East Coast Train Trip

12 day trip to 7 states with two backpacks.

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The Idea/Planning

This was a trip I had fully planned at least 3 years in a row. My spreadsheet corroborates this story. After taking our first couple cruises I wanted to find ways to create that same type of multi destination route, without paying the amount that a fall East Coast and Canada cruise would cost, not being on a boat AND getting to spend more time in each place. We also made 3 trips into DC/Virginia using Amtrak, MARC, and the Metro and were starting to play with the idea of heading up the other way. I even dabbled with driving, but in a city, who wants to park a car?!

After the birth of this idea we executed our first road trip style itinerary in New Zealand, our second in Oregon and made a long weekend trip to New York (which took it off the list this year). I was starting to get to know our travel style, how far we could really walk, hang ups, time frames for eating, how to maximize AirBnb resources, etc. After fine tuning the itinerary all I had to do was wait yet again for the Companion Pass. We’re in, out or laid over at BWI frequently and it’s one of the few directs left from Detroit. That was going to be our starting point. Our ending point would be Portland, Maine the most eastern airport Southwest flies.

Adam’s goal was to hit each and every state along the route. After looking into Amtrak passes, individual ticket prices and the prices of specific routes, it just didn’t make sense to get off in say New Hampshire, walk around for a bit then get back on the train for twice the cost. So we settled on Baltimore, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, New Haven, Providence, Boston and Portland to maximize time, money and the # of states.

Baltimore – Day 1

We started the trip dark and early. There we were supposed to use our DC Metro SmarTrip Cards (they’re interchangeable with Maryland CharmCards) to take the Light Raillink in to Baltimore. I forgot the cards so we had to pay cash for our day passes, but luckily that was extent of my forgetful packing. We got off at Camden Yards and started to explore! I loved that we could walk right up to the stadium since no game was going on. I’m a huge fan of old brick buildings so I loved it! Then we made our way to Inner Harbor just enjoying a calm morning stroll.

Adam was doing some research on things to do and came across the Bromo-Seltzer Clock Tower. We knew nothing about it other than we got to climb inside an old clock, and I was all about that. It was $8 each for the tour, which included an excellent history presentation about the building, Isaac Edward Emerson, Bromo-Seltzer and Baltimore. We then went up to the clock level and climbed a ladder to what I can only describe as a magical room. It wasn’t even sunny out but the whole room was bright and had a hazy glow. Its clock face is 2 feet larger than Big Ben! On the way down we got to see the Bromo-Seltzer Museum rooms and some local artists’ galleries (which are free to visit). We would highly recommend this to anyone who loves history, old things and clocks.

After starting strong we headed to lunch where I made pretty much my only navigational mistake of the trip. I let google lead me and ended up on a street I’m pretty sure we didn’t want to be on. It was all storefronts that were vacant, abandoned, barred and/or boarded up. We saw maybe 2 or 3 people along the 1.5 mile stretch. We were carrying all our belongings for the trip on our backs so it made our Detroit spidey sense tingle. When we were a block away from the food hall we noticed there was a cop standing on that corner of the intersection. When we crossed the street it was a totally different world. It was a very distinct line that we’re not used to seeing at home. I think that made us a bit more alert/on the defense the rest of the day.

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After lunch we attempted to visit the George Peabody Library but missed it’s closing time by 30 min, which was disappointing. Make sure you check the times before planning your day! We decided to just head to our AirBnb to drop our stuff. A short break, fixing the toilet and acquiring some toilet paper later (not our best Airbnb experience) we were off to Hampden on the light rail. A cute little hipster neighborhood that I honestly think Ferndale puts to shame. But I was getting tired so *shrug*. We then went down a creepy wooded trail between Hampden and Johns Hopkins to make our first University campus visit. It was a pretty campus, but overall boring. The DJ for the football game gets two thumbs up!

I wasn’t particularly hungry but we got dinner and ice cream anyways, because food is good. Another meal, another food hall. Then made the trek back to end our day before the sun went down. In total we clocked 9 miles that day and I fell asleep before 8:30p.

Philadelphia – Days 2 & 3

Back up and at it we were on our way to Philly on the first train of the trip! I don’t remember seeing much. We were in Delaware for a hot second, but it doesn’t count because we didn’t get off. There are rules about these things! My first impression of Philadelphia was awesome after coming from Baltimore (sorry). It was a much bigger city and overall felt really nice and clean, particularly in the main downtown area.

We headed straight for one of our favorite travel hacks, Capital One Cafe. This was the best, most impressive one we’ve been to to date. (It was released this week that the Detroit location is coming and will be similar!) It basically had a free two level co-working space in addition to the cafe. If you have a Capital One credit card or bank account you get half-off Peet’s Coffee (or tea). They also have magical Sundays occasionally that are deemed “Happy Hour” where all drinks are free. From what we were told even the store managers don’t know until the day of. It’s a great place to take a break, use their Wifi and get a cheap drink. And air conditioning.

I was set on having Woodrow’s for lunch, even though I found out later there was yellow cheddar in their truffle whiz and felt pretty awful. So we hiked it 1.5 miles there to come 1.7 miles back for another of our favorite travel pastimes, seeing a movie. It was worth it. We rounded out our 7.5 mile day with collecting groceries at the local Save A Lot, eating nachos and watching Veronica Mars. Yay Hulu!

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Day 2 was our real Philadelphia day, made to see the sights and be as touristy as possible. We started by perusing The Italian Market where our AirBnb was. Not much was open on Mondays, but Adam got some Gino’s Cheesesteak for breakfast (a bucket list item for him) and then we got some fresh cheese ravioli to cook ourselves for dinner. YUM. It was time we headed for the historical sites.

We checked out the US Mint which was really fun even if most of the machines weren’t actively making coins. Then made our way past the Ben Franklin House, 7-Eleven (priorities), Second Bank of the US, Merchant Exchange Building, City Tavern, and landed at Spruce Street Harbor Park. This awesome park was a bit sleepy, but the smell of the ice cream food truck making it’s cones for the day was heavenly. They had hammocks strung in the trees with lights and a beer garden on the water. Seemed like a really cool spot to hang out at on a Friday or Saturday night! Then it was time for our Independence Hall tour. You can sign up in person for free or register online for $1 per ticket. We didn’t want to wait in a line or miss out so we reserved ours online and picked them up in the morning. It was definitely cool to be in the room where it happened. Our next stop on the list was the Liberty Bell, to you know, lick it. The large roped off area inside made this very impossible, but why not pretend. LOL

No we STILL were not done. Next we checked out Reading Terminal Market which was one of my favorites of the day. Just seeing all the different food and drinks available was so much fun. From groceries to prepared meals and desserts they had it all! Completely beat we still decided to check out Philadelphia City Hall, the largest municipal building in the US. Holy WOW was it ornate for a City Hall. Definitely go check it out! Stopping at nearby Love Park we got our view of the “Rocky Stairs” and that was finally enough for us. Another 7 mile day in the books, we headed back to cook up some ravioli and settle back in with the Hulu. Clearly nightlife just isn’t our thing.

We spent our last few hours the next morning taking it slow and headed back to the Capital One Cafe before our train was set to head to Atlantic City. When we arrived in Philadelphia I had noticed a sign in a restaurant window for $1 lunch. I figured I had to sign up for some rewards program/app and it wasn’t worth it since we were only there for 2 days and probably didn’t have that restaurant in the mitten. BUT, on our way to the cafe a woman handed me a flier about it from a different restaurant. Turns out the Ritual ordering app was hosting $1 lunches all week and it works all over the country. WHY DID I IGNORE THIS! Our chill morning turned into me trying to fit in a meal on our way to the train station, only to have my order cancelled because they were “out”. Yeah.. ohk. I’d be back in a couple days to try again anyways!

Atlantic City – Day 4 & 5

We arrived at the train station to a schedule that listed our train as cancelled. Well great. The woman at the counter said that all trains were cancelled, BUT there was a bus parked somewhere outside we could take. Turns out they were allowing all of us to ride for free (saving us $21.50) and we could use purchased tickets on the way back. Our 1.5 hour train turned into a 2.5 hour bus ride in circles. We had to stop at every single train stop, but roads aren’t as direct as, say, the train tracks. Growing up in suburbia with very little public transit, I was learning how it felt to be at the mercy of the trains and got to experience more of New Jersey than we would have otherwise. I had no idea there was so much farmland!

When we arrived in Atlantic City we ran into another problem. The free shuttle that would take us to the Borgata only shows up when the scheduled trains arrive. NOT an hour later when the bus decided to show up. And Borgata is NOT walkable. After being shooed out of the comfy chairs in the quiet conference center, we decided to sit in the train station until the next one (and the shuttle) showed up. That’s right the next train was up and running and arrived just 45 min after our bus did. I’d take the bus again given the choice. As annoying as it was, it allowed us to see more of New Jersey and I got some work done since a shipment was delivered back at home just as we were arriving.

And now after 270 words on getting TO Atlantic City, we were finally embarking on the real adventure. Our cheapest night of lodging was also the nicest and only hotel we stayed at during this trip. It felt like a total luxury. Being a bit away from the boardwalk did mean we needed to take a shuttle in. They have a thing called the Jitney that stops there and drives around in, from all I can tell, a completely random pattern around town trying not to cross paths or words with other drivers aimlessly circling. We just got off as far down the boardwalk as we could at the new Ocean Casino Resort and took an Uber back instead of trying to hunt it down again.

We were most interested in Atlantic City because of it’s notoriety as an outdated, dying, second-rate Vegas. I love abandoned places, their history and urban exploring in general. With the rebranding/opening of the Ocean Casino Resort and Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in June 2018, had we been there a year before it may have looked more desolate like I was expecting. It was a cool surprise to see a little bit of a resurgence. The boardwalk was littered with people, shops, food, men pushing chariots with people in them… I loved the hotels and casinos right on the beach. A much better place to visit in the summer than Vegas! We did stumble upon some closed up buildings like the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino (which we kept calling the Tron building), The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel and the 3 story high-end shopping mall Playground Pier, where there were only 19 operating stores and one entirely empty level. After our walk our minds were buzzing and we spend the time back in our room researching all the history of Atlantic City, the empty buildings and the occupied ones. Fascinating stuff!

The next day we headed back to the boardwalk with our newfound knowledge and did a little more browsing before actually catching the train back to Philly. It was 100% faster but the views get a D. We had some time to wait before our next Amtrak left so I FINALLY got to take advantage of that $1 lunch! Ordered a huge bowl of Pho for dinner and headed to New Haven. One of the best train rides of the trip, we got to ride through NYC in the dark. The conductor dimmed the cabin lights so we could see the city all lit up!

New Haven – Day 6

Funny story. I booked all of our Airbnbs about 6 months ahead of time. Some hosts cancelled early and got rebooked and some (*ahem* New Haven) I took a risk on. This particular unit had very few reviews but the price was too good to pass up. As I reviewed all the details for check in on our train ride over I started to panic. All the recent reviews were TERRIBLE. The unit was dirty, area unsafe and there was major road noise at night. What had I done?! I fell into a death spiral of googling New Haven crime and rationalizing with myself that it was fine.

It was an old historic building that hadn’t had many updates and the apartment was big, but very empty. The pink sheets and old (really pretty) quilt on the bed made me think of Instant Hotel, where they always knocked the Airbnbs for not having white bedding because it seems dirty. When I started to think of the place not as a hotel, but as crashing at a friends maybe not so clean apartment, that settled me. In the end psyching myself up was probably for the best so my expectations were low. And everything looked way better in the daylight.

And that was the most exciting thing about New Haven. We did wake up early and walk around town. Yale was locked down like a fortress, so that was less than exciting. We hiked in East Rock Park which gave us a break from city life and an awesome view. We grabbed a dinner to heat up at the grocery store and stayed in the apartment from 1p until we left the next morning reading and catching up on TV shows. Despite not being the most luxurious of accommodations, I really did love the big windows and bright afternoon light. I do apologize to Adam for the double bed with a footboard.

Providence – Day 7

Despite a whole afternoon of rest the day before I remember being tired & hot in providence. The train ride probably ruined my whole mood. A 2 hour trip, when we got on it was PACKED. We found seats one in front of the other but somehow I picked the one next to the lady on the phone, hogging the outlet, in one of two rows with no windows. Plus, a crowded train = shitty wifi. Luckily it was the only train we had this issue on and lo and behold, I survived.

I loved the size and feel of Providence from the minute we got there. The problem, however, was that we finished all the things on my itinerary by 2p. We grabbed lunch, checked out The Arcade mall, walked around Brown and downtown. We ended up making a pitstop at a park and read until it was time to check in. Despite all the claims from reviewers about the safety of the neighborhood in New Haven it seemed plenty fine. The area we stayed in Providence, however, turned out to be a legit up and coming area on the edge of Federal Hill & West End. Still felt WAY safer than where we walked in Baltimore, but we ended our excursions well before dusk.

For dinner we grabbed Oogie’s Trailer Park which was cool and totally on theme, explored the main drag in Federal Hill and had the most delicious ice cream cookie sandwiches. The ice cream building and other cool restaurants, bars and lounges were all tucked away in with residential and commercial buildings, not in a neat downtown like I expected. It was a really interesting area to explore. I’ve been trying to learn more about the area since we left, but all I seem to turn up are newspaper articles that want me to subscribe. No thank you.

I almost forgot to take a moment to talk about our second favorite Airbnb of the trip! An old house that was converted into 5 units sharing a few bathrooms and kitchens. The styling was excellent and modern, it was immaculately clean, we felt very safe and secure and the bed was to die for! We’ve even looked into purchasing the bed and bedding for home. I would 110% recommend if you’re heading to Providence.

Boston – Days 8 & 9

We spent the rest of the day exploring the financial district, watching tourist get hustled by street performers at Battery Warf, sipped tea at another Capital One Cafe, walked through a surprise marijuana festival in Boston Common, and hit up Target for some food & laundry detergent.

Day 2 we certainly got our steps in. Not that we have fitness trackers. But if we did, 12 miles should cover it. It was happy hour Sunday at the Capital One Cafes, so you know we found two more. Then explored Harvard, MIT, and Back Bay. Tried to find the DraftKings headquarters and lock in that day’s lineup out front for good luck. It did not bring any.

When we made it back to the Airbnb to cook up some lunch, we found out that the stove was non-operational and learned how to make mac and cheese in the microwave. As silly as it sounds a lot of that improvising is what makes traveling fun. Although maybe not in the moment when you’ve walked 9 miles, it’s 2 in the afternoon and you’re hangry.

We capped off the evening by taking a walk to the Fenway Park neighborhood. In true random fashion the roads around the park and views of Fenway itself were blocked for an alleyway country music festival. I’m not huge on country but I recognized Maren Morris on the signage and we decided to walk around and come back to watch her perform. We stood right behind the stage for free as she performed the 3 songs I knew all in a row. The good mood was topped only by exploring the Landmark Center. An old Sears warehouse that had been converted into office and retail space, a movie theater and most recently a Time Out food hall. Business + architecture + history is really our sweet spot.

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Maine – Days 10-12

We left Boston early in the morning for a 3 hour train to Maine. You know how sometimes when you’re viewing locations on Google Maps you start to feel like you have a grip on what that area is like in real life? That was NOT the case for the train station in Portland. Everything I had imagined was not a secluded sandy point with nothing on it where some old warehouses were converted to sleepy restaurants and shopping. I really just thought there would be a regular old strip mall where I wanted to eat lunch and a paved river trail in a nice park instead of a hiking trail along power lines. Aside from that surprise we ate, walked to the bus stop for the airport and FINALLY picked up a car.

We took full advantage of the car and drove to a park on the eastern side of Portland to walk around. Watched a couple cruise ships in port that day avoiding Hurricane Jerry in Bermuda. One was our old friend the Adventure of the Seas which we took to the southern Caribbean in 2015.

If you haven’t noticed yet we’re always right on time for check in at the places we stay. 3p on the nose we got to one of the most lovely Airbnbs I’ve ever stayed at. It is #goals for me to own a property like this one. They have a main house that is split into a couple apartments and the owners suite. Then out back in the immaculately landscaped yard is a rented guest cottage with a tiny suite in the basement. That was our little oasis.

We ate dinner downtown and checked another item of Adam’s list: lobster rolls. We went to a restaurant you could tell would line up in the summer but was very quiet late Sept. I don’t do seafood so I tried the corn dog. It was a give and take kind of meal. I was rewarded with gelato.

We woke up early the next day to make the 3 hour drive to Acadia National Park. I was so glad we decided to add this and the car to our itinerary. There were so many great hikes and the scenery was very different from other places we’d been. Rocky, tree lined but then some places almost looking tropical! We were early for the fall colors but did get to see early changes happening. I can imagine it would be stunning in October. Words don’t do the park as much justice as the pictures.

Our final day we packed up the backpacks one last time and made our way to South Portland and Fort Williams Park. I was hunting for some quintessential Maine lighthouses! Bud Light was a nice free park with nothing to do with beer. It did have a great view of the city and harbor and made a great place to sit and eat lunch. Fort Williams did end up costing money to park, but the photos of the light house were worth it. We even got to explore old batteries which was fun.

It was, at last, time to end our trip. We dropped off the car at the airport and made the short hop to BWI where a long layover waited. Although the food court there is my favorite we actually had enough time to go through security and check out The Club lounge in a different terminal. It was perfect! Tons of free food, fancy tea, alcoholic drinks, comfy booths with outlets and wifi. We’ve never been spoiled with a “nice” lounge but I haven’t seen anything wrong with the ones we’ve tried so far. It was the perfect end to the trip.

Final Thoughts

I’ve dragged my feet on finishing this post. I started writing pretty quickly after we got back, but besides the overwhelming number of places we went in a such a short time, I think my mood around this trip kept me from finishing. People always joke about needing a vacation from their vacation. This was one of those.

When we got back from Alaska all I wanted to do was share. Similar to the journal I have filled with everything that we did in New Zealand so I wouldn’t forget. When people would ask about it my excitement would rise and I’d make sure everyone wanted to go some day too. When people ask me about this trip I still feel overloaded by everything we saw and did and all the information my brain took in. We are people who spend a day walking around downtown Detroit once every month or two and point out all the differences from the last time or find some new detail we never noticed. Taking in those details of 7 very different cities was A LOT. We also realized a big difference was we had no home base. In the past we had a cruise ship or a car where we could rest, throw our bags or store extra food or shoes. We also lost some control or autonomy to public transit.

I think overall it was a really good trip and there are some cities we visited I would totally go back to. But I don’t think we’ll be planning another train only trip any time soon. And I feel guilty about that after planning it for so long. It’s not that it wasn’t good or rewarding, that I regret doing it, or wouldn’t recommend it. I just didn’t come home with that warm happy feeling like some trips. I’m learning and fine tuning what we like and don’t like, and how do you know if you don’t try something a little crazy.

Cost Breakdown

12 Days, 11 Nights

Although it’s not a recommended credit card to get the bang the your buck, I opened an Amtrak credit card for this trip. It saved us $422 between this trip and the Alaska cruise. We also cashed in some MyVegas points for a free night at the Borgata casino hotel. MyVegas is a Facebook game that lets you earn real life rewards like free nights at casino hotels, buffets, free play, event tickets and even cruises for playing free online “slots”.

This was also our last trip planned pre-Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. I’m hoping to reduce costs on future trips by using Chase Ultimate Rewards points for hotels and excursions.