Anyone ever do long distance train rides? USA or otherwise. Hows

>>1280885
I did an overnight "hard class" train ride in China -- one of the best things I did there.

The guy who had booked tickets for our group was one short, has to grab a last minute ticket and oft Class as sold out.

Just hanging out with "just folks," and not a tourist or accommodation to Westerners in sight. One guy works at a factory that had the same name as the football team whose logo was on my shirt and he thought that was hilarious and we were brothers for the rest of the trip. A bunch of student teachers coming home from a holiday wanted to share all the "Chinese snacks" they were bringing home from where ever they'd been. A couple had a kid studying abroad at a university about a hundred miles from my house.

Once everybody decided that having the foreign barbarian in hard class was OK, we had a wonderful time.

As far as "cabins," those were up with the rest of my group in Soft Class. We had a bunk-room, basically, and we also had a big old time.

I've done it several occasions on the trains in Europe. Longest overnight I did was Prague to Zurich, it was a 16 hour trip. It's a great way to kill two birds with one stone though, you get your transportation and accommodation for a night. I would get the cheapest ticket which would be the 6 bunk room. They can be a little cramped but it's fine for a night, I don't really have any cool stories about meeting people on the trains though.

I live in Oregon and have to go to Chicago a couple times a year for family stuff. I would like to take the train one of these times and get one of the nicer private rooms even though I heard it's retarded expensive.

>>1280885
Overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai was very nice/clean, they get hand-me-down used trains from Japan, and actually do a pretty good job keeping them tidy.

The long-distance train rides I've taken in China have been pretty nasty. Very dirty sleeping area, sheets never changed, dry spit and boogers on the wall by your face, overflowing toilets and shit and piss water on the floor, smell of instant noodles everywhere else. So I guess it depends on the country.

>>1280885
>how are the sleeper cabins
In the u.s. they're so expensive that you would undermine the whole point of taking the train in the first place.

Unless you just want to sleep in a train, and I guess yeah it's a good method.

I used a sleeper train in Thailand, it was grimy and roach infested. They gave me some off Sunny D to drink.

>>1280897
Hard class is fun, people can be pretty friendly I ended up with a random jar of tea which was sold on the train as a local speciality as a gift from my bunk mates also developed a taste from sunflower seeds thanks to them.

amtrak sleeper cabins are more expensive than flying, they come with free meals, but it's hard to cook good food on the train, there's also which side your on, sometime there's great views out the right side, but nothing on the left

it would be more enjoyable to get a regular ticket and get off the train every 48 hours or so and stay in a cheap small town

retirees are the main demographic on the real long distance east west routes

trains get pretty boring when the sun goes down, I'd only do overnight rides during spring and summer

I did a few.
Shanghai to Xi'an in soft, 2 bunk beds and a cushion chair for our private cabin.
Beds were cramped by western standards, TV didn't work (not that I wanted nor needed it tho), hygiene was acceptable by Chinese standards. Only downside was the usual mainland mix of other travelers smoking, spitting and yelling all over the place.

Also did a Cape Town > Jo'berg overnight train, private cabin, just great. Old school, with your designated table in the dining car for lunch, dinner and breakfast and booths turned into almost real beds we had a great time and it wasn't even more expensive than booking flight+hotel room+meals
Also took a night train in France twice (Paris to the Alps) train was old, run over and there was 0 service.

never taken any long-as-fuck train rides, just the Amtrak Coast Starlight between San Francisco and LA.

I really enjoyed it. Like other anons said, sleeper cars are expensive to the point of being priced out of the market compared to plane tickets, but if you're not in a hurry to get where you're going and you enjoy the scenery, I quite prefer the train ride.

Shit's never crowded because nobody takes trains, you don't go through a lot of TSA bullshit, it's just a nicer way to travel if you're willing to sacrifice speed for comfort.

>>1281082
Thank you sir

I'd love all the details, stories I can get about African and Chinese trains.

>>1281104

here's the quick rundown

go on night trains in western yurop to save money

or, go on a no brakes transiberian, either to beijing or vladivostok and make russian drinking buddies along the way

otherwise there's no point to this

>>1281104
No problem bro what are you specifically after?

Major inconvenience for the Chinese train was that it's tricky to book online. Websites are barely translated, and they require a lot of info for the booking (passport pictures, itinerary etc...). Also not so easy to find the correct teller to pick up the tickets at Shanghai station. Infrastructures may have improved since that trip (2013) but as a general rule China is not 100% equipped to cater to non Chinese speakers (and I travel to China once/twice a year).
Other than that the ride was smooth (high speed train) and the people really friendly, we didn't go to the dining car because there was a thick curtain of cigarette smoke, so we purchased some instant noodles and beers to the cart pushing lady. She didn't speak a word of English but insisted on giving us a free basket of cherry tomatoes, so very nice of her. Also chatted with a Chinese guy about my age (30s), he complemented his broken English with a translation app and we got to talk about music, cinema, soccer...
I wouldn't say you HAVE to take a sleeper train in China but it sure is a nice experience.
>SA next

>>1281114


It was much more refined (and more expensive) in South Africa. You can google Premier Trains to see the kind of slow train this is.
We left in the morning so a part of the trip is in daylight and the landscape is gorgeous at times.
The premier cars are not too crowded so there are seats for every traveler at once in the dining car/lounge car, were there is a welcome cocktail after departure and all 3 meals. Rest of time the bar is open so you can order drinks and just chill if you want out of your cabin.
During dinner the maids turn your booths into beds with real pillow and blanket, and you can get a real night of sleep.
This being SA, there are armed rangers patrolling the train, especially so during the few stops along the way. Didn't bother alighting the train during said stops as I don't smoke and all station platforms look the same. Overall 10/10 would do again, even go on a longer trip, as they have multiple cities routes (up to Zim/Victoria falls and stuff). Moving from one spot to another without the hassle of driving long distances or going through the circles of flying hell is nice, and there's such a old school feel to it, so cool if you grew up reading or watching about the orient express and such.

Anything else just let me know!

>>1281114
C-trip for trains (they do other stuff as well) in China. Proper English website not just translated chinglish and even an English customer service phone line, which I ended up having to use when a hotel I booked with them wouldn't let me check in because i was a foreigner.