When I first starting talking to Amtrak about sponsoring the book tour, I pointed out to them that I thought Honeymooning via Amtrak was perhaps the best idea on the planet. Now that I’ve listened to a history tour through the Sierras, crossed the Rockies in a snowstorm, watched the snowy fields of Iowa fly by while drinking coffee in my heated compartment, slept in the cozy Amtrak double beds, had lunch delivered to my room, and waved to Southerners on their porches while the train chugged by, I think it’s an even better idea.
Seriously. I think Honeymoons are built for one particular thing: blissing out with your partner while you stare at your new rings, cuddle up, and nap. And it turns out, there is no form of transportation better built for that than a sleeping car on a train.
Plus, for those of you trying to make your weddings as green as possible, not only is train travel pretty darn green, Amtrak is dedicated to keeping things environmentally friendly. Most of what you use in Amtrak sleepers isn’t even disposable (hello, cloth towels), but to add to that, I’ve seen so many compostable Amtrak cups that I love them more every day.
That, and trains take you interesting places. Like, say, New Orleans. Or exploring the West Coast.
So! I’m super excited to announce that APW is giving away a honeymoon via Amtrak! Hooray! (Now, while this is technically a honeymoon giveaway, according to the terms and conditions, anyone can enter, so you could use this for a mini-moon trip together if you’re already married.) But seriously, you didn’t think I was going to have Amtrak sponsor the APW Book Tour, and write about how much fun I was having traveling by sleeper car all over the country, without having a big giveaway for you guys, did you? Of course not.
Here are the details of what Amtrak is offering for the Honeymoon Giveaway:
A round trip for two in a “Roomette” to any destination served by Amtrak’s Coast Starlight or a round trip for two to any destination served by Amtrak’s City of New Orleans. The trip is valid for travel until December 31, 2013, subject to blackouts and other restrictions that may apply. The winner has the option to upgrade to a bedroom upon payment of accommodation charges, subject to availability.
Amtrak and APW picked these train lines as the options because they are particularly good ones. The City Of New Orleans line goes from Chicago to New Orleans (Maddie and I explored New Orleans for you this weekend… check back this afternoon for details) with a stop along the way in Memphis. The Amtrak Coast Starlight runs between Seattle and Los Angeles, and goes along some of the most beautiful track in the United States, including over the sand on beaches that are unreachable by road. No matter which line you pick, it’s going to be an amazing trip for whoever wins. And may I suggest that you spend your dollars on a bedroom? For a honeymoon, it’s the only way to go.
HOW TO ENTER (You may enter each way one time.)
1. Leave a comment in the comment section of this post.
2. Post a link on Twitter to this contest page, and include the hashtag #APWamtrakhoneymoon
The contest begins 4:30 AM PST 2/8/12 and ends 11:59 PM PST 2/14/12, when I will close comments. I’ll announce the winner the following week.
Important details: You have to be 21 to enter and a resident of the United States. Please read the Official Contest Rules before you enter.
I’m so grateful to all of you for making the APW Book fly and for supporting me during this long, intense, and wonderful month of traveling around the country on book tour. This giveaway is just a token of how grateful I really am. Now let’s get cracking! And tune in this afternoon for a serious chat about New Orleans and how I think you should go there (probably by train).
**This post was made possible by Amtrak, who is sponsoring the book tour, and this giveaway. Thank you Amtrak!**
Picture: One of my favorite views of my trip, in the Sierras. Personal for A Practical Wedding.
Resident of the US, damn! Maybe I should enter on behalf of the Boy, ha.
Excellent contest for all the lucky Americans!
Haha, I had the same reaction. I was so excited until I got to the must be a resident of the United States part. Oh well, whoever wins is going to have a blast! Please report back for APW!
Ditto! Was already planning my adventure when I got there. Oh well!
Ha, I had exactly the same thought. Lucky Americans!
Also, I couldn’t believe this post had 500 comments until I realised you have to comment to win :)
Here I was thinking I could enter on behalf of my parents, who are off to the states in about 8 weeks and currently have flights booked from Seattle to LA.
Oh well.
Best of luck to everyone who is eligible to enter :)
This sounds amazing! Our wedding was last year, but we haven’t gotten to travel much since then – plus despite having family in California and in the Seattle area, we’ve never traveled along the coast!
This is awesome! We were thinking of doing a road trip honeymoon from Seattle to L.A.
Amtrak would be nice, too :)
A multi-day and state trip with Amtrak sounds awesome! And along the coast — divine.
This would be an amazing honeymoon! I’ve actually just started looking at Amtrak trips (as a result of Meg’s experience) too.
This is amazing!!!! Thanks, Meg and Amtrak for making it possible!!!! I would love to put my name in the hat. Yours and Maddie’s posts on train travel have been making me salivate for some train adventures. Happy Wednesday indeed!
I agree! I’ve taken Amtrak in the past, and would love to do it again with my hubby for our anniversary!!
We were just talking about going to Chicago and New Orleans for our honeymoon, this would be perfect!
Enter me please! We are desperately in need of time to curl up on the The City Of New Orleans line!
My fiance and I were actually just talking about taking a train to see America for our honeymoon. (We’re Canadian, but have much love for our southern brothers and sisters)
Emily
I’ve taken the train down to LA before, but not in a room. That would be sweet.
Such fun! (Loved seeing you in Austin last night, by the way…)
This would be a mini-moon for my husband and I but HOT DAMN I’d love to win!! We’ve always wanted to do a West Coast road trip but a train trip sounds even better! Long-time reader here, since March 2009! Love your work, Meg!
This is so exciting!!! We’ve just started researching honeymoons & New Orleans was on our short list … this would be a dream!
Consider this an entry! I would love love love! to win this giveaway.
What a great opportunity! Thanks for making it happen, Meg!
This sounds awesome! I love traveling by train.
I’ve been training my way around India lately, but this would be an awesome upgrade when I get back! I would love to introduce the guy to train travel.
This sounds incredible! Fingers crossed!
I would love to enter! My fiancee and I met on an Amtrak train (at the New Haven Station in CT) more than 10 years ago. We then had a long distance relationship shuttled by Amtrak for years (I was in New York and Boston, he was in Philly). I haven’t been on Amtrak since, but this series inspired us to start planning an Amtrak honeymoon.
I’m speaking at a conference in San Diego this June and my fiancee and I were talking about flying him out to meet me in LA (which is only about an hour train ride from San Diego) when I finished and then riding the Coast Starlight up the California coast. We have friends spread throughout California that we never see (because if you fly to CA somehow you should see all your friends from LA to San Fran – and we just can’t afford that). and then using the sleeper car for a honeymoon up into northern California and the wine country. (I also LOVE Seattle so I might be able to convince him to cap that on if we were to win) This would be a perfect way to share our joy with friends and family that can’t make the East Coast wedding and be able to have a honeymoon too!
I LOVE train travel and my fiance has never traveled by train before so this is perfect for us! Thanks for offering this giveaway!
Oh this is a great idea — I love travelling by train. And since my childhood love for Arlo Guthrie I’ve always wanted to ride on the City of New Orleans.
Our honeymoon was originally a 3-week cross country train trip that sounded just amazing, but we wound up cutting it down to a week that involved no train travel because of a lack of vacation time. I would love to win this – traveling on the Coast Starlight has long been a fantasy vacation of mine.
Wow, Meg, this is so awesome! I’ve been loving reading about your trip so much, and actually mentioned it to my husband that we should think about taking a cross-country Amtrak trip this summer. We got married a few months ago, but have been waiting on our honeymoon till everything’s paid off, and I would love love love to take the Starlight Coast trip. What a great giveaway!
This is my guy’s DREAM. I would love to surprise him with such a thing! Yay, Amtrak!
My new husband and I have been talking about taking a train trip somewhere recently, this would be so wonderful! New Orleans is definitely one place I’m dying to go…have you been reading my mind!?
This is so funny, I had actually already started looking into Amtrak for a honeymoon! It would be so phenomenal if we won!
Jim and I have dreamed of taking a trip on Amtrak one day. A honeymoon trip would be amazing!
Pick me! This sounds incredible. We’ve been looking for a cheap honeymoon option since we’re both poor students.
How fun! My husband loves naps and I love going places…a train trip sounds like the best of both worlds! We’ve been married about a year, but only managed to fit in a few days of downtime after the wedding.
Oooh, this sounds awesome! My husband and I just celebrated our one month anniversary yesterday, but we weren’t able to take a honeymoon (I was teaching class two days after the wedding). We’d like to do something this spring or summer, but we haven’t decided what yet. Both these options sound amazing!
Oh man, this would be awesome. I’ve never been to New Orleans and would love to visit! Glad you’re still letting us married folks enter–hooray for mini-moons! :)
I grew up taking Amtrak from Albany to Buffalo but I’ve never experienced such delights as “roommettes” or sleeping cars. You made it sound amazing, Meg! And I’m so glad Amtrak is offering the chance to those who might not be able to afford it.
Our wedding’s in September — what a perfect time of year to travel by train! We drove cross-country a few years ago, hauling all our worldly possessions … how much nicer to see the country from a train’s window seat!
We’ve been at a huge loss on what to do for our honeymoon, and this would be PERFECT!!!
I would love to be entered in the giveaway! Our wedding is in Chicago so I think hopping on the Amtrak and heading to NOLA sounds fantastic! New Orleans is definitely on my travel list! Thanks for hosting the giveaway!
Chicago and New Orleans are hands-down, two of my favorite cities. I would LOVE the chance to have a relaxing trip between them. I’ve loved your Amtrak posts – I think this should become an annual Meg vacation :)
What a great idea! I love the train. I’m taking the Southwest Chief from Kansas City to Chicago tomorrow, one of my favorite trips!
How wonderful!!! The boy and I are getting married in September and a train-ride down the West coast sounds just so lovely and romantic – a fine way to top-off an already happy and amazing event in our lives.
Sounds so romantic!
I travelled through Europe on a train and now would love to explore the US on one!
This sounds so incredible – a coastal roadtrip is such a dream of mine!
Would love to travel along the West Coast (literally!) via train. We’ll be having either a late 2012/2013 wedding and this would be a perfect honeymoon getaway!
I love this! We’re playing around with honeymoon ideas and a Pacific Coast road trip was near the top of our list. A honeymoon train trip? Yes please!
It sure would be nice to have a big part of the honeymoon tab picked up!
I’d love to win this…it seems so romantic. Thanks for the opportunity!
Grander than cake! We’re getting married in July…and were dreaming of West Coast adventure…Fingers crossed!!!
Thanks!
Both of those lines sound amazing – it would be so hard to choose! What a great giveaway APW team!
Before we were married, my husband and I went from Minneapolis to Glacier National Park. I loved the community that emerges on an Amtrak train. I could easily slip into a conversation with just about anyone, or even a join a card game. We loved the train, and we talk all the time about going again.
Count me in! I’ve been Jonesing to take a train trip with my Sweetie ever since we rode the (all too short but GORGEOUS) Whistler train from Vancouver to Whistler, BC last year!
This sounds completely amazing. I have wanted to take a long train trip forever and our posts are making it even more tempting!
Amazing giveaway! this whole time, I’ve been reading the posts and looking at the pictures from the Amtrak and talking to my wife about how fun it would be to do this kind of trip!
What a fantastic giveaway! I’ve never traveled via Amtrak, even though we have a station here in Cleveland. but all your book tour posts have convinced me that I need to try it out! *fingers crossed*
I live in Chicago and I’ve never been to New Orleans! I would love to travel there on Amtrak :)
Since we paid for the wedding ourselves we did not take (could not afford) a real honeymoon, just drove to Charlottesville for a few days in the woods. We’ve been talking about a first-anniversary trip and this would be perfect. Thanks, Amtrak!
This is awesome! My fiance and I are in the process of moving to the LA area from CT and would love to explore our new home via Amtrak!
Yes! That sounds so cool! I love Amtrak.
This is exciting! Count me in too! I don’t think it will take much to convince my partner that he’s always wanted to try train travel ;)
This. is. awesome. Coming out of lurkerville for this one because the combination of trains and honeymoon? Beyond great.
What an amazing giveaway! So glad to hear you’re loving the Amtrak experience!
sounds awesome!!! count me in!
Oh, Chicago is one of my favorite cities and I have always wanted to see New Orleans. Yay for trains and Yay for Amtrak! Good luck everyone!
Count me in!! Thanks, Meg! I’ve wanted to travel in a train ever since the Boxcar children growing up – and you’re posts have re-sparked that desire! A honeymoon through New Orleans in sleeper cars and jazz? Yes, please! Yay Amtrak!
I’m getting married on May 19th and would LOVE an Amtrak honeymoon! I once ride the train from Atlanta to D.C. and adored the whole experience.
My fiance’s never been to New Orleans and I’ve never been to Chicago, this would be perfect!
Wow! This would be so wonderful. My husband and I got married in 2010, and then I started grad school right after – hence no honeymoon for us. I’ve also never been able to do the Amtrak sleeper car, which I think would be lots of fun! Thanks for setting up the giveaway Meg!
This would be an amazing trip! I love the idea of cuddling up and watching the scenery fly by.
I love Amtrak and would love to win a trip, especially because my fiance and I haven’t made our honeymoon plans yet (and don’t have a plethora of funds to spend!).
I am a long time train history buff getting married in late May. We have had to cut the honeymoon out of our budget, but would love to have the chance to take this trip! Thank you for the opportunity to enter.
What a great idea. It sounds so romantic and relaxing. What a great giveaway!
Count me in! This sounds awesome! Thanks for thinking of us, Meg!
Ooooh, please count me in! (I’m simplymnchic on twitter) Thanks for this!
Augh, I mis-read. I thought I had to do BOTH comment AND twitter.
Sounds amazing! And would be the perfect excuse to finally see the west coast.
Ahhhhh we were JUST talking about maybe taking a train trip for spring break! And to New Orleans nonetheless!! This would be PERFECT beyond belief. I LOVE trains!!! Thanks for the giveaway!
This sounds amazing! I love trains – most of the men in my family have worked on the railroad, so it’s in the blood. I’d love to win this, especially since the boy and I aren’t able to afford to go on a honeymoon at all after the wedding. New Orleans would be fantastic!
Good luck to everyone!!
(Oh, and here’s my tweet: https://twitter.com/#!/JennyAdams/status/167247689422090241)
This would be so amazing! We are already married, but would love to celebrate our anniversary on the train!!
How exciting! Ever since reading about your Amtrak adventures, I’ve been dying to go… Thank you!
Oh, how amazing!
We were married two summers ago, and spent our “honeymoon” at home … planning a trip for our anniversary. Of course life got in the way, so we’re still waiting to take it! This would be WONDERFUL. =)
I love Amtrak! When we were long-distance dating, we took turns riding Amtrak to see each other between Chicago and Champaign, IL. We are married now but I still think Amtrak is romantic.
Are we eligible if we’re not in the US currently but are moving there in a few months from now?
I would so love to give my husband-to-be (who grew up in a tiny tiny country) an experience that makes you feel the vastness of the country!
This trip combines three things that sound about as awesome as it can get: a sleeping cart on a train, a trip to New Orleans (I have ALWAYS wanted to visit this city) and time spent with my love. Thinking about it makes me sigh from way down deep :)
Please consider this my entry. I’m riding on Amtrak for the first time in 10 days and I look forward to learning about more of their trip options.
Enter me! I good long train ride with plenty of time to snuggle sounds perfect!
We’re hoping to take a mini-moon before the baby comes, always wanted to see the west coast!
Aah!!! All this Amtrak talk has been making me so jealous, I have never been on a train!
I would LOVE to take this trip with my husband!
I feel lucky, punk.
AHH!!! I’m so happy that Amtrak sponsored your tour! I’ve been re-investigating them since because I love to support business that support “my people.” So wonderful! We’ve been wanting to take a trip to Memphis for so long and a train trip would be perfect.
Sign me up!! We are both poor students (and living on only one income (not by choice)) so things are tight tight tight. This would be a wonderful mini-moon and probably the only vacation we’ll be able to take for a long time!
We always dream of taking the train, but always end up on buses instead- and we would love to get to take a ‘real’ honey moon. :)
Oh I would love to win this! I used to take Amtrak from Chicago to Detroit all the time when I was in school and always enjoyed it. Hubster and I got married last summer, but only had time for a short weekend trip after the wedding. We’ve been wanting to go on a bigger trip for our anniversary but aren’t sure we can afford it….this would be perfect!
The New Orleans – Chicago line sounds awesome! You have definitely done great advertising for Amtrak. Im thinking of researching a trip anyway!
We were just talking about wanting to go to NOLA. Please! And, thanks, Meg and Amtrak!
This sounds pretty epic!!!! I love trains, seriously, with a degree in history out here in Idaho trains I find to be one of mans most wonderful inventions! :):):) Hope I win!!!
This would be amazing! We’ve been talking about exploring the US, and I’ve been in awe of Meg’s travel adventures here. I am on Amtrak’s website now, already imagining the adventures we could have :)
How wonderful! We love traveling by train!
awesome giveaway! this would be the perfect honeymoon.
I would love a trip on the Starlight!
This sounds like a wonderful trip! I would love to win it!
My dream honeymoon is a train trip across the country, please and thank you :-)
Getting married in less than 6 weeks (!!!!) but we are holding off on the honeymoon until this summer. My fiance loves trains and begs me everytime we travel to take Amtrak. We would love to spend our honeymoon traveling by train. What an amazing opportinity!
Oh my gosh! I’ve been LUSTING after all your amazing train stories. I would love, love, love to get to take a trip with my wife! We had a mini-honeymoon after we got married, but have been planning on taking a longer trip, and this would be perfect!
Travelling by train sounds wonderful. New Orleans is maybe my favorite US city I’ve visited, but the West Coast sounds amazing!
This sounds amazing! My fiance and I are still in the midst of planning our honeymoon and so this would be fantastic!
Yes, PLEASE! I love trains. We would jump at the chance to take a trip on one of these amazing lines!
I just took a week of vacation in August, and wouldn’t mind using it for a second honeymoon via Amtrak…. :)
The Coast Starlight sounds awesome. I had no idea something like that even existed!
YAY!!! What an awesome honeymoon!! Hands down dream way to travel, fingers crossed and post-its placed. :)
Wow, a honeymoon by Amtrak! We have planned to take our “offical” honeymoon sailing our boat up to Prince Edward Island, but have always dreamed of seeing the west coast. And by train!? What better way to do it! We got married in October (after lots of guidance from your blog) but love the excuse to honeymoon as often as possible. Enter my name in the hat!!
Thanks,
Sophi
I have been dreaming of taking a long distance train trip for years. So excited to enter this giveaway!
This is great! As our honeymoon ended up being a vacation with all of my in-laws (long story), I’d love the chance for a trip with just my husband!
This is awesome. Thank you Meg and thank you Amtrak. I’ve only traveled via Amtrak once, and it was the most amazing experience. I’ve been wanting to do the New Orleans one for the past year, so this would be awesome!
Awesome. I’ve been inspired to try Amtrak since reading these posts (train travel sounds so romantic, doesn’t it?), and I would love to visit New Orleans.
OMGoodness! I love Amtrak.
We were just looking into booking Amtrak for our honeymoon… but on the East coast. So I guess I will not be entering this giveaway (as awesome as it sounds), but just wanted to second that Amtrak for honeymoon is a great idea.
Aww, thanks for letting the married folks enter, too. I’ve been trying and trying to convince my husband that a train trip would be fantastic (used your posts as proof!) and this would be the only way we could do it financially any time soon! Consider this an entry *crossing fingers*. Whoever wins this is going to be so very lucky!
Consider this an entry! I do love traveling by train and do does my fiancé!
Oh, I would love to win this! Watching Stephen Fry’s America made me realize how little of my own country I’ve seen. As I’m a terrible driver, doing it by train would be so great. Please pick me!
Pick me, pick me! We haven’t yet decided on our honeymoon destination, but your reviews of Amtrak travel have me convinced that we need to try it!
I love train travel – I have been wanting to go on the Coast Starlight for many years now – it would be such a wonderful adventure!
omfg! Fella and I have been itching to see the west coast since forever and I cannot think of a better way than train. Thanks for sponsoring such a killer contest!
What a fabulous idea!
This would be so amazing! I am struggling with what I want to for my honeymoon. Price has such a big part of the problem. I love taking trains!
Yea!! I would love to win this, but cheers to whoever is the lucky winner. Thanks, Meg!
Beth
We would love to win this trip! We recently got married but have not been able to take a honeymoon for a variety of reasons. Both trips sound amazing, too!
This is NOT an entry! I want honeymooners to win!
I just wanted to say this is a very nice contest, and the winners have to write a post about their trip. ;)
Us! Pick us!!! Forrest and I have hardly gotten to the honeymoon planning stage but we’ve been talking about the train (because of you of course!) and were saying we need to take a train trip sometime. And The Coast Starlight? THAT is just the ticket.
What a cool and different honeymoon idea! I loved riding the trains to see distant family members when I was little! Count me in for the contest :)
Lovely. We thought about taking this train – http://www.viarail.ca/en/trains/atlantic-canada/montreal-halifax-ocean – for our honeymoon, but due to budget considerations, we ended up on a tandem bike trip in the same area instead. It was also awesome, but it covered a lot less territory than a train.
Especially exciting for us in this case would be that the husband has never been anywhere on the west coast. So please sign us up for the drawing!
oh, my! winning this trip would be a dream come true!
i absolutely hate to fly…i just said yesterday that i will only travel via car, train, or boat. on the first train ride my bf and i took, the gentleman collecting our tickets remarked about “what a beautiful couple we were!”. secret: we were not officially dating yet at the time! hehe! we travel to NYC on the train and each time we go, i am reminded of our first trip together. what wonderful memories.
we are more than overdue for another trip together. i would love to sit by his side for hours and hours – talking, reading, and just enjoying each other’s company.
thank you for the opportunity!
*
This sounds so fun! My fiancé is in new Orleans right now and can’t wait to go back there together!
This sounds amazing! My husband and I are Amtrak people, all the way.
I haven’t been on a train since I was about 10. This sounds awesome!
This would be an amazing trip to win! We’ve been talking about taking a tour up the CA coast and into Portland. I’ve never been, but he loves it! Thanks for the opportunity Meg!
How amazing would a trip on Amtrak be? Pretty amazing! Mike and I could definitely use a getaway. Like, whoa. Oooo and maybe I’ll get a wedding out of him if we have a honeymoon to look forward to! :)
This couldn’t have come at a better time. I just just starting to plan our anniversary trip to Portland! The train is much more romantic than our little sedan. :)
Since I plan on getting (most of the way) to my wedding location via Amtrak, winning an Amtrak honeymoon would be very fitting! Fingers crossed.
Meg, you rock. For serious.
How amazing would this be!!! Count me in for a shot to win! We love traveling across the country, and hate flying, so we’d love taking Amtrak.
This sounds amazing and incredibly relaxing. I’ve never traveled by rail before, but have always wanted to. I’m a sucker for history, and riding the rails brings back so much nostalgia. My fiance and I would be ever grateful!
Oh count me in, too! This would be amazing!
What a lovely contest! We weren’t planning on taking a honeymoon for quite a while (we’ll marry in September), but this would be just perfect. I love the idea of train travel!
I think a train trip with my husband sounds romantic and charming. I grew up in a big railroad town (home of Union Pacific) and have always found the sound of a train whistle to be exciting. Thanks for opening up such a fun opportunity.
My husband and I took a cross-country Amtrak trip, coach class, shortly after we first got together–it’s one of my favorite memories. It would be wonderful to do it again (and be a little less squished this time).
This is so awesome! I want to enter because I’d love to explore that New Orleans line via Amtrak – I’ve been swooning over your pictures and the idea of comfortable travel since you started this whole incredible ordeal. Thanks!
This sounds heavenly! I’ve loved traveling by train, and I’d love to go on a trip like this with my husband!
This sounds amazing! We haven’t traveled for fun outside of our state at all, so this would be absolutely wonderful!
Oh! What a great ide!
Glorious honeymoon idea! I recommend the Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle–I’ve always wanted to ride through Montana on a train!
That would be a lovely way to spend the honeymoon!
An Amtrak vacation sounds quite amazing, and getting to show off the beauty of the west coast would be fantastic. We could get to like that. :)
this is amazing!! I’d love to take this for a honeymoon… we’re constantly talking about taking Amtrak for a trip sometime. Sounds awesome!
We’re getting married in September. When Meg started posting about her travels on Amtrak, I looked into booking a trip for our honeymoon, but it was just out of our price range. Winning this would be so awesome! I’m officially entering.
Chicago to New Orleans, YES!!! We’re from Iowa, and I’m working in the South this summer – this trip would PERFECTLY solve all our honeymoon complications!
Such a Rad giveaway! We are getting married in Union Station LA. So we were thinking about just taking the train the next day up the coast. We’ve had a long distance relationship for about 9 years that involved many amtrak trains. It would be amazing to win this, thanks!
Oooh! Well, it would be a trek to get to those train lines, but entering anyway!
My parents took a trip across the country on Amtrak and it sounds delightful. I would love to have a relaxing honeymoon seeing new places in the USA. Fingers crossed for the luck of the draw!
What a wonderful way to honeymoon! My fiance and I just took a short train ride in Poland over the holidays and spent most of it commenting on how romantic it felt — would love to have a longer trip together!
Oh my gosh, this is awesome! Our second anniversary is this summer, what a way to spend it!
I’ve always wanted to take a trip by train and I live in Chicago, so what better reason than to go to New Orleans??!
This sounds AMAZING. My husband and I are both students; he is halfway through his PhD, and I just started my masters. Traveling is completely and utterly out of our budget at the moment, but this trip sounds amazing!! And to top it off, my husband is not so much a fan of flying, so traveling by train would be a phenomenal trip for us both. Count me in!!
Our plan was to cruise down south listening to live Blues music along the way – Chicago style blues to Memphis style blues, and finally New Orleans style blues…
Amtrak would be so much better!
This would be an amazing honeymoon! Thanks Meg- fingers crossed!
Oh my goodness, this is awesome! We’ve recently decided that we want to spend our first anniversary (in September) on a train out west somewhere (obviously nothing to do with Meg’s adventure…), and I thought I couldn’t be MORE excited about it. Turns out I can be! A giveaway of a trip just like the one we’ve been exploring? Yes, please!! Thank you, Meg and Amtrak!
How fun!! This seems exactly like something my future husband would LOVE!! So excited…
Oooooh pick me!
This is AMAZING! We’re getting married on 11/3 and so far have no moon plans. It’s hard since my job is so crazy–production manager at a theatre in DC. There is never a good time to RUN AWAY, but we will make time if we win this amazing trip!!!
This would be perfect to surprise my fiance with!
I grew up in Memphis and NEVER rode the City of New Orleans (but have been dying to try it!)
Pick me! I’ve always wanted to do a train trip, and this would be incredible!
I love this idea! I have always discussed a road trip with the future hubby, but dramatic tellings of the horrors he experienced when driving around in the family van has kind of jaded the experience. But what better way to ‘road trip’ then via train!!
And New Orleans has become a bit of a love of ours – we fell head over heals for the Crescent City when we visited my sister at Tulane, and have gone back almost every year since. There is just something so deeply rich and romantic about that place – couldn’t think of a better way to spend some time with the future hubs!
This is an absolutely fantastic giveaway! I have always thought traveling by train would be the most amazing way to see the country. This trip sounds amazing, and I’d love to take my man as he has never seen the west coast. We get married in June and a west coast adventure sounds like the perfect getaway!
Wow, how awesome is this? My fiancee and I live in Chicago and have totally talked about taking an Amtrak trip to New Orleans before but haven’t had the time with my job. Now that I’ll finally be taking a huge amount of time off for my honeymoon, I could totally make it happen!
I’d love to win this honeymoon! How romantic this would be for my fiance and I. :)
Amazing! I’d love to throw my name in the hat. The Coast Starlight trip is spectacular (at least the parts I’ve already traveled), and I’d love to see more via an amazing sleeper car with my husband. Thanks Meg & all of the amazing ladies at APW for making it happen!
Who never had a honeymoon? This bitch right here!
My guy and I are pre-engaged, looking at a summer 2013 wedding. This would be an amazing honeymoon! We’ve been checking out various Amtrak trips since you announced your book tour, Meg. We live in Detroit, so the City of New Orleans line is more convenient (and my grandparents live in Memphis, so we could see them along the way), but the Coast Starlight sounds amazing. What a great giveaway!
This sounds AMAZING! I hope we win it would be the perfect trip!
I’ve been hoping for an excuse to travel by train! This sounds awesome!
Perfect honeymoon idea! An excellent way to make it out west from the East Coast!
Posted to twitter :) Would so love to win this!
my fiance and i are getting married sometime this summer on a small budget, so winning this would completely rock our world!! thanks for hosting such a fun contest! (:
Oh my gosh, we would love this!! It would add to our low-key, honeymoon-free beach wedding so much!
This would be so great! We ended up not loving our honeymoon in October and could really use a more relaxing do-over and have had our eyes on the pacific northwest for a while!
This sounds great! Hope to win…
Oh, how I’d love to visit the west coast! I’ve never been west of Ohio, but I’ve been up and down the east coast several times. My fiance and I would enjoy this very much!
Reading these posts has *totally* made me want to take an train trip! It would be hard to choose which one to take!
Ever since you started this trip, I have been actually beating my husband over the head with your pictures and your tales, begging for an Amtrak trip. Oh, I would love love love love this!
Thanks, Amtrak, for being so awesome and welcome to Team Practical!
My husband and I talk about train travel all the time! We’d love to see the west coast via Amtrak!
My fiance and I looooove Amtrak trips, and have dreamed of taking a long trip on one. We love the relaxation of riding the train and the beautiful views that come along with it! We would love to have the opportunity to visit the West Coast!
My husband is a total train geek. He would LOVE THIS.
OMG this sounds like so much fun!!!
I love Amtrak! I have really only ridden in the Northeast, so exploring other lines sounds like fun.
Yay!! I love me some trains – I’ve been obsessed with train travel ever since my childhood (a couple of years) in Europe. Wish the US would catch up and expand the train system – but til then, so glad Amtrak is here and able to help us see this beautiful country. I’m really loving this APW and Amtrak partnership. Super, super cool.
I’m in. My husband and I celebrate our 10 year anniversary this year, and i’ve never been on a train holiday. This seems perfect!
K.
Oh my gosh, what a lovely, lovely prize! I’m entering, but I hope whoever wins has a wonderful time!
What a great contest! I love Amtrak, as an engineer and lover of history I think it is natural that I do. As a kid my family did an east coast college tour through Amtrak and it was awesome! I would love to be able to take this trip with my love we are saving so much for the wedding and for our starting a new business that a honeymoon hasn’t even been a topic yet.
APW you all are so cool. P.S. I enjoyed the book signing in Park Slope everyone was so nice.
Oh this sounds like so much fun! The Chicago to new Orleans sounds like a blast. Consider me entered!
This is amazing, my husband and I never got to take a honeymoon and we would both love to do something like this!
Love it!
I believe I need to enter this. I had no idea that Amtrak is so lovely until you started blogging about it, and I’m excited to take my first trip with them later this month.
I adore trains! It truly is the best way to travel with a loved one. :)
My dad’s always been a train nut and we used to dream about touring the country via Amtrak. Now the fiance and I are jonesing for some laid-back, awesome travel for our honeymoon! This would be wonderful : )
What a great idea. Thank you!
This is so awesome! We’re already planning our honeymoon to San Francisco. Had planned to rent a car to see the coast, but this would be so much better!
I’m delighted! Sign me up!
This is amazing and would be so fun.
Ive never travelled by train, but have heard so many wonderful things! We would love to do this as our honeymoon!! All your posts on Amtrak have for sure sold me on them! Thanks for the chance at a great trip!!
Sign me up!!
How much fun would this be?? New Orleans!!? Yes please.
That sounds amazing! I am totally “in”! We could use a second honeymoon after 2 kids and 9 crazy years!
I would love to ride to Coast Starlight! Enjoy your amazing trip whoever wins.
What a lovely idea for a honeymoon. Sounds so relaxing! I did a lot of traveling by train in Europe, and it was just such a great way to go.
Oh, my goodness – dream trip! This would be so amazing.
Oh Wow. This sounds absolutely PERFECT.
Crossing my fingers!!
What a great idea! I am getting married in May and we have already booked our honeymoon on via Amtrak. We got a few strange looks when we said we wanted to travel by train, but most people thought it was a neat idea. I was happy to see them getting some good press with your recent trip.
I’ll never pass up an opportunity like this! Thanks Meg & Amtrak!
Thank you for doing this! My fiance and I have always wanted to trek down the west coast (and spend some time in wine country). Fun stuff.
WOW!!! This would be so awesome!
This is awesome! Thanks Meg! (and Amtrak, naturally).
What a great giveaway! I’ve been on the City of New Orleans before, it’s a great ride!
This is awesome! We were just talking about how we don’t have the money/time for a Paris honeymoon we really wanted, so this would make our wedding extra special!
Both options sound divine! Can I get an extra entry for my birthday (today!), pretty please?? I’ve always wanted to ride Amtrak, just never had the chance/money.
Yes, my male companion would love the Starlight line! Maybe we’ll book the tour even if we don’t win (when we graduate and have money…)
My fiance and I were already entertaining the idea of doing an Amtrak honeymoon! I have been following your posts about this to gauge if it is a good idea or not. This seals. the. deal. We would just die to win this!
Meg you and the APW team are amazeballs. I grew up taking the Empire Builder from Minneapolis to Whitefish, and those times were always magical. I’d love to take a trip with my fella.
What a fab giveaway! Anne and I never took a honeymoon, despite our two weddings. We were just talking about heading to the Pacific Northwest over the summer as a belated honeymoon, so that Starlight route would be a dream for us!
What an amazing giveaway!
Thanks for all the great Amtrak posts, please sign us up for the give-away!
This trip would be amazing for us since my fiance’s impending grad school bills combined with our “choose people, not things” approach to our guest list and planning has left us without a honeymoon budget to speak of. Since we met on the DC metro, it seems appropriate to start our marriage the same way!
This sounds amazing! I would love to win and share this experience with my husband!
<3
We’ve been following the book tour and talking about how much we’d love to take the train! Thank you Amtrak and APW!
Count me in! After reading Meg’s posts, my husband and I researched vacationing via Amtrak. Sounds amazing!
Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow!!! I really would like to win the West Coast trip since we can’t afford a honeymoon. Thanks APW and Amtrak!!!!
The BF and I took a train trip together for the first time last year and I was hooked. Trains aren’t for everyone, but they’re for us! Awesome idea, APW team.
This is fantastic! My fiance and I got engaged at an Amtrak station when I went to visit him while we were doing long distance (Amtrak was a life saver during those two years).
My husband talks about taking the train all the time! (And he brings it up to travel from DC home to his folks in Indiana…not the most glorious route.) Both of the options sound fantastic – we honeymooned on the West Coast and would love a reason to go back!
I love Amtrak – the best way to travel from Portland to Seattle! Never been down the California coast though, which would be awesome.
i am so excited about this as well, and if i win, we’ll hopefully use it for a “baby-moon” in the *hopeful* near future! awesome idea!
This would be so great. As two busy overworked and underpaid individuals, the quiet relaxation that a train offers would be perfect for us to just talk and absorb the wonderful scenery of parts of the country we have never seen! In a few minutes I’ve gone from not even considering this as our honeymoon to completely falling in love with this idea. Typical APW :)
That sounds lovely! What a generous giveaway. Please count me + fella in. :-)
Ooh, this is a great giveaway – I’d love to take a train trip along the coast!
This sounds like such a great honeymoon! I would love to be entered!
I never really thought about traveling long distances on Amtrak before, but your posts lately have changed my mind! I’ve been reading them out to my partner enviously.
This, then, is my contest entry.
I would love to do this. We are not getting married until next year but this would be a great pre wedding get away.
Woot!! Sounds fun! NOLA is already on our honeymoon list!
Sounds A-MAZING! Thanks Meg and Amtrack :)
I live in Chicago and have always wanted to visit New Orleans, so this is pretty perfect!
What an amazing giveaway! I’d love to enter! I have never taken a train trip before and I know my fiance and I would love that.
Oh man….my guy is afraid to fly. We’re in Southern California and we have to drive everywhere unless we drug him! Seriously in the past couple of years we’ve driven to Michigan to visit his family, San Francisco twice, Portland, Vegas countless times. I’d love to sit back and relax and really enjoy the experience instead of stressing out over traffic and stopping to pee or get gas. This would be the perfect honeymoon!
This is so cool of you and Amtrak, and the prize is right up our alley! Sign me up!
OMG! I’ve been looking in to Amtrak honeymoons since we got engaged! I think it would be rather romantic…I even emailed Amtrak to get more information about packages. Oh please please please pick us!!!!
My fiance and I have often dreamed of making that trip down the west coast from Seattle through California – perfect Amtrak, we love you!!
Traveling by Amtrak sure is amazing! I would love to travel down the coast of Cali with my partner. Thanks APW for doin’ what you do.
The Starlight is my hometown train — but the NOLA- Chicago is my hearttown train. Good luck everyone!
Sorry I couldn’t make it to last night’s Austin event – bummer! But I would pretty please love to win an Amtrak vacation for me and my man!
Do common-laws count?! Okay, I promise if I win I will get married…
This sounds amazing. I’ve loved all of your photos and stories, it would be amazing to make our own!
We wanted to do this so badly but couldn’t afford it. I think trains are so romantic.
I’m already married, but this would be a glorious way to spend time together – perhaps on our anniversary next year. We’re going to have a baby at the end of April this year, so I can only imagine how nice it’d be to have a vacation like this when the baby is old enough to leave with family. Plus, I’ve always wanted to travel by train!
I love Amtrak and am thrilled that they are offering up this prize! When I was in college I rode the train home on weekends (from Sacramento to San Jose) and it was the most beautiful, stress-free way to travel.
Amtrak is my favorite way to travel!
Amazing- so classic and old-fashioned. Would love this trip.
This sounds perfect! I’m actually dancing with my dad to the Arlo Gutrhie Song “City of New Orleans” which is about a train because it’s the song he used to sing to me to put me to sleep when I was little.
Will this be APW’s most popular post yet? This is amazing. I’m crossing my fingers–could really use a few days of romance and a belated honeymoon with my hubby!
I’ve been dying to take the coast train!! It was always an idea but since you started your trip, I’ve been stalking it!!! :)
The fella is a bull in a china shop and is 6’4″, but Chicago > New Orleans via train is on my bucket list….might need to look into sedatives for him…
Ooooo, and then we could rent a car and take the blues highway home! YES! My inner music history nerd is doing the Kermit-arm-wave-freak-out
We were thinking of taking Amtrak for our honeymoon (one of my friends is traveling across country on the train to come to our wedding, which inspired this idea) and this is even more inspiration.
this sounds cool! My last sleeper train was Northern Spain to Barcelona- not exactly the best traveling experience I’ve had!
This would be amazing! Life has been really hard lately, and we could so use a trip! Or else that would be the most amazing honeymoon next year(we’re tentatively talking wedding dates next year). My partner has wanted to take the train for forever and I love the train.
I would absolutely LOVE to win this honeymoon! My fiance and I are paying for everything ourselves and we have seem to be pretty blessed with what has fallen into our laps! Recently, by chance, at a church crab feed, we won the grand prize of a photobooth for 4 hours! So winning a honeymoon would be icing on the (wedding)cake;)
We were looking for a low key U.S. honeymoon to treat ourselves too.. this sounds like the perfect idea for the both of us. Thank you APW for having this contest. I hope whomever wins has the best trip.
holy moly, this would be awesome. We are living on the east coast, would love to be able to do the west coast tour, see the coast, and visit our family members located from Seattle to LA….
Also, I am huge Amtrak fan and actually moved from MA to DC by train when I relocated! It was the best.
This is so serendipitous because I’ve been researching trips to New Orleans via Amtrak! My boy is NOT a good flyer, (he gets a crazy inner ear ringing and eventually the spins) and we have friends in New Orleans that are pregnant, and I used to live in Chicago, so…I know I’m rambling…this is a great trip for us!! Off to Tweet now!
All I’ve been thinking about since these Amtrak posts started is how much I wish my husband and I were seeing America by train! He’s never been West of St. Louis – it would be such a wonderful opportunity to explore together!
I love this idea! My parents took a train ride across the country together early in their relationship and are still telling stories about that time. I’d love to have the opportunity to do the same. Please pick me and Kevin!
Oooh oooh oooh! Pick me! The Hubs and I went traveling by train down the east coast of Australia (before he was even the Fiance!) and it was the best way to travel. We learned the hard way to always upgrade to sleepers on overnights but had the best time. We got to see all sorts of countryside people usually just fly over. I’d love to do it again, hello anniversary trip!
I’d like to enter, too. :) Thanks, Meg, for making this available for us!
… And it has made me think, giveaway or no giveaway, this might be a good think to look into in general for a honeymoon. Neither of us like flying, so we’d been thinking of a driving destination, but trains are so much greener (and more romantic!)…
Sounds like a terrific Honeymoon adventure. I think my soon-to-be hubby and I would bike down the West coast and take the train back home! I have fond memories of the Twin Cities to Chicago train.
I’m getting married in California in August! and we still haven’t finalized our honeymoon plans yet. This would be awesome!
I want to go!! After reading all about your Amtrak adventures, I was already trying to find an excuse to take a couples Romantic trip. :-)
This is downright amazing. I’m getting chills thinking about either the New Orleans or West Coast options- both trips we’ve thought about so far for our December 2012 honeymoon! I was already getting anxious at the thought of having to fly, so either of these would literally be perfect. Also, trains are my favorite form of transportation, hands down. Thank you Amtrak! And thank you APW team, for continually making so many dreams come true. Cheesy, but honest.
This is such an amazing giveaway – and SO timely. We just celebrated our one year anniversary and have yet to have a honeymoon.
We got married in December of 2010, in front of a small (32 people including us) crowd of our dearest family and friends because it was what we could afford – plus it provided us the freedom to overindulge on the company of those important people for an entire weekend. We had a trip to Hawaii booked for the following July (2011) and then 1 month after our wedding, we both got new job offers in a city on the other side of the US…and accepted. We gave our 2 week notice, sold everything we owned and got in the car with our two cats and made the journey from Philly to San Diego – where we’ve been throwing ourselves into our new jobs with gusto ever since. And still no honeymoon. We’ve talked though about exploring the west coast up and down – we feel like it’s an amazing way to see our new “home” region. This would be such an amazing trip for us – thank you Meg and thank you Amtrak!!
Wow! What a great honeymoon! We’ve been leaning towards Puerto Rico after our April wedding, but a train might be easier on his chronic back pain. Plus all those places are on our life list!
Sounds like you had a great tour! Sorry I missed you when you were in Arlington!
I would love love love to win this trip! Please sign me up! What a fun adventure.
Please enter me in the contest! We are from New Orleans so it would be great to get on the City of New Orleans line and go someplace special since we don’t have a honeymoon budget!
Wow a Honeymoon trip across country with my new wife?! Eco friendly Amtrak?! Could this get any better! Thanks for chance to win such a sweet gift for my Bride and I!
Very excited by this!
I’ve been jealous of all your recaps and photos. I want to travel on Amtrak!
My fiance and I love train travel! We did a West Coast road trip last summer, but we’ve been dying to take the Coast Starlight instead. What a beautiful adventure it would be. Count us in!
I would LOVE to win this! A lovely tropical storm sort of quashed our honeymoon and we’ve been VERY tentatively talking about trying to take the train down to New Orleans for our one year anniversary but it’s not looking promising as far as budgeting goes. This would be seriously amazing!
thanks to your trip i am now officially obsessed with taking a trip by train and was JUST researching the coast starlight. this obviously means it was meant to be right?
How wonderful! We have always wanted to visit NY!
My family took the Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle when I was 15. It was beautiful country. I’d love to take my husband on the Seattle-LA line; he’s never been to the West Coast, which is a darn shame.
I have always wanted to take an overnight train trip! And my husband loves making friends with strangers, so the train community sounds perfect for him.
Um… this sounds AMAZING. Pick me! :)
My fiance and I love taking the Acela train to NYC, but staying on one overnight – oh the glamour! This would be a wonderful way to celebrate our union… and see parts of the US we haven’t seen yet, or in a completely new way.
Wow we are so, so in! This looks amazing.
We already had a honeymoon, but hubby and I have already been toying around with the idea of taking the Coast Starlight up to Portland and Seattle. Chicago and New Orleans are also on our must-travel-to-someday list, so actually, we would have a tough time deciding which to go with! It sounds like it would be so romantic to see the US countryside by train.
Thanks Meg for all your hard work on the site and the book and the book tour!
My fiance and I are eloping and this would be such a phenomenal trip opportunity. I would love to have the chance to see New Orleans and Chicago, two major cities on my travel bucket list.
We eloped last summer but never took a honeymoon… this sounds wonderful!
Oh this would be awesome! I have done Amtrak through the Cascades as a kid, from Kansas to New Mexico as a teen and Kansas City to Chicago and back as an adult! I love some Amtrak time! We are getting married Sept 30, what a fun way to celebrate together!
What a great promotion to get the word out! I hope we are the lucky ones…
This is amazing! My fiance and I have been following the updates about the APW book tour and have been bowled over by how freaking romantic train travel is! I studied abroad in Germany and Thailand and LOVED traveling by train. He’s never done it before, so we’re planning to use Amtrak to get us from NY to OH to celebrate the holidays with my family this december.
It’s so great that Amtrak is doing a giveaway! Whoever gets this is going to have a BLAST!
This sounds wonderful!
We would love to win this! We did a mini Amtrak honeymoon, coming back from Chicago to Minneapolis on the Empire Builder, but have DREAMED of doing a longer train trip together. Fingers crossed! :)
Holy cow! This sounds like a dream time. Our wedding is in August and my dad used to work for the railroad so this would be so fun and perfect. Trains are the BEST!
I love train rides! This would be a great honeymoon!
I want to win! Now I need to go remember how to use me some twitters.
THANKS MEG AND AMTRAK! You’ve been a super spokeswoman on this trip- you have almost every reader daydreaming about a romantic (or adventurous, or both) trip via Amtrak. As soon as you announced the book tour I decided that would be PERFECT for our honeymoon, and it took no convincing to get my honey on board. We knew we wanted to see as much of California as we could in a relatively short trip- so I assumed renting a convertible was the way to go. Until I realized that Jim hates driving, so I would be putting on the chauffer hat. I love to drive, but Cali is a big state and that’s a lot of driving. So as soon as I saw your post I knew Amtrak was the way. And then I saw you in Boston and gushed a little about trains and you said there was going to be a CONTEST! Must be fate.
We will almost definitely be taking this trip prize or no prize, but I had to throw our hat into the ring.
Plus, great point about being green. Not easy to do with weddings or travel, but worth it to try.
Wonderful idea. I love trains, and wish Amtrak went everywhere.
I would be my nephew’s hero if I won this.
would love to top off our sf wedding with a romantic train-ride down the coast. thanks amtrack!
The west coastline train trip sounds amazing! I have taken the train to Chicago from Michigan and I much prefer it over driving any day!
This sounds like an amazing giveaway! I’m signing up! My husband and I were married in March, so this would be a much-needed mini-moon. The best part of the last year was marrying the man I love, the rest of the year was filled with struggle and loss. We lost our son at 8 months pregnant and have had to endure in our first year what most couples (hopefully) never have to in their lives. We could use the getaway and appreciate the opportunity to enter.
Laura
I’ve always wanted to take a train trip!
This sounds amazing! Love Chicago and I’ve never been to New Orleans. We could use this for our one year anniversary! I’ve always wanted to take a train trip and so has my wife!
How delightful! Hollywood has always made traveling by train seem so adventurous and yet romantic. From Harry Potter to French Kiss to Some Like It Hot. Sounds like a lot of fun!
OHohoh, enter me! Enter me! While we are already married, I intend to honeymoon every year. We’ve got two in the books. Honeymoon Part III up and down the West Coast via train? :)
I would so love to win this! Sean and I have a joke about him loving trains so this would be such a special gift for him.
What?? Amazing!
The fiance and I took a (quick) flight to Denver this past weekend…and after getting off the plane, vowed that our honeymoon would NOT involve airplane travel ;) A train honeymoon sounds so much more civilized!
We were talking about taking a random road trip for our honeymoon, but this would be even better! :)
What a fabulous way to see the country…I’ve always thought a road trip honeymoon would be amazing but this is even better!
Oh man! What a dream! I can’t wait to get back to NOLA and train travel is my faaaavorite way to travel. Thanks Meg and Amtrak!!! Here’s to hoping I win. :) And HUGE congrats to you, Meg, and APW, for a wonderful book tour!
What a fantastic contest! Isn’t train travel so romantic?
This is so different and fun! I’ll be crossing my fingers…
I love train travel— went from NYC to Washington State in college and loved every second of it. This is such a wonderful giveaway!
we are trying to figure out a honeymoon and this sounds amazing! it will be hard to pick which line to take :)
i never would have thought of a train honeymoon, but this sounds too good to pass up!
This is great! We love trains, but all we’ve done in the US is a couple very short regional trips. If only Amtrak had a bigger network!
Yay, love this contest! Getting married in NC un April, would love to honeymoon in NOLA!
What an amazing prize! I love Amtrak and rarely have the chance to take a trip on it, so this would be fantastic opportunity!
Sounds similar to what my fiance and I were already planning!! Sounds fantastic :]
Wow, I can only imagine how wonderful this would be. My fiance and I are moving into my parents house this April, in an attempt to save up and have the wedding we always wanted. APW is helping so much in that journey! Honeymoon or not, thank you so much for making our wedding seem more than just a pipe dream, but rather very possible!
Amtrak was already on my short list of ideal honeymoons, but we’re probably going to go with what’s most affordable.
I’ve only taken a multi-day train trip once but I loved it in spite of the imperfect experience of sleeping in coach.
Oh lordy! 328 comments already! Well, allow me to throw my hat into the ring as well!
awesome! your first post about amtrak actually inspired us to plan an amtrak honeymoon! we’re going from la to portland on the coast starlight, then onto seattle on the cascades.
we’re definitely going with amtrak either way, so thanks for the recommendation, though, of course, winning would be pretty cool!
Oh My Gosh! My hunny and I have been talking about an AMTRAK honeymoon! This would be AWESOME!
What an amazing giveaway! My husband and I have been waiting patiently for our honeymoon and we are finally able to go in May… We are planning a trip to Utah and I am so excited. We had a really small wedding and then were saving up to purhase our home and, well, we just weren’t able to get anything together for awhile. We only just put off days for work so we are still finalizing arrangements. This would just be amazing!!!
And I agree… Amtrak is the best! Trains are so cool and the experience just adds to everything!
This is so fun. The husband elect and I are getting married on April 27th in California and we live in Portland Or. A train ride home might just be the best thing I ever heard of.
This sounds like a wonderfully relaxing way to enjoy some well-deserved vacation time with my hubby, without the chaos of airports or the exhaustion of driving ourselves. Would love to win this trip to experience train travel for the first time :)
That sounds pretty great.
Tossing my name in the hat as well! No harm in not doing so, and I think a Chicago to New Orelans trip with my very new husband would basically be the most amazing thing in the world, and a great break for him in the middle of job-searching. We didn’t take a honeymoon for $ reasons, so this would rock our world.
Fingers crossed! I’ve never ridden on a train before, but a trip up the West Coast sounds like a dream come true! (And we’re getting married in March, so that would be perfect timing!!)
I have a serious fondness for Amtrak from my days in college when I didn’t have a car and used Amtrak to get around. It’s a seriously awesome way to travel, and it sounds ::perfect:: for a honeymoon. Thanks for the chance to win!
Oh my, I have been swooning over Amtrak ever since you posted about your first left of the trip, and I told my honey that at some point in the near future we absolutely positively must take a trip somewhere on train. I would love to win this, but regardless I hope to have an Amtrak trip in my future!
Ooh, it would be such a fun trip! Thanks for sponsoring this contest! I’d love to win!
Sounds amazing!! Would love to do this.
I would be honored to take a trip like this! Now that I know the train serves the West Coast, I also have new plans for our next vacation.
I love the train. It’s my favorite way to travel. You see more that way and it’s just the best way to get anywhere and discover things.
Yay Amtrak! Sounds like you’ve been having a great time.
Whee! Fun on the train! I’m in!
Awesome! Would love to snuggle up and watch out the window as we pass along the coast!
This sounds fabulous! We had our honeymoon in October, but another one would always be appreciated. ;)
Count me in. My FH has never been to New Orleans and I’d love to introduce him to the city. Thank you so much for going on tour Meg and for sharing your experiences with us!!!
AWWWW shucks…me and the boy have a long standing love affair with Nawlins! And a chance to travel from Seattle to LA…on train…count me in! Loving all of this Train Love! :)
Is it really terrible to try and win even though I got a paper with ‘O’ for Other at the book signing? (As in, not in a relationship at the moment.) But I do have an awesome trip to the West Coast planned with my best friend for this summer to celebrate our 30th birthdays, and our plan had been Amtrak all along! We’ll do wine country, try to get a table at French Laundry, and then head up the coast to Seattle and Portland before ending in Vancouver to visit her husband’s family. So—yes?
I would love to explore the US by train! After hearing all about Meg’s adventures the idea of train travel seems so much more relaxed and beautiful than the hectic airport routine :)
This is a fantastic idea! It would definitely help relieve some of the financial stress associated with travel!!
hey hey! our current honeymoon plans are something like “wandering the west coast by car, train, and bike” and this would fit into our plans perfectly. count me in!
Yes please! Love the train, and don’t get to take an Amtrak nearly often enough. Great giveaway!
I want in!
This would be perfect for us! We so badly want to visit all of our favorite cities on the west coast to see the sights and visit the very important people in our lives that won’t be able to make it to our wedding. Such a great giveaway! Thanks APW!
Holy Comments!!!
We’re currently in the process of re-negotiating our wedding due to loss of full-time employment and the honeymoon is definintely on the To Do Later [when we have money!] List.
APW and Amtrak rock.
Oh, this would be amazing! We were thinking of a West Coast road trip as a someday-in-the-future honeymoon, and it would be even more fun by Amtrak!
I loved riding the train around Europe many years ago. Every time I have the opportunity to ride rather than fly, I’m all for it. Travel is so much more relaxing on a train. :)
How amazing this would be!
We live in Chicago and love New Orleans!
I want to win this so bad! Jeremy and I were just talking about taking an Amtrak sabbatical where we write music on a train together – I think it would be magical.
* Swoon! * What a wonderful idea. Even though I tend to be a backpack-and-tent roughing-it kind of traveler, I’m totally with you that a honeymoon should be a chance to bliss out a bit more!
I took an overnight train from Philly to Chicago with my parents as a teenager. I’d love to take my husband on a trip to New Orleans!
I have ALWAYS wanted to travel by Amtrak, and my boyfriend and I have talked about doing the Seattle to LA trip already! Pick me! Pick me!
Perfect! We are getting married in May.
I loved travelling by train in Europe. The Coast Startlight is on my top ten trip lists.
Consider me entered!
This trip would be the one-year anniversary vacation that we dreamt of, but have had to put aside for different dreams: a big entrepreneurial risk that’s got me working double jobs to pay the bills while my partner pursues his passion. We are from LA and SF, and have many fond memories of gazing wistfully out the Amtrak window throughout our dating years – trains are so romantic. Plus, the Coast Starlight route has a stop right near our wedding venue. Perfection.
I just took an Amtrak trip with my mom from Chicago to DC and it was great! I’ve love to use this with my new hubby!
Yes, please!!
we’re getting married in july and don’t have honeymoon plans yet, so this would be wonderful! we’re both car-less and big fans of public transportation…..our entire relationship has been witnessed by the bus drivers who drive the route between our apartments
I was *just* talking about taking a road trip last night….even better if I don’t have to drive!!!
This is a wonderful idea! My husband and I are really bad about planning things so we keep talking about someday having a honeymoon while we both know that we might not ever do it.
But this would force us to do it and travel to wonderful places!
What an amazing trip! My fiancé is kind of a man of few words and has actually gotten excited at the thought of a trip on a train (I couldn’t stop talking about how awesome it would be when you started your tour!)! :-) Thanks for such a great opportunity!
Sounds like a blast! I’ve love to take the Coast Starlight!
This sounds excellent! We’re getting married in April but have been talking about a road trip to California over Christmas – so this would be perfect! Thanks Amtrak!
This would be so much fun. Got married last year, but didn’t have a honeymoon. What a great idea! Fingers crossed. :)
My train loving better half would die of happiness! We’ll take a trip to LA.
I’d love to be entered in the contest! We went on a cross country trip for our honeymoon by car and it was so amazing, I’d love to do some traveling by train. Thanks Meg!
We got married a year ago but are now having baby (!) and this would be a great celebratory trip before the little one comes. Although I am hoping to not let a growing family stop me from traveling in the future . . . that’s one of the baby “you’ll sees” I refuse to believe!
this sounds awesome! I’d go Portland-Oakland, I think.
I’ve been wanting to take that City of New Orleans train since I moved to a town on the route! We’ll do it sometime, for sure, I love trains.
The prospect of traveling by Amtrak sounds wonderfully romantic! The “City of New Orleans” reminds me of the song by Arlo Guthrie (I’m sure someone else has pointed that out). Both trips sound beautiful.
YES!!! This sounds amazing…my fiance and I would absolutely love an adventure like this…consider this an entry!
Yes! I love Amtrak. Coast Starlight all the way!
And I thought driving from la to seattle was a great idea. Train? Heck yes.
I would LOVE to go on a train trip.
My fiance would love to quit his job just to ride the rails & soak in the gorgeous mountain views– this would be amazing!!
How neat! I’ve been jealously reading your book trip re-caps, Meg, thinking that we should take a train trip sometime. And now we might be able to!
This is awesome! I have always wanted to go on a long distance train trip.
An Amtrak honeymoon sounds…like a perfect solution to our honeymoon problem. I’m semi-terrified of flying, and legit-terrified of boats (so, cruises out). As Chicagoans who, you know, more or less live next door to huge Amtrak hub, I don’t know why we didn’t consider this.
Thanks for the idea, Meg and Amtrak, even if we don’t win <3
1.5 years married and we’ve yet to honey (or mini moon). would be much appreciated!
thanks for all your hard work meg!
We’ve been married for about 18 months, but Partner-in-Crime and I were never able to take a honeymoon. Now, having just bought a house money is even tighter, and without something as awesome as this giveaway we might never go on a honeymoon–so count me in! I’d love to surprise my partner with such an adventure!
I used to feel like it was presumptuous to think of myself as a member of the pre-engaged community. However, after my partner surprised me with Meg’s book, I gained a new sense of security in my status as a pre-engager; while it’s clear that he isn’t ready to get married right now, it’s not because he’s afraid of considering our future together. And, even if we’re not walking down the aisle, we still have a lot to celebrate as a couple and limited means for doing so. Fingers crossed for being gone five hundred miles when the day is done.
Wow, what a fun contest! I’d love to win, as my husband and I haven’t been on an official honeymoon yet!
I actually had some friends who took the Coast Starlight from Eugene, Oregon to Los Angeles. They always rave about how amazing it was.
What a great honeymoon idea!! Throwing my hat in the ring for this. Thank you, APW and Amtrak!
Um, yes please! I haven’t been on Amtrak since I was a little girl and took a trip to St. Louis.
Oh this is so very exciting! My fiance and I are planning on exploring the west coast (Seattle to LA) for our honeymoon next year!
My husband has always wanted to travel by train…what a great idea!
My sister is getting married in March — and they don’t have a ton of money for a honeymoon trip — this would be perfect!!
What fun! I love train travel. You get to see areas of the country inaccessable any other way. And it’s so comfortable. Both of these train routes are fabulous. Good prize.
I would LOVE this. New Orleans, here I come!!
This would be AMAZING. We were hoping to go to New Orleans for our honeymoon anyway, so a romantic train ride would just put it over the top of awesome.
How fantastic! I’ve always always (always!) wanted to take a long train trip and travel in a sleeper car. It souds sooooooo romantic! What a great giveaway. Thanks Amtrak, Meg, and APW!
You have made train travel sound so romantic and exciting I am ready to hop aboard, free or not! Thanks for the giveaway!
Your travels on Amtrak have made me want to travel someday cross country by train, too! I would love to get the oppurtunity to have my honey moon on Amtrak. We are getting married in July in Ecuador but aren’t planning on doing a honey moon because of limited funds and because he will be in class until August. He has never seen America (let alone flown before!) so seeing part of the country by train would be a dream. Some friends were thinking of sending us somewhere special later in the year so that we could at least have a real honey moon as a wedding gift but I hate imposing on them. Being able to do a trip like this would be amazing! Please consider us in the drawing!
I would love an Amtrak trip with SO! I’m taking Amtrak to DC in two weeks and I’m excited to see the scenery that isn’t just interstate highway. It’s a great way to travel.
Oh, that sounds amazing! I love trains! I live in a city with no Amtrak, it’s so sad.
I’m so sad this contest is only open to US residents. My Canadian husband and I would gladly travel to the States to get on the train! We got married 19 months ago (moved our wedding up 14 months unexpectedly and planned it in 4 weeks because my dad was dying), and haven’t been able to afford a honeymoon yet. We would sooo love this trip. I’m already jealous of the lucky winner!
Yes please! I have yet to travel on the train in the US but loved train travel in Europe. Your adventure has made me want to give Amtrak a try!
what a great idea for a honeymoon! it’s like the venn diagram of what my fiancee and i want in a trip — scenic relaxing for me, adventure for him! thanks to amtrak for sponsoring it.
I’m on board with any trip conducted by train — right on track! (Sorry.) See also: why I ended up with 15 Amtrak bookmarks after the APW book signing in ATL. My train-loving partner was delighted!
what a great trip!! I would love to explore the West Coast with my cutie!
This is such a wonderful idea for a contest!! We took the Amtrak to Savannah one Christmas, and it was so lovely, but far too short. What could be more romantic than a train ride through American countryside? Count me in!!
My dude and I would love love love to do this! Coast Starlight line sounds amazing. Good luck to all of us!
I love this idea. Considering the boy is a train FANATIC, it would be the best gift ever for him.
Oh please, very very please! I’m a Washington resident and my ability to marry is going up for debate today in the House- it’s looking good for marriage equality here! Even though the law wouldn’t be in effect before the honeymoon offer expires, my love and I would happily ‘pre-honeymoon’ and celebrate a victory for love with APW!
Heck yes! I want to honeymoon via Amtrak!
I’m in! This sounds amazing! I’ve never taken an overnight train in the US, but reading all of Meg’s posts have made me super excited about taking a longer trip on Amtrak someday!
I would like to please enter to win the Amtrak giveaway. My partner and I have been together for 5 years. Between working full time and pursuing my PhD part-time we have not had the time or money to take a vacation (just the two of us, not visiting family for a holiday or sleeping on someone’s couch) in the entire time we have been together. I wake up at 4 am and go to bed at 11:00pm so that I can study before and after work, as a result, I am often told that I look like I am in need of a vacation. I have never taken Amtrak on a long distance trip in which I got to use the sleeper car and I can already imagine the naps, the reading, the frivolous conversation and laughter between my partner and I. I would be thrilled to win this giveaway.
Sincerely,
PhD candidate in need of some time away
I have always loved zipping between New York and DC on Amtrak, but since the Amtrak posts started on APW, I have been checking out all the long distance lines, pricing them and fantasizing about the romance of seeing the West by train, just like in the movies. Please consider us entered!
I have been day-dreaming of honeymooning by train because of your travel tales! What a fun adventure to start married life together with. Getting married in August and we still are saying “maybe here…maybe there”, the train to NOLA would be amazing! Thanks!
We have been talking about traveling a portion of the trans-Siberian railroad for our post-wedding adventure, but a free ride on Amtrak would be lovely too. Thanks for posting the offer.
I’d love to win this trip! I took the train from NY to Chicago a few years ago, but couldn’t afford the sleeper car. I get the feeling that it’s a completely different experience!
Hooray for Amtrak! I’m in. :)
Oh what an amazing giveaway! We have had to move our wedding up to June of this year and will not be able to take a honeymoon right away! This would be an awesome getaway for us! We are even already in Seattle and would love the chance to see some sunshine!
I’m already a train person! In fact, I finished my grad school thesis on a long ride up to visit the now-hubby’s grandfather. Would love to snuggle up and enjoy the view on a 6 mo or maybe 1 year mini-moon anniversary trip. The hard part would be deciding on the route…
This is such an awesome giveaway. My new husband and I were just talking about taking a train trip. Thanks!!!
How amazing! Both he and I have been discussing an Amtrak trip between LA and Seattle. He lived in Portland, OR and I lived in LA in college and we often made the drive to see each other via car, bus, or plane, with the little money we had as students. We’ve never taken the train and it would be so romantic to re-live those memories and our journey from a different perspective.
Thank you for the giveaway and opportunity! Anyone will be lucky to win that trip.
Meg–This is nothing short of amazing. Yes, I accept the opportunity for my husband & I to go on a fabulous mini-moon. Thank you so much!
This would be perfect for the mini-moon my fiance and I will be taking right after our wedding. Thanks, Meg!
Please enter me! My FH and I lived on the California coast for 3 years and miss it more than anything. The starlight coast trip would be so perfect for us.
We never actually went on a honeymoon, and we’ve been wanting to do a trip along the west coast, so this sounds perfect!
Yes please!
Awesome! I’ve so enjoyed hearing your stories of your travels, and thought “how relaxing does THAT sound?!” Yaaaaay Amtrak!
My husband got pneumonia 3 days before our honeymoon and so we missed it. Would love to have a honeymoon after 4 years of marriage!!!!!
While this wouldn’t be a honeymoon, or a baby moon, I would love to win this as a great way for my boyfriend and I to visit my relatives near Los Angeles. A year ago I took the train from Chicago to Seattle. Now I didn’t have enough money for the roomette option, so there was a bit less of the glamorous details, but it was still an awesome trip!
As we had a very abbreviated honeymoon last summer thanks to limited funds (we paid for the wedding ourselves) and having a 4-month old puppy (would NOT recommend adopting a puppy a month and a half before your wedding!), I’d love to have a second chance for our 1-year-anniversary! I’ve loved your stories and pictures on Twitter and here on the site, and I’ve always wanted to take a longer ride!
Yay Amtrak! A West Coast train trip sounds amazing. We’re getting married 9/2/12, and this would be perfect for the mini-moon that we haven’t planned yet. Trains are awesome- I think we were the only people I know who loved the movie Unstoppable, so we would totally geek out on our train ride.
This would be amazing!
We have been talking about taking an Amtrak trip and would love to if possible!
Count me in! I’m in the beginning stages of planning a Spring 2013 wedding, so this would be perfect for us.
AAUGUGUGHHHHH this is so awesome!!
Meg, ever since you started reporting back on your book tour, I have been dying a little inside at the thought of taking a honeymoon on the rails. My fiance and I are getting married on December 14, 2012, and money is kind of tight so we’re not sure how things are going to look by the time we get around to planning the honeymoon, so this would be SO FREAKING AWESOME, and so chill and relaxing and US. So, consider this my very enthusiastic entry for consideration in this giveaway. It would mean the world to us. :)
Way to be awesome, Amtrak (and Meg!). I have a feeling a train will be involved in our honeymoon no matter what. :)
I’d love this! Fiance and I aren’t even thinking about a honeymoon yet. We’re counting on last-minute deals/freebies/cheap plane tickets. This would make our honeymoon much more exciting!
This would be fun!
and all the readers who never respond come out to play…
This is one of the most neat-o give-aways I’ve ever seen. The last time I was on a train was in college when I was too broke to fly home. mid-night rides across New York State can’t really compare to actually going someplace incredible during day light hours!
Thanks for the opportunity, APW (and Amtrack)!
I would LOVE this! So would my fella :)
ENTERED.
Oooh! I’d love to do the west coast trip.
How fun! My husband and I have been married for a year and a half and are still working on finding the time and money for a real honeymoon…
Since R and I were in 30th Street Station for a little while on our very first date, AND I spent years riding the Northeast Corridor trains to see my family, and friends, clearly I already heart Amtrak. But since moving to CA, I’ve only been as far South as Monterey (I know!), and as far North as Tahoe, so I would LOVE to take a dreamy train ride with my honey up or down the coast. Thanks, Amtrak for this AMAZING opportunity!!
Man, fingers are _so_ crossed!
How cool would this be to win? My boyfriend is always bugging me to go on a train trip, but I haven’t really thought about how cool it would be until this APW series. (Don’t tell him that.)
I want this!!! Reading your Amtrak book tour posts has made me REALLY want to travel by train!
OHHHHH!!!! We live in Chicago, never been to New Orleans and my grad school tuition means no honeymoon…this would be an absolute dream!!!
Oh man! I’ve been hoping for an Amtrak giveaway. :-) My honey and I are getting ready to pay for my grad school… A vacation would be wonderful!
wow. sounds so romantic and relaxing!
would love to go!
I would absolutely love to do this with my guy! It would be so hard to choose where to go!
Oh my goodness! Nick and I couldn’t afford a honeymoon (or engagement ring) and only just took our first vacation together (after 7 years).
My hat is in this ring!
Please enter me! Getting married in September. A honeymoon exploring the shift into fall by train? Yes please.
My parents took Amtrak from Washington, D.C. out to Flagstaff, AZ (via Chicago) prior to our wedding at the Grand Canyon this past November and I think it may have been the highlight of their trip. Well, aside from witnessing Sid and I exchange our vows on the South Rim of course!
Way to go, APW! Keep on rocking.
What an amazing offer! Thanks Meg, APW and Amtrak. My fiance and I are just at the honeymoon-planning phase of our wedding now, and we’d adore going on a sleeper-car adventure!
Meg has already inspired us with this series to take a train trip (even extra better than an airplane since baby is involved) but we’d LOVE to win this and take an even BETTER train trip!
Thanks for the chance to win this trip!
I was already thinking of an Amtrack trip for our honeymoon in September. Now I’m really convinced! Thanks for offering a giveaway! Love your blog!
Yes please.
So exciting! I can’t wait to read about New Orleans!
And I really wish I knew more about using Twitter… how does one post link to a page?
YES! Perfect timing! We are really struggling to decide on a honeymoon location. Winning this would b e great because then we can check it off The List.
I would love to travel the West Coast by trains, seems like an uber romantic honeymoon. Enter me!
I’ve always wanted to sleep on the train!
Well this is just AMAZING! I would LOVE to take an amtrak minimoon!
Oh Meg, just when I thought you couldn’t possibly get any more awesome, and now you do this! Congratulations on your book! You rock!
Now I’m going to sit here with my fingers crossed until I win. :p
OMG Sign me up please, this sounds fabulous!!
My fiance is obsessed with all things trains, so it would be lovely to share this trip with him. Keeping my fingers crossed!
OHHHH PERFECTION!!!
We didn’t get to Honeymoon this year after we were married :( And my best friend took our dream location honeymoon, too – which made it that much more painful. We wanted to take a trip for our one year in April, but now I’m pregnant and flying/driving isn’t ideal. BUT ON A TRAIN? Uh, yes please.
Entered, entered, entered.
Oh, this would be such a blessing for us! My husband and I were married in June, and didn’t get a chance to have a honeymoon because we just didn’t have the cash. We wanted to even get away for a few days, but even that was impossible due to our financial state. So we planned to take a 1 year anniversary trip, but even almost a year later, sadly this won’t be a reality, either. I’m dying to take a trip with my husband, it’s been 10 years together and the closest thing we’ve had to a couples vacation was a trip to Reno with my parents and family! I would love a romantic trip with my husband on the train, it would be such a gift for us. Good luck to everyone!
I’m in! I would totally use to to take the boy and me on a roundtrip from Oakland to Portland or maybe Seattle – We’ve been wanting to do the trip for years, we *adore* Amtrak (I’m a daily commuter, yay!), and it sounds like it would be the most gorgeous, restful way to travel ever. Sigh… dreaming…
Ooh! I would *love* to win a trip on the Coast Starlight. Jeff and I moved to Los Angeles from San Francisco about a year and a half ago. Since then, we have yet to back up there together to re-explore our favorite places and things there (ranging from the Alamere Falls hike in the point reyes national seashore, to chowing on rainbow salad at burma superstar) and reconnect with friends. Jeff used to live in Seattle, and I’ve never been – I’m dying for him to show me around. Our wedding is in May and a summer trip up the coast would be the perfect honeymoon. Yay Amtrak!
Yes! Amtrak! Because of your posts, I’m now obsessed with traveling by Amtrak, so this would be AMAZING!
I’d love to win and take the Boy on a honeymoon! We’ve eloped three years ago and never got around to the honeymoon part.
My fiance is an Amtrak fanatic! This is very exciting. I tweeted about it. Thanks for the giveaway. Looking forward to seeing the winner :)
What a wonderful way to spend your honeymoon! Count me in!
486 comments, wow! But I’ll throw my hat into the ring, too :) I have loved reading all the posts from the rails and would adore a green Amtrak honeymoon! My fiance and are getting married in Houston this summer, so I think the NOLA route would be perfect for us!
Oh that would be the most wonderful thing!! Although we’re not engaged, I think we hopefully will get to use this by the expiration date. :) Would be a wonderful blessing!
We had an Amtrak honeymoon! We took the train from NYC to Niagara Falls and back – it was a great experience. So nice to turn the driving and navigation over to someone else, and we had room to stretch out, electricity to plug our laptop into, and great scenery up the Hudson river. Congrats to whoever wins this!
Oh man, I love Amtrak! I traveled with my family when I was a kid from our hometown, through Chicago, to Salt Lake City (meaning we went over the Rockies by train! they have these awesome viewing cars that are all windows!) before renting a car to drive around to the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, etc. It was amazing. Now my husband and I use Amtrak to get between our current city and our hometown. Super convenient overnight ride, much cheaper and more environmentally friendly than flying. (although they need to improve their policies at the station since it seems like there is always a mob and never an orderly line to board) We’d love to win this vacation!
We tried to go on a trip for our first anniversary last spring, but couldn’t find the money or time off. Hoping to celebrate our next anniversary with a sorely needed vacation, and I’ve always wanted to take a train trip like this (New Orleans & Memphis? yes please!).
Yay! Here is my entry.
I want to go on a train trip with my sweet and sip tea and while looking over my book at the beauty rolling by!
Travel by train is the only way to go. What a lovely (and so Team Practical) idea!
I could go for a second honeymoon!
Count me in, too! I just got married last fall–and we haven’t had a change to honeymoon yet. I’d love for this to be it.
b
Train sounds like a good idea, much better than Honeymoon via Greyhound.
I’m getting married in October 2012! What an amazing honeymoon this would be!
I’ve never gone by train, it sounds fantastic!
I’ve been talking to my husband about taking a trip to New Orleans for months….it would be amazing to get to take the trip in style on the train!
Fiance and I are both not fans of flying and dang you’ve made it look so fun! Best of luck to everyone :)
Great Giveaway. It would be tough to choose between the two choices.
Um… can we win this? Though as tempting as it would be to keep the trip for ourselves, I might have to pass it along to some newly-engaged friends who could really use a lucky break. Good luck to everyone! A trip down the West Coast will be soooooo beautiful!
Would LOVE this! I have never been to New Orleans, and this would be the perfect excuse. When you started your tour, I looked up Amtrak routes etc. and fell in love with the bedrooms – looks SO awesome. This would be the perfect excuse to sate my homesickness by going to Chicago to catch the train, and then seeing someplace I’ve never seen before! And whoever wins, could we pls have pictures of where you go?!?!??!??!
This is my fiancé’s DREAM honeymoon! She is obsessed with Amtrak and we both really do love train travel. Enter us please!
Yes, please enter me in this contest!
Sign me up! I’ve started planning my wedding for this May and have considered returning to CA from OH via Amtrak as our honeymoon. Winning a free trip would be amazing (and no matter which leg we chose, I’d get to see two new cities!).
i love trains! the most romantic mode of transportation available, aside from stage coaches, but those just aren’t very practical.
We were thinking of Ireland, but there’s so much of the US we haven’t seen and there’s no leisure like train leisure.
Would love to travel with the hubs on Amtrak! This sounds incredible :)
The hubs and I have been dying to go to New Orleans! This would be wonderful.
I would love to take a trip up the West Coast!
Hooray for giveaway! I’d love to win! My wedding is in June and we’ve yet to figure out how to do the honeymoon we can’t afford LOL
Amazing! New Orleans and the Cali coast are both on our honeymoon shortlist.
Oh my goodness, it would be The Best if my manpanion and I could do this together. We’ve always talked about taking our bicycles on the train down the west coast and riding around our fave cities, a leisurely trip that we can enjoy slowly rather than the hurry-up-let’s-make-our-flight-oh-god-we-have-to-pack-80-activities-into-this-3-day-trip-oh-crap-we-need-to-check-out-of-the-hotel-now kind of trips that we’ve been able to take so far in our relationship, mostly due to budget constraints. I really hope we, or another less fortunate couple, could be the winners of this giveaway :)
Count me in. Yay Amtrak!
I took a sleeper car across country from CA to MA when I went to college. It was a life changing experience!
My fiance and I are just in the process of planning our honeymoon for this September, and would LOVE this trip!
This sounds so great! <3
Would love to take the train from Seattle down to Los Angeles. It sounds perfect!
What an awesome giveaway! I’ve been eyeing Amtrak lately, and this would be such a perfect way to test it out with my partner!
We’re already considering New Orleans as a honeymoon destination. I’m told we’ll have to stay at a hotel with a very good gym. ;-)
This is the first of any wedding-related contests I’ve entered. Might be APW post material re: free wedding stuff contests. Sometimes it feels like it could be like being in high school again, trolling the internet for college scholarships.
Such a cool giveaway! My honey has always loved Amtrak. It would be a great belated honeymoon. :)
I can take a train from here to New Orleans? Sign me up!
I’m so into train travel it isn’t funny, and I’m trying to talk the husband into a long-distance train trip this summer…
My partner and I are absolutely dying for a chance to see the U.S. from outside of an airplane, and this would be such a cool way to do it! Thank you for this offer!
Oh man, how exciting! Seattle is on the top of list of places to visit next! Thanks, APW and Amtrak!
I have alwayyyysss wanted to take a long train trip somewhere. And after reading about your weekend in New Orleans, I think that would have to be my destination. We would love this trip!
YUM. *throws hat in the ring*
Me, me, me! Pick me!!! This might just be the best idea ever! Thanks Meg, and Amtrak, and everyone!
This is rad. I love new Orleans. That’s where I would go on this trip.
I have been married for 4 years but due to financial situations my husband and I never really had a real honeymoon. We are in the process of buying a house and then start a family soon after so I don’t see us going on a trip any time soon. This would be a goo opportunity for my husband and I to travel the coast of Southern California.
AMAZING IDEA. Such a fabulous way to travel.
Love this idea!! So romantic. Your pics on instagram have me sold that there is no way to travel BUT Amtrak!! As a east coast transplant to SF who hasn’t taken the time to explore the west coast, that west coast line sounds divine!
I freaking love Amtrak … this would be so fun!
What a terrific idea! Love Amtrak!
I’ve taken the train from Portland to Chicago in a roomette, and would love to do the same down to California with my husband. Awesome!
Oh man – I’ve been lusting after an Amtrak trip since Meg started this whole process. I would so love to win this – but I’m pretty sure I’ll be riding the rails in the near future with or without a win. Crossing my fingers. :)
Sounds awesome – count me in!
I do love Amtrak. I wish that the lines on the Eastern corridor were less spendy – it’s the best way to get around out here.
This. Is an awesome idea. At first I was hesitant to enter…there are so many more fabulous women in this community who deserve it more, who honestly need it more, who have been reading for longer (I just found you after my engagement 6 months ago)…but after Meg & Maddie’s post this afternoon about New Orleans I can’t help it. I can’t pass up the opportunity to visit such an amazing place in such an amazing way. And the promise of the Meg Keene New Orleans Itinerary (TM) doesn’t hurt either…
Hell yes, I’m in. I mean, we, my husband and I. :)
Holy moly! How awesome! I read the New Orleans Book Tour(ish) post first and then scrolled down and became super excited! Sam and I are planning to go to New Orleans for our Honeymoon! And he’s been begging to take the train instead of a bus on one of our DC-NY trips lately and it hasn’t worked out. I was already debating taking the train down there, and now I’m even more convinced.
Sleeping in a bed on a train? Eating awesome food and partaking in delicious drinks? Relaxing? Sounds stunningly divine! Our train experiences took place abroad at the beginning of our relationship and generally entailed overnight trains in “coach” where we had to stay awake for fear of having our belongings stolen (which happened to us! Luckily it was only our leftover pizza and less important items like toothbrushes…but I was going to eat that mangled, delicious, cold pizza for breakfast! Jerks.) or 50+ year old trains with no AC where we had to hold our breath every time we passed through a tunnel because of all the diesel fumes that would come in through the open windows. Some of my favorite travel memories, but I’d love to experience the flip side of train travel!
yes! regrettably i didn’t book amtrak for an upcoming trip to philly from boston.
i should have… i really should have.
but, part of me thinks i was saving train travel for adventures with my hubby.
eeeeee!
I love trips by train! I haven’t been on one since I was a kid. I’d love to win this.
Leaving my comment. I also posted on twitter. =)
Oh, yay! I would love to relax on a train for our honeymoon. I can totally picture lounging around, cuddling, and staring at our new rings :)
Winning this trip would be amazing! We are getting married in fall 2013 and want to make travel a priority for the first few years of our marriage. Thanks APW and Amtrak for offering!
I would be SO grateful to win this! Thank you for the opportunity! :)
This would be amazing! The fiance and I have been planning a trip up the West Coast for years – we both enjoy road trips but neither of us love to drive so this would be perfect!
I have been thinking about great a trip on Antrack would be! Count me in!
The Mr. Melissa and I took a three-city tour of the PNW for our honeymoon and traveled between Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver via Amtrak. It was nice, but it’d be even nicer to get to sleep along the way and see another part of the country for our next big trip!
Oooh, pick me! Pick me!
Count me in! This sounds like an amazing honeymoon!
My fiance and I would love to win this trip! We are parents of a lovely 18 month old (yup, baby before marriage;) and getting married this June. We haven’t had a vacation since baby was born. We’re dying!! Even if we don’t win, we’re considering the Seattle to LA trek on Amtrak as a honeymoon option.
Btw, great meeting you last week in Atlanta, Meg! After meeting with a wedding venue yesterday and wanting to pull out my hair from frustration, I grabbed my APW book and headed for the coffee shop last night for some mommy alone time. I breezed halfway through the book. Such a great read! I am much more at ease about everything. Thank you, thank you!
Sounds amazing! We both love New Orleans, and we’d been talking about spending our honeymoon there, but I’ve been out of work for so long that we’re probably going to end up delaying it. So this would be perfect!
Amazing! Love this idea and have my fingers crossed very, very hard. Hoping for a great little second honeymoon.
Oh it would be so wonderful to win this! We are planning a super budget wedding and this would just be the icing on the cake. I took my first Amtrak trip a few weeks ago and I’m hooked!
Best idea for a honeymoon ever. I would love to win!
This would be SO fun!
This would be a mini-moon for us.
Also, A. I have been inspired to take Amtrak home for spring break. and B. OMG do I want to go to NOLA
I have a really romantic idea of what it would be like to travel via train (I’ve never been on Amtrak!) and you’re really making me think I’m right about that! Would love to win this mini-moon for the hubby and I.
Ah! Would love this. Our bare-bones elopement last August was wonderful, and we’re looking forward to a backyard reception in May with my crazy family, but it would be so nice to have some Fancy Pants Amtrak Alone Time… and to NOLA! Eee!)
This is the best giveaway ever.
Meg, you and Amtrak and the APW team are the best! :)
I live in Sacto, so a trip from there to Seattle sounds like just what the husband and I need. Thank you for doing this giveaway. And this sponsorship has convinced me that no matter what, I will be doing some kind of fun overnight train travel in the near future.
This would be so amazing! It would also echo the first trip we took together, a road trip down the west coast. :)
GAH I LOVE AMTRAK! My fiance and I did a trip from the SF Bay Area up to Washington one year for Christmas (sans sleeper car, boo hoo) and it was so much fun! I’ve been wanting an excuse to do another train trip…
What a great giveaway! I’ve never traveled by train but after all of your blog posts, I’m intrigued and would love to explore the US with my fiance!
My husband and I got married in October but due to his medical school schedule + my teaching schedule (middle school!) we haven’t taken a proper honeymoon! We have been eyeing a big Amtrak trip but man, it starts to add up when you want to take a longer trip…. gets expensive quick! This would be SO perfect for us! We’d totally go to New Orleans via Memphis!
Yay! I’ve always loved trains!
Trains! Adventures all of their own, no matter the destination. My grandfather loved trains and we’d visit all the old train museums when I was little. My father and I would spend Saturday afternoon walks on train tracks (not strictly the best idea, I suppose, but so much fun and completely safe) peering into backyards and I would pick up and marvel at the coal that dropped from the trains. As an adult I have commuted up and down the Connecticut coast on tracks, and now that my fiance and I live in the West we see miles and miles of trains pass by landscapes I never dreamed of before. What a terrific idea for a give-away! And being recent residents of Seattle it’d be a perfect chance to explore our area. Fun, fun!
This is so exciting! We are planning a wedding for Spring 2013 and this would be perfect.
I posted a twitter link!
LA or New Orleans…hmmm that will be hard for me to choose (I am pretending like I already won, power of positive thinking and all that jazz)…
My FH and I are already planning a honeymoon on the west coast as a “getting to know you” sort of trip, to see if we’d really like to move there (and it’s not just good on paper), but money is tight. This would make it super easy for us to see the western US and pick a place to live!
The last time I was in New Orleans I was 16 and on a youth church retreat thing. Yeah. I’m thinking it’s time to get the full New Orleans experience!
This sounds amazing! I’ve been talking to the Fiance about taking a trip by train since you announced the book tour :)
Yay yay yay!! Ever since you started documenting your trip I’ve been trying to figure out when to plan a trip to take via Amtrak! Thanks for the opportunity!! :)
Sounds fantastic! Thank you!
I also entered via Twitter (I’m not sure if I was supposed to come back and comment for an extra entry or…? So I’m just writing that here – feel free to delete this comment if it interferes with how you’re counting!)
Thanks for making this possible Meg! So exciting!!!
What a fantastic idea for a honeymoon.
This was my grandparents’ 2nd honeymoon. They spent the year before they married separated by my Grandfather’s deployment in Germany in the aftermath of WWII. He wrote to her of the soothing clicks of the train tracks, and his desire to share it with her Europe. 25 years later, they saw the West Coast from an Amtrak sleeper train, and said it was the best vacation of their lives. What an amazing opportunity!
I want to win I want to win! Although we already had a honeymoon it was sorta taken over by the total exhaustion after wedding thing. Also my husband has never been to New Orleans and I really want to take him because the one time I went I fell in love with the whole city.
A life long dream of mine to travel across the US by train. I find it very sad that train travel is not as reveled in as it is in Europe. Especially when you think about all the lives lost building the roads so we could travel across the US.
Got married in the fall and have yet to take a honeymoon. We would love this opportunity!
It’s been far too lon since I’ve taken a train trip, and my husband and I just recently moved from California to Seattle… we could take a marvelous mini train vacation and visit family, to boot!
I’ve never been to NOLA even though my step-uncle lives out near there. I should have known it would be this awesome because my Aunt Celia lived out there her whole life and she is amazing!
An Amtrak honeymoon would be super sweet. Well, as long as I don’t go into labor on the train–just found out I’ll be 6 months preggers at the wedding. Though that’d be a great story, right???
I think I need to write a post about losing the house we were renting, moving the whole brood in with my grandparents, and a surprise pregnancy. It’s definitely changed my wedding perspective!
I love trains! I also expect to love the honeymoon we take after our June wedding. This could be two great tastes tasting great together.
Oh my word. My husband and I have been itching to see Seattle since…well, since we met. And now that we live in San Diego, this would be a perfect way to take in our gorgeous new home coast. We won’t see each other this summer because he’ll be gone for work, and this trip would be the perfect Reconnect trip.
OMG, so excited! Would LOVE to win!!!
Sounds great! A Northern California adventure would be fun.
This would be amazing. Fingers crossed! :)
This sounds amazing!
I’m getting married this year and this would make a fantastic honeymoon. :)
Awesome! Crossing my fingers :)
I’ve always wanted to take a trip on the Coast Starlighter, and your tour had made me want to try Amtrak even more!
This sounds like a wonderful opportunity to pretend I’m traveling to Hogwarts! Trains are innately magical, right?
My honey and I would LOVE to travel Amtrak! We live in Portland, OR where there is an Amtrak stop!
Our 5th anniversary is in March, a mini moon sounds great!
My parents went to Nola for their honeymoon in the ’70s! Sigh. Would love to go on this trip 30+ years later! Thank you for the contest — looks fabulous.
Oh, this is amazing! I loved reading about your Amtrak travels for the tour! I’ve yet to travel by train, though I have slept in a seated position (while guarding my backpack in my lap – I met many an interesting individual during my bus travels) for days on the Greyhound between Seattle/Denver and Denver/Phoenix. I’m afraid of flying, and am planning a road trip honeymoon. Going by Amtrak so that my honey can rest instead of driving along the West Coast would be AWESOME! Thanks for this giveaway!
Holla.
I have been totally loving all of the Amtrak information on this book tour, reaffirming my belief it truly is the only civilized way to travel. It would be so romantic to have a honeymoon by rail.
Graduating in May. Moving (to where my fiance and family live) in May. Getting married in October.
Amtrak Honeymoon sounds lovely!
I have been dreaming about the Empire Builder from Chicago to Glacier National Park for several years now! Train travel is so romantic.
Oh, this would be perfect! My husband and I actually did take a honeymoon trip to New Orleans on Amtrak, and we’d love to take a mini-moon on the West Coast. We’re both in school and working, so having some time to just stare out a train window and love each other would be fabulous!
A train trip across part of America sounds awesome, there is so much of America I would love to see, especially New Orleans, and enjoying the views from the train sounds like a fantastic adventure. My husband and I would love a second honeymoon
This sounds so lovely! The train is such a sophisticated way to travel. I hope I win a lovely Amtrak honeymoon!!
Brilliant! I love to see the country, but hate driving 10 hours to get out of my region and on to the interesting things.
I’ve never been on a train and as of now we have no honeymoon planned after our December wedding. This would be fun!
My FH and I have always had the best time on trains. No one has to be the DD and you can enjoy the beautifiul scenery without the anxiety of a car or plane
Oh my gosh that sounds like so much fun!!! We have our first train trip planned for my mid-winter break (love the teaching schedule!). Ahh NOLA, Memphis and Chicago!!!
We have 2013 wedding planning in the works – this would be amazing!
My friends hooneymooned in New Orleans and I would love to do the same. Thanks for the giveaway.
Let it be me. Let it be me. Let it be me.
I would love to win this. I’ve been dying to go on a cross country train ride.
Me please!! I love trains.
It would be such a blessing to win! My husband and I never went on a honeymoon and 3 kids later, we barely have time for ourselves. It would be awesome!
Great idea, count me in!
I am so thrilled to know that I’m not the only one who DREAMS of a honeymoon train. Seriously, it’s been on wish list for years and your posts about the tous have made me positively green with envy.
Thanks, Amtrak!
Ohhhhhh pick me!!! We would be sooooo thrilled to win this!! ;)
It would be a nice surprise to my dear wife to win this!
We would love to win this! My hubby and I are in the process of planning a belated honeymoon/1 year anniversary trip and we would LOOOOOOOVE to take the train up the West Coast!
Enter me please!
13 pages of comments! Holy wow Meg! This would be lovely to win.
Love love love Amtrak. Great idea.
This has been a tough few months for my fiancee. He lost his dad in December and is facing a lay-off right after our June wedding. A honeymoon getaway on Amtrak would be a fun pick-me-up!
When you posted about New Orleans, I immediately looked up what it would take to get there from here. My husband can count on one hand the number of times he’s left the greater Chicago area, and NOLA is on our list!
Also tweeting (canonicalbabble).
My sweetie and I are planning a road trip from San Francisco to Seattle and Vancouver for 2014, and we both got really excited about even a short trip on the Coast Starlight route. Since we’re honeymooning this fall near LA (Knott’s Berry Farm, wooooo!), I bet we could work the rest of the trip in SOEMHOW if we were lucky enough to win. :)
awesomesauce
Our wedding is in May – perfect time to head to NOLA!!!
Amtrak honeymoon, eh? I hadn’t even thought about it! I feel like it would be a nice, romantic, old-timey respite from the world’s hustle and bustle.
west coast by train, count me in!
Count me in. We are getting married in October and this would be more than perfect!
An Amtrak honeymoon sounds absolutely amazing!
Sign me up! Sounds like this would be a fabulous trip!
Wow, what a *fantastic* giveaway! I love travelling on trains, and this would be a wonderful trip to take with my wife. Thank you so much for hosting this!
Enter me too! We’ve been dreaming of a cross country honeymoon trip and planning it keeps getting dropped to the bottom of the wedding to do list. This would be an amazing!
WE LOVE AMTRAK!!!!!
AND we have friends in Chicago and New Orleans with sweet wee ones who will be in our wedding. How cool would it be to show up at their house a week later to say thanks for coming to our party!
And then there’s the grand ol’ Mississippi! Huck Finn readin’ to be sure… if newlyweds with a private train compartment actually read tee hee (-;
I’ve never taken a train before, but I would love to!
LOVE the train! Started taking Amtrak back and forth from Richmond, VA to Philly when my husband was transferred up here. Loved it so much we took it from Philly to Savannah last year for Thanksgiving, what a “civilized” way to travel! My favorite city is New Orleans, and I’d love to be able to take a leisurely train ride for a “babymoon” since we’re expecting in August!
oh man, the first trip my beau and i ever took was on amtrak–chicago to DC, then DC to NYC. it’s our favorite way to travel! love the idea of this contest. :-)
This would be so amazing!!
My girlfriend and I engaged each other just over a month ago. I then started learning more about the wedding industry than I ever wanted to know. I am not a girl who grew up planning her wedding, so it has been a swift and brutal education. You and your site have been an oasis in the muck and mire of wedding insanity. It’s such a relief to be given permission to go back to what matters: our partnership. Thank you for that. Thanks you for this (contest). I am happy to help promote you, your work, your book, and your website any chance I get! (I’m a freelancer in marketing who talks to a lot of people, so I get the chance a lot!)
I am so happy for you and your success.
Best,
Nova
This is awesome! I don’t normally enter contests but a trip with my lovely other on a train?? How rad would that be?! Our wedding is in June, in California and we know we’re going to make it the best we can. With the Prop 8 ruling just yesterday, we’re hoping for the legal aspect too! Great, great giveaway! Good luck, all!
I’ve been so busy trying to keep up with medical school and plan the wedding that I haven’t been able to plan any honeymooning. That being said, New Orleans is the place I would like to go most and I would love it if my name was magically drawn from the lottery.
Thanks for doing such a great blog APW! I only wish the book tour ran through my town
Thank you, Meg and Amtrak!! I lived in Seattle for a few years (while the fiance lived in OH) and was never able to make it down the coast to CA like I always dreamed (well, not past mid-OR). One of my fiance’s favorite trips was down to New Orleans with some of his best buds… it would be so wonderful to be able to share one of these phenomenal trips with each other for a mini-moon. I’m finishing up a dual-M.Arch & MBA and he’s a (wonderful) juvenile probation counselor; we could use a stress-free vaca!! 8*)
p.s. I consider myself a serious APW ambassador, and have turned so many of my friends- married, engaged, dating and single- into APW followers too! Thank you for giving me “Exactly!” moments daily, the courage to share my convictions and inspiring me to be a better woman, professional, and future wife. ;-)
We are planning an epic road trip minimoon, but somehow the train seems so much more relaxing…I’m hoping my car-guy husband will agree!
We haven’t taken our honeymoon yet, this would be heaven!
Consider this my official entry! My husband hates flying (loves planes; hates flying), and we both ADORE New Orleans! I’m excited!
Oh!! We are getting married in June and the Starlight would be such a fun adventure for us! I’m heading over to twitter now.. fingers crossed!
My husband and I were married in October 2011 and have spent the first 3 months of our married existence on opposite sides of the country. This would be the most awesome trip, especially considering we didn’t get a honeymoon and I LOVE riding the train :).
Throwing my hat in the ring! Regardless of the outcome, thank you, Amtrak, for being so awesome!
Sounds like an amazing idea!!!
I’ve loved reading about your Amtrak sponsored book tour! I’d love to take an anniversary trip with my husband.
My wife and I were married in August and still haven’t taken our honeymoon. We were planning on going to New Orleans…
I grew up taking the Amtrak auto train back and forth between the northeast and Florida, spent a ton of time in college taking the train from Boston to NJ, and also spent five weeks (twice) riding the trains in Europe (although obviously, not Amtrak). There is nothing better.
We didn’t have a honeymoon after getting married two years ago and haven’t had a chance to travel at all, outside of visiting family. I would LOVE to win.
This is wonderful – absolutely the best honeymoon idea ever! :-)
My fiance and I are actually planning an Amtrak elopement/honeymoon trip. This would work out nicely!
Ever since your trip I’ve been looking into a train honeymoon! This would be prefect since we’re broke :)
I have always, always loved trains and have really wanted to take one of these picturesque long trips.
Wow, what a great giveaway! I would love to visit New Orleans!
Yay! I hadn’t considered a train trip for my honeymoon (getting married in november!)…but this is a fantastically awesome idea!
I grew up riding the Coast Starlight with my grandmother! I’d love to be able to share that with my soon-to-be husband. :)
This sounds great. We’ve always wanted to explore the west coast. What a great opportunity!
This would be a lovely trip for the boy and I (once I catch my breath following my first year of teaching). Thanks for the contest – this sounds great!
This would be my dream honeymoon! Seriously! You have no idea. We had an Amtrak wedding, which I mentioned in a comment on one of your first posts about the book tour. We took the train from our home in Charleston, WV to the Greenbrier for the ceremony (another AMAZING trip, if I may say so, if you’re in this part of the country), and it played a huge part in the “feel” of our wedding. We stayed a couple of nights at the Greenbrier after the wedding, but we haven’t had proper honeymoon, and I can’t think of anything I would enjoy more than getting back on the train for one of these amazing trips.
Your second post exploring New Orleans just made giddy, I may be purchasing this trip with my own money and not as a honeymoon! You have a way of making things sound so freaking fantastic.
20 years of marriage, no honeymoon.
too bad my dad is the one who likes trains, not the spouse.
liza
What a great trip! My bride and I would love this!
Awesome! I rode Amtrak to and from college in a very unromantic way (it was back in the days of no reserved seats and every train being oversold). I would LOVE to try it again in a more comfortable way!
I just tweeted about the giveaway!
https://twitter.com/#!/Smallchic/status/167402462683217921
This sounds great! Id like to get back on a longer train ride than the subway :)
Eeee, I hope I win! I’ve always wanted to go to New Orleans! This is a great contest, thanks!
Oh WOW!!! this is so exciting. My fiance and I just learned that we can not do Ireland for our honeymoon because it will be too much money. I’m very upset about it. But this has lifted my spirits! (Oh I hope I win oh I hope I win…lol) Good luck to the lucky winner!! And have so much fun ( I know I would) Many Blessings.
PS…. Is it ok if I post this on FaceBook? I don’t have a Twitter…. :-/
How much more awesome can you get? Thank you for doing this and count us in! No idea how we would choose between the two lines, as each of those places resonate with us and remain under-explored, but that would be a pleasant dilemma.
I just found out I got accepted into a nursing program that starts in September (as opposed to the end of June! [getting married June 9]). Now that we’re sure we’re not relocating until September, we’re looking into honeymoon options. Cue this post appearing on my Google Reader. Love it! Fingers crossed.
Pick me! Oh please pick me! This sounds like an ideal vacation for my husband and me. *le sigh*
This looks wonderful! My fiance and I are getting married in May and are currently relocating to the West Coast- a coastal train ride would be a beautiful way to celebrate our marriage and get to know our new stomping grounds!
This is such an awesome giveaway!!!! I love traveling by train!
Pick me!
Already married, but a second honeymoon would be amazing and we’ve been meaning to hit BOTH the West coast and NOLA in the near future! I also have loved trains forever, and Amtrak will definitely be an upgrade from our long distance driving honeymoon!
My parents did their second honeymoon by train through the Canadian Rockies and loved it. I’ve been reading your posts and thinking a train anniversary trip sounds like a wonderful idea. A train 2nd honeymoon is an even better idea!
Awesome. I’m so jealous. A train honeymoon is a fantastic idea. Count me in for the contest!
Me gusta mucho! I’m so excited to take the train.
Every year we say we are going to find a time to visit New Orleans, hasn’t happened yet. I feel like I will find my people there too:)
Consider this my entry! Taking the train from Chicago to NOLA would be the perfect honeymoon.
We would love to win this awesome honeymoon!!
Oh man, Best honeymoon ever!
Having not been able to take a Honeymoon after our November 2010 wedding, and 2011 being filled with travel associated with multiple family tragedies, my husband and I would OH SO THRILLED to be able to take a REAL vacation/honeymoon.
What a wonderful sponsor Amtrak is for APW!!!!
count me in! I’ve always wanted to go to New Orleans.
The fiance and I were already talking about doing a road trip for the honeymoon but what was holding us back was the gas and having to drive hours each day. Amtrak would be perfect!!
My fiance and I are brainstorming ideas of how to spend a quiet and unique honeymoon….away from the traditional honeymoon getaways. Then this caught my eye! I have been following your Book Tour and have been silently wishing myself a similar trip. What a wonderful way to celebrate our new marriage!!
Sigh. We haven’t been able to go on any form of honeymoon since our wedding in August, and this sounds AWESOME!
We would love this! When we were in a long distance relationship, we used amtrak to visit one another!
This would be an amazing way to spend the first few weeks of marriage. At least I’m convinced all trips involving Amtrak have to be weeks long – because seeing the world is amazing and the being married [from what you all have been telling me] is amazing and weeks long Amtrak trips are amazing.
I LOVE AMTRAK. The California Zephyr got us to San Francisco for our wedding … it’d be great to ride the rails again. Thanks Amtrak and A Practical Wedding for proving why you’re awesome!
Please pick me! :) Would love to win a honeymoon especially one that travels by train. How wonderfully romantic!
This is awesome! The fiance and I were cross-country long distance for the first 7 months of our relationship. When I graduated college, he flew to NC and we took Amtrak across the country together to our new joint home in CA. What a symbolic and lovely honeymoon this would be! :)
I’ll enter! What an amazing adventure this would be … xoxo
That sounds like such an adventure!
What an amazing giveaway! Thanks so much, Meg and Amtrak!
My guy and I have actually been planing to take our honeymoon by train anyway (he HATES flying), so we would so love to win this! It would allow us to spend our limited funds on other things.
This sounds so great! What a great adventure!
This sounds amazing! My fiance and I would love love love this.
My wife and me love trains and have always dreamed of taking a trip by AMTRAK, but we’ve been busy raising kids and putting them through college. We’re now empty nesters, and approaching our 30th wedding anniversary. This would make the perfect anniversary trip. Please choose us!!!
Gracias!
This would be such a romantic honeymoon!
Fingers are crossed! Thanks for the give away!
This would be a honeymoon for me and the hubby-to-be. We are tying the knot in September 2012. We are trying to save up for a house, so a vacation is not a high priority at the moment. So, this would mean the world to us <3
Come on NOLA connection! We can’t afford a honeymoon, but I’ve been staring wistfully at the Amtrak prices for trips on The City of New Orleans willing them to go low enough to squeeze into our budget. Free is definitely low enough. Plus, we met in Louisiana and we’re hoping to move to New Orleans around our first anniversary, it would be the perfect trip.
I have to admit that my recent train fascination is all from your book tour, but sign me up! Amazing.
What a great idea! We love trains!
We’d love a cross country train trip, that does sound blissful! Thanks to you and Amtrak for this opportunity!
I want to win this!!! My honey and I don’t have honeymoon plans yet, so this would make planning easier!! I’ll have my fingers crossed! Love your book btw.
Yes, PLEASE. Always wanted to take a long trip by train, and these two options look fabulous! Especially for a terrific honeymoon of quiet, awesome scenery, and, er, bonding. Yippee for A Practical Wedding!
My husband and I couldnt afford a honeymoon- he was laid off and I completed my second term of National Service so we just werent in a financial place for it. Traveling by train is such an incredible way to go and would make the perfect honeymoon. Thank you for providing this opportunity to all of your readers!
I want to win this!!!
https://twitter.com/#!/HappyTina0115/status/167429546893783040
We have no honeymoon planned and this would be FANTASTIC. We both adore trains and would love an Amtrak vacation. PICK US! (Even though I know it is random)
Thank you for putting this together, and for all of your great advice in your book. With all of the planes, trains, and automobiles that we’ve been on in the past few years to keep our relationship together, this would be the perfect way to celebrate the fact that we will finally be able to share each others company everyday and live in the same place once we are married. It would also be so fitting that Chicago and New Orleans were our top two honeymoon destinations based on their food, local music and arts scene and that fact that we wanted to maximize our downtime and have our dollars circulate in the local economies of both those towns. Thank you again, this is very exciting :)
Yes, please!
What a fantastic giveaway! Our close friends took the west coast trip on Amtrak for their honeymoon. I’ve never even been on a train! What a great way to start a marriage!
Yes, pretty please!! We didn’t get to have a honeymoon since I was 8 months and a zillion weeks pregnant when we got married, and we’d love to have one now!
Well, I live pretty much directly in between these two lines, but I want to enter anyway! It seems like it’s kind of missing the point to either fly or drive to a place just so we can get on the train, but I know the hubs LOVES trains, and we both love New Orleans, so I think it’d be worth it. We DID fly in and out of London on our honeymoon mostly for the purpose of being able to take the Chunnel train to and from Paris…that’s how much he likes trains. For real.
How about us pre-engaged ladies? Are we (and our sweeties) eligible too? My mister and I have been together for four years and we’ve only ever taken one trip together we stayed at a B&B for a night for my birthday. And New Orleans would be fun!!
Wow… 15 pages of comments. I guess all the lurkers came out of the woodwork :D
I would like to put my name in the hat as well. Would it help if I promised to send you pretty instagram pictures of our trip, like you’ve been posting for us?
And thanks for the giveaway! It would be a great anniversary trip for us.
HONEYMOON!
Private car available? It IS a honeymoon right…
Can’t even afford the wedding right now, but we could sure use a pre-wedding moon.
This is amazing, such a romantic honeymoon idea!!
Oh my gosh, this is so wonderful! Thank you guys and thank you Amtrak! Count us in, we’re getting married in October : )
I just went to NOLA for the first time, with very high expectations that were exceeded. I’d want to go back, especially by train, something else I love.
Here’s hopin’…. if I win, I promise I’ll propose to my girlfriend (if she hasn’t gotten to it already!)!!
YES! PLEASE!
My parents took a cross-country honeymoon road trip right after they got married, before taking off for a Euro trip when one could survive on $5/day. I’ve always wanted to take advantage of the national parks, eat my way across the land, and hear the sounds of the country without going up in the air. My honey and I would love to cross the country, and perhaps we could find our new home while en-route!!
OHHHHH pick mEEEEEE!!!
My fiancé and I have actually been planning an Amtrak honeymoon, to the west coast or to the south!!! This would make our dreams come true…without breaking the bank! I literally shrieked this morning when I read this, I was so excited. Pick me, pick me!
Um, yes please. As long as I can bring someone who isn’t a US resident if I win. :)
My fiance and I are actually taking the Los Angeles to Seattle route for our next vacation. After reading your descriptions, we’re even more excited for the trip!
I’ve been following APW since December and was just mentioning the APW book tour to my love, asking him what he thought about an Amtrak honeymoon! This is a great idea, and the PERFECT way to see the country!
You would think that we would be sick of Amtrak with all the time my husband and I spend on it commuting between two cities to keep our marriage (and before that our relationship) going, but in all honesty, we’ve totally come to enjoy train travel. And romantic getaways.
Oh this would be a blast for our Honeymoon!!! Sign me up!
An Amtrak honeymoon would be AMAZING! We’ve been talking about it anyhow. It would be doubly amazing to win one!
My adorable bf (i refuse to say fiancee, it sounds so pretentious) and i are to be wed in may. we have the tiniest of budget for the wedding but will do the best we can with that which i know will be amazing and memorable. unfortunately since we have such a small budget a honeymoon is out of the question at least until later. I would love nothing more than to surprise him with an unexpected trip.
There is NOTHING more romantic to me than traveling on a train. no hurry, no airport, no expectations for driving, it is blissful. i have ridden the train a few times in the US, and I am huge proponent of Amtrak. please please please pick me to surprise my wonderful to be with a lovely honeymoon.
love this site. thanks for being, allowing and advocating practicality!!
Sign me up! We have had a long train trip on our list of to-dos for years. This would be amazing!
Oh goodness. This would be glorious! My fingers are crossed so my husband and I can take a real honeymoon, 9 years later!
My husband and I have been married just over a year. He’s in grad school (working on a never ending PhD). He’s supposed to be done around the end of this year and we’ve been dreaming of taking an adventure and having some time to hang out together and de-stress. Train travel has actually been one of the ideas and we sure would like to make it a reality.
Oh, and I don’t have a twitter account, so I can’t tweet my wish for this trip, but I really, really do wish for it times two!
OMG! My fiance has been advocating for a trip via train for years. I always veto since it’s often more expensive and takes more time. But, since we’re getting married this year, maybe I should start doing a bit more of what he likes? Hmmm… :)
Oh, how wonderful it would be to win this! After a stressful year of starting our farm, my husband and I could really use a “mini-moon.” I’ve never been to NOLA… :)
This sounds amazing. I’ve always wanted to travel by train, and have yet to find the occasion. Train travel is something that has sadly become a luxury, rather than the norm, and I’ve always imagined that it would be a wonderful way to see the country. The Amtrak Coast Starlight would be fantastic!
Oh my, count me in at 754. My husband and I were married a year and a half ago, but we never had a honeymoon, and hot diggity if we wouldn’t like to see the country, Amtrak-style. Fingers crossed.
We got engaged while backpacking around Europe via Eurail, so an Amtrak honeymoon in the U.S. would be all too perfect. Fingers crossed!! Thanks, APW and Amtrak!
My fiance has been obssessed with train tracks and bridges throughout our entire relationship. Unforutnately, he has neve actually rode one yet. This would be such an amazing honeymoon, and I would LOVE to bring him to New Orleans. It’s a city with a special place in my heart and to be able to share that with him would be amazing.
My husband and I will have been married 40 years this coming August 5th. I was 18 when we were married and we considered ourselves lucky to be able to afford a honeymoon spent camping up the coast of California to Seattle, and that was only because my in-laws lent us their reliable car. Ours could not have made the trip.
I am very proud we have nearly reached the 40 year mark, as many of our friends dropped out of their marriages along the way. It wasn’t always easy, but it has always been worth it.
I would love to take this train trip with my sweetie to celebrate the journey of our marriage thus far.
This is a great opportunity! Either line sounds like a really good time!
That sounds awesome. Yay Amtrak!
Enter us pleasepleaseplease! Our wedding is this October 6th and we’d be over the moon (ha!) to win an Amtrak mini-moon! We LOVE trains and winning this trip would just be so special! And also so much love for this blog and the Book! Bought my copy on the Amazon big push day!
Sign me up! A trip down the west coast on the Starlight sounds wonderful.
This sounds so amazing! We can hardly afford a trip anywhere at all.
This honeymoon would be an amazing opportunity for my fiancé and I….we love to travel and explore together!!
I’ve wanted to go to New Orleans for the last ten years, and Amtrak is the best way to travel.
I’m afraid of cruises(don’t like taking boats on an open sea) and my fiance doesn’t like flying. We though we wouldn’t be able to take a honeymoon. I NEVER tought of Amtrak, such a wonderful idea. I really wish we could win!
I love New Orleans in a way that makes my heart hurt for it while reading about your trip. Here’s to hoping we make it there by train!
We never had a honeymoon because we had 5 kids with us, and we’re still searching for ours. When I brought this up to Brian last night we were thrilled to discover something new about each other: we both dream of doing a train vacation. It sparked excited side-by-side surfing of trains all over the world. Thanks for accepting our entry!
This trip would make our life – oh my goodness, I’ve been daydreaming since reading these posts. Pick us please! I also tweeted (@chelseyln)
A honeymoon to NOLA via Amtrak would be lovely! Does APW get any better than this?!
Oh, goodness, I have never been so excited for a giveaway in my life. Completely rethinking our honeymoon plans, now. Yay trains!
YAY!! I love Amtrak what an amazing giveaway. thanks os much!!
https://twitter.com/#!/SwoodsonSays/status/167471747313045504 tweeted!
Brilliant! We’d been planning on the Seattle down to LA, but a couple weeks ago added Chicago to the options. Neither of us have been there yet. Finding Amtrak has been a huge bonus to living in Washington.
What better way to wind down after the hullabaloo of a wedding than to have calm time together on a train!
This sounds amazing. I love New Orleans for it’s combo of sexiness and deep-fried doughnuts.
Oooh I love Amtrak and would loooooove this!
How romantic! No really, that’s what I thought after reading your descriptions. I used to take the trains in Europe during my short study abroad and miss traveling like that. Watching the countryside just whip by. This would be perfect for Mr. Incredible & I. He is a terrible roadtripper – the driving gets to him – but loves to travel.
We love nola so much that we are getting married there in May. We currently live in St. Louis and being in the middle of the country means that we have road tripped it to various places all over the country. However, getting to relax while on a road trip would be amazing. Thank you!
The fiance and I love the train! One of our first trips together included an Amtrak leg from Seattle to San Francisco– no cozy sleeper for us, we were doing it on the cheap and made do with the reclining seats :) But it was still amazingly fun and we saw so much cool countryside. I’ve never been to NOLA, but a trip by train seems like the ideal way to get to it.
Add to that the fact that we had to cancel our honeymoon recently for budget reasons and I’m really hoping I’m feeling some luck come my way… Crossing my fingers :)
Ooooh pick me, pick me! I love trains!
Oh! I’d love an amtrak honeymoon!!
No joke, I was just on twitter tonight talking about the Amtrak West Coast Spectacular and asking for advice on places to stop along the way. I think we’re planning on a west coast rail pass with Amtrak, or something else exactly along those lines. Flying into Portland, and then taking the train on down to LA with stops along the way. This is a dream come true trip, and I am so thrilled by this opportunity. Posted on Twitter — and now crossing fingers. Wahhhh!
PS I traveled on Amtrak today from southern Illinois to central Illinois because my awesome great-grandmother who is 98 broke her hip. So I was there to lift spirits and sing some songs (including Baby Beluga) and then took the train home so I can go to work tomorrow. Love me some Amtrak. <3
Wow…how amazing is this giveaway???? When my husband and I kicked around the idea of eloping, I was all about taking Amtrak out to Yosemite. I’ve crossed the country on Greyhound in my twenties and I love it. Now in my thirties, I’m all about Train Travel – it’s way more civilized. My husband and I haven’t been on a honeymoon yet (I was 4 months pregnant when we got married, so an awesome trip somewhere interesting was on the back-burner for us). This Amtrak Honeymoon would be an absolute dream!
This would help us decide where to go! So… Thanks!
This is such a cool idea. Would love to win this.
After a stressful day of nothing going right with your wedding plans- both rental houses we secured for our Australian family and friends who are paying lots to come out and celebrate with us in California seem to have fallen through. I’m in Aus and will be until two weeks before the wedding and started to get overwhelmed by all the details and mishaps piling up. It’s nice to come home from work and find this post and dream about my Boo and I, a few days post wedding blissing out as we cruise up the CA coast!
After Meg’s post on New Orleans, how could i not at least try to win?
Seriously, this is awesome.
My FW and I were JUST talking about taking the Coast Starlight down the