanks for the info Bryan, its definitely a great idea to do the train thing from NY to DC.