If you want to take your partner for a weekend trip, this is a fun and cost-effective way of doing it. We took the train from Orange County to Old Town San Diego for the weekend. Starting off at the Anaheim train station, it is right across the street from the Honda Center. We took the Pacific Starliner which uses the Amtrak tracks. The price was only thirty round trip each. You can park your car in the parking lot for free overnight, just register your car with website. The train ride was a few hours, but you got to ride the train, no driving. It is a good value for people that cannot afford to pay for an airplane trip. The trip is worth it, you just sit back and relax. The seats are comfortable, and you get to snuggle up to your partner too. You can bring snacks on board or buy them from the snack bar car. The snack bar car is a little pricy, though. They do have electrical outlets at every seat if you want to charge your phone. This trip is a weekend trip that entailed us to take the Pacific Surfliner southbound on Saturday morning from Anaheim to Old town San Diego, stayed overnight in Old Town, and took the train northbound on Sunday afternoon to go home. Very convenient. We parked my truck overnight at the Amtrak station in Anaheim. The Old Town train station is just right across the street for Old Town itself. Definitely not a lot of walking. My knees were spared. We stayed in a room at the Cosmopolitan hotel. This hotel is almost 200 hundred years old. Luckily, they remodeled the hotel and its rooms recently. A small hotel, only ten rooms. The hotel boasts itself as not only nostalgic, but haunted if, you are into that. We did not experience anything paranormal during our stay there. The room we stayed in is called the Californio. I believe room #9. Very rustic and antique looking. The hotel was pricey about $250 a night. That is probably my threshold in paying for a room. We walked through old town, getting fudge at the candy shop, looked around at leather and gift shops. Very relaxing. We ate dinner Saturday evening at Café Coyote, a Mexican restaurant. Very good food and service was awesome, my wife was serenated by the mariachis. Sleeping was very quaint and taking a shower in the claw footed bathtub was nice. Sunday morning, we did the Old Town trolley that goes through much of San Diego, from old town, embarcadero, seaport village, Gaslamp quarter, Coronado, balboa park, little Italy to name a few. Our ticket allowed us to hop on and off throughout the twenty-five-mile loop. We chose to hop off in Coronado and had brunch at Little Frenchie. Very tasty and service was excellent. We hopped back on trolley and went back to old town. No need to drive at all. My wife and I drank margaritas Saturday night and white wine spritzers for Sunday brunch. The trolley was $45- per person, but certainly a good value.
A word of warning on the old town train station, read the signs. Our train on Saturday to drop off in old town was going southbound, I assumed we got off on track #2. Gong back, we lined up on track #1 for what I though was northbound and missed our train going back. It was on track # 4, to far to have it stop and wait for us. We actually for off on track # 3 on Saturday. Old train station has 4 tracks. Most stations have two, one going southbound and one going northbound. Old town has 4 tracks to accommodate the local San Diego trolley train, not to be confused with the old town trolley tour my wife and I did Sunday morning.
Inexpensive train ride, fairly cheap hotel room, middle of the road restaurant prices, and fairly economical excursion of old town trolley. Did not break the bank.
Memories to last a lifetime.
Anaheim (ARTIC) train station
Cosmopolitan hotel Old Town San Diego
Casa Coyote
Little Frenchie
Old Town Trolley
Aerial view of the 4 train tracks at Old Town train station
