travelling to and around america

[mrsbrown]

I'll get more explicit:

Can people tell me their experiences of the best way to travel to and around the US?  Taking into account the places I want to go?

I spent a lot of time onlne this morning and I know some of the places you can get to by plane, but is there a better way?

Comments

[actreal]

For travel on the East Coast (Boston-NYC-Washington), I never use planes, always trains.

As a non-American, airport security is a massive PITA and it takes so long to get in and out of airports. Also, service on domestic US carriers ranges from poor to really poor.

I don't know whether Amtrak covers some or all of your destinations, but it's worth a look.

[damned_colonial]

You will probably hear that Amtrak sucks. I have ridden it quite a bit and didn't find it to suck significantly more than Australian regional/interstate rail. It used to be that Amtrak had horrible delays because they had to wait for freight trains to go past, but someone recently told me that's changed, which meshes with my experience (a handful of long-haul Amtrak trips that came in exactly on time, over the past few years). Perhaps someone knows for sure.

To be honest, if I were you in the US northeast and doing Pennsic, I'd consider renting a car.

If you are visiting San Francisco you can get around here entirely by public transport and walking (the city is only about 10km x 15km total). But if you want to get outside of SF itself, especially if you are going beyond BART in the East Bay or Caltrain towards San Jose (both of those being metropolitan rail services), you might want to rent a car.

[enrobso]

Despite your forebodings, it seems that the consensus is that Amtrak doesn't suck.

And I think between us we can solve this lady's transport problems. I've never had the good fortune to spend time in the Bay area, but I know NYC like the back of my hand...Oh, I'd never noticed that freckle before.

You cover the West Coast, I'll cover the East Coast. I've already got agents on the ground.

[enrobso]

I've not had that much experience travelling within the US, but my research suggests that SF to NYC can be done by train, but it is more expensive than flying. (Given the time and the money, I'd be willing to fork out for the train ticket, but I have a romanticised view of rail travel.)

Trains from NYC to Pennsylvania are much more sensible and workable. It's a long ride but it is relatively comfortable and I have friends who do use Amtrak on a semi regular basis and they've never complained about it.

Do not use inter-city bus services! Yes, they are cheap, but you will probably find yourself sitting next to a recently released ex-con if you get lucky and you don't want to know about who you'll be seated next to if you are not lucky.

[damned_colonial]

Oh god, don't take Amtrak across the country unless that is your idea of a really good time in and of itself! I mean, I do these things, but it *IS* my idea of a good time (whee, I'm doing SF to Chicago over Thanksgiving!). SF to NY would take about 3 days and I think it costs about the same as flying if you go economy (i.e. sitting up all the way) but you wouldn't want to do that.

enrobso is right about the bus services. Greyhound and similar in the US are way sketchier than the equivalents in Australia. There is a fairly high probability of winding up sitting next to someone really smelly, offensive, or just disturbing. However if you are travelling with others and can nab seats next to each other, and you're not going *too* far, it's not too bad. One thing to look out for is bus services which are not Greyhound. Some of them might be slightly less sketchy.

This might be stating the obvious but having come from Australia I'll say it anyway. In major cities in the US, THE INTERNET REALLY REALLY WORKS. I don't mean so much when you're on the ground, but more in terms of research. For instance, if you want to find recommendations and reviews for just about anything in SF or NY or really any large city, check out http://yelp.com/ That includes bus services, eg. http://www.yelp.com/biz/boltbus-new-york (a good example of a less-sketchy-than-greyhound bus line). So when it comes to planning your trip you should be able to get a *lot* of information online.

[rain_and_snow]

I recall LA airport to be pretty terrible.
My previous experience with aeroplanes was Qantas, and so was pretty positive. American Airlines, on the other hand, I recall as "Bad".

Mostly, we traveled by rented car. Better for seeing the battlefields that way. Flew to Florida, though.