Trip Coach: March 6, 2007

_______________________

Tinley Park, IL: After seeing a special on TV regarding train travel, we¿re planning to take a train trip sometime next summer. Any advice?

Budget Travel editors: Thanks for writing us. Sounds like you're planning a fun and memorable trip for your family. To get some ideas on train travel, I recommend you read through the transcript of our live chat last week with train expert Fred Frailey. You can do so clicking here.

Frailey has taken every scenic train route in the U.S., and his picks for the top three routes are:

1. California Zephyr, westbound from Denver to Oakland (the train originates in Chicago, but the scenery starts leaving Denver). Unquestionably the best of the bunch.

2. Coast Starlight, between Oakland and LA (the train runs Seattle to LA and the line through Oregon is scenic but no competition for the hour between Surf and Goleta CA when there is nothing but the Pacific Coast and the Coast Starlight).

3. Empire Builder either way between Chicago and Seattle. The gem is the three hours through the Rockies between Libby and Whitefish, Mont.

However, those routes are expensive. Yet you can do a small portion of these routes, and save money. Or you could drive to Amtrak's AutoTrain, which departs from about forty-minutes south of Washington, D.C., and ride with your family down to near Orlando, Fla. Frailey says this is a scenic route, and the AutoTrain is set-up to be one of the most kid-friendly of the Amtrak operations.

As he says, "The national parks are ill served by Amtrak." Good luck!

_______________________

Las Vegas, NV: Do you know of any resourses, preferably on-line, that will give you all non-stop routes out of a specific airport? My husband and i just went to London for one week, only because I had heard Virgin Atlantic had a non-stop flight and the fare was fantastic! (600 each, non-stop). We are travelers that would go some where just because we can get there non-stop, for a long list of obvious reasons. Any suggestions? Thanks! Ann

Budget Travel editors: Ann, I hope my answer to your separate question from days ago about Danny Meyer and wine tips was helpful. Glad you enjoyed London. I'm all in favor of paying a little extra for a nonstop flight because of my previous bad experiences with lost luggage, etc. Unfortunately, I don't know of a website that lists all the destinations that have nonstop flights from Las Vegas. However, all the major online travel sites let you limit your search so that all the "nonstop" fares pop up first. For example, if you go to your favorite online agency or meta-search site (such as Kayak.com or Travelocity.com), you can type in your departure airport, Las Vegas, your destination, and then pick "nonstop". The site will fetch nonstop fares to that place. (When you're searching, make sure you opt for "flexible dates"--meaning that you'd be willing to leave a few days before or after a certain date. Otherwise, nonstop flights that only depart four out of seven days of the week might not turn up in your search. It'll take some trial and error to find destinations. If you're up for a splurge, there's MAXjet Las Vegas-London, $1,398 (in business class).