I’ve spent 75 hours on overnight Amtrak trips. I wish I had known 9 things before stepping aboard.

• I regret not knowing a few things ahead of my long-haul, overnight Amtrak rides in 2021 and 2025.
• I spent 75 hours on Amtrak sleeper trains and noticed that time seemed to pass slowly on the rails.
• I wish I knew internet service wouldn’t be reliable, among other lessons I learned the hard way.

There were so many things I couldn’t have predicted about sleeper train travel before taking my own overnight ride.

In October 2021, I booked a round-trip ride between New York City and Miami on Amtrak’s overnight sleeper train for the first time. In total, I spent 60 hours on the rails.

On the way to Miami, I spent 30 hours in a $500 roomette accommodation, a 20-square-foot enclosed private space with a foldout table, two chairs that fold out into a bed, and an additional bed that pulls down from the ceiling.

On my way back to NYC, I spent 30 hours in the next level up, a bedroom accommodation that cost $1,000 for a private 45-square-foot room. It was double the cost of a roomette for twice as much space and a private bathroom.

Most recently, in January 2025, I took another overnight Amtrak train from Denver to Salt Lake City in a roomette for $400. This ride was 15 hours long.

While I enjoyed these trips, there are some things I wish I had known about this type of travel before that would have made me more prepared for the rides.

I thought the train rides felt bumpy the whole time.

This is not an exaggeration. I found my Amtrak trips to be as bumpy as a flight with turbulence where the seatbelt sign is on from start to finish. The motion sickness and terrible sleep were too much for me, and had I known this before my trip, I might have packed some medicine to prevent motion sickness.

Regardless of where I slept, I felt bumps throughout the night. But the top bunk was the shakiest.

I’ve tried sleeping on both the top and bottom bunks on overnight Amtrak trains.

I experienced bumps along the journey in both cots but found it easier to sleep on the bottom, where I thought it felt a little less shaky. Next time, I’d skip the top bunk entirely.

While the bed, sheets, and blankets were comfier than I expected, I didn’t think much of the provided pillows.

The beds on the 2021 Amtrak trains were firm and slightly cushy on top, just the way I like a bed. But when I was drifting off to sleep each night, I thought of my fluffy, dense pillows at home and wished the ones provided to me on the train were a bit softer.

Luckily, the pillows on my 2025 Amtrak ride felt thicker and softer.

Although the roomette sleeps two, it can feel cramped even for one person.

I am 5-foot-3 and of average build, and I felt cramped in the roomette’s 25 square feet of space. If I were taller or larger, I imagine I would feel even more cramped, especially if I had to share the room with another person. This makes the upgrade to a bedroom worth it, in my opinion.

My WiFi service was spotty throughout my trips, which made getting work done a little tricky.

I planned to spend several hours of each journey working on my laptop. Amtrak provided WiFi on the first two trips, but I found the train’s internet connection to be inconsistent, so I had to adjust my workflow to accommodate work that didn’t require it. And on the 2025 trip, there was no WiFi at all.

My cell data service was also in and out throughout the journeys.

The internet wasn’t the only service that was spotty. I noticed that the cell service on my phone seemed to come in and out, too. I wished I’d downloaded more movies and shows from streaming apps to keep myself occupied when my phone and internet weren’t working.

I didn’t realize that time would seem to pass more slowly on my long-haul journeys.

I knew 30 hours would be a long ride one way, but time seemed to pass so slowly that 30 hours felt twice as long as it usually does in my regular daily life.

I was glad that I at least packed other things to keep me occupied with spotty WiFi and cell service, such as my Nintendo Switch and music.

The cupholders in Amtrak roomettes and bedrooms fit a standard 12-ounce water bottle. I didn’t know mine wouldn’t fit.

I brought a large water bottle to stay hydrated on my long journey, but it was too wide to fit inside the cupholder, which was designed for a standard 12-ounce cup.

I would have packed a few smaller water bottles if I had known this.

I think you have to view the ride itself as part of your vacation to really enjoy it.

I’m someone who deals with travel anxiety, and so I found the length of the trip initially overwhelming. It’s tough for me to relax when I am between destinations, and for some reason, I struggled to view the train as a destination in itself.

But after spending 75 hours on long-distance Amtrak trains, I’ve realized that if you can think of the train ride as part of the journey, you’ll find it much more enjoyable.

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