We enjoyed visiting a few of the Pacific Northwest Coastal cities by train. The ability to travel car-free was appealing. We used Amtrack to travel down the West Coast from Vancouver. We broke up the train trip with short stops in Seattle, Washington, Portland, Oregon, and Sacramento, California. It’s possible to take the train all the way to Los Angeles!

Here’s our post about our experience with Amtrack service and its trains.

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is a pretty city with beautiful architecture. We saw many sights even though we were only there for two nights. Arriving by train into the downtown core with downtown accommodations meant we also noticed people experiencing homelessness. This was the same in every city we visited. We also saw many support workers on the streets providing wellness checks.

We walked up 4th Street from the train station to our hotel, the Theodore. This 1929-built hotel was beautiful with many Art Deco features. It was a 10-minute walk to Pike’s Market. We booked it using Expedia and enjoyed our time there.

We went to a movie, walked through Pikes Market and enjoyed a hot pot experience for dinner!

Boeing Museum of Flight

The next day we navigated bus 124 for only $2.75 each and visited Boeing’s Museum of Flight. It is on the site of the original Boeing factory and near the present-day factories. It included original aircraft, replicas, model planes and a large collection of NASA memorabilia. We spent three hours there and learned a lot about Boeing the company and the eras of planes from World War 1 and beyond.

Dining Options

We studied TripAdvisor reviews and managed to eat at most of our picks. We really enjoyed our breakfast at the 5 Point Cafe Legendary Dive Bar and Diner and Pike Place Chinese Cuisine.

Portland, Oregon

We stayed one night in Portland between train trips, and we got a taste of the city—literally! Our hotel was the Benson, another beautifully restored hotel in the heart of the city.

We sampled craft beer at Deschutes Brewery and, of course, made room for a delicious snack at Voodoo Donuts. Our favourite breakfast was at Fuller’s Coffee Shop. The food and service were excellent, and we loved the 1960s-style lunch counter design. We also enjoyed our dinner at Mothers Bistro and Bar. We easily walked to all of these establishments from our hotel. Another landmark establishment in Portland is Powell’s Books. We browsed the shelves and found many new titles to add to our TBR list.

Sacramento, California

We spent two days in California’s capital, staying at the Citizen Hotel, which was centrally located. Our Gold status with Expedia earned us discounts and a few perks. in addition to the discounts applied at booking time, we also received a free upgrade to a suite in Vancouver and a free breakfast in Sacramento.

We toured the Capitol Building on our first morning. The free tours run Monday to Friday and helped us learn more about the city’s history. All capital cities are beautiful to visit because there is attention to public spaces. We enjoyed Sacramento with its rose garden, walkable streets and easy access to the train station and airport from downtown. Just like all cities nowadays, there are many experiencing homelessness.

We walked to Old Sacramento to visit the historic park with its original buildings to get a sense of city life in the early 1900s.

We walked past the Golden 1 Stadium where the Sacramento Kings play. Since it was a game night, the crowd was dressed in their team colour-purple and the atmosphere was electric! We did not go to the game but it’s certainly an option if you like NBA games!

Dining Highlights

Our short time in Sacramento did not hinder our ability to find great places to eat. Our first place was Zocolo. This Mexican restaurant is recognized by Michelin and it did not disappoint. The cilantro lime rice was amazing! We also enjoyed our breakfast choices at the Grange which was part of the Citizen Hotel.

We opted to use public transit to get to the airport. The airport bus stop was only a few minutes walk from our hotel. It cost $5 to take the 20-minute ride to the airport. At 7:30 am, we were the only passengers. It was the best deal in the city!

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in all three cities. The early 1900s architecture in the downtown areas is beautiful and the restored train stations in Seattle, Portland and Sacramento were impressive!  We could easily be convinced to visit again! Visiting these three cities by train was a great option. We did not need a car to see the heart of the cities. Dining out was expensive but the food was delicious!