Train to San José: all aboard the Amtrak overnight choo-choo; dinner in the diner; dissing Reese’s and devouring Frank & Louie’s; Rock Me (un)Gently; stunning San José station; Santana Row and shopping

It’s an overnight journey of 19.5 hours from Portland, OR to San José CA. With a couple of hours to spare before our 2.30pm departure, we enjoyed the comfort of Portland Union Station’s Metropolitan Lounge. (Here is our Amtrak eTicket.)

Lured by the help-yourself drinks and snacks bar, I succumbed not only to the Reese’s peanut butter cups but also to Miss Vickie’s Jalapeño Kettle Cooked Chips. (Purely in the interest of cultural research, of course. Fortunately, though our local supermarkets in Western Australia do stock Reese’s peanut butter cups, I’m now relieved to know that they’re fairly yuck; definitely not worth the calorie and chemical splurge.)

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Train to San José: Dinner in the Diner

Then, before we’d even settled into our accommodation on the upper level of the train, we were called for lunch at the dining car.

“Community seating” is the policy, so you will make new friends during the journey, like it or not. (Lunch was with a Wisconsin couple celebrating their 20^th wedding anniversary; dinner was in the company of Lisa and Tony from Melbourne, on a three-to-four month travel extravaganza; breakfast was opposite a tall, red-bearded, interesting man who grew up in the San Francisco Bay area.)

Lunch, dinner and breakfast were included in our rate; coach passengers need to pay for meals separately. The food was fine, though I might have been pickier had we been forking out: we chose Caesar salads for lunch; for dinner, Roy had the flatiron steak and I had the salmon. He even had breakfast for a change, an omelette. All fine.

Build Me Up, Buttercup

The Frank & Louie’s buttercake dessert option (pictured below; and masochists can check out Frank & Louie’s website, here) came enthusiastically recommended by our lunch companions. Yes please, said I; the noble Roy declined. Unlike the Reese’s peanut butter cups, it’s frankly delicious… pun intended. I’m so glad it isn’t available outside the US.

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South Bound Train

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Rock Me (un)Gently

As railway accommodation goes, our First Class Amtrak room, though utilitarian, was relatively roomy and quite well appointed – especially considering that these cars were built in the 1970s.

Bedtime, however, was a bit of a challenge. It had been years, even decades, since I’d last clambered up steps to wedge myself into the narrow space between the upper bunk and the roof of a train cabin. I was always going to bump my head, and I did – several times. And the bunk is hard; the train jostles, bumps, and generally chucks you around, sounding its horn throughout the night at each and every road crossing.

Nevertheless, it was an interesting and worthwhile experience overall, and a good way to cover the more than 1,000 kilometres (670 miles) from Portland, OR to San José, CA. Yes, I still love trains and I would do it again. (Price? About US$1,300 for a one-way ticket for two, after a generous discount for being seniors.)

San José Diridon Station

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A Day in San José

Which, by the way, is reported to be one of the world’s most expensive cities to live in, slightly trailing Hong Kong, Sydney and Vancouver. They say that San José is the USA’s least affordable large city, residents paying an average of US$3,504 for monthly expenses in 2023, 71.2% higher than the national average.

Roy had chosen the Sonesta Select Airport Hotel mainly for its proximity to the airport branch of Alamo, where tomorrow we’d be picking up the rental that we’d be keeping for the rest of our southbound Californian adventure.

Santana Row

We had been here before; our Californian friends Steve and Ellie used to have an apartment in Santana Row, and we spent a night here back in 2011 before setting off with Ellie at the wheel to explore Napa Valley. (For a PDF of my published article all about that fabulous trip, click here: US California 2011.)

Not only is Santana Row San José’s most salubrious neighbourhood, bristling with upscale boutiques, restaurants and bars, it’s right next to Westfield Valley Fair. It’s said to be Northern California’s largest mall by area. This massive space has a Macy’s, a Bloomingdale’s and every luxury designer watch, clothing and accessory brand you can think of. Plus all the usual suspects, from Pandora and Zara and H&M to Mango and Lululemon (of course); plus they’ve even included Antipodeans such as Aussie designer Zimmerman and Kiwi retail icon Rodd ‘n Gun.

For us, the highlight was Eatily, a three-floor Italian café, restaurant and deli extravaganza where we could pick up a baguette, a bottle of wine, a couple of cheeses, cold meats, olives and such for dinner at the hotel.

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Up Next?

Road-tripping to three virtual theme parks: an amazing funfair at Santa Cruz’s The Boardwalk, the quaint town of Carmel and Monterey.