California is a gorgeous state blessed with more geographic and cultural diversity than most nations.  More than a fair share of the Golden State’s most extraordinary landscapes and towns can be found along or near California Highway 1, the |Pacific   Coast  highway. Come along with us as we explore attractions along this incredible strip of asphalt.

After spending a couple of days in Sonoma wine country just a couple of weeks before the fires, we joined California Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway, at Jenner, at the mouth of the Russian River, just 30 miles west of Santa Rosa. From there, we meandered for 195 miles (exclusive of many delightful detours to points of interest) as far as Point Lobos State Natural Preserve, just south of Carmel-By-The-Sea in the northern reaches of the Big Sur. Along the way, we visited such wonderful spots as Marin County, San Francisco and Oakland, explored Santa Cruz, Castroville and Monterey and Carmel-By-The-Sea, among many other California gems.

As we drove south from Jenner, we motored through the beautiful coastal environment passing Bodega Bay and the Point Reyes National Seashore on our way to San Francisco. Most of this leg was spent in Marin County. It is a fabulous potpourri of attractive, upscale towns like Sausalito and Mill Valley, wineries and wilderness. The Muir Woods National Monument in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area is a magnificent place to see towering old-growth redwood trees.

Just across the Golden Gate Bridge from Marin lies San Francisco. This city by the bay is worthy of several days’ exploration. Visiting just some of its must-see highlights we checked out Fisherman’s Wharf, Coit Tower, Land’s End, The Ferry Terminal, Chinatown, Golden Gate Park, great neighborhoods set in the hills, the historic corner of Haight and Ashbury and many other scenic highlights.

Oakland, San Francisco’s across-the bay-neighbor, connected by BART and the Oakland Bay Bridge, has its own bundle of interesting places to explore. We enjoyed our visit to nearby UC Berkeley (complete with a free speech demonstration), Jack London Square’s great restaurants, shops and passenger trains running down the street, Lake Merritt and some spectacular views of San Francisco Bay from the Oakland hills that defy description.

With mixed feelings about leaving San Francisco but knowing that more wayside delights beckoned us south along the Pacific Coast Highway, we headed to Santa Cruz, sticking to the gorgeous coastal route through Half Moon Bay. The highway hugs the shore, passing many picturesque state beaches enroute. Taking this way to Santa Cruz is a great choice that offers postcard-like vistas and passes far to the west of the traffic and freeways of bustling Silicon Valley.

Santa Cruz, with its iconic pier and boardwalk, is a charming microcosm of what this part of California has to offer—sun, sea, infrastructure and education. The beautiful University of California Santa Cruz campus is a worthy destination unto itself. It is set on over 2,000 acres of rolling hills covered with redwoods and offers amazing views of Monterey Bay.

Nearby is the charming little coastal town of Capitola. It’s a great place to stop for a view of a Pacific sunset and browsing some charming shops.

Another detour that we strongly recommended is a drive to Felton, a mere eight miles of meandering roads from Santa Cruz through the hills and redwoods. It brings you to the historic and scenic Roaring Camp and Big Trees steam railway and the adjacent Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park. The train ride in open cars through the mountains is beautiful and the redwoods are imposing. To really appreciate their majesty, make sure you leave time to walk among them in the state park.

The Pacific Coast Highway passes through and near some of the most productive agricultural land in the world. We watched strawberries being harvested in Watsonville, visited (and stopped at a couple of roadside stands to taste) fresh and fried artichokes from Castroville. It was quite interesting to watch the crews harvesting the crops right along the highway and even bringing some of the crop directly from the fields to the bins in the roadside stand as we were browsing among the fragrant and colorful bins.

We also drove up 101 a short distance to check out Gilroy, the garlic capital of the world. The entire region, including nearby Salinas, is a farm-to-table chef’s dream.

Continuing to skirt the beautifully-blue Monterey Bay, we arrived at Monterey. Among the most-see attractions in this city are the world-class Monterey Bay Aquarium and Cannery Row, the latter put on the map by John Steinbeck. Today, it is no longer a gritty working sardine cannery but a very picturesque and touristy conglomeration of shops and eateries.

Wandering again off California Highway 1, we stuck to the coastline just outside of Monterey for a short swing through Pacific Grove and Lovers Point and explored some of the Peninsula’s secondary roads instead of the justly-famous 17 Mile Drive which we had driven on an earlier trip. For first-timers, 17 Mile Drive is worth taking since it passes many imposing mansions as it follows the beautiful coastline.

Our meanderings led us to the very upscale town of Carmel-By-The-Sea. This lovely little coastal town is full of tony shops, upscale restaurants and many occupied “Fairy Tale Houses” as well as a very nice beach and mansions poised on the shore.

Not quite through with the Pacific Coast Highway yet, we drove on another four miles to reach one of the highlights of our journey, the Point Lobos State Natural Preserve, on the north end of the Big Sur.  Often called the “crown jewel” of the California State Parks system, this place has it all–amazing Pacific Ocean vistas, rugged and rocky shores, blue lagoons, majestic land and sea wildlife (listen to those sea lions perched on the rocks offshore) and miles of trails. It even has docent-led nature walks which we wholeheartedly recommend. Its century-old cabin at Whalers Cove is a museum full of historical artifacts from for Native Americans to Chinese to Portuguese who frequented the region for fishing and whaling.

While the Pacific Coast Highway runs all the way to Dana Point, 60 miles south of Los Angeles, time constraints and a road closure due to a landslide in the Big Sur caused us to say goodbye to this incredible stretch of asphalt for the time being. We are already plotting when we can come back and drive more of this storied highway.

Before You Go, Check out

• https://californiathroughmylens.com/pacific-coast-highway-stops
• http://www.bigsurcalifornia.org/
• visitcalifornia.com/trip/highway-one-classic (San Diego to San Francisco)
• http://www.sunset.com/travel/california/highway-1#highway-1_6
• https://www.huffigtonpost.com/David-Landsel/california-big-sur-driving-the-coast_b_5095299.html

Getting There

• Airline service from many points converges at San Francisco International Airport (SFO). Other good fly-in choices are San Jose (SJC) and Oakland International (OAK).
• Amtrak operates frequent north and south service the length of California, stopping at many of the locations mentioned here. Oakland is also served by the California Zephyr from Chicago and the Coast Starlight from Seattle and Los Angeles.
• Driving the Pacific Coast Highway and exploring nearby attractions requires a car. Rentals are available at major transportation points.
• The best choice for a cruise port is San Francisco

Must-Sees for A Short Trip:

• Muir Woods National Monument
• San Francisco
• Santa Cruz
• The Monterey Peninsula
• Point Lobos State Natural Preserve
• Stopping for an “animal style burger at In-N-Out Burger, an iconic California fast-food

If You Have Several Extra Days, enjoy:

• Take at least a day to explore wine country in Sonoma and Napa counties. Most wineries and restaurants are open after the recent devastating fires and the region is well on its way toward recovery.
• Continuing on the Pacific Coast Highway south from Point Lobos since the damaged bridges in the Big Sur should be reopened by the time you read this. Call (888) 836-0866 for information about traffic delays and road closures. Be sure to catch Hearst Castle at San Simeon, the home of William Randolph Hearst.
• Alternatively, continue north from Jenner and the mouth of the Russian River toward Mendocino, Fort Bragg and the Oregon border.

Ginny O’s Tips For Dressing The Simply Smart Travel Way For Exploring CA 1. Dress comfortably for walking and exploring towns and roadside attractions but bring a jacket or other dress-up accessories since you might want to dine in an upscale restaurant along the way.

 This Destination At A Glance

   Over 50 Advantage: Self-paced touring through gorgeous scenery.

   Mobility Level: Low, with the minimum agility required getting in and out of a car and walking short distances. Some optional hikes can be strenuous.

   When To Go:  Any time. The California coastal climate is relatively mild year-round but winters are often rainy.

   Where To Stay. Numerous choices are available at many places along the highway, ranging from camp grounds to luxury hotels.

   Special Travel Interests: Nature, photography, wine.

The post    A Spectacular Drive On California Highway 1 From Jenner To Point Lobos appeared first on Simply Smart Travel.

Cooped up in and around greater Sarasota Florida for what seemed like a covid-dictated eternity and with a brand new Genesis G-70 sitting in the garage, it finally seemed like the right time for us to take a fun road trip. Besides, we really needed to explore some new (to us) places as research for future Simply Smart Travel columns.

As we put the proverbial hammer down right after the Fourth of July and headed north by northwest, we thought what lay ahead would be our usual road-trip-combination of fun, good food and drink, and fascinating destinations. It was all of that and more…a whole lot more. It turned out to be an odyssey into the past, present and future of race in America.

Our first stop was to visit Ginny’s friend since elementary school in Cedartown Georgia, This small Southern town is, well, a typical small Southern town. See our 2018 column https://simplysmarttravel.com/fleeing-hurricane-irma-an-unexpected-find/ for more on Cedartown.   

From northwest Georgia, it was a relatively short hop to our first “professional” destination of Birmingham, Alabama. It is a town we had passed through but never explored and we wanted to test whether its slogan of “Dinner Table of the South” is deserved. It is. We enjoyed several good meals there and the highlight was the weirdly-named Hot and Hot Fish Club, presided over by James Beard Award-winning Chef Chris Hastings. Simply put, it is one of the best restaurants we have ever experienced anywhere. The Black-owned Six Sixteen in the Tutwiler Hotel also provided memorable cuisine.

But the real and unexpected impact Birmingham had on us was not the food or the many trains running though Railroad Park, pleasing rail-enthusiast Jeff immensely. It was the city’s ongoing recognition and honesty about its sordid racial history in the Bull Connor era. We toured the Birmingham Civil Right District National Monument with historian Barry McNealy and later met with Rev. Thomas Wilder, the pastor of the thrice-bombed Bethel Street Baptist Church and Rev. Dr. Martha Bouyer. Collectively, these experiences exploded like a bomb in our heads.

It has been over 60 years since the KKK and Bull Connor’s cops, dogs and firehoses victimized those brave people like Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth who dared to demand what the post-civil-war constitution has “guaranteed” to them a century earlier, before the prolonged flight of Jim Crow made a mockery of those battles and amendments.

As we hit the road to our next destination, Springfield, Illinois, home of Abraham Lincoln, we talked not only about the tourist side of Birmingham (which is really worthy of exploration) but also about the impact the Civil Rights District and the people who struggled there…and still struggle there…to claim their rights as citizens had on us, two privileged middle-class white people in contemporary America. To paraphrase Rev. Wilder’s remarks during our conversation, having the white privilege that American culture inevitably bestowed upon folks like us is neither right nor wrong, per se. Rather, it is afforded positive or negative moral significance depending on what we, its reluctant possessors, choose to do with it. We vowed that we would try to do something positive with it.

As the long day of driving wore on, it occurred to us that our destination of Springfield allowed us to travel back a century and explore the Illinois’ capital not only as a delightful destination for Simply Smart Travelers, but as a caldron of history of Lincoln’s times, attitudes and racial goals. Our visit to the Lincoln Museum and Presidential Library, the narrated Lincoln walk we undertook with a knowledgeable guide, our tour of the visitor’s center and grounds of the national park surrounding Lincoln’s home was colored, even dominated, by our newly-rekindled interest in race relations in America, past, present and future. Yes, we enjoyed the food and sights of Springfield (a very nice town worth visiting!) but we were also hooked into an intellectual journey into America’s racial past, present and future. As we wrapped up our road trip with visits to St. Louis, Evansville, Indiana and Crystal River, Florida, all subjects of future Simply Smart Travel columns, race and history were never far from our thoughts.

What we plan on doing with our now roaring re-ignition of interest in the topic (Jeff was a history minor in grad school and Ginny came from a segregated small town in Indiana and always wondered why it was segregated) remains to be seen. It may culminate in some future essays, lots of conversation, maybe an eventual book and some activism, but it will not go away.

So what is the lesson we (re)learned? Travel is rewarding in so many ways and one its greatest rewards is that it has an amazing ability to bring some new thoughts and perspectives to some old road warriors like us.

The post Learning From a Road Trip: Our Civil Rights Odyssey appeared first on Simply Smart Travel.

We recently toured Sweden, Denmark and Germany by train and it was a wonderful way to travel. If you’ve never been on European trains, you should consider it. As far as we are concerned, it is the Simply Smart way to travel in Europe.

Traveling by train in a great way to get around and really see the countryside no matter where you are. But it is especially convenient and practical in Europe. The rail system there is one of the finest and most complete in the world. It is no wonder that European trains are widely patronized by Europeans for business and pleasure and foreign tourists alike.

The advantages of traveling by European train are many. First and foremost, they run frequently between most city pairs, so you can usually go where and when you want. If you miss a train on a busy main line, chances are good there another one coming along soon, unlike most places in North America. Unless you are way off the beaten path, it is practical to simply go to the station with your Eurail pass in hand when you would like to travel. When you get there, look on the posted schedule to see which track and when a train going in the direction you want will arrive. Then it is simply a matter of getting to the platform and, in most cases, waiting less than an hour for a train that will speed you to your destination. Find a seat, have your Eurail Pass ready for the conductor to check and enjoy the trip. It’s a no-hassle experience without security lines, forfeiture of your water bottles and other airport indignities and time-wasters. Even if the train you want is one of the few premium trains that require advance seat reservations, they can be obtained in a few minutes at almost any railroad station or online with the free Eurail Rail Planner app.

Secondly, trains are modern, fast and comfortable. Compared to commercial aircraft, the seats are much bigger with much more legroom, restrooms are plentiful and there are frequently onboard services like a bar car, a dining car or vendors offering food and drink. There is also more room to store luggage (and no checked bag fees!) and you can get up and walk around without being told to get back to your seat.

The tracks are scrupulously maintained for safety and comfort and the trains themselves are often state-of-the-art, fast and smooth capable of traveling at speeds of more than 200 miles per hour. Even the local and secondary trains are usually modern and comfortable.

Traveling by train is also scenic and low-stress. Looking out through the large windows, you can see the countryside as you pass scenery filled with fields, factories and towns small and big. It is a great opportunity to observe how people live as you relax in a comfort while munching on a sandwich or sipping a glass of wine instead of dealing with traffic, foreign-language road signs, getting lost and hunting for a parking space if you drive.

Additionally, if you plan well, and utilize the Eurail Pass program, it is especially easy and economical to explore the continent by train. Your pass gives you the freedom to go wherever and whenever you want, schedules permitting. The pass usually saves you money and necessitates the need to buy tickets for individual trips. Once you have it in hand, you can change your plans on short notice without worrying about what to do if you no longer want or need to ride the specific train for which you bought a ticket.

Your Eurail Pass is a pay-once-in advance ticket that gives you passage on most trains across Europe. The so-called Global Eurail Pass covers 28 countries. The Select Pass is good for trains in two, three or four adjacent countries which you specify in advance and 27 one-country passes are available too. Each pass is available for periods from a few days to months and for as many days of actual that you think will suit your travel needs.

Simply Smart Travel European Rail Travel Tips

? Do your pre-travel research. Most of it can be done online. Once you know which countries you want to visit and what you want to see so you can order the right Eurail Pass well in advance and have time to familiarize yourself with schedules, which trains need advance reservations, etc. The easy way to check schedules and so forth is to download and familiarize yourself with the Eurail Rail Planner app. Check it out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOUb-ZybeYo.

? Order your best Eurail Pass. Note: Eurail passes must be purchased before you leave the US. They cannot be purchased in Europe. Once you know where you will go and how many days you plan to use the train including taking day trips from where you plan to stay for a while, order your Eurail Pass from http://www/raileurope.com  Rick Steves has an excellent essay about how to do it. https://www.ricksteves.com/publications/rail-guide-form)

? Pack light. You will have to lift bags on and off trains during relatively brief stops and find a place to store them once onboard. Some smaller stations have steps and no elevators. One small to medium bag is ideal.

? Mix a little. Don’t be afraid to talk with fellow passengers, especially Europeans. You might find some interesting people and learn a lot of about their home countries.

? Save some money if you are on a tight budget. Here are a few ways to do it”

If you are traveling with one or more companions, use the companion discount fare to save 15%.

You can eat and drink at your seat on most trains so you can bring food with you and save buying food onboard. Save a piece of fruit or other snack from your hotel breakfast for your onboard eating and/or buy what you want at a grocery or at the station to save on onboard prices and get what you like.

Travel second class. The accommodations are not as commodious, but they are decent. The scenery is the same.

If you are willing to give up some daytime scenic views, sleeping in your seat on an overnight train will save you a hotel stay.

Stay near the station. You can save cab fares and a lot of time if you pick hotels that are within walking distance of the train station. Most stations are conveniently located downtown.

If you’re 27 or younger, you can save 20% with a Eurail Youth Pass. Children under 12 travel free!

Next time you are planning a trip to Europe, you should consider doing it by train with a Eurail Pass that is custom designed by you or your travel agent to fit your trip to a tee. It’s the way to go for Simply Smart Travelers. For those over 50, it is an ideal way to relax and see the continent.

The post Traveling By Eurail Pass Through Europe appeared first on Simply Smart Travel.

Here are some of the many Simply Smart Travel columns published in print and on the web.
New columns added periodically

Enjoy and Bon Voyage.

Barcelona   A Cosmopolitan Gem On The Mediterranean

Costa Rica   Volcanos, Rainforests And Crocodiles

Charleston  History And Southern Hospitality

Glacier N.P. & Canadian Rockies  Scenic Grandeur In Two Countries

Montreal  A Cosmopolitan Bi-Lingual City Worth Visiting

Ottawa  A Sophisticated And Scenic Seat Of Democracy

Plymouth  Plymouth Rock And Great Architecture

Quebec French Charm In North America

Portland, Oregon Eclectic, Beautiful And Just A Little Weird

Temecula  The Best Wine District You Never Heard About  

San Diego   Far More Than A Navy Town   

Washington, D.C.  A Magnificent National Capital

Wilmington  A DuPont-Dominated Place of Wonder      

Exploring Florida Series

JAX Beach Where Jacksonville Goes To Play

St. Augustine  Nature, History And Architecture

All Material on this page is copyright Simply Smart Travel, Inc. and may be used by written permission only.

Editors: You Can Carry Simply Smart Travel … The Syndicated  Column

NEWS: You can now see Simply Smart Travel articles on the Voyage Report. We are pleased to welcome the Jewish Exponent in Philadelphia, Real Magazine in Sarasota, Fl., Beacon newspapers (Washington, DC, Baltimore  and Palm Springs, California), Senior News (Youngstown, Ohio), Senior Spectrum (Reno,  Nevada),  Hometown News (Daytona Beach,  Ormond Beach and Volusia County,  Florida), The Pelican (Deerfield  Beach, Florida) and Senior Times (Gainesville, Florida) to the growing and eclectic family of quality media that run the  Simply  Smart Travel column.

We are over  490,200 verified circulation and,  using a standard  industry reader  multiple,  we touch well-over 1.5 million readers…and  that doesn’t even counts the multitudes of online readers including  www.After50Living.com and www.VoyageReport.com.

It is available to reputable publications around North America and is currently published in quality magazines, newspapers and web sites in nine states. We reach readers in Reno, St. Louis, Cleveland, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Sarasota and many places in between. Shouldn’t we be reaching your readers?

• Proven appeal to over-50 and millennial readers and travel-oriented advertisers
• Subject matter: Practical and interesting trip reports and travel tips for over-50 travelers.
• Standard column length:  850-1,000 words including sidebars.
  
• Includes: 4-6 high-res photos and captions.
• Format: E-mailed in Word with accompanying jpg photos the 15^th of each month.

To arrange to carry Simply Smart Travel, please email jorenstein@simplysmarttravel.com.

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Locomotive 630 on the turntable at East Chattanooga while passengers watch the operation of turning her.

It is only three large steps up from the platform to the cab of Number 630, a 114 ton steam locomotive. But as I mounted those steps, it was as if I had climbed back in time a full 113 years. At the top of the steps, I stepped into the cab of an operating steam locomotive that was a modern 2-8-0 Consolidation when she was delivered to the Southern Railroad in 1904.

After 48 years of faithful service pulling freight trains in Tennessee and elsewhere, she was “retired” in 1952. But this huge machine leads a charmed life. She escaped the scrapper’s torch, the fate of most of her brethren, by taking on a new life pulling excursion trains for a short line, a railway historical group and survives today as part of the Norfolk Southern Railroad’s 21^st Century Steam Program, a successful public relations effort by a major U.S. railroad.

Her home base is at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she pulls excursion trains several times a week and is lovingly cared for by the mostly-volunteer crew at the T.V.R.M.

My cab ride was a memorable experience. After greeting the engineer and fireman, I was given a short orientation around the cab ((Don’t touch this—it’s hot! Here are the throttle and brakes. Watch out for the swinging bell chord, etc.,) and invited to sit in the fireman’s seat on the left side of the cab. The engineer was in the right seat and the fireman stood beside me, between me and the engineer and reached back into the tender and shoveled coal into the red-hot firebox every few minutes to keep the 190 lbs. of steam pressure needed to operate the locomotive at peak power. He also adjusted one or the other of the two injectors that added water from the tank in the tender behind us into the raging maelstrom in the boiler to make steam. He also called the position of switches we approached to the engineer, who repeated back what he heard.

As we pulled away from the East Chattanooga Station with three cars full of passengers, the first thing I noticed is that the cab was a good bit warmer than the outside air when the firebox door was closed and downright H-O-T when it was opened.

The ride was fairly smooth, with the “chuff-chuff stack talk” beating a steady rhythm of four chugs to each revolution of the 56 inch driving wheels below and the locomotive gently swaying back and forth as she made her way down the undulating track. The level of noise was not excessive, more than in a car at highway speed but less than in the passenger compartment of a jet taking off.

The firebox of 630 was like a volcano when the clamshell doors were opened by the fireman.

On the way back to Grand Junction Terminal where the train originated, we crossed four bridges over a river, highway and a mainline railroad and went through one tunnel, under the Missionary Ridge civil war battlefield.  As we approached the tunnel, we shut the cab front door and windows that has been left ajar for ventilation to prevent coal smoke from flooding into the cab and choking the crew. As soon as we existed the tunnel, we opened things back up and the blast of outside air was cooling and welcome.

The locomotive whistle sounded its sonorous tones that echoed across the valley as we exited the tunnel, crossed roads at grade and spoke its special language to the crew who helped us switch in the yard and around and over a Y-shaped track to bring us back to Grand Junction Station’s platform, oriented the right way for the next trip.

What a fantastic ride in a living, breathing time machine that belched smoke and steam, panted as if she were alive and showed me in a very real way what it must have been like to be a locomotive engineer or fireman at the heyday of the steam locomotive in America.

You can experience the golden age of steam yourself at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga by either buying a ticket as a passenger on one of the many steam-drawn excursions the museum operates or arranging in advance to pay a special fee to ride in the cab and contribute to the upkeep of the vintage equipment owned by the museum. All aboard!

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Our private cars tucked on the end of the Empire Builder on the platform at Whitefish, Montana.

Traveling Like A Railroad Baron

Uncommon Journeys Private Train Across the Cascades

Moira, our tour guide, led us out a private door from the main waiting room of Seattle’s King Street station onto the platform. We walked past the scores of passengers lined up inside the station waiting behind a barrier to board the waiting Amtrak Empire Builder passenger train for their journey to Chicago. We followed Moira down the platform past the Amtrak cars to the  three private cars (“varnish” in train buff lingo) that were attached to the rear of the Empire Builder.

As we reached the open doorway of our private sleeping car, an impeccably-uniformed attendant bid us a warm welcome, He helped us up the steps, showed us to our compartment and assisted with stowing our luggage in our bedroom on rails. Once settled, we were invited to make our way to the beautifully-appointed dome car coupled between the two Pullman-style sleeper cars. There we were greeted by the car steward and his two assistants, both attired in the finest Pullman dining car style. As the steward introduced himself and showed us to table with a fresh linen table cloth and offered us a drink and hors d’oeuvres, we felt quite special. That is probably the way James J. Hill, the railroad baron who built this line must have felt as he traveled in his private cars aboard his Great Northern Railway, the very route we were about to traverse on our way to Whitefish, Montana, high in the Rockies and adjacent to Glacier National Park.

Within a quarter of an hour, after the Amtrak passengers had boarded their coaches and sleeping cars, the train began to move, precisely on time at 4:45 p.m. The view from the dome car was spectacular as the train made its way through downtown Seattle, wound through the suburbs and traversed the shore of beautiful Puget Sound. As we rolled through small towns and watched sailboats on the Sound, the car attendants were busy passing hors d’oeuvres, refreshing drinks and setting the tables for dinner. Meanwhile, our fellow passengers on the Uncommon Journeys Elegant Canadian Rockies tour chatted and got to know each other.

Soon the car attendants began taking dinner orders, giving passengers a choice of four entrees. The food was plentiful and quite good, surpassing the fare we have experienced on Amtrak dining cars and at least rivaling that served on the Via Canadian which is known for its excellent onboard food.

As the late afternoon turned to evening and dessert and after dinner drinks were proffered, the train left the coast and began its climb into the rugged Cascade Range. Our vantage point from the elevated dome at the rear of the train gave us a never-ending series of incredible vistas as the long train snaked over bridges, through tunnels and swept along sweeping curves with memorable glimpse of valleys and peaks as the setting sun cast its rapidly-changing light on the landscape. We passed through many small towns and stopped at a couple of them as darkness approached. There was quite a bit of interest in our private cars judging by the stares and attention given to us by people at the stations and along the way as we rolled toward Spokane and the Columbia River Valley.

Despite the serpentine route necessitated by the mountains, the ride was smooth and quiet. There was little of the lurching that often accompanied mountain railroading and it was easy to walk through the cars as the train.

We retired to our bedroom and found that the sleeping car attendant had made our bed while we were at dinner. The space was small but well-appointed with a window to the outside with a privacy shade, a private bathroom and sink and some small spaces to store luggage and sundries. The beds were bunk style with a ladder to reach the upper bed.  They were comfortable and the gentle rocking motion of the train (and perhaps the effects of a big meal and accompanying drinks) made sleep easy for us, since we are accustomed to sleeping on a train, although some of the first-timers among our group of 27 found sleeping on a train a bit challenging.

At 6:30 am, I awoke and dressed and left the sink and bathroom open for my wife as I made my way to the dome in search of coffee. I was not disappointed. The dome car staff had coffee and a continental breakfast ready as we rolled across the striking Montana landscape toward our destination of Whitefish, Montana, adjacent to Glacier National Park. One by one, the passengers wandered in for coffee and a bite as we learned that we would reach Whitefish about 7:50 a.m., twenty minutes late. We had traversed almost 700 miles in consummate luxury.

Puget Sound from the luxurious Uncommon Journeys dome car

Our group detrained at the beautiful old Whitefish station and our chartered bus driver was on hand to load our luggage on the bus and take us to breakfast. As we left the station, our train whistled off and headed toward its rendezvous with more Uncommon Journeys passengers at West Glacier, Montana and its ultimate destination of Chicago.

Ahead of us was an adventure-filled week of touring the U.S.A.’s Glacier National Park and Canada’s Waterton Lakes, Banff and Yoho National Parks. Behind us was the train experience of a lifetime: traveling like a railroad baron of old on a luxurious set of private varnish. James J. Hill would have been impressed. We were.

The post Traveling Like A Railroad Baron: Private Train Across The Cascades appeared first on Simply Smart Travel.

The breathtaking Front Range of the Canadian Rockies as seen from the dome on the Canadian’s observation car.

There was a tangible sense of excitement among the sleeping car passengers who gathered in the Toronto Union Station departure lounge at 9:30 p.m. on a Tuesday night in late March. They-and we-were there to travel across Canada on Via Rail Train Number One, the storied Canadian to Vancouver. Soon, after we made our dining car reservations with the train’s crew working in the departure lounge, the announcement came that it was time to board. We all took a short walk to the platform and there it was: 17 cars of gleaming stainless steel that was to be our home and chariot across the continent for the next four days.

We were shown the way to our first class sleeper car and inside to our small but nicely appointed compartment with upper and lower beds, a sink and a toilet. As we stowed our two carry-on bags, the car attendant came around and told us first about his daily routine of changing the compartment from day sitting room to bedroom and back and then about the shared shower for passengers in this car just steps away in the corridor. Then, in a pleasant surprise, he invited us to walk four cars back to the last car in the train, the Glacier Park dome lounge, for complimentary champagne and hors d’oeuvres as the train departed.

Once in the last car, the car’s lounge attendant beckoned us to climb the few stairs to the dome and enjoy the view. What a view! A few minutes later, precisely at 10 p.m., as advertised, the train began to move slowly out of the station. Suddenly, at the end of the covered station platform, Toronto’s night lights and sights burst into view from our 360 degree glass vantage point. The lights in the dome were very dim and seemed to frame the passing panorama as we glided under the brightly-lit CN Tower and through downtown Toronto and toward points north and west. As we sipped champagne and partook of a nice selection of passed hors d’oeuvres, urban scenery gave way to suburban and then exurban. Our journey across Canada had begun in a memorable way. We retired to our sleeper convinced that the rest of the trip on Train Number One would live up to and even exceeded this auspicious beginning. We were right.

For a little over four days and nights, our magic carpet on rails took us across the massive Canadian Shield, the vast prairie and through the awesome Canadian Rockies. Not only did most of a continent pass by our windows, we also had the pleasure of enjoying hours of great conversation with some fascinating fellow passengers, spontaneous group singing and a lot of good food and drink. Travel doesn’t get much better than this.

The train consisted of 17 matching and totally-refurbished 1950’s era luxury passenger cars  pulled by two powerful General Motors F40PH2 locomotives (with V16 engines producing 3,000 horsepower each plus 500 horsepower each driving generators for train heat, light, etc.). Behind the engines were a baggage car, coaches, a dome for coach passengers, two domes for first-class passengers (an activity dome in front of the dining car with movies, wine and beer tastings and game tables on the level below the dome and the Glacier Park observation car), and several sleeper cars.

The Glacier Park Observation Car in Jasper as the train paused for a stop.

The Glacier park’s well-appointed interior ends in a beautiful viewing place.

The beautifully-appointed Glacier Park dome car (one of a handful of the Park series of newly-rebuilt bullet-end streamlined

observation cars, the last of a breed in regular operation) is a marvelous place for first-class passengers to watch the train snake around the curves and enjoy great conversations, impromptu entertainment from passengers playing instruments and singing. There was also a section with tables and an unlimited supply of free coffee and tea and very attentive bar service.

Meals in the dining car were included in the fare for first class passengers and the food was quite good. It was even better than the good food service we remember on an Amtrak cross-county journey 20 years ago before budget cuts put pressure on the value of much of the U.S. railroad’s food offering. It was good enough to be worthy of the fine intercity European trains I have experienced. The staff was efficient and pleasant and there was always a choice of entrees and desserts and large portions. Breakfast seating was open between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m. Lunch and dinner seatings were called according to reservations-with three seatings (5:15, 7:15 and 9:00 pm) west of Winnipeg and two seatings (5:15 and 7:15) between Toronto and Winnipeg because the train was less crowded on the eastern part of its run, at least in March, when we went. The only extras were drinks from the bar which featured some very nice wines from British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley at reasonable prices.

The first morning on board, Wednesday, we woke and made our way to the dining car to enjoy coffee and a made-to-order omelet with toast and sausage in the diner as we sped at 80 m.p.h. in bright sunshine across the massive Canadian Shield. Outside were hundreds of miles of snow-covered pine and birch forests broken up by a few small towns, massive rock outcrops and frozen lakes. The sparsely-populated countryside was endlessly fascinating. The train pulled into a siding every so often to meet a freight train heading east and despite the stops, we were ahead of schedule all the way!

After returning to our now made-up-for-day bedroom to brush our teeth and grab our books, we headed for the Glacier Park and there quickly made new friends-mostly Canadian but a few Americans too. The political and cultural discussions that evolved during the day (and continued throughout the trip) were spirited and respectful. Ginny and I, both political junkies, were truly impressed by how much almost every Canadian we encountered knew about their political system and ours too-and how interested they were in both. They understand more than most Americans how intertwined the political economies of North America have become.

After Wednesday’s lunch and dinner in the diner, we walked back to the Glacier Park car and were delighted to find one of the passengers had a fiddle, one had a guitar and they were spontaneously accompanying a railroad-sponsored professional musician who was playing a guitar and singing. Together, they entertained us for hours. Everybody joined in with requests and sang along to the Canadian and railroad songs. It was a fabulous experience that we will remember fondly for a long time. It happened on Thursday and Friday nights too.

As we approached Winnipeg on Thursday morning, the passing tableau of the Canadian Shield outside the large windows gave way to the great prairie with vast farms, grain elevators and seemingly endless sight lines. The occasional snow flurry was not unpleasant to see from the warm and comfortable inside.

We arrived at Winnipeg and had a couple of hour layover, as they railroad changed crews, washed the exterior and restocked the train. As we exited the large station, we could see the amazing modern architecture of the new Human Rights Museum. We took the advice of some Canadians on the train and used our layover time to tour it. The displays were impressive, the view from the top was expansive and we recommend it highly.

We also had time to all-too-briefly visit the Winnipeg Railway Museum in the depot.

Meeting a freight train on the Canadian shield

When we reboarded and headed west around mid-day, the train spent the remainder of the day traveling across the vast distances of the Canadian Great Plains. Interspersed with lunch and dinner in the diner was more great conversation in the Glacier Park. By now, people knew each other’s’ names and the conversation turned into a hours-long salon of ideas rolling across Canada at 80 miles per hour

Friday was a scenery day extraordinaire. In the morning, we saw the Front Range of the snow-capped Canadian Rockies looming in the distance and we climbed toward them for an hour or so. By now, the domes were crowded with sightseers and photographers. Suddenly, around a curve, we were in the mountains rather than running toward them. The view from the dome was breathtaking and was accompanied by hushed conversational tomes and the steady click of camera shutters.

After winding through the mountains and snaking around countless curves and through many tunnels on a partly-cloudy and moderately warm day for late March, we pulled into the mountain resort town of Jasper, filled with restaurants and souvenir shops and surrounded by the Canadian Rockies. Our layover was long enough to detrain and explore the small town and we vowed we would return some day. Once we got back on board mid-afternoon, the Rockies continued to unfold outside of the train in a scene that is so beautiful that words do not do it justice.

After dark Friday night, the train continued to wind through the rugged and twisting Thompson and Fraser River canyons. The lights of passing towns and settlements, the mountain peaks and even stars in the sky were gorgeous despite the lack of daylight.

Saturday morning, we woke to an announcement of first call for breakfast in the diner and the news that we were about an hour ahead of schedule and would arrive in Vancouver shortly before 9 a.m. For a full hour before we glided to a stop at Vancouver Station, we passed through that cosmopolitan Pacific city’s exurbs, suburbs and downtown, overtaking commuter trains, crossing the great Fraser River on an impressive bridge and enjoying an early spring morning with cherry blossoms in full bloom.

As we pulled into Vancouver Union Station at 8:30 Saturday morning, almost an hour early, and said our goodbyes to our new friends, we were truly sorry to see this incredible train trip end. Yes, we were glad to be in Vancouver and looking forward to the adventures ahead of us there (especially the Vancouver Photowalk tour with a professional photographer to photograph cherry blossoms in gorgeous Stanley Park), but the 2,775 mile trip truly deserved its reputation as one of the world’s best train trips. For us, it was amazing and we recommend it with great enthusiasm. It is the way to see Canada, eh?

Train Number Two, the eastbound Canadian, meets us not far from Edmonton.

Check out www.viarail.com

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                           Fall In Florida

By Jeffrey R. Orenstein, Ph.D., Simply Smart Travel

This autumn we will mark our twenty year anniversary since we moved from Ohio to Florida. One of the things we missed during our first few years in the Sunshine state was the annual abrupt change that marked each autumn in northern Ohio. Like clockwork, the tress put on their gorgeous display of color and the weather turned sharply colder, even though so-called Indian summer warm spells were frequent. Unfortunately to this warmth-loving writer, frosts and even an occasional snowfall that tuck were also part of an Ohio October. They were the inevitable harbingers of the long winter to come.

But now that I am an honorary Florida native (a curious cultural phenomenon that seems to happen to transplanted residents after about a decade), I have come to appreciate that there is a change of season each fall in Florida. Admittedly, it is more subtle than what happens up north but it is real and it is perceptible.

Our first clue is usually that the early morning temperatures become noticeably cooler. Instead of a overnight low in the upper 70’s (and occasionally the lower 80’s), the overnight low is in the high 60’s and lower 70’s. Today, for example, the overnight low was 67 and the prediction is for a high of 84 with another low in the high 60’s for tonight.

Another sure sign of autumn is that the annual migration of what we affectionately call snow birds (northerners who winter in Florida) is beginning. The auto carriers that ferry their cars down are in evidence in increasing numbers, dropping off their Lexuses, BMWs, Audis and Mercedes Benz sedans and SUVs. The restaurant lines are a bit longer and the traffic is a little heavier, though nothing what they will be like when the flock is in full force between early January and Easter and Passover.

Still yet another sign that fall has arrived in Florida is that the humidity is lower-in the 50% to 60% range instead of the 80% to 90% range. The difference is huge-the level of summer soggy air discomfort is gone and usually won’t return until April.

Another tip-off is that the summer rainy season that started in June is over. The sun is shining brightly and the set-your-watch regularity of late afternoon thunderstorms is a thing of the past. While there are occasional rainy days in the fall, they are few and far between. It still may be hurricane season but it is winding down and well past the peak weeks for storm development.

What says Florida fall to me most of all is the rainbow of colors from freshly-planted annuals that will bloom until spring, the brilliant yellow and then orange blooms on the numerous rain trees that dot residential areas and the median of one of the main streets in our neighborhood. Along with them, the bright yellow blooms of the Tabebuia trees contrast with the fluffy white clouds in the omnipresent blue skies. They don’t call it the Sunshine state for nothing!

Yes, there are seasons in Florida and Autumn is one of the best. It is a colorful, mild and delightful time of the year in Florida. It’s good to be here. When you visit us, keep your eyes open for signs of all. They’re here. When are you going to be?

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Near Baie St. Paul is the line’s only Tunnel

By Train Along The St. Lawrence River

By Jeffrey R. Orenstein, Ph.D., Simply Smart Travel

September, 2015  As our taxi pulled in to the train station in Quebec City, our about-to-commence train trip from Quebec City to the Charlevoix region of Quebec was already off to a spectacular start. Right behind the station platform. the mighty Montmorency Falls as the river of its namesake tumbled into the St. Lawrence from a height of 275 feet, the highest in Quebec and 98 feet higher than Niagara Falls. The station afforded an amazing view of the cataract and was so close to the falls that the roar and mist from the falls were hard to ignore.

As impressive as they were, the falls were just a hint of scenic vistas about to unfold out the windows of the train. As we settled in to our European-style short two-car train, we found the seats to be comfortable and the windows were large and clean.

The journey toward Baie St. Paul, two and a half hours distant down the St. Lawrence, began with a passage through suburban Quebec City. The view of roads, homes and shops soon gave way to incredible vistas of the St. Lawrence River, sometimes mere feet away from the rails. For long stretches of the journey, the railroad makes a leisurely passage along stretches of the St. Lawrence’s undeveloped northern bank that are otherwise inaccessible by road. After a stop at St. Anne de Beaupre and its impressive basilica (located adjacent to the station), the rain heads into the wilderness in earnest. Occasionally, we pass through some very small towns and glimpse into the back yards of riverfront cabins.

The train passes through one tunnel and offers a constantly-unfolding view of the great river. The surrounding mountains and the glimpses of passing oil tankers and an occasional cruise ship using the river as a water highway between the Atlantic and the St. Lawrence Seaway are truly extraordinary.

Baie St. Paul, our destination, is a delightful and picturesque town of 7,332 on the St. Lawrence, where the Gouffre River flows into it. It is the seat of the Charlevoix Regional County Municipality and is filled with hotels (including the beautiful hotel Le Germain, right at the train station), art galleries, shops and restaurants.

The railroad continue to nearby Malabie which is the jump-off point for the Massif of Quebec ski areas and whale watching cruises. Rail shuttles from Baie St. Paul to Malabie operate year-round. During the summer months, the railroad operates at least two round trips from Qubec City to Charlevoix daily. Food and drink are available on the train.

If you enjoy great scenery and want to see a remarkable stretch of the St. Lawrence valley from a perspective not available by road, take this train next time you are in Quebec City. Although you can the round trip in one day, I recommend that you stay at least one night in Baie St. Paul and enjoy a stroll among the galleries and a gourmet dinner.

For information on the train, go to http://www.quebecregion.com/en/guided-train-tour/charlevoix-light-rail-transit/ or http://reseaucharlevoix.com/index.php/?___store=english___from_store=english

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A SunRail commuter train pulls out the station, whisking people to work in Orlando

Welcome To Florida SunRail

Florida is finally on a fast track for good rail service. SunRail, the greater Orlando commuter rail service opened May 1, 2014 and ridership has been good not only among commuters but also among tourists, shoppers and basketball game=goers on holidays and evenings. It has been so successful that plans are already in the works to extend it on both ends and to provide eventual service to the Orlando airport.

This railroad is both welcome and long overdue. It joins Tri-Rail, on Florida’s east coast (Palm Beach to Miami), as a regional solution to traffic congestion and a great way to get around. Tri-Rail is currently looking for funding to extend service into downtown Miami instead of the outskirts.

The new state-of-the-art railroad cars have tables, free wi-fi, power outlets, clean restrooms and comfortable seats. The double decker cars also provide a great view. Does your automobile have all that? Mine doesn’t and it burns $3.77 premium gas to boot (today’s local “discount station” price”) and holds five at maximum but two can ride in comfort. According to SunRail, it costs about $35o in fuel to run the whole train on a 63 mile round trip, with capacity for hundreds of passengers, each one having a lot more room and amenities than they would if they were riding in my BMW 328i coupe.

So welcome to Florida, SunRail. We’re glad to have you and wish you hundreds of thousands of satisfied and green riders. Now Floridians who appreciate train travel have commuter trains just like New York, Chicago and Paris.

We also have several Amtrak trains for long distance travel. I’ve taken one recently from Tampa to Jacksonville on business and it was great. I had a nice dinner in the diner and worked on my laptop at a table in the lounge car in true comfort. And it was on time too.

Florida’s Governor committed a massive error when he turned away a firm commitment of $2.3 billion (yes, billion, with a b) in Federal funds three years ago for a high speed rail system that was shovel ready. He even ignored a promise by a major rail system builder to make up any deficits the system might incur in operation. Imagine how many jobs were left uncreated and how convenient for tourists to take a high speed train from the airport to see the Mouse.

Hope may be coming down the track, however. All Aboard Florida, a private company that is owned by the same Jacksonville to Miami Florida East Coast Railroad that once operated a fleet of passenger trains, has proposed to build and operate a private passenger rail system from Miami to Orlando. It is already in operation using existing tracks between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale and will soon be extened to Miami. Also in the works is a a new right of way down the center of an existing toll road from the East Coast to Orlando airport. Start-up is promised for 2019. The company has already completed stations in South Florida.

We hope it happens and we’ll certainly ride the line and write a Welcome All Aboard Florida blog when the full system opens.

Since it is not depending on state or federal funding, it seems to be “Governor proof”and will not meet the same fate as the almost-launched high-speed rail system in Florida Let’s hope the NIMBY ememies of modern rail transport will be foiled this time.

By way of disclosure, I have written a feature article on SunRail which was published in the July, 2015 issue of Trains, the national railroad magazine.

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Tampa’s TECO Trolley runes every 15 minutes to and from Ybor City.

A Saturday In Tampa Slightly Off The Beaten Path

 If you’re ever in downtown Tampa on a business trip and have the better part of a half day free, there are some interesting attractions very close by and certainly worth a visit.

While Busch Gardens, Rays baseball and International Mall attract the throngs, if you stray off the beaten path a bit, there is a lot to see.

I recommend a visit to be the beautifully restored Tampa Union Station, served by Amtrak’s New York to Miami route. Built in 1912 and renovated in 1998, the Italian Renaissance edifice sees two trains daily and is the third busies station in Florida. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places and is beautiful inside and out.

A fairly short walk east down Twiggs Street brings you the Port Authority Station of the TECO Tampa Trolley, a real-live streetcar that runs every 15 minutes between the hotels, convention center and amenities of the tony Channelside area and Ybor City The all day fare is only $5.00 (good also on local city buses) and it runs until 2:00 am on Fridays and Saturdays. (If you are staying at Channelside, you can catch the trolley there and walk to and from Union Station.)

We hopped the trolley to historic Ybor City, the historic home of Tampa’s Cuban immigrant cigar makers It was founded in the 1880s by Vicente Martinez-Ybor as a cigar-manufacturing center, and was home to thousands of immigrants, mainly from Spain, Cuba, and Italy.

Although it fell on hard times in the middle of the 20^th century, today it has been gentrified and has become a lively entertainment and food district. The Columbia Restaurant is justly famous (try the white Sangria) and Spanish, Cuban, Italian, Greek and French restaurants are available on La Setima, the main drag of the Historic District. Cigars are still hand rolled there and the cafe con leche is as good as that found in Miami or Havana. One of only two National Historic Landmark Districts in Florida, Ybor City is a must-visit.

Another place worth a visit lies just south of downtown. Old Hyde Park is accessible by cab or local HART bus route 30 which runs about every half hour. Built in the 1920’s, it is an area of beautiful old homes and what used to be a very tony shopping district. Many shops and restaurants remain, although tony shopping has moved to prestigious International Mall in Tampa. It’s a good place to shop, have a glass of wine and take in the sights of one of Tampa’s interesting neighborhoods.

A summer drum circle on Siesta Key. It happens every Sunday.

The Joys of a Florida Summer

Summer gave us a sneak peek on the Gulf Coast this week. The mercury climbed into the high 80’s and the humidity ramped up a bit from where it was during our cooler-than-usual spring. It will probably cool off again now and then before summer heat settles here in earnest in a few weeks but I am one of those Floridians who love summer.

Yes, I know that many Floridians are “snow birds,” our affectionate term for those who winter in Florida (usually for six months and one day to establish Florida residency and save a bundle on state income taxes which don’t exist in Florida). But I’m not one of them. I live here year-round and love it during all of our real but subtle seasons.

Summer is particularly nice in Sarasota, a tourist mecca, because we get steady ocean breezes and actually experience less heal and humidity than most cities in the midwest and northeast endure. Have you ever experienced summer in St. Louis, or Memphis or Philadelphia? It’s H-O-T and S-T-I-C-K-Y and you can’t count on the cooling zephyrs coming in from the Gulf.

Summer traffic is a less intense. As famed Florida columnist and novelist (“Bad Monkey”, “Sick Puppy” and others) Carl Hiaasen observes, you can tell it’s summer in Florida by looking at the license plates. The majority are actually from Florida in the summertime. It’s seems like it’s the reserve between Thanksgiving and Easter.

Summer also brings us warm water and uncrowded beaches. Ah, the beach. Florida has many of the finest on the planet.
Floridians enjoy the beach year-round but we in the over 50 set especially like to have a glass of wine and nibble on hors d’oeuvres as we watch the spectacular sunsets over the Gulf. It truly is one of the most moving shows nature provides.

Another joy of Florida summer is al fresco dining. Whether you’re overlooking an inland pond, the Gulf, the Intracoastal Waterway or just passing traffic, more and more Florida restaurants have outdoor seating to enjoy. And enjoy we do.

So, Porgy and Bess were right when they sang about Summertime and its Easy Livin’. If they had lived near Siesta Key public Beach, they would have had to weave the word ‘paradise’ into their song.

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