Amtrak VacationsReviews of amtrakvacations.com

i had a somewhat tumultuous early experience with booking a trip to the western national parks. I am pushing 80 and a cardiac patient. My doc intervened after i booked to tell me not to take the trip. He then changed his advice and said i could go. Dom Lamour came to the rescue and smoothed out my charges. A real hero. please promote him. Also the Amtrak tracks got flooded early on and put me 24 hours behind. First an agent named Peter Bahn researched plane flights from Chicago to Phoenix which allowed me to make up the missing day. Then Allison Foley took over to arrange shuttle rides to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. I eventually was back on schedule, but Allison was not done. She negotiated a reimbursement from Amtrak of over 700 dollars to cover my airfare and shuttle expenses. These agents were exemplary, especially Dom and Allison. They saved my trip. My brother and sister in law will be traveling next, and I also hope to take another train trip. Thanks, thanks, thanks!!!

Sammi Cain is the best! Our trip was booked by our travel agent and we had a few more questions. I mistakenly went to Amtrak.com and was frustrated that I couldn’t find my booking. Finally, after just a bit of friendly venting by me, Sammi was able to answer every question and even looked up luggage storage facilities to help us out even more. Thanks, Sammi and we can’t wait for our first overnight Amtrak trip.

Sammi Cain was over the top helpful with our booking. She not only booked us but checked our other reservations to make sure we were set. Excellent customer service!

I worked with Kevin Guadagnoli and Allison Foley to book my first ever Amtrak trip. I wasn't the easiest customer as I'm confined to a chair. They were both great! Very easy to talk to. They knew their stuff, too! They both made sure all my accessibility needs were met. I ended up needing to book a connecting train to make getting to Chicago a lot easier for us. What can I say, no one wants to drive in Chicago to take us to meet the train including my travel companion! lol Got our final travel itinerary today and everything looks perfect!

Hilary Klein went above and beyond to help me throughout the process. She was always responsive, knowledgeable, and genuinely cared about making everything go smoothly. I truly appreciated her dedication and excellent service

Amtrak Vacations With the Fourth of July 2026 events and a major east coast heat wave approaching, I started looking in late June for a trip that would take me across the United States from my home in Washington, D.C. to northwest Canada. While I’ve spent most of my free time on six polar expeditions over the past three years, this time I wanted to see the country from the ground. Amtrak Vacations exists for travel like this. I’ve booked a lot of long-distance family train trips between Chicago, Denver, Kansas City, and New Orleans but I arranged those trips using Amtrak’s own booking customer service – a lot like booking a flight directly with the airline instead of using a travel agent. For this trip, however, there were so many moving parts – finding sleeper car accommodation, finding hotels, arranging excursions – the better choice for me this time was Amtrak Vacations (which is part of the Railbookers Group family of brands). My guide and trip developer was Amtrak Vacations representative, Kevin Guadagnoli, who was working through Railbookers. It’s more complicated than it needs to be, but Kevin did a great job assembling my itinerary. I sought sleeper-car accommodations for as much of the trip as possible. Check. Kevin booked me a sleeper from D.C. to Seattle. I sought transit through Chicago and Seattle with minimal time in the U.S. Check. I left D.C. on Sunday, June 28, 2026, and after a short stay in Union Station we left Chicago and arrived at Seattle’s King Street Station mid-afternoon on Monday, June 29. I sought accommodation in Jasper and Banff, with a flight back to D.C. from Calgary. Check. Kevin booked me at the Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver for two days and booked me a 48-hour pass for the hop-on hop-off tour bus. He booked me for the Crimson Jasper for two nights, added an icefields excursion for the 3-hour trip from Jasper to Banff (making it a 10-hour trip instead of just the three hours to get from city to city). He booked me two nights at the Hotel Canoe and Suites in Banff and booked me for a 10-hour excursion to see the very popular “Mountains, Lakes, and Waterfall Tours” roundtrip offered by Brewster Transportation and Tours from Banff. Then he checked to see how I was returning back to D.C. (on a United flight from Calgary) and he booked me a bus trip from Banff to the airport in Calgary, where I would be staying at an on-site hotel. The only glitch worth mentioning seems to be directly related to Brewster: in my printed itinerary, I was admonished that in order to take the tour from Jasper to Banff (which was to include an 8-hour tour of the icefields and the Columbia Skywalk) I needed to call 800 760 6934 “at least 48 hours in advance to reconfirm” my booking, pickup location, and time. I started calling that number on Thursday, July 2, and repeated my efforts throughout the weekend. I stayed online 15 minutes, 30 minutes, and more, and never got through. Three times I left a message asking that Brewster call me so that I could know in advance when I was to be picked up – but no one ever called me back. I left email messages with Brewster and with Kevin and no one called me back. I don’t know if there was anything Kevin could have done to help. While at the Crimson Jasper the hotel staff also tried, without success, to contact Brewster. This became important because while the tour was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., I had an 8:30 a.m. conference call. Brewster called me in the middle of that call – but left no message. My conference call ended at 9 a.m. and I was at the front desk ready to go at 9:06 a.m., when I learned the tour bus arrived at 8:45 a.m. and left without me. As I see it, by seriously reducing customer service over the holiday weekend, Brewster was able to benefit from whatever Kevin had prepaid for the ice field excursion (which I was not able to join), and my own payment for transit from Jasper to Banff. I still don’t know how much I paid for the icefields trip, and I honestly don’t know those from whom I should be seeking a refund. It’s not that I blame the bus driver who left without me – he or she clearly did the right thing. And really, I can’t blame Kevin for Brewster’s poor conduct. Brewster’s ground crew members were excellent – great buses, great drivers, great hosts. Their customer service branch, however, could use some training, unless Brewster has found that it’s profitable not to answer their phones over the weekend. That bump in the road aside, Kevin put together an awesome cross-country trip. Total cost included trip coverage through TripMate, underwritten by General Global Assistance ($1,089). Including this coverage, the total invoice for all travel, including rail, insurance, lodging, and excursions, was $12,234.85. Not bad for an 11-day trip that included as much as I found during this vacation.

I’m so incredibly thankful for the hard working Amtrak Vacations phone staff, but I absolutely must specifically point out the incredibly helpful, consistently polite, professionally knowledgeable, and friendly Amtrak representative named Victoria. Nothing feels more warm and friendly than calling an organization as large and complex as Amtrak 2-3 weeks after making initial reservations and actually be clearly recognized by the representative that initially helped me. She personifies the best that any company could hope for in a representative in a front-facing position. As I write, I’m in the midst of an 11 day train journey; a slow life course correction from my home in Bellingham WA to San Antonio TX, with a 4 day stop in Iowa to visit my sister, and to ultimately provide CNA care for my aging parents in TX. This move has been a tremendous challenge and has taken months to plan and prepare. Victoria has been “by my side” from the first phone call I made months ago, to my most recent schedule concern this afternoon. How fortunate I’ve been to coincidentally have her help me nearly every time I call! She is genuinely interested in my story, reflective and validating, always supportive, and endlessly patient with my questions and concerns. She has been just amazingly kind and thoughtful, and I just really feel like Amtrak and Victoria are the best friends I could ask for during this difficult but incredibly honorable time. Thank you Victoria, for going far beyond what is expected of anyone in your position. The work you’ve done gives us all great hope and faith in the continued long life of our beloved Amtrak. With deep sincerity and gratitude, Marc.

Great experience with Kevin Helton. He went above and beyond what I called about and gave me great tips on our upcoming trip! Thank you Kevin!!!