Hops Trains and Backpacks

Category: Travel

  • Bucket List: Jazz Train from New York to Montreal

    Bucket List: Jazz Train from New York to Montreal

    Featured image by Bublegun (Own work) [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons New York, en wagon piano bar! Imagine some of the nicest scenery in the East flashing by the window as you’re serenaded by live music and wined and dined. I first heard about this unique year-round service from a post on And North.The…

  • Bucket List: Chicago to New Orleans by Pullman Sleeper

    Bucket List: Chicago to New Orleans by Pullman Sleeper

    Photo: Pontchartrain Club and Dome cars, Pullman Rail Journeys Update (Sept 2021): Sadly, Pullman Rail Journeys’ site is down and it appears service has been suspended. Amtrak’s City of New Orleans, however, still runs daily with sleeper accommodations. Imagine coasting your way down from the Great Lakes to the Gulf coast on a day-long train…

  • Bucket List: EuroStar from Paris to London

    Bucket List: EuroStar from Paris to London

    Featured image: Fraselpantz at en.wikipedia [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons The high-speed EuroStar train crosses the English channel en-route between the French and British capitals. It is blindingly fast, direct, and happens to link the last two destinations of our planned summer’s trip to Europe. If there is a single simple two-hour train ride that I’m…

  • How I got 21% back towards travel (Really)

    How I got 21% back towards travel (Really)

    I signed up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred (referral link) card this past year to take advantage of the 50,000-point sign-up bonus, plus an additional 5,000 for adding an authorized user ($1155 at 2.1 cents per point !). It’s a good card that I use on a daily basis for most purchases, and it gives…

  • Amtrak Guest Rewards, Best Deal in Travel, Gets Better (for Most)

    Amtrak Guest Rewards, Best Deal in Travel, Gets Better (for Most)

    Photo: Amtrak’s California Zephyr (Source: Ebgundy – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0) Time for some train travel talk. Dollar-for-dollar, Amtrak’s Guest Rewards (AGR) program remains one of the best redemption deals in travel rewards. AGR has undergone some changes recently that have shifted, and in most cases improved its value for those looking to redeem. At 2.9 cents of…

  • Experiments in Extreme Weekend Travel

    Experiments in Extreme Weekend Travel

    We just returned from a weekend getaway to Barbados, and I wanted to share impressions on what I’ll term our first experiment in “extreme weekend travel”. To fit nearly a week of travel time into one weekend, all you need are the following: two vacation days that connect to the weekend or a three-day weekend…

  • The Way to the Top of the World

    I’ve enjoyed staring at maps since I was a little kid, pulling the inserts from National Geographic. I’ve always been curious what was out there at the fringes, at the distended top and bottom of the map, rotating close to the poles of the globe, out there at the edges of the country, the continent,…

  • Weekend Getaway to Beacon, NY (Brooklyn North)

    Beacon, New York has been described as the hippest town in the Hudson Valley. If hipness can be measured by the impressive modern art museum that drew us there, coupled with a craft beer and local restaurant scene to rival any around, I agree. It is hip, and more. Not only did the town have…

  • Tuxedos and Rattlesnakes

    Our planned weekend getaway started with the usual New York mad rush, in this case to catch the lone Saturday morning express train from Penn Station. Once safely aboard and having taken stock of our provisions — water, check, map, check, cash, check, wallet, check (twice) — we relaxed into our seats for the one-hour…